Cypria petenensis, a new name for the Ostracod Cypria pelagica Brehm 1932

Recently during the preparation of a comprehensive account of the lake plankton (Hutchinson, in press) a rather unfortunate case of homonymy was discovered in the genus Cypria

Factors in assessing effectiveness of orientation programs for public welfare caseworkers; a group project

A study done in 1968-1969 by students at Portland State University School of Social Work at the request of the Oregon State Public Welfare Commission Staff Development Division sought to devise an instrument for assessing the effectiveness of teaching the casework principles of Felix P. Biestek to casework trainees :in the public welfare\u27s orientation program. The test instrument developed was found to have low, but acceptable, internal reliability. Building en the previous year\u27s work, this 1969-1970 study sought to determine the validity of the test instrument by relating test scores to two measures of job performance, namely the latest supervisory civil service rating and a self-rating. Data was collected on thirty of the original test group. The test instrument was determined to be invalid on the basis of these assessments which used measures of total job performance as validating criteria. The study group concluded that the instrument should not be used by itself to determine the effectiveness of teaching casework principles to caseworkers in a public welfare orientation program. While the instrument was being tested, it was recognized that orientation training covers more than just Biestek’s casework principles. Other types of knowledge are also needed for caseworkers to perform effectively on their jobs. Consequently, the scope of the project was enlarged to include an exploration of other factors in caseworker development during orientation. To explore other factors, two instruments were used. One was a questionnaire developed by the group to obtain background information and to measure some attitudes of the caseworker toward his job and the welfare agency. The second was an instrument borrowed from the Oregon State Fish Commission for determining job satisfaction attitudes. The findings of the questionnaire indicated that informal training and supervision were important in caseworker development. The importance of supervision was reinforced by responses given to the survey of job satisfaction attitudes. The survey elicited complaints about bureaucratic agencies, i.e., the red tape, little use or trying of innovative methods, and poor communications within the agency and to the public. In view of the findings, the study group made six recommendations to the Oregon State Public Welfare Division regarding their orientation and staff development program. The study conclusions state that further research is needed (1) to define the casework job and then develop a test to measure a worker’s competency; (2) to develop tools to determine the social work attitudes, knowledge, and skills of the bachelor level service worker; and (3) to investigate use of the structured versus unstructured situation for teaching new caseworkers

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Les elements romantiques dans "La nouvelle Heloise" de Jean Jacques Rousseau

No pages 34, 36, 8

Cypria petenensis, a new name for the ostracod Cypria pelagica Brehm 1932

Volume: 80Start Page: 1End Page:

Effects of Serotonin 1b Agonists on Aggression in Betta splendens

Research in mammalian species has indicated that the serotonin 1b receptor may be an important pharmacological tragic for the control of aggressive behaviors. In particular, research has shown that the serotonin 1b receptor agonists, for example zolmitriptan, produce anti-aggressive effects in rats. The present study sought to extend these findings to Betta splendens (Siamese fighting fish), a species well known for their aggressive behavior. In particular, the impact of zolimitriptan on the preference of fish to engage in aggressive behavior towards a mirror was examined. Results from this study indicate that contrary to findings from mammalian research, zolmitriptan increased the preference for aggressive encounters, indicating that the role of serotonin in the mediation of aggression may be more complex than previously thought

Full Bayesian wavelet inference with a nonparametric prior

In this paper,we introduce a new Bayesian nonparametric model for estimating an unknown function in the presence of Gaussian noise.The proposed model involves a mixture of a point mass and an arbitrary (nonparametric) symmetric and unimodal distribution for modeling wavelet coefficients.Posterior simulation uses slice sampling ideas and the consistency under the proposed model is discussed. In particular,the method is shown to be computationally competitive with some of best Empirical wavelet estimation methods