The potential impact of explicit Basel II operational risk capital charges on the competitive environment of processing banks in the United States

Basel II replaces Basel I’s implicit capital charge on operational risk with an explicit charge. Certain U.S. banks concentrated in processing-related business lines – which have significant operational risk – could thus face an increase in overall minimum regulatory capital requirements. Some have argued that, as a result, these so-called “processing banks” would be disadvantaged vis-à-vis competitors not subject to regulatory capital requirements for operational risk. This paper evaluates these concerns.Bank capital ; Risk management ; Basel capital accord

Print Advertising In The Us And Hong Kong: A Comparative Analysis

Given the static condition of the global economy marketers are cutting advertising budgets commensurate with dismal sales. It is a longstanding belief that utilizing a standardized advertising approach not only controls good ideas and provides for a consistent image but it also has the benefit of controlling expenses through economies of scale. With this in mind, the purpose of the study was to determine the degree of standardization or lack thereof in advertising strategies in the cosmetics and fragrances advertising industries in the United States and Hong Kong. The findings of this study suggest that there is a high level of standardization in the advertising for perfumes because Hong Kong belonged to the British for a long time and individuals’ needs and desires for love and acceptance are the same irrespective of geography. On the other hand only a moderate form of standardization was noted in the advertising for cosmetics. This may be attributed to the fact that different beauty concepts are held among different regions. Implications of the findings are also noted.print advertising, standardization, glocalization, cosmetics and fragrance industry

MUVE : a web tool to digitize books

Many Santa Clara University students have the luxury of having access to devices such as iPads and eBook readers which support many applications that make our lives easier. The numerous ways to read digital books today has significantly lowered the cost of gaining access to educational material. However, in rural developing communities in countries like India, this is not the case. Currently in India, people in some developing communities have basic mobile phones called feature phones which can perform basic functionalities such as texting, calling, and browsing the web. Feature phones are affordable and very popular in developing communities. There is currently no set standard for reading ebooks on these phones and no applications specifically designed to view books on them. Through online books, people can have access to a wealth of information from which they can obtain educational resources. Anudip and iMerit, two organizations based in India that train and employ women to make online books, work with publishers who are readily digitizing books for expensive devices such as smart phones and eReaders. These companies currently do not have a tool that allows basic feature phones to gain access to online books. As a solution, we constructed a web tool customized for Anudip and iMerit which digitizes printed text into a format viewable on basic feature phones. Our web system, MUVE, successfully converts text into Extensible Markup Language, XML, a format understood by major browsers. While there are already existing efforts to bridge the education and employment gap in rural communities through companies such as biNu, which makes apps for feature phones and allows users to download books, there are no efforts that utilize XML, a much more readable, simple, and usable language that is much easier to interpret on feature phones. (Cave, 2013) For the final step of our tool, MUVE compresses the XML data into a file available for download. We took into consideration the importance of partitioning the data files into smaller pieces so that the information can be downloaded by users who have low bandwidth connections. The final output of our completed system is a folder of XML files containing the chapters of a book. This conversion tool will be delivered and installed; however, these files need to be filtered through a simple XML interpreter. The construction of this XML interpreter will happen simultaneously with the installation of our system on the Anudip and iMerit servers in India. Ultimately, our tool will hopefully grant better access to online books through mobile phones, thereby promoting better education, and will also provide more jobs for women through employment with Anudip and iMerit

Inhibition of interleukin-1 signaling enhances elimination of tyrosine kinase inhibitor treated CML stem cells

Treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) with BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) fails to eliminate leukemia stem cells (LSC). Patients remain at risk for relapse, and additional approaches to deplete CML LSC are needed to enhance the possibility of discontinuing TKI treatment. We have previously reported that expression of the pivotal proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1) is increased in CML bone marrow (BM). We show here that CML LSC demonstrated increased expression of the IL-1 receptors, IL-1RAP and IL- 1R1, and enhanced sensitivity to IL-1-induced NF-KB signaling compared to normal stem cells. Treatment with recombinant IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) inhibited IL-1 signaling in CML LSC and inhibited growth of CML LSC. Importantly, the combination of IL-1RA with TKI resulted in significantly greater inhibition of CML LSC compared with TKI alone. Our studies also suggest that IL-1 signaling contributes to overexpression of inflammatory mediators in CML LSC, suggesting that blocking IL-1 signaling could modulate the inflammatory milieu. We conclude that IL-1 signaling contributes to maintenance of CML LSC following TKI treatment, and that IL- 1 blockade with IL-1RA enhances elimination of TKI-treated CML LSC. These results provide a strong rationale for further exploration of anti-IL-1 strategies to enhance LSC elimination in CML

The prevalence of constant supportive observations in a high, medium and low secure service

