The role and attributes of entrepreneurs at South Africa’s largest arts festival.

The Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK) in Oudtshoorn, South Africa, is the largest arts festival in South Africa. The purpose of this research was to determine the attributes and role of the entrepreneurs at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival. This was done by means of a questionnaire survey (N=249). After data capturing was completed, two factor analyses were conducted. The first factor analysis revealed six factors (entrepreneurial attributes), namely organisational skills, resourcefulness, self-edification, explorative, acquired skill and drive, of which resourcefulness had the highest mean value. The second factor analysis identified the role of entrepreneurs at KKNK and revealed three primary roles, namely festival promotion, product promotion and income generation, of which product promotion had the highest mean value. This is the first time that the roles of entrepreneurs at festivals were investigated in South AfricaEl Festival de las Artes Nacional Klein Karoo (KKNK) en Oudtshoorn, Sudáfrica, es el mayor festival de las artes en el sur de África. El propósito de esta investigación fue determinar las características y el papel de los empresarios en éste. Lo cual se hizo por medio de una encuesta (N = 249). Después de la captura de datos, se realizaron dos análisis. El análisis factorial reveló por primera vez seis factores (atributos empresariales): capacidad de organización, capacidad de auto-edificación, de exploración, adquirió la habilidad y la unidad, de la que el ingenio tuvo el valor más alto. El análisis del segundo factor identificado como el papel de los empresarios en el KKNK reveló tres papeles principales, a saber, la promoción de festivales, promoción de productos y generación de ingresos, de los cuales tenían la promoción de los productos de mayor valor. Esta es la primera vez que se ha investigado el papel de los empresarios en los festivales de Sudáfrica

Physical accessible transformations on a finite number of quantum states

We consider to treat the usual probabilistic cloning, state separation, unambiguous state discrimination, \emph{etc} in a uniform framework. All these transformations can be regarded as special examples of generalized completely positive trace non-increasing maps on a finite number of input states. From the system-ancilla model we construct the corresponding unitary implementation of pure $\to$ pure, pure $\to$ mixed, mixed $\to$ pure, and mixed $\to$ mixed states transformations in the whole system and obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions on the existence of the desired maps. We expect our work will be helpful to explore what we can do on a finite set of input states.Comment: 7 page

Biliary tract visualization using near-infrared imaging with indocyanine green during laparoscopic cholecystectomy: results of a systematic review

Contains fulltext : 174508.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Near-infrared imaging with indocyanine green (ICG) has been extensively investigated during laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). However, methods vary between studies, especially regarding patient selection, dosage and timing. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the potential of the near-infrared imaging technique with ICG to identify biliary structures during LC. METHODS: A comprehensive systematic literature search was performed. Prospective trials examining the use of ICG during LC were included. Primary outcome was biliary tract visualization. Risk of bias was assessed using ROBINS-I. Secondly, a meta-analysis was performed comparing ICG to intraoperative cholangiography (IOC) for identification of biliary structures. GRADE was used to assess the quality of the evidence. RESULTS: Nineteen studies were included. Based upon the pooled data from 13 studies, cystic duct (Lusch et al. in J Endourol 28:261-266, 2014) visualization was 86.5% (95% CI 71.2-96.6%) prior to dissection of Calot's triangle with a 2.5-mg dosage of ICG and 96.5% (95% CI 93.9-98.4%) after dissection. The results were not appreciably different when the dosage was based upon bodyweight. There is moderate quality evidence that the CD is more frequently visualized using ICG than IOC (RR 1.16; 95% CI 1.00-1.35); however, this difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: This systematic review provides equal results for biliary tract visualization with near-infrared imaging with ICG during LC compared to IOC. Near-infrared imaging with ICG has the potential to replace IOC for biliary mapping. However, methods of near-infrared imaging with ICG vary. Future research is necessary for optimization and standardization of the near-infrared ICG technique

Determinants of methotrexate adherence in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Abstract: In rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, weekly intake of methotrexate (MTX) is the basic drug treatment. This observational study aims to investigate how many RA patients are adherent in terms of MTX intake and to identify determinants of non-adherence. Intake of MTX (orally or via injection) was recorded in 129 RA patients with an electronic monitoring system (MEMS\uae) during 16 weeks. In addition, two adherence questionnaires, the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5) and the Compliance-Questionnaire-Rheumatology (CQR) as well as a visual analogue scale (VAS) measuring MTX adherence, were administered to these patients. As possible determinants of adherence, data on demographics, disease and treatment characteristics, depression, illness cognitions, motivation, and social support were collected. Of all participants, 58 % were fully adherent and 75 % skipped at most one dose during 16 weeks. A better mental health status and suffering from comorbidities had a positive effect on adherence, while living alone had a negative effect. These three predictors explained 30 % of the variance in MTX adherence. Of the three self-report medication adherence measures, the VAS correlated the highest with the results of the electronic monitoring system (r\u2009=\u20090.552, p\u2009=\u20090.01). A relatively high adherence rate was observed in RA patients treated with MTX. The determinants identified by this study could be used to screen patients at risk for non-adherence. A simple VAS scale seems to be an acceptable way for a preliminary screening of MTX adherence

