The adverse effects of the sun on the skin : a review

Solar radiation causes a variety of biologic effects in the skin which are predominantly harmful. The only recognised beneficial effect is that of endogenous photosynthesis of vitamin D from its precursors in the skin, the importance of which is greatly diminished by a well balanced diet. Acute excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) causes sunburn, whereas chronic overexposure is responsible for the process of photo ageing and skin cancer. This sun related degenerative process and neoplastic transformation may be effectively minimised by an increased public awareness of the harmful effect of the sun.peer-reviewe

Defining new productivity measures for service and network-based firms

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Business.Historically, productivity has been defined as a measure of an economic system’s allocation of resources. However, because world economies have transitioned from agriculture and manufacturing to service and knowledge-based industries, and work practices from single firm production units to more networked organisations, the relevance and measure of productivity is debatable. Services differ from goods production, and the differences go beyond characteristics to the underlying logic of how value is created. The difficulties in qualifying and quantifying intangible inputs and outputs lead to the research question: how can productivity be measured for service and network-based firms? The focus of this research is on the development of two contemporary models, namely the Service Enterprise Productivity in Action (SEPIA) and Networked Enterprise Productivity in Action (NEPIA) models, which address the gaps and limitations in current models and which area able to be operationalised. As this research is at the forefront of productivity for service and network-based firms, it uses two methodologies. Data is collected from a set of heterogeneous firms operating in the Australian travel and tourism industry. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used for the SEPIA model, measuring inputs and outputs of three of the five stakeholders, namely customers, employees, managers, suppliers and shareholders. The inclusion of stakeholders positions productivity and the firm in a social domain. Consequently, social network analysis (SNA) is used to explore productivity measures for network-based firms—that is, service value networks. The contribution from this research is the alignment of firm level data for service and network based firms with the existing methods of calculating productivity at an industry and economy level. In addition productivity for service firms is found to be multi-layered. New forms of efficiency have been identified, namely integrative efficiency and collaborative efficiency having particular relevance for service and network based firms. The SEPIA and NEPIA provide a framework and roadmap that can be used to further collaborative research into productivity, for service and network-based firms

Coarse-graining in retrodictive quantum state tomography

Quantum state tomography often operates in the highly idealised scenario of assuming perfect measurements. The errors implied by such an approach are entwined with other imperfections relating to the information processing protocol or application of interest. We consider the problem of retrodicting the quantum state of a system, existing prior to the application of random but known phase errors, allowing those errors to be separated and removed. The continuously random nature of the errors implies that there is only one click per measurement outcome -- a feature having a drastically adverse effect on data-processing times. We provide a thorough analysis of coarse-graining under various reconstruction algorithms, finding dramatic increases in speed for only modest sacrifices in fidelity

Beyond multiregional and simple out-of-Africa models of human evolution

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Service enterprise productivity in action: measuring service productivity

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure service productivity using the Service Enterprise Productivity in Action (SEPIA) model. The research operationalises only one of the five stakeholder groups, the customer interface which incorporates service complexity (SC), customer interactions, customer channel, customer loyalty (CL) (new) as inputs, and CL (referred and repeat) and willingness to pay as output measures. Design/methodology/approach: The research extends our understanding of existing service productivity models with the development of the SEPIA model. Data were collected from 14 organisations operating in the Australian travel and tourism industry, which was analysed using a data envelopment analysis input oriented variable return to scale method as applied to the SEPIA model customer interface. Findings: Four key findings from the research include: customer choice and their ability to pay is a determinant of service productivity; service productivity is a two stage process when measured; SC is not categorical; and quality business systems do impact service productivity. Research limitations/implications: A limitation of this research is that only one (customer) of the five key stakeholders, customer, employee, manager, supplier and shareholder, was operationalised in this research paper. Practical implications: The operationalisation of the SEPIA customer interface using transactional data and measuring non-financial, intangible factors of productivity provide managers with insights on what services to offer, when to invest in or promote the use of technology and whether to spend marketing effort on customer acquisition or customer retention. Originality/value: The SEPIA model positions service firms within a social and service value network and provides a range of customer measures that extend the current capital (K), labour (L), energy (E), materials (M) and service (S), KLEMS measure of productivity and can be used to show the impact customers have on service productivity

Crypto-currency and supply chains – Is there a fit?

