New Economy Trends: Implications for Investment, Rotation Dynamics, and Growing Structural Inequalities

This paper examines the evolution of the structure of the United States economy in the post-World War Two period. It identifies the drivers of the “New Economy” and their impact on major industries and companies. Finally, implications of these trends on investor portfolios are examined, with guidelines for enhanced performance over the next decade

Special considerations for vitamin D in the South Asian population in the UK

The human requirement for vitamin D is achieved primarily through the synthesis of this pre-hormone in the skin during exposure to UVB radiation, with only a minor contribution from the diet year-round. Achieving optimal vitamin D status is therefore largely dependent upon adequate exposure of the skin to sunlight, however the length of exposure required varies with latitude and season, and is also dependent upon skin pigmentation with darker skin requiring greater exposure than fair skin due to the protective effects of melanin against ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation. In northern European latitudes, where UVB radiation between the months of October and March is of insufficient intensity for the synthesis of vitamin D via this route, vitamin D deficiency is a public health concern, particularly for South Asian diaspora and other dark skinned ethnic minority communities. The consequences of vitamin D deficiency include poor bone health, including rickets and osteomalacia. In addition there is increasing awareness of an important role for vitamin D in the development and progression of chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes which is prevalent in South Asian populations. The aim of this review is to examine some of the most recent reports of vitamin D status in South Asian diaspora communities, and to explore its impact on bone health. In addition, we will examine the putative association between type 2 diabetes and vitamin D deficiency in South Asian populations and the current guidelines for treatment of vitamin D deficiency of South Asians in primary care settings

Identifying Barriers to Umbilical Cord Blood Banking in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Obstetricians

Background: The expansion of umbilical cord blood (UCB) banking necessitates a greater understanding among obstetricians in order to responsibly inform parents about UCB collection and storage. Gaps in knowledge can compromise public UCB banking efforts and result in missed opportunities and public misguidance about UCB banking. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was disseminated among obstetricians in Amman, Jordan. The questionnaire aimed to evaluate obstetricians’ knowledge of and attitude toward UCB storage and applications, as well as current practice patterns. Results: Ninety-six obstetricians responded (55% response rate), most of whom were Jordanian (71%), female (83%), resident physicians (59%), and working in either private (43%) or public (42%) hospitals, with an average of 6.5 years in practice. Only 26% had personal experience in UCB collection, and 20% had received education on UCB collection. Nearly 75% said their hospitals lacked standard operating procedures, guidelines, or infectious disease screening for UCB units. Overall knowledge about UCB was moderate, and the internet was the most common information source (54%). Overall attitudes were positive, especially in desire to expand personal knowledge about UCB, integrate information into medical residency curricula, and establish a public UCB bank in Jordan. However, many believed that ethical (61%) and religious (56%) controversies surround UCB donation. Conclusion: This study identifies deficiencies in quality control and experience in UCB collection in Jordan, as well as areas of inadequate knowledge and ethical controversies among obstetricians. These issues contribute to public misinformation and limit public UCB donation programs, and requires improved medical education on this topi

Influence of E-Procurement Practices on Management of Public Secondary School Resources in Mandera County, Kenya

E-procurement practices are essential components in the management of public secondary school resources. However, lack of financial accountability, inefficiency, lack of controls and imprudent use of resources in Mandera County has continued to affect management of secondary schools. Thus, this study analyzed the influence of e-procurement practices on management of public secondary school resources in Mandera County, Kenya. Mixed methods approach was used and thus the study adopted concurrent triangulation design. The study established that e-procurement practices influence management of public secondary school resources. In conclusion, e-procurement practices influence management of secondary school resources. Thus, the study recommends that schools should ensure that there is an appropriate focus on good practice in procurement and that there is a significant procurement procedure in place to ensure compliance with all relevant guideline. Schools should adopt integrated tendering methods which are meant to guarantee financial prudence and efficient use of school resources. Keywords: E-procurement practices, management of secondary school resources, adoption and use of e-procurement

An Assessment of the Management of Kcse Examination and Its Influence on Irregularities among Students: A Case of Secondary Schools in Mandera County, Kenya

Irregularities in examinations at all levels including internationally,, regionally and locally  have become a major concern for all the major stakeholders in education including the policy makers, students, teachers, political leaders and the general society. A number of mitigation measures and strategies have been put in place in the past including formulation and enactment of the law specifically geared towards eliminating examinations malpractice. While releasing results for KCSE 2011, the then, Minister for Education, Professor Sam Ongeri in his speech noted that examination irregularities is a threat to the credibility of our national examination and is a major concern to the Ministry of education adding that 151 examinations centers cheated. The study focused on the roles of the various examination stakeholders such as parents, students, supervisors, invigilators, examination officers among others in as far as their contributions to examination malpractice is concerned. This study adopted the triangulation design which enabled the researcher to obtain different but complementary data on the topic.n. The target population of this study was 33 secondary schools distributed among the six districts of Mandera county, that is, Mandera East, Mandera West, Mandera Central, Mandera North, Banisa and Lafey. The sample of the study comprised of teachers, head teachers, examination officials and forms four students in 10 public secondary schools in Mandera County. Data was collected using questionnaires and interview guides. Using a simplified descriptive statistical data was analyzed and the results were presented using the tables of frequency distribution, graphs and charts.  Bringing pre-prepared answers to examination halls emerged as one of the most common form of examination irregularity. It was also established that students copy from each other during national examinations. The study recommended that all examination procedures, right from setting to sitting of the examinations, should be observed. Situations that students find themselves in should be detected so that proper guidance and counselling could be provided to avoid stressful environments during examinations. Keywords: Management, K.C.S.E, Examination irregularities, Strategie

