A Jini-Based Solution for Electronic Prescriptions

In most countries today, handwritten, paper-based medical prescriptions are the norm.While efforts have been made in the past and are being made at present to migrate toward electronic dispensation of prescriptions, these have generally omitted to incorporate ubiquitous computing technology in their proposed solutions. In this paper, we focus on this issue and describe a Jini-based prototypical solution for electronic prescriptions, which allows for their wireless transmission to in-range pharmacies and the augmentation of the service levels rendered to the user, with, for instance, information about queue lengths and estimated waiting times being provided to the patients. Clinical and user evaluation revealed that there were high levels of agreement as regards the prototype’s effectiveness, ease of use, and usefulness

Performance analysis of listed companies in the UAE-using DEA Malmquist index approach

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is becoming an increasingly popular tool for assessing the relative performance of industries and companies. By applying DEA theory to the non-financial sector, the relative efficiency of 27 listed corporations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been analyzed in this paper. The focus of the study has been on the impact of the financial crisis and the recovery thereafter. Further, the productivity change was decomposed into technical efficiency change and technological change by using the non-para- metric Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) over the period from 2007 to 2014. Based on Malmquist analysis, we find that the most efficient industries during the post-crisis period were food and beverages, telecommunication and pharmaceuticals. In contrast, the sectors that were adversely affected by the crisis were services, real estate, construction and cements. The break-up of the TFP indicated that the efficiency indices in the top performing industries were driven by technological improvements or frontier effects. The top-per- forming companies in the UAE during the 2007-14 period demonstrated innovation-led growth, aided by the use of better technology, investments in capital equipment, and adoption of new production processes

P53 and MDM2 over-expression and five-year survival of kidney cancer patients undergoing radical nephrectomy - Iranian experience

Background: Relatively little is known with certainty about the status and role of p53 or MDM2 in predicting prognosis and survival of renal cell carcinoma. The present study aimed to determine the value of P53 and MDM2 over-expression, alone and simultaneously, to predict five-year survival of patients with kidney cancer in Iran. Materials and Methods: Patients with kidney cancer referred to Hasheminejad Kidney Center between 2007 and 2009, underwent radical nephrectomy and had pathology reports of clear cell, papillary or chromophobe renal cell carcinoma were included in our cohort study. Other histological types of renal cell carcinoma were not included. The patients with missed, incomplete or poor quality paraffin blocks were also excluded. Overall ninety one patients met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. To assess the histopathological features of the tumor, immunohistochemical (IHC) staining of formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor samples were performed. The five-year survival was determined by the patients' medical files and telephone following-up. Results: In total, 1.1 of all samples were revealed to be positive for P53. Also, 20.8 of all samples were revealed to be positive for MDM2.The patients were all followed for 5 years. In this regard, 5-year mortality was 30.5 and thus 5-year survival was 85.3. According to the Cox proportional hazard analysis, positive P53 marker was only predictor for patients' 5-year survival that the presence of positive p53 increased the risk for long-term mortality up to 2.8 times (HR=2.798, 95CI: 1.176-6.660, P=0.020). However, the presence of MDM2 could not predict long-term mortality. In this regard, analysis by the ROC curve showed a limited role for predicting long-term survival by confirming P53 positivity (AUC=0.610, 95CI: 0.471-.750, P=0.106). The best cutoff point for P53 to predict mortality was 0.5 yielding a low sensitivity (32.0) but a high specificity (97.9). In similar analysis, measurement of MDM2 positivity could not predict mortality (AUC=0.449, 95CI: 0.316-.583, P=0.455). Conclusions: The simultaneous presence of both P53 and MDM2 markers in our population is a rare phenomenon and the presence of these markers may not predict long-term survival in patients who undergoing radical nephrectomy

Metallic phase of disordered graphene superlattices with long-range correlations

Using the transfer matrix method, we study the conductance of the chiral particles through a monolayer graphene superlattice with long-range correlated disorder distributed on the potential of the barriers. Even though the transmission of the particles through graphene superlattice with white noise potentials is suppressed, the transmission is revived in a wide range of angles when the potential heights are long-range correlated with a power spectrum $S(k)\sim1/k^{\beta}$. As a result, the conductance increases with increasing the correlation exponent values gives rise a metallic phase. We obtain a phase transition diagram in which a critical correlation exponent depends strongly on disorder strength and slightly on the energy of the incident particles. The phase transition, on the other hand, appears in all ranges of the energy from propagating to evanescent mode regimes.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure

Conceptualising cultural issues and challenges within a UK Information School context.

Introduction: Students in UK Higher Education are increasingly working together in multicultural group work settings, with many courses entirely or almost entirely featuring international students. Additionally, Master’s degree students whose course of study lasts one year are required to adapt to a new educational culture quickly, despite having in some cases little or no prior experience of group work. However, there is relatively little research into Master’s level students’ experience of multicultural group work Aims and objectives: This study aimed to answer the following question: What are the most important challenges, issues, conflicts, tensions and also benefits encountered during multicultural student group work in a UK information school? In doing this, the following sub-questions were used: • What are the challenges, issues and benefits in multicultural group work? • What factors impact upon multicultural group work performance? • When do challenges and issues occur in multicultural group work? • How do cultural differences affect group performance? • How does multicultural group work influence students’ experience and satisfaction? • How does the information science context impact on group work? This was achieved by: • Use of the literature to identify challenges, issues and conflicts in student group work • Conducting case study research approach to investigate student multicultural group work using observation and interview data collection methods • Investigating students’ perception towards multicultural group work • Identifying the factors affecting multicultural group work and • Producing model of factor affecting multicultural group work Methodology: The research study adopted a case study approach and the setting was the Information School at the University of Sheffield, UK. Research participants were Master’s degree students studying on the MSc in Information Management and MA in Librarianship programmes. This is a qualitative research study, which adopts an inductive approach. Data collection methods include the observation of students conducting a group work assignment and 26 semi-structured interviews in which participants were questioned regarding their experiences of multicultural group work across several modules. In addition, institutional and module documents were used to provide a comprehensive perspective on each case. The analysis of the documents and observation data alongside interviews was used to produce the case study reports. Furthermore, the thematic analysis of the interview data was undertaken to identify and conceptualise the themes. Findings: Factors such as the identity of group mates, language, whether the group was self-selected or allocated, assignment design, and support available from tutors and academic staff were all found to strongly influence students' experience of group work. The MA Librarianship cohort (primarily home students) were found to be reluctant to associate and collaborate with individuals on other courses and encountered difficulties when working with students from other countries and cultures. These international students in turn reported feeling intimidated, stressed or undervalued in such a situation. A model was developed to show the relationship between the various factors that influenced multicultural group work, using Tuckman & Jensen's (1977) stages of group development as a framework. Conclusion: This research makes a contribution towards understanding the variety of factors that influence multicultural group work, specifically at Master’s-level and also a contribution to understanding group formation. The way students chose their group members is linked with their sense of familiarity and similarity with other students. The majority of participants preferred to work with their friends and students who shared similar academic attitudes with them. There are various factors which impact on students’ group work experience. Some of which are unique to multicultural group work. Factors such as English language skills, student’s name, communication style and student understanding of the task are present in multicultural groups. In addition, factors such as assessment and design of group work task had major impact on students’ experience and their view towards the group work. Students were less likely to engage in activities, which do not bear any mark, and they aim to achieve higher marks. The research can be used in the design and management of multicultural group work tasks and activities to achieve a better understanding of group dynamics and improving the student experience