The present of active and inactive B Corps

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current state of certified and decertified B Corps in order to have a better understanding of why firms decide to abandon the B Corp certificate as well as to reveal decertification trends. Design/Methodology/Approach – The research is based on secondary data published by B Lab itself. Basic statistical methods such as t-tests and linear regressions were used to have a better overview of the state of active and inactive B Corps. Findings – The findings show that there is a general decrease in the decertification rates of B Corps. While the U.S. accounts for the highest and the United Kingdom accounts for the lowest decertification rates. Most of the B Corps are small sized and larger B Corps are less likely to decertify. Research Limitations – The main limitation of this paper is the restricted access to the B Lab data. In the publicly available dataset, information regarding reasons of decertification are not mentioned and thus conclusions are based on literature review and intuition. Practical Implications – From the results, B Lab can identify some of it its weaknesses in some regions, size categories and sectors. B Lab must focus on improving their assessment test to decrease the decertification rates. While also working closely with the government to achieve the best possible outcomes. Social Implications – From the results, consumers will have a better overview of the current B Corp state which will decrease the information asymmetry and improve the decision-making process. Originality – To the author's knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the relationship between B Corp certification counts and the GDP of a country.Objetivo – O objetivo deste artigo é analisar o estado atual das Empresas B certificadas e descertificadas, a fim de entender melhor por que as empresas decidem abandonar o certificado da Empresa B, bem como revelar tendências de descertificação. Desenho/Metodologia/Abordagem – A pesquisa é baseada em dados secundários publicados pelo próprio B Lab. Métodos estatísticos básicos, como testes t e regressões lineares, foram usados para ter uma melhor visão geral do estado das Empresas B ativas e inativas. Resultados – Os resultados mostram que há uma diminuição geral nas taxas de descertificação das Empresas B. Os EUA representam as maiores taxas de descertificação, enquanto o Reino Unido representa as mais baixas. A maioria das Corporações B é bastante pequena em tamanho e as Corporações B maiores são menos propensas a perder a certificação. Limitações da pesquisa – A principal limitação deste trabalho é o acesso restrito aos dados do B Lab. No conjunto de dados disponível publicamente, as informações sobre os motivos da descertificação não são mencionadas e, portanto, as conclusões são baseadas na revisão da literatura e na intuição. Implicações – A partir dos resultados, o B Lab pode identificar alguns de seus pontos fracos em algumas regiões, categorias de tamanho e setores. O B Lab deve focar em melhorar seu teste de avaliação para diminuir as taxas de descertificação. Enquanto o B Lab também deve trabalhar em estreita colaboração com o governo para alcançar os melhores resultados possíveis. Originalidade – Até onde o autor sabe, este é o primeiro artigo que examina a relação entre as contagens de certificação de empresas B e o PIB de um país

Influence of Glomus Mossease and Nitrogen Fertilization on Growth and Yield of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea Batatas L. )

Application of arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) in sweet potato production can contribute to reduction of input of chemical fertilizers in a sustainable agriculture. Pot and field experiments were conducted to determine the effect of AM inoculum level, and AM inoculation with different rates of nitrogen, on growth and yield of sweet potato. A pot experiment was conducted under glasshouse conditions using Sepang Oren sweetpotato cultivar grown in unsterilized Bungor series soil, and inoculated with 0, 20, 40 and 80 g plant-' of AM inoculum, consisting of Glornus mosseae UK118. The soil was amended with organic compost JITU Biofertilizer 03 at rate of 20 t ha", and inorganic fertilizer N, P, and K at the rate of 30 kg N, 60 kg PzOs and 100 kg K20 ha-', respectively. Results showed that AM inoculum level significantly (p<0.05) influenced the root colonization, but not the storage root yield. Application of 40 g plant-' G. mosseae inoculum significantly increased the root infection, spore number and P concentration in shoot. Different levels of AM applied showed no significant difference on storage root yield, starch content and nutrient concentrations. A field experiment was conducted to assess the effect of AM inoculation and nitrogen fertilization rates on growth and yield of sweetpotato. Experimental plots were prepared in the UPM Integrated Farm and three levels of nitrogen fertilizer used were 0,60 and 120 kg ha-' in the form of urea in combination with two levels of AM inoculation. Inorganic fertilizers were applied at the rate of 60 kg P2O5 and 100 kg K20 ha-'. Sweetpotato was harvested at 120 days of growth. Results showed that application of nitrogen significantly (P<0.05) influenced the yield of sweetpotato. Storage root yield increased with increasing nitrogen fertilizer, and application of 60 kg N ha-' and 120 kg N ha-' showed storage roots yield increase of 54.1% and 83.6% respectively, compared to control treatment. The present study showed no significant effect of G. mosseae on sweetptoato yield, plant nutrient uptake and soil nutrient concentrations. However, the mycorrhizal inoculation significantly (pC0.05) influenced the root colonization and AM spore number in the soil. The highest root colonization of 44.36% was in AM inoculated plant with 120 kg N ha-' fertilization rate. The highest spore number of 46 spore 10 g-' soil was observed in AM inoculated treatment without N fertilization

