In Great Health: Basal Cell Carcinoma and Denial of Progressive Disease in the Elderly

Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) is the most common skin cancer across the world and occurs predominantly on sun-exposed or sun-damaged skin, particularly on the head, face, and neck. Slow-growing and unremoved lesions can become destructive and progress to the rare Giant Basal Cell Carcinoma subtype that occurs in a very small subset of patients

Biogasification of Horse Dung Using a Cylindrical Surface Batch Biodigester

Anaerobic digestion of animal dung offers several benefits such as reduction of odors, pathogens, and production of renewable energy biogas. In this study, a 1 m3-surface batch biogas digester was designed, constructed, and insulated with sawdust to minimize temperature fluctuations within the digester. The horse dung was collected from the University of Fort Hare Honey dale farm and fed into the batch biogas digester. The horse dung was analyzed for total solids (TS), volatile solids (VS), total alkalinity (TA), calorific value (CV), pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N). The optimum total alkalinity, ammonium-nitrogen, and chemical oxygen demand were 6235, 901, and 24230 mg/L, respectively. The study found that horse dung produced biogas yield with an average methane yield of 51% without codigesting it with other wastes. Therefore, horse dung is a good substrate for biogas production, and its use in biogas digesters can reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere leading to climate change

Different Market Methods for Transferring Financial Risks in Construction

A goal of risk management in construction is to minimize risk exposure and the total cost of risk for a project. To this end, there are a variety of market mechanisms available for transferring risk and/or the financial consequences of a risk realization (e.g., transfer the financial consequences of a risk to an insurance company or use contractual non-insurance risk transfers such as hold harmless agreements to allocate financial responsibility to another party). Unique characteristics of construction risks are examined along with a discussion of which of these risks are insurable and which are not. The advisable risk handling mechanism to use (insurance, non-insurance transfer, retention or self-insurance, or some other technique) is provided Both the construction firm and its client must anticipate potential undesirable event occurrence with initial project planning, and build both downside risk protection and resilience into its risk management strategy. Future emerging technological advances and their impact on construction risks are discussed

Student Perception of the Impact of Audience Response Software in a Team-Based Learning Self-Care Course

Objectives: Evidence evaluating audience response systems (ARS) used in team-based learning (TBL) compared to traditional classes is limited. The objectives of this study are to evaluate student perceptions of the technology and compare students’ assessment of technology with their performance. Method: TBL was implemented in the required self-care course (PP2120: Introduction to Pharmaceutical Care: Non-prescription drugs) at St. Louis College of Pharmacy, and an audience response system was implemented in Fall 2015. At the conclusion of the course, a web-based survey was administered to students. Results: Of the 29 students who successfully completed the course, 23 (79%) completed the survey. Student response to the audience response technology was generally favorable. Of the students who responded “somewhat agree” and “strongly agree” to questions related to ARS, 87% were more actively involved in the case, 96% felt the visual responses made understanding easier, and 91% felt the ARS would be useful in other courses in the curriculum. Student performance in the course was analyzed by Pearson correlation and was positively correlated with students who self-reported as technology enthusiasts (0.509, p=0.016) and early adopters of technology (0.601, p=0.004). Implications: This is the first study to measure the impact of ARS with TBL implementation in a self-care course. ARS data can be used to help implement TBL in pharmacy school curricula and further research can be performed to link student adoption of technology to performance in courses that implement ARS

Conditions influencing a successful woman-owned business in Gauteng’s informal sector

Abstract: Over the course of South African history, racial and gender-based discrimination has proven to be prevalent, especially in terms the lack of business success for African women, as opposed to African men. This lack of business success may be influenced by socio-cultural patriarchal practices and norms, which reduce women to the level of second-class citizens (Witbooi & Ukpere, 2011). Despite the lack of formal education, societal recognition as breadwinners, through women taking the responsibility of fulfilling the supporting roles for husbands, partners, and extended families, women acquire skills and knowledge of managing a household. While these skills and knowledge are valued in society in general, it may be asked whether these skills and knowledge are acquired volitionally in terms of gaining independence, or out of obligation due to circumstance, especially when women are forced into the breadwinner role. A further question may be posed in terms of whether African women are able to shift their traditional gender-based role in the household in order to enter into, firstly, an informal business environment as entrepreneurs, and then into a formal business environment (Chinomona , Africa, Maziriri, & Africa, 2015; Magidimisha & Gordon, 2015). Is it possible that traditional child-rearing, cooking, household management have unknowingly formed the skills and knowledge base that will empower African women to enter the informal food provision market, to develop a small businesses that will provide an opportunity to move away from poverty, despite the historical disadvantages they have suffered (Witbooi & Ukpere, 2011; Dolan & Rajak, 2016)? If this is possible, then it becomes necessary to investigate the potential for entrepreneurial success for these women. This study identifies conditions for success for these female entrepreneurs, which have been absent in the extant literature in this field. The value of this study is the potential replication of these conditions, in addition to collaboration between government and the private sector, to provide sustainable business opportunities on a larger scale...M.Com. (Business Management

Improving Arts Management/Marketing Efficiency: Optimizing Utilization of Scarce Resources to Produce Artistic Outputs

Purpose This longitudinal research examines US symphony orchestra sector organizations to determine individual efficiencies in allocating resources (donations, governmental/private funding, etc.) for desirable outputs (concerts, educational programs, community outreach). It provides researchers and managers with a tool for identifying, assessing and mitigating organizational inefficiencies. Design/methodology/approach This study assesses relative efficiencies in performing arts organizations using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a widely-used nonparametric data-intensive benchmarking technique that determines an optimal “production frontier” of best-practice organizations among their peers and assesses their abilities to turn multivariate inputs into multivariate desired outputs. Findings This analysis highlights efficiency differences in a wide range of orchestras in converting available resources into performance-related outputs. It provides individual arts organizations with useful results for developing practical benchmarks to achieve organizational efficiency improvement. Research limitations/implications: This study provides constructive benchmarking guidance for improving efficiencies of relatively-inefficient organizations. Future analysis can expand the scope to utilize a two-stage DEA model to provide more specific guidance to arts organizations. Practical implications: This pragmatic analysis enables arts/culture institutions to assess their organizational efficiencies and identify opportunities to optimize resources in producing social outputs for their target markets. Social implications: Efficiency improvements enable performing arts organizations to provide additional artistic/social services, with fewer resources, to larger audiences. Originality/value This research demonstrates the abilities of DEA analysis to assess both a sector and its individual organizations to determine efficiencies, identify sources of inefficiencies and assess longitudinal efficiency trends