Multi-criteria evaluation of suitable sites for termite mounds construction in a tropical lowland

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. Termite mounds influence ecosystem heterogeneity and contribute to the stabilization of the system under global change. A number of environmental factors influence the distribution, height, diameter and designs of termite mounds but these factors are not only poorly understood, they cannot be extrapolated for everywhere. In this study, we employed a ground based survey and Geographical Information System (GIS) technique to map 156 km 2 study area in Keffi, Nigeria. The aims were to (1) estimate the density and area covered by termite mounds, (2) sample and identify species types and how they are distributed, and (3) use five environmental factors (elevation, geology, surface water drainage, land use/land cover and static water level) to model suitable sites for mounds construction. A total of 361 mounds were mapped representing a density of about 0.8 mounds ha −1 and covering only about 0.31% of the studied area. Next, the effect of the five chosen environmental factors on the geographic distribution, life status, height and diameter of mounds and species diversity were analysed and their relationships plotted in pairwise comparison matrices using the Saaty's Analytical Hierarchy Process. Normalized rates for classes in each factor and corresponding weights were computed and aggregated using the Weighted Linear Combination method. The result depicted that moderate to low elevation (270–330 m amsl), rock cover types that are more susceptible to weathering (schist), cultivated areas and shallow water table zones are most favourable for termites to build mounds. The result obtained in this study shows a promising correlation between the environmental factors and termite mounds distribution. The proposed model can easily be replicated in a different but similar multi-land use and rock cover types

Teori Kepribadian

Kepribadian sesuatu yang selalu menarik perhatian banyak pihak, sepanjang masa. Dalam pergaulan masyrakat manusia, kepribadian merupakan sesuatu yang amat esensial. Kepribadian akan mewarnai setiap interaksi social. Begitu menariknya, kepribadian dibahas dalam berbagai buku, diseminarkan, diajarkan di sekolah-sekolah. Bahkan ada yang mendirikan lembaga khusus mengembangkan kepribadian. Pesertanya selalu membludak. Dalam konteks akademis, kepribadian menjadi salah satu kajian dalam bidang psikologi, yang lahir dari pemikiran para ahli. Lalu muncullah berbagai teori kepribadian. Kajian yang objeknya perilaku manusia (human behavior) ini akan menjawab pertanyaan apa, mengapa dan bagaimana kepribadian itu terbentuk. dalam terminology Islam kepribadian dapat disebut akhlak. Begitu mulianya orang yang kepribadiaannya baik atau berakhlak terpuji, hingga Tuhan pun mengutus Muhammad SAW dengan misi menyempurnakan akhlak manusia. Hebatnya lagi semua agama, semua budaya dan semua generasi memerlukan kepribadian yang baik

KEGIATAN BELAJAR MEMBATIK MERUPAKAN POTENSI TAMBAHAN PENGHASILAN BAGI MASYARAKAT DESA WISATA GIRILOYO, KECAMATAN IMOGIRI, KABUPATEN BANTUL DAERAH ISTIMEWA YOGYAKARTA

Kegiatan belajar membatik bagi wisatawan merupakan salah satu paket wisata yang disediakan oleh pengelola kawasan wisata Batik Tulis Giriloyo. Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mengetahui seberapa besar kontribusi atau tambahan penghasilan bagi masyarakat dan anggota paguyuban batik tuulis di kawasan desa wisata Batik Tulis Giriloyo. Dalam penelitian ini digunakan metode kualitatif, dimana data diambil dengan melakukan wawancara, observasi, dan dokumentasi. Variabel tetap berupa jumlah kunjungan wisatawan yang belajar membatik, dengan variabel bebas meliputi jumlah pola, jumlah tenaga penyambut tamu, market, pemandu, dan jumlah tenaga kebersihan. Analisis data dilakukan berdasarkan rasio yang telah disepakati antara variabel tetap (jumlah wisatawan yang belajar membatik) dengan jumlah setiap variabel bebas (jumlah pola, jumlah tenaga penyambut tamu, market, pemandu, dan jumlah tenaga kebersihan). Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa anggota paguyuban atau masyarakat dapat berperan aktif dalam kegiatan penerimaan wisatawan di kawasan Batik Tulis Giriloyo setiap bulan bisa menyerap tenaga sekitar (6-7) orang kerja setiap hari dengan penghasilan berkisar antara Rp 25.000,00 sampai dengan Rp 75.000.00 sesuai dengan jabatan yang diembannya. Hal ini merupakan suatu kontribusi yang besar dari usaha mengentaskan pengangguran di kawasan desa wisata Batik Tulis Giriloyo. Kata kunci: membatik, kontribusi, masyarakat, penghasilan, kawasan

Present and future pharmacotherapeutic agents in heart failure: an evolving paradigm

