Resolving Small Business Disputes Through Mediation

A revolution is taking place  in the way Americans resolve their disputes. The so-called alternative methods of dispute resolution such as mediation and arbitration are increasingly becoming a primary choice for settling  conflict. A growing number of large American companies have begun to embrace mediation as an alternative to litigation. The article describes  the  mediation  process  in  the  small  business  context.  The  advantages   and disadvantages of mediation versus the judicial process are considered. Recommendations concerning the appropriate circumstances in which small business should use mediation to resolve conflict are provided. Also reported are the results of a survey of small business executives that measured their attitudes toward mediation and other forms of dispute resolution. The results suggest that most executives preferred mediation to other forms of dispute resolution. They believe mediation to be a cost-effective and efficient method of resolving conflicts with customers, employees, and suppliers

The Grizzly, March 22, 1994

Public Not Pleased with Health Care Proposal • Tax-Exempt Status Challenged • J-Board Issues Punishment for Illegal Pledging Activity • U.S.G.A. Minutes • Letter to the Senior Class • Students Respond to Editor\u27s View on Pledging • Editor Clarifies Position • Awareness Needed • Investigative Team Responds • The Madness is Here: Update on the NCAA Tournament • Track & Field to Begin Seasonhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1333/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, April 26, 1994

Richter to Leave Presidency • Richter: Then and Now • S.T.A.R. Raising Awareness • Economics Conference Held at Ursinus • Vandalism in Olin • A Necessary Tension: Greeks and Administration • Final Exam Schedule • It\u27s Alive, It\u27s Alive • Moshing, Body Surfing and The Gin Blossoms • NBA Playoff Preview • Men\u27s Tennis Looks for Strong Finishhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1337/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, April 19, 1994

Erdrich Speaks of Cultural Struggles • Friendly Fire Over Iraq • Greeks Participate in Greek Week • U.S.G.A. Responds to Requests for a Wismer Meal Plan • Tropical Conservationist to Speak at Ursinus • President John Bartholomew Speaks Again • Tuning in to Talk Radio • Bands to Perform Saturday • It\u27s Not a Matter of Dryness • Women\u27s Lacrosse Crushes Swarthmore; Falls to Johns Hopkins • Eagles Draft Preview • George White Named New Men\u27s Basketball Coach at Ursinushttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1336/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, February 22, 1994

Breaking Down the Barriers: One Man\u27s Struggle with Homosexuality, Stereotypes and the Military • Maintenance Man, Humanitarian • Pledging Private Eyes • Pledging Underway Once Again • Olympic Update • Are There Really any Losers in the Olympics? • Ursinus Students Raise Money for a Friend in Need • And When the Sawdust Cleared...It Was a Masterpiece • Come out and Support a U.C. Senior • Restaurant Night Revisited • Senior Spotlight: Joshua Donald Carter • Clinton: King of Astro Turf • Learn by Listening to Yourself • Sports Picture Page: The Two Hottest Teams Around • Baseball Preview \u2794 • Lady Bears are Eastern Division Champshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1331/thumbnail.jp

All-cause hospitalisation among people living with HIV according to gender, mode of HIV acquisition, ethnicity, and geographical origin in Europe and North America: findings from the ART-CC cohort collaboration

BACKGROUND: Understanding demographic disparities in hospitalisation is crucial for the identification of vulnerable populations, interventions, and resource planning. METHODS: Data were from the Antiretroviral Therapy Cohort Collaboration (ART-CC) on people living with HIV in Europe and North America, followed up between January, 2007 and December, 2020. We investigated differences in all-cause hospitalisation according to gender and mode of HIV acquisition, ethnicity, and combined geographical origin and ethnicity, in people living with HIV on modern combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Analyses were performed separately for European and North American cohorts. Hospitalisation rates were assessed using negative binomial multilevel regression, adjusted for age, time since cART intitiaion, and calendar year. FINDINGS: Among 23 594 people living with HIV in Europe and 9612 in North America, hospitalisation rates per 100 person-years were 16·2 (95% CI 16·0-16·4) and 13·1 (12·8-13·5). Compared with gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, rates were higher for heterosexual men and women, and much higher for men and women who acquired HIV through injection drug use (adjusted incidence rate ratios ranged from 1·2 to 2·5 in Europe and from 1·2 to 3·3 in North America). In both regions, individuals with geographical origin other than the region of study generally had lower hospitalisation rates compared with those with geographical origin of the study country. In North America, Indigenous people and Black or African American individuals had higher rates than White individuals (adjusted incidence rate ratios 1·9 and 1·2), whereas Asian and Hispanic people living with HIV had somewhat lower rates. In Europe there was a lower rate in Asian individuals compared with White individuals. INTERPRETATION: Substantial disparities exist in all-cause hospitalisation between demographic groups of people living with HIV in the current cART era in high-income settings, highlighting the need for targeted support. FUNDING: Royal Free Charity and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Association between 24-Hour Urinary Cadmium and Pulmonary Function among Community-Exposed Men: The VA Normative Aging Study

