NGOs and Peacebuilding in Kosovo

YesThe growing international interest in peacebuilding as a concept and programme area requires a criticalunderstanding if its implementation on the ground. This audit aims to explore the definitions and applicationsof peacebuilding employed by local and international NGOs in Kosovo today

Developing an Online Learning Pedagogy for Conflict Resolution Training

Ye

A Guide to Parent-Infant Bonding in the Neonatal ICU

A GUIDE TO BONDING IN THE NEONATAL ICU Authors: Laina Iuele Advisor: Dr. Eileen Yost [email protected], [email protected] Abstract My capstone project was designed to educate and promote parent-infant bonding in the Neonatal ICU (NICU) at Greenwich Hospital. When a newborn is admitted to the NICU, often the natural bonding that occurs after birth, between mother and baby, is interrupted. This time for the newborn is crucial as the attachment process is essential for the growth and development of the infant. Bonding has numerous benefits for the newborn, especially those who require extra care in the NICU. Providing a pamphlet to parents, in conjunction with patient teaching, will aid in the initiation and continuation of bonding, allowing for better infant and parent outcomes. Background: Newborns can be admitted to the NICU for a number of reasons, including prematurity, respiratory instability, and cardiac issues. Premature babies are especially at risk for negative consequences related to preterm birth, as their body systems. According to the World Health Organization, 15 million infants are born premature every year (Gulla, Dahlø, & Eilertsen, 2017). Community Assessment and Assessment Findings: When a newborn is admitted to the NICU, it can often be difficult to initiate parent-infant bonding. Parents are fearful of their newborn’s status and worry if they are capable of caring for their infant. Through bonding, parents’ stress is reduced, they have greater confidence in their ability to care for their baby, and increased feelings of closeness. Additionally, bonding stabilizes temperature, breathing, and oxygen saturation of the newborn (Cho et al., 2016). Purpose: Providing education and promoting parent-infant bonding in the NICU at Greenwich Hospital through a patient-teaching pamphlet, in order to improve health outcomes through increased bonding. Methods: Educating the newborn’s parents while distributing the pamphlets to encourage bonding. Providing education will allow parents to understand the positive outcomes associated with bonding for both the child and parents. They will be able to keep the pamphlet for reference on the benefits of bonding and the ways that the parents and infant can bond, while in the NICU. Results: Bonding will increase between parent and infant, allowing for better outcomes and earlier discharge. Discussion/Conclusion/Implications: Pamphlets will be distributed on the unit in the upcoming weeks. By doing this, families will be provided with the necessary information to bond with their newborn. Physiologic stability and psychological well-being will be promoted leading to earlier discharge of mother and baby

KAJIAN INOVASI DAN PENDAPATAN UNIT PENGOLAHAN IKAN DI LHOK SEUDU DESA LAYEUN KECAMATAN LEUPUNG KABUPATEN ACEH BESAR

Kajian Inovasi Dan Pendapatan Unit Pengolahan Ikan Di Lhok Seudu Desa Layeun Kecamatan Leupung Kabupaten Aceh BesarOleh :Laina Mawaddah/ Agribisnis Fakultas Pertanian Universitas Syiah KualaABSTRAKPengolahan ikan merupakan salah satu bagian penting dari mata rantai industri perikanan. Pengolahan ikan bertujuan untuk memanfaatkan ikan yang tidak laku dijual dalam bentuk ikan segar atau ikan yang kurang digemari masyarakat. Lhok Seudu merupakan salah satu daerah yang mayoritas masyarakatnya melakukan proses pengolahan ikan. Adapun tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui tahapan proses pengolahan ikan, besarnya biaya dan pendapatan yang diperolah serta inovasi yang dapat diterapkan untuk meningkatkan pendapatan para pengolah ikan di Lhok Seudu Desa Layeun Kecamatan Leupung Kabupaten Aceh Besar. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan metode sensus. Metode analisis yang digunakan adalah metode deskriptif kuantitatif yang diuji dengan menggunakan analisis pendapatan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa : (1) Tahapan proses pengolahan ikan yang ada di Lhok Seudu masih dilakukan secara sederhana; (2) Pendapatan yang diperoleh para pengolah ikan adalah sebesar Rp. 4.235.090/bulan dengan R/C rasio yang diperoleh adalah sebesar 1,3; (3) Inovasi yang dapat diterapkan adalah pengadaan tempat pendingin atau freezer, pengadaan para-para jaring marlin dan pengadaan kemasan atau packaging.Kata Kunci : Pengolahan Ikan, Inovasi, Pendapatan

