Socio-cultural sustainability of private healthcare providers in an Indian slum setting: A bottom-of-the-pyramid perspective

Delivery of affordable healthcare services to communities is a necessary precondition to poverty alleviation. Co-creation approaches to the development of business models in the healthcare industry proved particularly suitable for improving the health-seeking behavior of BOP patients. However, scant research was conducted to understand BOP consumers’ decision-making process leading to specific healthcare choices in slum settings, and the relative balance of socio-cultural and socio-economic factors underpinning patients’ preferences. This article adopts a mixed-method approach to investigate the determinants of BOP patients’ choice between private and public hospitals. Quantitative analysis of a database, composed of 436 patients from five hospitals in Ahmedabad, India, indicates that BOP patients visit a public hospital significantly more than top-of-the-pyramid (TOP) patients. However, no significant difference emerges between BOP and TOP patients for inpatient or outpatient treatments. Qualitative findings based on 21 interviews with BOP consumers from selected slum areas led to the development of a grounded theory model, which highlights the role of aspirational demand of BOP patients toward private healthcare providers. Overall, healthcare provider choice emerges as the outcome of a collective socio-cultural decision-making process, which often assigns preference for private healthcare services because of the higher perceived quality of private providers, while downplaying affordability concerns. Implications for healthcare providers, social entrepreneurs, and policy-makers are discussed

Paediatric hepatoblastoma and hepatocellular carcinoma: retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES: To compare and contrast clinical characteristics and outcomes of hepatoblastoma or hepatocellular carcinoma in paediatric patients. DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: University teaching hospital, Hong Kong. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Medical records of 22 paediatric patients with hepatoblastoma (n=11) or hepatocellular carcinoma (n=11) admitted to Queen Mary Hospital between 1989 and 2000 were reviewed. Data gathered included demographic data, results of liver function tests, hepatitis A, B, and C titres, and alpha-foetoprotein levels, and imaging studies including chest X-ray, ultrasound study, computed tomography scan, and magnetic resonance imaging/hepatic angiogram for tumour staging and resectability. RESULTS: The mean age of patients with hepatoblastoma was 18 months (range, 5 months to 3 years), while that of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma was 10.2 years (range, 2 to 16 years). Females predominated in the hepatoblastoma group (female:male, 8:3) and males in the hepatocellular carcinoma group (male:female, 10:1). None of the patients with hepatoblastoma were hepatitis B surface antigen positive, in contrast to 64% of the hepatocellular carcinoma group. Only 45% of the hepatocellular carcinomas were resectable at presentation and this figure remained unchanged following chemotherapy. A total of 91% of hepatoblastomas were resectable, four at presentation, and a further six after chemotherapy. Tumour rupture was more common in patients with hepatoblastoma than in those with hepatocellular carcinoma (36% versus 9% of cases, respectively). Mortality rates were considerably higher among the hepatocellular carcinoma group than the hepatoblastoma group in this series. CONCLUSION: Childhood hepatoblastoma and hepatocellular carcinoma differ with respect to age and tumour stage at presentation, hepatatis B surface antigen status, tendency to rupture, chemosensitivity, and prognosis.published_or_final_versio

Predicting facebook users online privacy protection: Risk, trust, norm focus theory, and the theory of planned behavior

Journal ArticleThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in The Journal of Social Psychology on 21 April 2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00224545.2014.914881The present research adopts an extended theory of the planned behavior model that included descriptive norms, risk, and trust to investigate online privacy protection in Facebook users. Facebook users (N = 119) completed a questionnaire assessing their attitude, subjective injunctive norm, subjective descriptive norm, perceived behavioral control, implicit perceived risk, trust of other Facebook users, and intentions toward protecting their privacy online. Behavior was measured indirectly 2 weeks after the study. The data show partial support for the theory of planned behavior and strong support for the independence of subjective injunctive and descriptive norms. Risk also uniquely predicted intentions over and above the theory of planned behavior, but there were no unique effects of trust on intentions, nor of risk or trust on behavior. Implications are discussed. © Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

