nformation Quality, Reporting and Organisational Performance

This study aims at the exploration of the statistical relationship between the quality of the Information produced by Information Systems (IS) such as ERPs and Organisational Performance. The definition of information quality encompasses measures such as accuracy, precision, currency, timeliness, conciseness, which aim at providing decision tools to the users of any Information System. Producing quality information /reports is the primary purpose of any IS. The results from a survey on 168 Greek companies show a strong correlation between Information Quality and Organisational Performance when this is expressed by financial and not financial measures

External heating garments used post warm-up improve upper-body power and elite sprint swimming performance

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of using an electrical heating garment during a 30-minute recovery period after a standardized swimming warm-up on subsequent swimming performance and upper-body power output. On two occasions, eight male and four female elite competitive swimmers completed a standardized swimming warm-up, followed by a 30-minute passive recovery period before completing maximal plyometric press-ups and a 50m Freestyle swim. Plyometric press-ups determined starting strength (SS), peak force (PF) and peak concentric power (PCP). During the recovery period, participants wore tracksuit bottoms and (i) a standard tracksuit top (CON) or (ii) jacket with integrated electric heating elements (HEAT). The overall results demonstrated a trend of a relevant (>0.4%) improvement in the 50m Freestyle performance of 0.83% (P = 0.06) in HEAT vs. CON. In male participants, performance in the 50m Freestyle significantly improved by 1.01% (CON 25.18 ± 0.5s vs. HEAT 24.93 ± 0.4s; P < 0.05), whereas female participants only showed a trend for an improvement of 0.38% (29.18 ± 0.5s vs. 29.03 ± 1.0s; P = 0.09), in HEAT compared with CON, though statistical power for the latter test was low. Male participants’ starting strength, peak force and peak concentric power were 16.5 ± 13%, 18.1 ± 21% and 16.2 ± 21% greater, respectively, in HEAT compared with CON (all P<0.01). In conclusion, external heating of the upper body between completion of the warm-up and performance through the utilization of an electrically heated jacket improves plyometric press-up power output and force production, as well as sprint swimming performance in males. This provides justification for future enhancement opportunities in sporting performance through the utilization of external heating systems. Optimization of the heating system for specific sports is required

Determination of the X-ray reflection emissivity profile of 1H 0707-495

When considering the X-ray spectrum resulting from the reflection off the surface of accretion discs of AGN, it is necessary to account for the variation in reflected flux over the disc, i.e. the emissivity profile. This will depend on factors including the location and geometry of the X-ray source and the disc characteristics. We directly obtain the emissivity profile of the disc from the observed spectrum by considering the reflection component as the sum of contributions from successive radii in the disc and fitting to find the relative weightings of these components in a relativistically-broadened emission line. This method has successfully recovered known emissivity profiles from synthetic spectra and is applied to XMM-Newton spectra of the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxy 1H 0707-495. The data imply a twice-broken power law form of the emissivity law with a steep profile in the inner regions of the disc (index 7.8) and then a flat region between 5.6rg and 34.8rg before tending to a constant index of 3.3 over the outer regions of the disc. The form of the observed emissivity profile is consistent with theoretical predictions, thus reinforcing the reflection interpretation.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

[Introduction to] Native Voices: American Indian Identity and Resistance

Native peoples of North America still face an uncertain future due to their unstable political, legal, and economic positions. Views of their predicament, however, continue to be dominated by non-Indian writers. In response, a dozen Native American writers here reclaim their rightful role as influential voices in the debates about Native communities at the dawn of a new millennium. These scholars examine crucial issues of politics, law, and religion in the context of ongoing Native American resistance to the dominant culture. They particularly show how the writings of Vine Deloria, Jr., have shaped and challenged American Indian scholarship in these areas since the 1960s. They provide key insights into Deloria\u27s thought, while introducing some of the critical issues still confronting Native nations today. Collectively, these essays take up four important themes: indigenous societies as the embodiment of cultures of resistance, legal resistance to western oppression against indigenous nations, contemporary Native religious practices, and Native intellectual challenges to academia. Individual chapters address indigenous perspectives on topics usually treated (and often misunderstood).https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1333/thumbnail.jp

