Social Desirability, Opportunism and Actual Support for Farmers' Market Organisations in Ethiopia

One of the striking issues in the literature on farmers' market organisations (FMOs) is that farmers generally report quite positive opinions regarding the services of their FMO, while, at the same time, actual sales reveal a much more reserved attitude. We argue that farmers may feel social and/or opportunistic pressure to express positive opinions concerning the FMO, to donors and policy-makers, which are not necessarily in line with their actions. This article proposes a list experiment method to control for this bias. The method shows that especially farmers who express strong support for the FMO seriously hesitate to speak freely

Symplectic Dirac Operators on Hermitian Symmetric Spaces

We describe the shape of the symplectic Dirac operators on Hermitian symmetric spaces. For this, we consider these operators as families of operators that can be handled more easily than the original ones.Comment: 17 page

IT Innovation Budgets in Turbulent Times

In past economic downturns, companies did first of all cut IT budgets and budgets for innovation. In the current economic situation companies are not only confronted a cyclical downturn, they are faced a fundamental question about the way they do business. However, the IT organization has the potential to reduce the negative effects of the economic downturn for the company. Furthermore, the perception of the IT organization has changed towards a major enabler of business innovation. The paper investigates the development of IT innovation budgets and the influence of an IT innovation strategy on the budget. Results show that IT innovation budgets are very resistant and do not change as much as IT budgets. Moreover, developing and implementing an IT innovation strategy has a positive impact on the available budget for IT innovations

a resonant Raman study

We report resonant Raman scattering (RRS) by the TO, LO, and 2 LO modes of single wurtzite and zinc-blende GaAs nanowires. The optical band gap of wurtzite GaAs is 1.460eV ± 3meV at room temperature, and 35 ± 3meV larger than the GaAs zinc-blende band gap. Raman measurements using incoming light polarized parallel and perpendicular to the wire c axis allowed us to investigate the splitting of heavy Γ9 and light-hole Γ7 band at the Γ point of 65 ± 6meV

Handlebar injuries in children

Introduction: Handlebar injuries in children may lead to severe organ lesions despite minimal initial signs and without visible skin bruise. We present our experiences applying a diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm for blunt abdominal trauma, and present the history of two selected cases. Materials and methods: We retrospectively assessed the charts of children below 16years of age, only who were observed for 24h or more in our institution due to a handlebar injury between 2004 and 2011. All children were treated according to an institutional algorithm. Results: 40 patients with a median age of 9.5years were included. Diagnosed lesions were: ruptures of the liver (n=6), spleen (n=5), kidney (n=1), and pancreas (n=2), small bowel perforation (n=3), and hernias of the abdominal (n=2) or thoracic wall (n=1). Surgical interventions were performed in 8 patients. The outcome was favorable in all the cases. Overall median hospitalization duration was 4.5days (range 1-19days). The overall duration between the accident and arrival at our emergency unit was 2.75h (median, range 1-19h). 20 children presented directly at our emergency unit after a median of 1.7h (range 1-19.5h). 20 children were referred by a family physician or a primary hospital after a median of 4.0h (range 1-46h). Conclusion: Handlebar injuries in children resulted in serious trunk lesions in half of the present patient series. The spectrum of injuries in handlebar accidents varies widely, especially injuries to the abdomen can unmask often only in the course. We advocate close observation of patients with thoracic and abdominal handlebar injuries which may be regarded as blunt stab wounds. An institutional algorithm for blunt abdominal trauma management is supportive for emergency care in patients with handlebar injurie

TUBA Nova - A novel industrial EB-PVD coater platform for state-of-the-art TBCs and multi-layer coatings

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Treatment of primary glioblastoma multiforme with cetuximab, radiotherapy and temozolomide (GERT) – phase I/II trial: study protocol

BACKGROUND: The implementation of combined radiochemotherapy (RCHT) with temozolomide (TMZ) has lead to a significant increase in overall survival times in patients with Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), however, outcome still remains unsatisfactory. The majority of GBMs show an overexpression and/or amplification of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Therefore, addition of EGFR-inhibition with cetuximab to the current standard treatment approach with radiotherapy and TMZ seems promising. METHODS/DESIGN: GERT is a one-armed single-center phase I/II trial. In a first step, dose-escalation of TMZ from 50 mg/m(2 )to 75 mg/m(2 )together with radiotherapy and cetuximab will be performed. Should safety be proven, the phase II trial will be initiated with the standard dose of 75 mg/m(2 )of TMZ. Cetuximab will be applied in the standard application dose of 400 mg/m(2 )in week 1, thereafter at a dose of 250 mg/m(2 )weekly. A total of 46 patients will be included into this phase I/II trial. Primary endpoints are feasibility and toxicity, secondary endpoints are overall and progression-free survival. An interim analysis will be performed after inclusion of 15 patients into the main study. Patients' enrolment will be performed over a period of 2 years. The observation time will end 2 years after inclusion of the last patient. DISCUSSION: The goal of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of combined RCHT-immunotherapy with TMZ and cetuximab as first-line treatment for patients with primary GBM