PEMODELAN FORMULA MATEMATIK UNTUK MENENTUKAN NILAI BUKU AKTIVA TETAP DAN ALGORITMANYA DALAM BAHASA PEMROGRAMAN QUICK BASIC

According to General Accepted Accounting Priciples (GAAP), we realize that Fix Assets have been used during periodic useful live which be allocated for cost was called Deppreciation Cost .For the Fixed Assets which be depreciated will result the final Value of the Assets mentioned Book Value. The Book Value of Fix Assets in the first year was called the Historical Cost.The Book Value in each periodcan be calculated by using conventional method, we can make the tabulation chronologically until the end of useful life. In this paper, the author will design the mathematical formulation for determining the Book Value Directly at the year-t or Book Value Equation referred  to the function t(time) without tabulation process, for each depreciation method used in Accounting Principle .In other side, the author will also design the programming and algorithm in Computer Language by using Quick Basic Software. And the last the author will test the validity of program and mathematic formulation by comparing the result with the result of conventional method (tabulation method)

Calpains, Cleaved Mini-Dysferlin(C72), and L-Type Channels Underpin Calcium-Dependent Muscle Membrane Repair

Dysferlin is proposed as a key mediator of calcium-dependent muscle membrane repair, although its precise role has remained elusive. Dysferlin interacts with a new membrane repair protein, mitsugumin 53 (MG53), an E3 ubiquitin ligase that shows rapid recruitment to injury sites. Using a novel ballistics assay in primary human myotubes, we show it is not full-length dysferlin recruited to sites of membrane injury but an injury-specific calpain-cleavage product, mini-dysferlin(C72). Mini-dysferlin(C72)-rich vesicles are rapidly recruited to injury sites and fuse with plasma membrane compartments decorated by MG53 in a process coordinated by L-type calcium channels. Collective interplay between activated calpains, dysferlin, and L-type channels explains how muscle cells sense a membrane injury and mount a specialized response in the unique local environment of a membrane injury. Mini-dysferlin(C72) and MG53 form an intricate lattice that intensely labels exposed phospholipids of injury sites, then infiltrates and stabilizes the membrane lesion during repair. Our results extend functional parallels between ferlins and synaptotagmins. Whereas otoferlin exists as long and short splice isoforms, dysferlin is subject to enzymatic cleavage releasing a synaptotagmin-like fragment with a specialized protein-or phospholipid-binding role for muscle membrane repair

Water diffusion in atmospherically relevant α-pinene secondary organic material

Secondary organic material (SOM) constitutes a large mass fraction of atmospheric aerosol particles. Understanding its impact on climate and air quality relies on accurate models of interactions with water vapour. Recent research shows that SOM can be highly viscous and can even behave mechanically like a solid, leading to suggestions that particles exist out of equilibrium with water vapour in the atmosphere. In order to quantify any kinetic limitation we need to know water diffusion coefficients for SOM, but this quantity has, until now, only been estimated and has not yet been measured. We have directly measured water diffusion coefficients in the water soluble fraction of α-pinene SOM between 240 and 280 K. Here we show that, although this material can behave mechanically like a solid, at 280 K water diffusion is not kinetically limited on timescales of 1 s for atmospheric-sized particles. However, diffusion slows as temperature decreases. We use our measured data to constrain a Vignes-type parameterisation, which we extend to lower temperatures to show that SOM can take hours to equilibrate with water vapour under very cold conditions. Our modelling for 100 nm particles predicts that under mid to upper tropospheric conditions radial inhomogeneities in water content produce a low viscosity surface region and more solid interior, with implications for heterogeneous chemistry and ice nucleation