Resolutions of C^n/Z_n Orbifolds, their U(1) Bundles, and Applications to String Model Building

We describe blowups of C^n/Z_n orbifolds as complex line bundles over CP^{n-1}. We construct some gauge bundles on these resolutions. Apart from the standard embedding, we describe U(1) bundles and an SU(n-1) bundle. Both blowups and their gauge bundles are given explicitly. We investigate ten dimensional SO(32) super Yang-Mills theory coupled to supergravity on these backgrounds. The integrated Bianchi identity implies that there are only a finite number of U(1) bundle models. We describe how the orbifold gauge shift vector can be read off from the gauge background. In this way we can assert that in the blow down limit these models correspond to heterotic C^2/Z_2 and C^3/Z_3 orbifold models. (Only the Z_3 model with unbroken gauge group SO(32) cannot be reconstructed in blowup without torsion.) This is confirmed by computing the charged chiral spectra on the resolutions. The construction of these blowup models implies that the mismatch between type-I and heterotic models on T^6/Z_3 does not signal a complication of S-duality, but rather a problem of type-I model building itself: The standard type-I orbifold model building only allows for a single model on this orbifold, while the blowup models give five different models in blow down.Comment: 1+27 pages LaTeX, 2 figures, some typos correcte

A dynamic inequality generation scheme for polynomial programming

Hierarchies of semidefinite programs have been used to approximate or even solve polynomial programs. This approach rapidly becomes computationally expensive and is often tractable only for problems of small size. In this paper, we propose a dynamic inequality generation scheme to generate valid polynomial inequalities for general polynomial programs. When used iteratively, this scheme improves the bounds without incurring an exponential growth in the size of the relaxation. As a result, the proposed scheme is in principle scalable to large general polynomial programming problems. When all the variables of the problem are non-negative or when all the variables are binary, the general algorithm is specialized to a more efficient algorithm. In the case of binary polynomial programs, we show special cases for which the proposed scheme converges to the global optimal solution. We also present several examples illustrating the computational behavior of the scheme and provide comparisons with Lasserre’s approach and, for the binary linear case, with the lift-and-project method of Balas, Ceria, and Cornuejols

Characterizing the universal rigidity of generic frameworks

A framework is a graph and a map from its vertices to E^d (for some d). A framework is universally rigid if any framework in any dimension with the same graph and edge lengths is a Euclidean image of it. We show that a generic universally rigid framework has a positive semi-definite stress matrix of maximal rank. Connelly showed that the existence of such a positive semi-definite stress matrix is sufficient for universal rigidity, so this provides a characterization of universal rigidity for generic frameworks. We also extend our argument to give a new result on the genericity of strict complementarity in semidefinite programming.Comment: 18 pages, v2: updates throughout; v3: published versio

An Iterative Scheme for Valid Polynomial Inequality Generation in Binary Polynomial Programming

Semidefinite programming has been used successfully to build hierarchies of convex relaxations to approximate polynomial programs. This approach rapidly becomes computationally expensive and is often tractable only for problems of small sizes. We propose an iterative scheme that improves the semidefinite relaxations without incurring exponential growth in their size. The key ingredient is a dynamic scheme for generating valid polynomial inequalities for general polynomial programs. These valid inequalities are then used to construct better approximations of the original problem. As a result, the proposed scheme is in principle scalable to large general combinatorial optimization problems. For binary polynomial programs, we prove that the proposed scheme converges to the global optimal solution for interesting cases of the initial approximation of the problem. We also present examples illustrating the computational behaviour of the scheme and compare it to other methods in the literature

Lymph Node Negative Colorectal Cancers with Isolated Tumor Deposits Should Be Classified and Treated As Stage III

BACKGROUND: The prognostic role of pericolic or perirectal isolated tumor deposits (ITDs) in node-negative colorectal cancer (CRC) patients is unclear. Rules to define ITDs as regional lymph node metastases changed in subsequent editions of the TNM staging without substantial evidence. Aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between ITDs and disease recurrence in stage II and III CRC patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical files of 870 CRC patients were reviewed. Number, size, shape, and location pattern of all ITDs in node-negative patients were examined in relation to involvement of vascular structures and nerves. The correlation between ITDs and the development of recurrent disease was investigated. RESULTS: Disease recurrence was observed in 50.0% of stage II patients with ITDs (13 of 26), compared with 24.4% of stage II patients without ITDs (66 of 270) (P <.01). Disease-free survival of ITD-positive stage II patients was comparable with that of stage III patients. Also within stage III, more recurrences were observed in ITD-positive patients compared with ITD-negative patients (65.1 vs. 39.1%, respectively). No correlation was found between size of ITDs and disease recurrence. More recurrences were seen in patients with irregularly shaped ITDs compared with patients with 1 or more smooth ITDs present. CONCLUSIONS: Because of the high risk of disease recurrence, all node-negative stage II patients with ITDs, regardless of size and shape, should be classified as stage III, for whom adjuvant chemotherapy should be considere