Participating in global supply chains is becoming an imperative, yet remains a challenging endeavour for many businesses. In 2015 World Trade Organisations members exported merchandise to the value of US$16.2 trillion and commercial services US$4.68 trillion. Monetary policies in developed countries and exchange rate volatility impact the price of goods, firm performance and growth of international trade. One of the many risks for participating businesses in international business, especially for small to medium sized business, is foreign exchange risk generally managed through hedging and invoicing risks. In this context, invoicing currency strategy is an important factor for supply chains and is indicative of the level of economic risk and which parties bear risks in global supply chains. This research explores and compares management techniques for exchange rate exposure in the currency payment processes and though the use of different currencies when deploying block chain technology and crypto-currency. This draws on data on the invoicing practices of buyers and sellers in Australia which is analysed to determine exporters invoicing currency at an aggregate level by industry. Values of buyer currency, seller currency and vehicle currency are then compared with the potential for cryptocurrency to enable a single currency global trading environment, where monetary policy is not in the control of any one countries central governing body. The paper finds that Australian exporters will have new and optimal instruments at hand to limit the adverse impact of exchange rate volatility embedded in current payment processes which can be eliminated or more easily managed through the deployment of emerging solutions

Pharmacists prescribing of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

OBJECTIVE: To develop, implement and validate a framework and protocol directed to pharmacists regarding prescription of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NS AIDs) and to propose a documentation system to be used when prescribing NS AIDs. METHOD: A module highlighting the information on NS AID use and on pharmacists prescribing of NS AIDs was developed to be used as a tool for development of pharmacists’ knowledge to participate in the framework of pharmacist prescribing of NS AIDs. A protocol to be used when prescribing NS AIDs was developed. The developed protocol is concise and includes all relevant data. Evaluation of the proposed module and protocol was carried out by an expert panel consisting of 14 professionals. The readability of the module was assessed. A documentation system was set up using Microsoft Excel® 2007. KEY FINDINGS: A module named ‘Supplementary Prescribing for Pharmacists’ was developed as a Power point Presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint® 2007. The final version of the module scored 55 in the Flesch Reading Ease formula. The expert panel rated the overall presentation as very good. The module was considered a good tool of information for its intended purpose. Eleven healthcare professionals found the module very helpful and 7 found it very practical for its intended use. A protocol named: ‘Protocol for Prescribing NS AIDs’ was developed. Twelve health care professionals found the protocol easy to use while 5 of the participants thought it was time consuming. CONCLUSION: The module and protocol were very well accepted by the expert panel. Up till now there was a lack of protocols regarding NS AID use in Malta and that some potential side effects pertaining to this class of drugs were not always taken into consideration while dispensing. This study is now proposing a module to establish a safe and standard practice for recommendation of use of NS AIDs.peer-reviewe

Frequency-encoded linear cluster states with coherent Raman photons

Entangled multi-qubit states are an essential resource for quantum information and computation. Solid-state emitters can mediate interactions between subsequently emitted photons via their spin, thus offering a route towards generating entangled multi-photon states. However, existing schemes typically rely on the incoherent emission of single photons and suffer from severe practical limitations, for self-assembled quantum dots most notably the limited spin coherence time due to Overhauser magnetic field fluctuations. We here propose an alternative approach of employing spin-flip Raman scattering events of self-assembled quantum dots in Voigt geometry. We argue that weakly driven hole spins constitute a promising platform for the practical generation of frequency-entangled photonic cluster states

From the Mendeleev periodic table to particle physics and back to the periodic table

We briefly describe in this paper the passage from Mendeleev's chemistry (1869) to atomic physics (in the 1900's), nuclear physics (in the 1932's) and particle physics (from 1953 to 2006). We show how the consideration of symmetries, largely used in physics since the end of the 1920's, gave rise to a new format of the periodic table in the 1970's. More specifically, this paper is concerned with the application of the group SO(4,2)xSU(2) to the periodic table of chemical elements. It is shown how the Madelung rule of the atomic shell model can be used for setting up a periodic table that can be further rationalized via the group SO(4,2)xSU(2) and some of its subgroups. Qualitative results are obtained from this nonstandard table.Comment: 15 pages; accepted for publication in Foundations of Chemistry (special issue to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Mendeleev who died in 1907); version 2: 16 pages; some sentences added; acknowledgment and references added; misprints correcte