Meningkatkan kemampuan berpikir kreatif pelajaran Pendidikan Agama Kristen di masa pandemi melalui pemanfaatan discovery learning

During the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers in every school use online media such as using the ZOOM application, Google Meet, and Google Classroom to carry out the teaching and learning process. Pusaka Abadi Elementary School teachers, Teluk Gong, North Jakarta during the Covid 19 pandemic often used conventional models, but the results turned out to be less effective, this is because the online conventional model has many problems that students and teachers must face, namely: an unstable network. so that students can only hear little by little and in the end draw the wrong conclusions or become less than optimal, turn off the camera during teaching and learning so that it makes it difficult for teachers to monitor students whether the students are listening or while playing games or recreation as a result, making students' creative thinking skills decrease and results decreased student learning. The results of the research on the initial conditions showed that the material presented during the teaching and learning process in the school was about 50% of the children who caught the material. Then the researchers applied two cycles, namely cycle I and cycle II. The results of the first cycle by applying the discovery learning model showed the level of achievement increased to 85% from the initial conditions. Continued to apply cycle II and the results reached 100%. AbstrakMasa pandemi covid-19 mengharuskan guru-guru di setiap sekolah mengunakan media online seperti aplikasi Zoom Meeting, Google Meet dan Google Classrom untuk melakukan proses belajar mengajar. Perubahan media belajar dari ceramah ke tatap maya seharusnya diikuti dengan model belajar yang tepat.  Fakta sebaliknya terjadi di Sekolah Dasar Pusaka Abadi, Teluk Gong, Jakarta Utara. Proses belajar mengajar yang dilaksanakan masih mengunakan model belajar konvensional. Hal ini menyebabkan hasil belajar kurang efektif. Model belajar konvensional yang dilakukan dengan media online menimbulkan masalah yang harus siswa dan guru hadapi yaitu, jaringan yang kurang stabil sehingga siswa tidak dapat mendengarkan dengan baik sehingga ketika menarik kesimpulan, hasilnya kurang maksimal. Permasalahan ini menyebabkan daya berpikir kreatif siswa menurun. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah penelitian tindakan kelas. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pada kondisi awal materi yang di sampaikan pada saat proses belajar mengajar di dalam sekolah sekitar 50% anak yang menangkap materi. Kemudian peneliti menerapkan dua siklus yakni siklus I dan siklus II. Hasil siklus I dengan menerapkan model pembelajaran discovery learning menunjukkan tingkat ketercapaian meningkat menjadi 85% dari kondisi awal. Dilanjutkan menerapkan siklus II dan hasilnya mencapai 100%

Cooperação entre Portugal e os Palop na área da Documentação e Informação

1 Inventário das unidades documentais (arquivos, bibliotecas, centros de documentação e informação (e museus?)) existentes nos países envolvidos.2 Cadastro dos profissionais existentes nos países envolvidos e dados que devem constar desse cadastro.3 Qual a política de cooperação da parte de Portugal relativamente à área de Documentação/Informação.4 Recolha e difusão da legislação existente nestas áreas, nos países envolvidos.5 Formação – de que modo pode Portugal contribuir de forma mais sistemática, tendo em atenção a importância do apoio à capacitação institucional nos Palop

Relações financeiras entre adolescentes e suas famílias para o consumo de produtos de vestuário

Sem resum

Online Identification of Interaction Behaviors from Haptic Data during Collaborative Object Transfer

Joint object transfer is a complex task, which is less structured and less specific than what is existing in several industrial settings. When two humans are involved in such a task, they cooperate through different modalities to understand the interaction states during operation and mutually adapt to one another’s actions. Mutual adaptation implies that both partners can identify how well they collaborate (i.e. infer about the interaction state) and act accordingly. These interaction states can define whether the partners work in harmony, face conflicts, or remain passive during interaction. Understanding how two humans work together during physical interactions is important when exploring the ways a robotic assistant should operate under similar settings. This study acts as a first step to implement an automatic classification mechanism during ongoing collaboration to identify the interaction state during object co-manipulation. The classification is done on a dataset consisting of data from 40 subjects, who are partnered to form 20 dyads. The dyads experiment in a physical human-human interaction (pHHI) scenario to move an object in an haptics-enabled virtual environment to reach predefined goal configurations. In this study, we propose a sliding-window approach for feature extraction and demonstrate the online classification methodology to identify interaction patterns. We evaluate our approach using 1) a support vector machine classifier (SVMc) and 2) a Gaussian Process classifier (GPc) for multi-class classification, and achieve over 80% accuracy with both classifiers when identifying general interaction types