Coffee Powerhouses: Utilizing PR and Marketing

Over the past few decades, a cup of morning coffee has transformed from a simple supplement, with cream and a dash of sugar, to a daily necessity, luxury and investment. In fact, consumers spent over $74.2 billion on coffee in 2015 alone (The Economic Impact of the Coffee Industry, 2016). Within this billion-dollar industry, a combined 4.3 billion cups are purchased from two coffee powerhouses, Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks Coffee (Lepore, 2011). These industry tycoons can be found brewing beans all day long, serving their daily out-the-door lines of loyal, eager customers. This capstone will take readers on a journey through the history of the coffee bean, the exploding popularity of the coffee shop, the eventual rise of the coffee industry’s two major players, and provide an in-depth analysis of the core promotional and business principles utilized by Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts in appealing to their target audiences. Grab your favorite coffee brew, sit back and enjoy this detailed behind-the-scenes look at why you may prefer one latte over another

CNN-SLAM: Real-time dense monocular SLAM with learned depth prediction

Given the recent advances in depth prediction from Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), this paper investigates how predicted depth maps from a deep neural network can be deployed for accurate and dense monocular reconstruction. We propose a method where CNN-predicted dense depth maps are naturally fused together with depth measurements obtained from direct monocular SLAM. Our fusion scheme privileges depth prediction in image locations where monocular SLAM approaches tend to fail, e.g. along low-textured regions, and vice-versa. We demonstrate the use of depth prediction for estimating the absolute scale of the reconstruction, hence overcoming one of the major limitations of monocular SLAM. Finally, we propose a framework to efficiently fuse semantic labels, obtained from a single frame, with dense SLAM, yielding semantically coherent scene reconstruction from a single view. Evaluation results on two benchmark datasets show the robustness and accuracy of our approach.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), Hawaii, USA, June, 2017. The first two authors contribute equally to this pape

Biotransformation of Oxo-Bile Acids Derivatives by Human Gut Bacteria

Bile acids are one group of steroids that can be metabolically transformed by human gut anaerobes. One of these transformations is the conversion of primary bile acids to secondary bile acids by 7α-dehydroxylating gut bacteria such as Clostridium scindens, Clostridium hylemonae, and Clostridium hiranonis. These anaerobes metabolize bile acid derivatives via 3α- and 7α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (HSDH). Studies to date have not reported if these organisms are capable of converting 12-oxolithocholic acid (12-oxoLCA) to deoxycholic acid (DCA). The emphasis of this study was to determine the ability of C. scindens ATCC 35704, C. hiranonis DSM 13275, and C. hylemonae DSM 15053 to reduce 12-oxoLCA to DCA during growth, to identify 12α-HSDH genes in, C. scindens and C. hiranonis, to express, purify, and characterize the 12α-HSDH gene product (protein) of C. scindens. These organisms were grown anaerobically at 37°C in brain heart infusion (BHI) broth. Bile acids, prepared in methanol, were added to BHI broth to a final concentration of 0.1 mM. Following growth, cultures were extracted with ethyl acetate; extracts were dried, re-suspended in methanol, and subjected to thin-layer chromatography (TLC) for the detection of bile acids. In addition, 12α-HSDH recombinant enzymes were characterized and purified by affinity chromatography using Strep-Tactin® resin. Kinetic constants (Km, Kcat, Vmax, and Kcat/Km) were determined for the purified recombinant proteins for the forward and reverse directions. Catalytic efficiencies Kcat/Km toward the reductive direction were between 2.8-3.5-fold greater than oxidative direction. However, Vmax and Kcat in the oxidative direction were between 1.6-2.9-fold higher than the reductive direction. The 12α-HSDH recombinant enzyme from each strain was shown to reduce 12-oxoLCA to DCA. Moreover, these organisms were able to transform other oxo-bile acids during growth