Community perceptions of a malaria vaccine in the Kintampo districts of Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Malaria remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa despite tools currently available for its control. Making malaria vaccine available for routine use will be a major hallmark, but its acceptance by community members and health professionals within the health system could pose considerable challenge as has been found with the introduction of polio vaccinations in parts of West Africa. Some of these challenges may not be expected since decisions people make are many a time driven by a complex myriad of perceptions. This paper reports knowledge and perceptions of community members in the Kintampo area of Ghana where malaria vaccine trials have been ongoing as part of the drive for the first-ever licensed malaria vaccine in the near future. METHODS: Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the data collection processes. Women and men whose children were or were not involved in the malaria vaccine trial were invited to participate in focus group discussions (FGDs). Respondents, made up of heads of religious groupings in the study area, health care providers, traditional healers and traditional birth attendants, were also invited to participate in in-depth interviews (IDIs). A cross-sectional survey was conducted in communities where the malaria vaccine trial (Mal 047RTS,S) was carried out. In total, 12 FGDs, 15 IDIs and 466 household head interviews were conducted. RESULTS: Knowledge about vaccines was widespread among participants. Respondents would like their children to be vaccinated against all childhood illnesses including malaria. Knowledge of the long existing routine vaccines was relatively high among respondents compared to hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type B vaccines that were introduced more recently in 2002. There was no clear religious belief or sociocultural practice that will serve as a possible barrier to the acceptance of a malaria vaccine. CONCLUSION: With the assumption that a malaria vaccine will be as efficacious as other EPI vaccines, community members in Central Ghana will accept and prefer malaria vaccine to malaria drugs as a malaria control tool. Beliefs and cultural practices as barriers to the acceptance of malaria vaccine were virtually unknown in the communities surveyed

Tribo-induced catalytically active oxide surfaces enabling the formation of the durable and high-performance carbon-based tribofilms

Carbon-containing tribofilms have attracted significant interest in the lubrication research despite a scarcity of information on their high-temperature performance under severe boundary conditions. In this study, high-temperature lubrication of the carbon tribofilm produced from cyclopropane carboxylic acid (CPCa) and NiAl-layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles was evaluated. NiAl-LDH nanoparticles significantly enhanced the friction stability and antiwear performance of CPCa by over 90% at 50°C and 100°C, comparable to the benchmark zinc dialkyldithiophosphates (ZDDPs). The highly graphitic amorphous carbon tribofilms and the fine-grain intermediate tribolayer constructed by the thermal decomposition products of NiAl-LDH contributed to such excellent lubrication performance. This study paves a pathway in developing functional anti-wear additives for the durable and high-performance carbon-containing tribofilms at high temperatures

Thermoresponsive Hybrid Colloidal Capsules as an Inorganic Additive for Fire-Resistant Silicone-Based Coatings

Improving the fire-resistant efficiency of silicone-based polymeric coatings is important in the building industry and electrical utilities. In this study, the water-containing hybrid calcium carbonate (CaCO3)–silica (SiO2) colloidal capsule has been developed and optimized as an inorganic flame-retardant additive. This capsule exhibits excellent thermal stability up to 1000 °C with a remaining intact hollow spherical structure. When used as an inorganic filler at 15 wt %, it not only reduces the potential fire hazards by over 44% (i.e., the sumHRC reduced from 112.00 J/g K to 62.00 J/g K) but also improves the heat-barrier efficiency by over 30% (i.e., the temperature at the steady state reduced from 350 to 360 °C to below 250 °C) of the silicone-based polymeric coatings. In addition, the capsule–polymer composite coating exhibits excellent ductility which can withstand heat-induced mechanical stresses and prevent crack propagation under radiative heating conditions. The fire-resistant mechanism of the colloidal capsule is related strongly to the encapsulated water core and the reactions between SiO2 and CaCO3 at elevated temperatures. They not only contribute to a cooling effect on the flammable pyrolysis gases but also induce the insulative effect to the resulted char during combustion. The significant advances in this study will have a high impact in customizing the functional inorganic additives for a better design of the flame-retardant composite coating