Targeting the Progression of Parkinson’s Disease

By the time a patient first presents with symptoms of Parkinson’s disease at the clinic, a significant proportion (50-70%) of the cells in the substantia nigra (SN) has already been destroyed. This degeneration progresses until, within a few years, most of the cells have died. Except for rare cases of familial PD, the initial trigger for cell loss is unknown. However, we do have some clues as to why the damage, once initiated, progresses unabated. It would represent a major advance in therapy to arrest cell loss at the stage when the patient first presents at the clinic. Current therapies for Parkinson’s disease focus on relieving the motor symptoms of the disease, these unfortunately lose their effectiveness as the neurodegeneration and symptoms progress. Many experimental approaches are currently being investigated attempting to alter the progression of the disease. These range from replacement of the lost neurons to neuroprotective therapies; each of these will be briefly discussed in this review. The main thrust of this review is to explore the interactions between dopamine, alpha synuclein and redox-active metals. There is abundant evidence suggesting that destruction of SN cells occurs as a result of a self-propagating series of reactions involving dopamine, alpha synuclein and redox-active metals. A potent reducing agent, the neurotransmitter dopamine has a central role in this scheme, acting through redox metallo-chemistry to catalyze the formation of toxic oligomers of alpha-synuclein and neurotoxic metabolites including 6-hydroxydopamine. It has been hypothesized that these feed the cycle of neurodegeneration by generating further oxidative stress. The goal of dissecting and understanding the observed pathological changes is to identify therapeutic targets to mitigate the progression of this debilitating disease

Ship Deck Segmentation in Engineering Document Using Generative Adversarial Networks

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) have become very popular in recent years. GANs have proved to be successful in different computer vision tasks including image-translation, image super-resolution etc. In this paper, we have used GAN models for ship deck segmentation. We have used 2D scanned raster images of ship decks provided by US Navy Military Sealift Command (MSC) to extract necessary information including ship walls, objects etc. Our segmentation results will be helpful to get vector and 3D image of a ship that can be later used for maintenance of the ship. We applied the trained models to engineering documents provided by MSC and obtained very promising results, demonstrating that GANs can be potentially good candidates for this research area

Three-dimensional elemental bio-imaging of Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn and P in a 6-hydroxydopamine lesioned mouse brain

Three dimensional maps of iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn) and phosphorous (P) in a 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesioned mouse brain were constructed employing a novel quantitative laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) imaging method known as elemental bio-imaging. The 3D maps were produced by ablating serial consecutive sections taken from the same animal. Each section was quantified against tissue standards resulting in a three dimensional map that represents the variation of trace element concentrations of the mouse brain in the area surrounding the substantia nigra (SN). Damage caused by the needle or the toxin did not alter the distribution of Zn, and Cu but significantly altered Fe in and around the SN and both Mn and Fe around the needle track. A 20% increase in nigral Fe concentration was observed within the lesioned hemisphere. This technique clearly shows the natural heterogeneous distributions of these elements throughout the brain and the perturbations that occur following trauma or intoxication. The method may applied to three-dimensional modelling of trace elements in a wide range of tissue samples. © 2010 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Quantitative elemental bio-imaging of Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn in 6-hydroxydopamine induced Parkinsonism mouse models

This study demonstrates the application of quantitative elemental bio-imaging for the determination of the distribution Cu, Mn, Fe and Zn in Parkinsonism mouse model brains. Elevated concentrations of these metals within the substantia nigra (SN) are suspected to play a role on the development of Parkinson's disease. Elemental bio-imaging employs laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to construct images of trace element distribution. Quantitative data was produced by ablating the standard tissue sections and recording the mean signal intensity calibrated against multi level matrix matched tissue standards. The concentrations of Fe within the substantia nigra of the lesioned animals increased significantly when compared against control animals. Furthermore, the data was compared against solution nebulisation ICP-MS in which the whole substantia nigra was excised. The trends were the same for both methods; however the elemental bio-imaging method returned significantly higher concentrations. This was caused by dilution from inclusion of surrounding tissue of the SN during the excision procedure. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2009

Male frequent attenders of general practice and their help seeking preferences

Background: Low rates of health service usage by men are commonly linked to masculine values and traditional male gender roles. However, not all men conform to these stereotypical notions of masculinity, with some men choosing to attend health services on a frequent basis, for a variety of different reasons. This study draws upon the accounts of male frequent attenders of the General Practitioner's (GP) surgery, examining their help-seeking preferences and their reasons for choosing services within general practice over other sources of support. Methods: The study extends thematic analysis of interview data from the Self Care in Primary Care study (SCinPC), a large scale multi-method evaluation study of a self care programme delivered to frequent attenders of general practice. Data were collected from 34 semi-structured interviews conducted with men prior to their exposure to the intervention. Results: The ages of interviewed men ranged from 16 to 72 years, and 91% of the sample (n= 31) stated that they had a current health condition. The thematic analysis exposed diverse perspectives within male help-seeking preferences and the decision-making behind men's choice of services. The study also draws attention to the large variation in men's knowledge of available health services, particularly alternatives to general practice. Furthermore, the data revealed some men's lack of confidence in existing alternatives to general practice. Conclusions: The study highlights the complex nature of male help-seeking preferences, and provides evidence that there should be no 'one size fits all' approach to male service provision. It also provides impetus for conducting further studies into this under researched area of interest. © 2011 WPMH GmbH