Assessment of Gamma Camera Performance in Nuclear Medicine Department at Neelien Medical Diagnostic Center

تمت هذه الدراسة لتقيم أداء جهاز الجاما كاميرا في وحدة الطب النووي في مركز النيلين التخصصي وفقا للمتغيرات الاتية : نقطة الدوران, حدية الطاقة, التجانس, الحساسية. وجد أن الانحراف في محور الدوران حوالي 1مم ومن 180الي 360 يكون الإنحراف ما بين 1مم الي 1.3مم . أوضحت النتائج أن قيمة التناسق التكاملي والتناسق التفاضلي كانت ضمن الحدود المسموحة في المركز. و قيمة دقة الطاقة 7.5 %.و دقة الطاقة اظهرت قمة مركزية عند 140كيلوالكترون فولت. وأوضحت النتائج أيضا أن متوسط الحساسية 77.23. لخص البحث ألي أن قيم النتائج التي تم الحصول عليها لجهاز الجاما كاميرا في مركز النيلين الطبي كانت ضمن المعايير الموضوعة من قبل الوكالة الدولية للطاقة الذرية و الجمعية الوطنية لمصنعي الاجهزة الكهربائية

Testosterone depot injection in male hypogonadism: a critical appraisal

Testosterone compounds have been available for almost 70 years, but the pharmaceutical formulations have been less than ideal. Traditionally, injectable testosterone esters have been used for treatment, but they generate supranormal testosterone levels shortly after the 2- to 3-weekly injection interval and then testosterone levels decline very rapidly, becoming subnormal in the days before the next injection. The rapid fluctuations in plasma testosterone are subjectively experienced as disagreeable. Testosterone undecanoate is a new injectable testosterone preparation with a considerably better pharmacokinetic profile. After 2 initial injections with a 6-week interval, the following intervals between two injections are almost always 12-weeks, amounting eventually to a total of 4 injections per year. Plasma testosterone levels with this preparation are nearly always in the range of normal men, so are its metabolic products estradiol and dihydrotestosterone. The “roller coaster” effects of traditional parenteral testosterone injections are not apparent. It reverses the effects of hypogonadism on bone and muscle and metabolic parameters and on sexual functions. Its safety profile is excellent due to the continuous normalcy of plasma testosterone levels. No polycythemia has been observed, and no adverse effects on lipid profiles. Prostate safety parameters are well within reference limits. There was no impairment of uroflow. Testosterone undecanoate is a valuable contribution to the treatment options of androgen deficiency

The accuracy of estimating the item difficulty parameter of the one parameter logistic model using the pairwise method in light of sample size and test length change

This study aimed at investigating The accuracy of estimating the item difficulty parameter of the one parameter logistic model using the pairwise method in light of sample size and test length change. To achieve the study objective, the data of binary responses were generated by five different sample size (50, 100, 250, 500, 1000) examinee, and four different length test (20, 30, 40, 70) item using simra function in the pairwise package in R program by determining the level of the ability and difficulty parameter is between (-3, 3) normally distributed with a mean 0 and a standard deviation 1. To answer the questions of the study, the researcher used R program for estimating the difficulty parameter using the pairwise method, and estimating the ability using the weighted likelihood estimation method. The results of the study revealed statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 between the standard errors of the estimates of the difficulty parameter due to the sample size for sample size 1000 examinee. The results of the study revealed statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 between the standard errors of the estimates of the ability parameter due to the sample size and test length and interaction. The study recommended conduct studies which compare between the likelihood method, the Bayes method, and the pairwise method in the accuracy of estimating the parameters of the item

Diverticulitis complicated by pylephlebitis: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Pylephlebitis is defined as septic thrombophlebitis of the portal venous system, usually secondary to infection or inflammation in the abdomen. In the current report, we present a case of pylephlebitis that complicated the course of a very common pathology, diverticulitis.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 62-year-old Caucasian woman with a history of sigmoid diverticulitis presented to our facility with a three-week history of abdominal pain, fevers, chills, loss of appetite and fatigue. Her laboratory test results showed leukocytosis and elevated alkaline phosphatase. A computed tomography scan revealed portal vein thrombosis and a sigmoid diverticulitis with an abscess. Our patient was given pipercillin-tozabactam followed by sigmoid colectomy and loop transverse colostomy. A peritoneal fluid sample culture grew <it>Escherichia coli</it>. Our patient had an uneventful post-operative course and the leukocytosis resolved in the next four days. She improved clinically and was discharged home on ertapenem and enoxaparin. A follow-up computed tomography scan two weeks later showed a new pelvic abscess that was drained by a pigtail catheter but there was no change in the portal venous thrombus. A repeat computed tomography scan one month later revealed resolution of the pelvic abscess but persistence of portal vein thrombus, for which enoxaparin was continued.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This is a classic case of pylephlebitis that demonstrates the importance of recognizing that the portal vein thrombus is infected and treating the condition appropriately.</p