Aims and Method We explored the prevalence and use of constant supportive observations (CSO) in high, medium and low secure in-patient services in a single NHS mental health trust. From clinical records, we extracted data on the length of time on CSO, the reason for the initiation of CSO and associated adverse incidents for all individuals who were placed on CSO between July 2013 and June 2014. Results A small number of individuals accounted for a disproportionately large amount of CSO hours in each setting. Adverse incident rates were higher on CSO than when not on CSO. There was considerable variation between different settings in terms of CSO use and the reasons for commencing CSO. Clinical Implications The study describes the prevalence and nature of CSO in secure forensic mental health services and the associated organisational costs. The marked variation in CSO use between settings suggests that mental health services continue to face challenges in balancing risk management with minimising restrictive interventions

Nivel de cumplimiento de la vigilancia de casos de dengue en establecimientos de salud de escenario tipo III en la provincia de Chiclayo

Objetivo: Evaluar el cumplimiento de la vigilancia de casos de dengue en establecimientos de salud de escenario tipo III en la provincia de Chiclayo según la guía práctica clínica para la atención de casos de dengue en el Perú. Material y Métodos: Estudio observacional, descriptivo, transversal, retrospectivo, para el cual se analizaron las fichas de investigación clínico-epidemiológica de pacientes pertenecientes al Centro de Salud de Pósope Alto (Pátapo) y Centro de Salud de Tumán llenadas en el período de enero a julio del año 2017. Se incluyeron 294 fichas, de las cuales 244 eran del Puesto de Salud de Tumán (83%) y de 50 fichas del Puesto de Salud de Pátapo (17%). Se realizó el análisis de la información mediante frecuencias y porcentajes. Resultados: De las fichas analizadas, solo el de 21,8% cumplen adecuadamente con la vigilancia, es decir que realizan las tres actividades según la guía práctica clínica, tanto la notificación, como el llenado de la ficha y en envío de la muestra al laboratorio de manera oportuna. Conclusiones: El nivel de cumplimiento de la vigilancia de casos de dengue en establecimientos de escenario tipo III, como son Pátapo y Tumán, es inadecuado

The participation of community pharmacists in the case management of malaria in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria: a cross-sectional survey

BackgroundNigeria accounts for approximately 25% of the global malaria burden. Malaria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in children and pregnant women. Pharmacists play vital roles in the fight against malaria. However, in Nigeria, the role of the community pharmacist in managing cases of malaria has received very little research attention. This study aimed to evaluate the level of participation of community pharmacists in the management of malaria cases in Enugu metropolis and to explore factors associated with such participation.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among community pharmacists in Enugu metropolis using a modified and re-validated 16-item self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to participants in selected pharmacies for completion. Descriptive statistics and the chi-square test were used for statistical analysis. Results Out of the 103 participants, more than half (55.3%) were male. More than half of the pharmacists satisfactorily provided preventive (57.3%), pharmaceutical (62.1%), and curative (51.1%) services for patients with malaria. Overall, 57% of the pharmacists satisfactorily participated in the management of malaria cases. The number of years of practice was significantly associated with the pharmacists level of involvement in preventive (P=0.003) and curative (P=0.018) services. However, the provision of pharmaceutical care services for malaria patients was significantly associated with the sex of the respondents (P=0.023).ConclusionsOur results suggest that more than half of the community pharmacists in Enugu metropolis were satisfactorily involved in the management of malaria cases. However, the number of years of practice and sex were factors associated with the extent of pharmacist involvement in the management of malaria cases

RAM function is dependent on Kapβ2-mediated nuclear entry

Eukaryotic gene expression is dependent on the modification of the first transcribed nucleotide of pre-mRNA by the addition of the 7-methylguanosine cap. The cap protects transcripts from exonucleases and recruits complexes which mediate transcription elongation, processing and translation initiation. The cap is synthesized by a series of reactions which link 7-methylguanosine to the first transcribed nucleotide via a 5′ to 5′ triphosphate bridge. In mammals, cap synthesis is catalysed by the sequential action of RNGTT (RNA guanylyltransferase and 5′-phosphatase) and RNMT (RNA guanine-7 methyltransferase), enzymes recruited to RNA pol II (polymerase II) during the early stages of transcription. We recently discovered that the mammalian cap methyltransferase is a heterodimer consisting of RNMT and the RNMT-activating subunit RAM (RNMT-activating mini-protein). RAM activates and stabilizes RNMT and thus is critical for cellular cap methylation and cell viability. In the present study we report that RNMT interacts with the N-terminal 45 amino acids of RAM, a domain necessary and sufficient for maximal RNMT activation. In contrast, smaller components of this RAM domain are sufficient to stabilize RNMT. RAM functions in the nucleus and we report that nuclear import of RAM is dependent on PY nuclear localization signals and Kapβ2 (karyopherin β2) nuclear transport protein