Background: High levels of cadmium exposure are known to cause emphysema in occupationally exposed workers, but little has been reported to date on the association between chronic environmental cadmium exposure and pulmonary function. Objective: In this study we examined the association between pulmonary function and cadmium body burden in a subcohort of the Normative Aging Study, a community-based study of aging. Methods: We examined 96 men who had cadmium measured in single 24-hr urinary specimens collected in 1994–1995 and who had one to three tests of pulmonary function between 1994 and 2002 (a total of 222 observations). We used mixed-effect models to predict pulmonary function based on individual 24-hr urinary cadmium output, adjusted for age, height, time elapsed from the baseline, and smoking status. We assessed effect modification by smoking status. Results: Among all subjects, a single log-unit increase in baseline urinary cadmium was inversely associated with forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1) percent predicted [β = −7.56%; 95% confidence interval (CI) −13.59% to −1.53%]; forced vital capacity (FVC) percent predicted (β = −2.70%; 95% CI −7.39% to 1.99%), and FEV1/FVC ratio (β = −4.13%; 95% CI −7.61% to −0.66%). In models including an interaction between urinary cadmium and smoking status, there was a graded, statistically significant reduction in FEV1/FVC ratio across smoking status in association with urinary cadmium. Conclusions: This study suggests that chronic cadmium exposure is associated with reduced pulmonary function, and cigarette smoking modifies this association. These results should be interpreted with caution because the sample size is small, and further studies are needed to confirm our findings

3D Segmentation of Perivascular Spaces on T1-Weighted 3 Tesla MR Images With a Convolutional Autoencoder and a U-Shaped Neural Network

We implemented a deep learning (DL) algorithm for the 3-dimensional segmentation of perivascular spaces (PVSs) in deep white matter (DWM) and basal ganglia (BG). This algorithm is based on an autoencoder and a U-shaped network (U-net), and was trained and tested using T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from a large database of 1,832 healthy young adults. An important feature of this approach is the ability to learn from relatively sparse data, which gives the present algorithm a major advantage over other DL algorithms. Here, we trained the algorithm with 40 T1-weighted MRI datasets in which all "visible" PVSs were manually annotated by an experienced operator. After learning, performance was assessed using another set of 10 MRI scans from the same database in which PVSs were also traced by the same operator and were checked by consensus with another experienced operator. The Sorensen-Dice coefficients for PVS voxel detection in DWM (resp. BG) were 0.51 (resp. 0.66), and 0.64 (resp. 0.71) for PVS cluster detection (volume threshold of 0.5 within a range of 0 to 1). Dice values above 0.90 could be reached for detecting PVSs larger than 10 mm(3) and 0.95 for PVSs larger than 15 mm(3). We then applied the trained algorithm to the rest of the database (1,782 individuals). The individual PVS load provided by the algorithm showed a high agreement with a semi-quantitative visual rating done by an independent expert rater, both for DWM and for BG. Finally, we applied the trained algorithm to an age-matched sample from another MRI database acquired using a different scanner. We obtained a very similar distribution of PVS load, demonstrating the interoperability of this algorithm.Stopping cognitive decline and dementia by fighting covert cerebral small vessel diseas

The effect of food intake on gene expression in human peripheral blood

Human gene expression traits have been shown to be dependent on gender, age and time of day in blood and other tissues. However, other factors that may impact gene expression have not been systematically explored. For example, in studies linking blood gene expression to obesity related traits, whether the fasted or fed state will be the most informative is an open question. Here, we employed a two-arm cross-over design to perform a genome-wide survey of gene expression in human peripheral blood to address explicitly this type of question. We were able to distinguish expression changes due to individual and time-specific effects from those due to food intake. We demonstrate that the transcriptional response to food intake is robust by constructing a classifier from the gene expression traits with >90% accuracy classifying individuals as being in the fasted or fed state. Gene expression traits that were best able to discriminate the fasted and fed states were more heritable and achieved greater coherence with respect to pathways associated with metabolic traits. The connectivity structure among gene expression traits was explored in the context of coexpression networks. Changes in the connectivity structure were observed between the fasted and fed states. We demonstrate that differential expression and differential connectivity are two complementary ways to characterize changes between fasted and fed states. Both gene sets were significantly enriched for genes associated with obesity related traits. Our results suggest that the pair of fasted/fed blood expression profiles provide more comprehensive information about an individual's metabolic states

Resilience and physical and mental well-being in adults with and without HIV

Resilience has been related to improved physical and mental health, and is thought to improve with age. No studies have explored the relationship between resilience, ageing with HIV, and well-being. A cross sectional observational study performed on UK HIV positive (N = 195) and HIV negative adults (N = 130). Associations of both age and ‘time diagnosed with HIV’ with resilience (RS-14) were assessed, and the association of resilience with depression, anxiety symptoms (PHQ-9 and GAD-7), and problems with activities of daily living (ADLs) (Euroqol 5D-3L). In a multivariable model, HIV status overall was not related to resilience. However, longer time diagnosed with HIV was related to lower resilience, and older age showed a non-significant trend towards higher resilience. In adults with HIV, high resilience was related to a lower prevalence of depression, anxiety, and problems with ADLs. It may be necessary to consider resilience when exploring the well-being of adults ageing with HIV