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Dealing with propositional ambiguity in business process improvement
If it is true that people express their views about organisational issues in ambiguous terms then one needs to address this ambiguity instead of the âproblemsâ to find an appropriate methodological approach to resolving or dissolving problem situations in the organisation. This paper highlights and discusses those issues, which therefore relate to ambiguityin relation to decision making tasks within organisations, and the related Soft Systems Methodology / Systems Thinking school of thought, which traditionally constrains such ambiguities. A model of these issues is presented in terms of the Business Process Improvement (BPI) task to highlight these interdependencies
DEGREES OF COMPETITION, THE RATE OF RETURN AND GROWTH FROM A CLASSICAL/SRAFFIAN PERSPECTIVE
The purpose of the paper is a clarification of the concept of competition from a classical/ Sraffian perspective; including an elucidation of how a classical/Sraffian approach might go about defining the degree of competition. This in turn allows for a sharper contrast between the Sraffian view of competition and mainstream views. The starting point for the analysis is the work of Clifton which interprets the classical/Sraffian view of competition as more general than that of orthodoxy: one which can encompass competition between production units in a given industry as something constrained by more dominant forms of competition such as that between production units across industries for shares of the corporate surplus. Following on from the work of both Clifton and Semmler, and starting from the assumption that multi-divisional corporation is the relevant âfirmâ, and that the corporate target rate of return is the relevant rate of profit, the question arises as to what determines the latter. And this question has received very little attention outside the more traditional post-Keynesian literature on pricing. The paper explores what is probably the most serious attempt within this literature - in the work of Eichner - to explain the target rate, in terms the desired growth rate of the corporation. This proposition has some interesting implications for a Sraffian approach, not least because it allows a link running from the expected growth of the economy to the target rate and thus the rate of profit. This in turn requires a discussion of the consistency of such a link with the Sraffian critique of the Cambridge growth equation. As well, a link between the target rate of return and the desired corporate growth rate link also has implications for the mechanics by which sectoral profit rates converge and thus for the classical/Sraffian literature on cross-dual dynamics
Discovery of distant high luminosity infrared galaxies
We have developed a method for selecting the most luminous galaxies detected
by IRAS based on their extreme values of R, the ratio of 60 micron and B-band
luminosity. These objects have optical counterparts that are close to or below
the limits of Schmidt surveys. We have tested our method on a 1079 deg^2 region
of sky, where we have selected a sample of IRAS sources with 60 micron flux
densities greater than 0.2 Jy, corresponding to a redshift limit z~1 for
objects with far-IR luminosities of 10^{13} L_sun. Optical identifications for
these were obtained from the UK Schmidt Telescope plates, using the likelihood
ratio method. Optical spectroscopy has been carried out to reliably identify
and measure the redshifts of six objects with very faint optical counterparts,
which are the only objects with R>100 in the sample. One object is a
hyperluminous infrared galaxy (HyLIG) at z=0.834. Of the remaining, fainter
objects, five are ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) with a mean redshift
of 0.45, higher than the highest known redshift of any non-hyperluminous ULIG
prior to this study. High excitation lines reveal the presence of an active
nucleus in the HyLIG, just as in the other known infrared-selected HyLIGs. In
contrast, no high excitation lines are found in the non-hyperluminous ULIGs. We
discuss the implications of our results for the number density of HyLIGs at z<1
and for the evolution of the infrared galaxy population out to this redshift,
and show that substantial evolution is indicated. Our selection method is
robust against the presence of gravitational lensing if the optical and
infrared magnification factors are similar, and we suggest a way of using it to
select candidate gravitationally lensed infrared galaxies.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for publication in A&
Practical sand transport formula for non-breaking waves and currents
Open Access funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Under a Creative Commons license Acknowledgements This work is part of the SANTOSS project (âSANd Transport in OScillatory flows in the Sheet-flow regimeâ) funded by the UK's EPSRC (GR/T28089/01) and STW in The Netherlands (TCB.6586). JW acknowledges Deltares strategic research funding under project number 1202359.09. Richard Soulsby is gratefully acknowledged for valuable discussions and feedback on the formula during the SANTOSS project.Peer reviewedPostprin
Treatment of Highly Drug-Resistant Pulmonary Tuberculosis
BACKGROUND Patients with highly drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis have limited treatment options and historically have had poor outcomes. METHODS In an open-label, single-group study in which follow-up is ongoing at three South African sites, we investigated treatment with three oral drugs - bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid - that have bactericidal activity against tuberculosis and to which there is little preexisting resistance. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of the drug combination for 26 weeks in patients with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis that was not responsive to treatment or for which a second-line regimen had been discontinued because of side effects. The primary end point was the incidence of an unfavorable outcome, defined as treatment failure (bacteriologic or clinical) or relapse during follow-up, which continued until 6 months after the end of treatment. Patients were classified as having a favorable outcome at 6 months if they had resolution of clinical disease, a negative culture status, and had not already been classified as having had an unfavorable outcome. Other efficacy end points and safety were also evaluated. RESULTS A total of 109 patients were enrolled in the study and were included in the evaluation of efficacy and safety end points. At 6 months after the end of treatment in the intention-to-treat analysis, 11 patients (10%) had an unfavorable outcome and 98 patients (90%; 95% confidence interval, 83 to 95) had a favorable outcome. The 11 unfavorable outcomes were 7 deaths (6 during treatment and 1 from an unknown cause during follow-up), 1 withdrawal of consent during treatment, 2 relapses during follow-up, and 1 loss to follow-up. The expected linezolid toxic effects of peripheral neuropathy (occurring in 81% of patients) and myelosuppression (48%), although common, were manageable, often leading to dose reductions or interruptions in treatment with linezolid. CONCLUSIONS The combination of bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid led to a favorable outcome at 6 months after the end of therapy in a high percentage of patients with highly drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis; some associated toxic effects were observed. (Funded by the TB Alliance and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02333799.)
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