Many conditions culminate in heart failure (HF), a multi-organ systemic syndrome with an intrinsically poor prognosis. Pharmacotherapeutic agents that correct neurohormonal dysregulation and haemodynamic instability have occupied the forefront of developments within the treatment of HF in the past. Indeed, multiple trials aimed to validate these agents in the 1980s and early 1990s, resulting in a large and robust evidence-base supporting their use clinically. An established treatment paradigm now exists for the treatment of HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), but there have been very few notable developments in recent years. HF remains a significant health concern with an increasing incidence as the population ages. We may indeed be entering the surgical era for HF treatment, but these therapies remain expensive and inaccessible to many. Newer pharmacotherapeutic agents are slowly emerging, many targeting alternative therapeutic pathways, but with mixed results. Metabolic modulation and manipulation of the nitrate/nitrite/nitric oxide pathway have shown promise and could provide the answers to fill the therapeutic gap between medical interventions and surgery, but further definitive trials are warranted. We review the significant evidence base behind the current medical treatments for HFrEF, the physiology of metabolic impairment in HF, and discuss two promising novel agents, perhexiline and nitrite

TPICDS: A Two-Phase Parallel Approach for Incremental Clustering of Data Streams

Parallel and distributed solutions are essential for clustering data streams due to the large volumes of data. This paper first examines a direct adaptation of a recently developed prototype-based algorithm into three existing parallel frameworks. Based on the evaluation of performance, the paper then presents a customised pipeline framework that combines incremental and twophase learning into a balanced approach that dynamically allocates the available processing resources. This new framework is evaluated on a collection of synthetic datasets. The experimental results reveal that the framework not only produces correct final clusters on the one hand, but also significantly improves the clustering efficienc

Cumulative subgroup analysis to reduce waste in clinical research for individualised medicine

Background: Although subgroup analyses in clinical trials may provide evidence for individualised medicine, their conduct and interpretation remain controversial. Methods: Subgroup effect can be defined as the difference in treatment effect across patient subgroups. Cumulative subgroup analysis refers to a series of repeated pooling of subgroup effects after adding data from each of related trials chronologically, to investigate the accumulating evidence for subgroup effects. We illustrated the clinical relevance of cumulative subgroup analysis in two case studies using data from published individual patient data (IPD) meta-analyses. Computer simulations were also conducted to examine the statistical properties of cumulative subgroup analysis. Results: In case study 1, an IPD meta-analysis of 10 randomised trials (RCTs) on beta blockers for heart failure reported significant interaction of treatment effects with baseline rhythm. Cumulative subgroup analysis could have detected the subgroup effect 15 years earlier, with five fewer trials and 71% less patients, than the IPD meta-analysis which first reported it. Case study 2 involved an IPD meta-analysis of 11 RCTs on treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension that reported significant subgroup effect by aetiology. Cumulative subgroup analysis could have detected the subgroup effect 6 years earlier, with three fewer trials and 40% less patients than the IPD meta-analysis. Computer simulations have indicated that cumulative subgroup analysis increases the statistical power and is not associated with inflated false positives. Conclusions: To reduce waste of research data, subgroup analyses in clinical trials should be more widely conducted and adequately reported so that cumulative subgroup analyses could be timely performed to inform clinical practice and further research

A randomized trial to assess the impact of opinion leader endorsed evidence summaries on the use of secondary prevention strategies in patients with coronary artery disease: the ESP-CAD trial protocol [NCT00175240]

BACKGROUND: Although numerous therapies have been shown to be beneficial in the prevention of myocardial infarction and/or death in patients with coronary disease, these therapies are under-used and this gap contributes to sub-optimal patient outcomes. To increase the uptake of proven efficacious therapies in patients with coronary disease, we designed a multifaceted quality improvement intervention employing patient-specific reminders delivered at the point-of-care, with one-page treatment guidelines endorsed by local opinion leaders ("Local Opinion Leader Statement"). This trial is designed to evaluate the impact of these Local Opinion Leader Statements on the practices of primary care physicians caring for patients with coronary disease. In order to isolate the effects of the messenger (the local opinion leader) from the message, we will also test an identical quality improvement intervention that is not signed by a local opinion leader ("Unsigned Evidence Statement") in this trial. METHODS: Randomized trial testing three different interventions in patients with coronary disease: (1) usual care versus (2) Local Opinion Leader Statement versus (3) Unsigned Evidence Statement. Patients diagnosed with coronary artery disease after cardiac catheterization (but without acute coronary syndromes) will be randomly allocated to one of the three interventions by cluster randomization (at the level of their primary care physician), if they are not on optimal statin therapy at baseline. The primary outcome is the proportion of patients demonstrating improvement in their statin management in the first six months post-catheterization. Secondary outcomes include examinations of the use of ACE inhibitors, anti-platelet agents, beta-blockers, non-statin lipid lowering drugs, and provision of smoking cessation advice in the first six months post-catheterization in the three treatment arms. Although randomization will be clustered at the level of the primary care physician, the design effect is anticipated to be negligible and the unit of analysis will be the patient. DISCUSSION: If either the Local Opinion Leader Statement or the Unsigned Evidence Statement improves secondary prevention in patients with coronary disease, they can be easily modified and applied in other communities and for other target conditions

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference