38 research outputs found

    Web Based Organizing and the Management of Human Resources

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    The paper focuses on the consequences of web-based business-to-business transactions in medium and large old economy companies in particular and discusses the implications for HRM and HR professionals. Medium and large old economy companies can be involved in transactions within the new economy in different ways. First of all the paper gives an overview of the striking characteristics that distinguish web-based transactions from more traditional transactions. The paper continues with an overview of the different ways in which old economy companies are attempting to integrate elements of web-based organizing into their current business and the implications of it for human resources management. Three different ways of integration are distinguished: -Seeing the Net as an extension of normal market channels for buying and selling. -Using the Net to expand and improve current co-makership relationships amongst key suppliers (section 4). -Totally re-thinking business models before deciding on e-commerce strategy and practice, which implies desegregation and organizational revolution. Each of these areas will be highlighted and possible implications for human resources management and HR managers considered

    Gravitomagnetic Moments and Dynamics of Dirac's (spin 1/2) fermions in flat space-time Maxwellian Gravity

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    The gravitational effects in the relativistic quantum mechanics are investigated in a relativistically derived version of Heaviside's speculative Gravity (in flat space-time) named here as Maxwellian Gravity. The standard Dirac's approach to the intrinsic spin in the fields of Maxwellian Gravity yields the gravitomagnetic moment of a Dirac (spin 1/2) particle exactly equals to its intrinsic spin. Violation of The Equivalence Principle (both at classical and quantum mechanical level) in the relativistic domain has also been reported in this work.Comment: 27 page

    Is the Rehbein procedure obsolete in the treatment of Hirschsprung’s disease?

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    Contains fulltext : 87916.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)PURPOSE: After 25 years of practice and positive results of the Rehbein-procedure (RB) for children with Hirschsprung Disease (HD), we changed to the less invasive transanal endorectal pull through (TERPT). The aim of this study was to compare short- and mid-term complications of these two procedures in our patients with HD. METHODS: Retrospective data of 50 HD patients were analyzed. Of these patients, 25 underwent RB (2000-2006) and in 25 the TERPT was performed (2005-2009). Medical records were reviewed to score complications and outcomes. Differences were analyzed using Chi-Square and Mann-Whitney U tests. RESULTS: All RB patients (100%) were given a colostomy compared with four patients (16%) in the TERPT group (p < 0.001). The average age at surgery in the RB group was 191 days whereas this was 72 days in the TERPT group (p < 0.01). The mean length of time of surgery in the RB group (158 min) was not significantly different from that in the TERPT group (183 min). Ganglion cells were located in all specimens at the proximal end of the specimens. The median time to first feeding significantly decreased from 2 days (range 1-11) in the RB group to 1 day (range 1-3) in the TERPT group (p < 0.01). The median length of hospital stay decreased in the TERPT group (8 days) compared with the RB group (10 days) (p < 0.001). There was a significant reduction in postoperative obstructive symptoms during the first 6 months in the TERPT group (48%) compared with the RB group (84%) (p = 0.016). Postoperative enterocolitis decreased from 40% in the RB group to 24% in the TERPT group although this was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of TERPT reduced the need for colostomies; it shortened days to first feeding after surgery and reduced hospital stay. It also improved short-term outcome with less obstructive symptoms. We recommend TERPT surgery as a first choice in children with HD. we consider the RB now to be obsolete.1 november 201

    Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

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    Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

    Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

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    Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.Peer reviewe

    Multinational evaluation of genetic diversity indicators for the Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

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    Under the recently adopted Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, 196 Parties committed to reporting the status of genetic diversity for all species. To facilitate reporting, three genetic diversity indicators were developed, two of which focus on processes contributing to genetic diversity conservation: maintaining genetically distinct populations and ensuring populations are large enough to maintain genetic diversity. The major advantage of these indicators is that they can be estimated with or without DNA‐based data. However, demonstrating their feasibility requires addressing the methodological challenges of using data gathered from diverse sources, across diverse taxonomic groups, and for countries of varying socio‐economic status and biodiversity levels. Here, we assess the genetic indicators for 919 taxa, representing 5271 populations across nine countries, including megadiverse countries and developing economies. Eighty‐three percent of the taxa assessed had data available to calculate at least one indicator. Our results show that although the majority of species maintain most populations, 58% of species have populations too small to maintain genetic diversity. Moreover, genetic indicator values suggest that IUCN Red List status and other initiatives fail to assess genetic status, highlighting the critical importance of genetic indicators

    Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

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    From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions
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