Services de sécurité inter-locataire et multi-locataire pour les logiciels en tant que service

Récemment, l’infonuagique a joué un rôle essentiel dans l’évolution de la technologie d’informatique. Les logiciels en tant que service (SaaS for software as a service) sont parmi les services infonuagiques les plus attractifs qui ont suscité l’intérêt des fournisseurs et des consommateurs d’applications Web. D’une part, l’externalisation des ressources permet au fournisseur de déployer une application dans une infonuagique publique au lieu de gérer ses ressources sous-jacentes (machines physiques). D’autant plus, les ressources de cette application peuvent être dynamiquement et automatiquement mises à l’échelle en fonction de l’évolution de la clientèle et/ou de la quantité du trafic. D’autre part, la mutualisation (partage) des ressources permet au fournisseur une réduction significative des coûts d’infrastructure et de maintenance en partageant la même instance d’application entre plusieurs locataires, appelés tenants (en anglais). Un locataire peut s’abonner aux SaaS à la demande en payant à l’usage. En dépit de leurs avantages, l’externalisation et la mutualisation des ressources entraînent de nouveaux défis et risques de sécurité qui doivent être inventoriés et résolus par le fournisseur d’un SaaS. Le locataire d’un SaaS ne peut pas déployer ses systèmes de détection d’intrusion (IDS for intrusion detection system) préférés puisqu’il ne contrôle ni le code source ni l’infrastructure de l’application (déployée par le fournisseur dans une infonuagique publique). Le fournisseur doit donc non seulement intégrer des IDS en tant que service dans son infrastructure infonuagique, mais aussi protéger chaque locataire selon ses propres exigences de sécurité. Dans un SaaS multi-locataire, les données des locataires, qui peuvent être des compétiteurs, sont stockées dans la même base de données. Le fournisseur doit donc détecter et prévenir les attaques réalisées par un locataire contre les données d’autres locataires. Plusieurs recherches scientifiques proposent des IDS infonuagiques qui se focalisent sur l’infrastructure (réseaux virtuels, machines virtuelles, etc.). Cependant, ces IDS n’offrent pas une sécurité en tant que service au fournisseur et aux locataires d’un SaaS. D’autres recherches scientifiques et entreprises informatiques suggèrent des mécanismes d’isolation des données des locataires afin de réduire les risques d’attaques entre eux. Cependant, ces mécanismes ne sont pas automatisés et ne permettent pas de prévenir les attaques entre les locataires partageant la même base de données.----------ABSTRACT: Recently, cloud computing plays a vital role in the evolution of computer technology. Softwareas-a-Service (SaaS) is one of the cloud services that has attracted the providers and clients (tenants) of Web applications. On the one hand, outsourcing allows a SaaS provider to deploy an application in a public cloud instead of managing its underlying resources (physical machines). The resources of this application can be scaled dynamically and automatically according to the evolution of the customer and/or the amount of traffic. On the other hand, multi-tenancy (or resources pooling) enables a SaaS provider to significantly reduce the infrastructure and maintenance costs by sharing the same application and database instances among several tenants. A tenant can subscribe to SaaS on-demand and pay according to pay-per-use model. However, the outsourcing and multi-tenancy bring new challenges and security risks that must be addressed by the SaaS provider. A tenant can not deploy its preferred intrusion detection systems (IDS) since it does not control the source code and the infrastructure of the application (deployed by the provider in a public cloud). Therefore, the provider must not only integrate IDS as a service into its cloud infrastructure, but also protect each tenant according to its own security requirements. In a multi-tenant SaaS, the data of tenants that can be competitors are stored in the same database. Therefore, the provider must detect and prevent attacks realized by a tenant (maliciously or accidentally) against the data of other tenants. The cloud-based IDS proposed by scientific research focus on the infrastructure (e.g., virtual networks, virtual machines, etc.). However, they do not detect attacks between the tenants of SaaS and do not provide security as a service for both SaaS provider and tenant. Other scientific research and IT companies propose tenant data isolation mechanisms to reduce the risk of inter-tenant attacks. However, these mechanisms are not automated and do not prevent attacks between tenants sharing the same database