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Several Important Issues (several + important_issues)
Selected AbstractsPersonalized recommendation with adaptive mixture of markov modelsJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 12 2007Yang Liu With more and more information available on the Internet, the task of making personalized recommendations to assist the user's navigation has become increasingly important. Considering there might be millions of users with different backgrounds accessing a Web site everyday, it is infeasible to build a separate recommendation system for each user. To address this problem, clustering techniques can first be employed to discover user groups. Then, user navigation patterns for each group can be discovered, to allow the adaptation of a Web site to the interest of each individual group. In this paper, we propose to model user access sequences as stochastic processes, and a mixture of Markov models based approach is taken to cluster users and to capture the sequential relationships inherent in user access histories. Several important issues that arise in constructing the Markov models are also addressed. The first issue lies in the complexity of the mixture of Markov models. To improve the efficiency of building/maintaining the mixture of Markov models, we develop a lightweight adapt-ive algorithm to update the model parameters without recomputing model parameters from scratch. The second issue concerns the proper selection of training data for building the mixture of Markov models. We investigate two different training data selection strategies and perform extensive experiments to compare their effectiveness on a real dataset that is generated by a Web-based knowledge management system, Livelink. [source] Nontherapeutic Male Circumcision: Tackling the Difficult IssuesTHE JOURNAL OF SEXUAL MEDICINE, Issue 8 2009Caryn L. Perera BA (Lib & Info Mgt), Grad Cert EBP ABSTRACT Introduction., Male circumcision is the most commonly performed surgical procedure in the world. Circumcision may be performed to treat an underlying pathological process ("therapeutic circumcision"). However there may be religious, cultural, and social indications. Aim., This article addresses the religious, cultural, social, and ethical issues surrounding nontherapeutic male circumcision (NTMC). Main Outcome Measures., Any religious, social, cultural, or ethical issues relating to NTMC. Methods., Because of the absence of high level evidence, a concise literature review was undertaken to identify articles published between January 1990 and February 2009 summarizing current knowledge on NTMC. Results., There are complex religious, cultural, social, and prophylactic incentives for NTMC. The procedure may have associated clinical and psychosocial adverse events and raises such ethical issues as bodily integrity and consent. Because of the strength of the incentives for NTMC, there may be important implications in denying patients the procedure. Several important issues must be considered when introducing mass circumcision as a preventative strategy for HIV/AIDS. Conclusion., When assessing whether NTMC will benefit or harm a patient, clinicians must take his religious, cultural, and social circumstances into account. Males requiring mandatory religious or cultural NTMC are likely to suffer significant harm if they do not receive circumcision and should be considered separately to males in general. Perera CL, Bridgewater FHG, Thavaneswaran P, and Maddern GJ. Nontherapeutic male circumcision: Tackling the difficult issues. J Sex Med 2009;6:2237,2243. [source] Corporate environmental reporting: what's in a metric?BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 2 2003R. Scott Marshall Assistant Professor of Management Although there has been increased attention to corporate environmental reports (CERs), there has yet to be a close examination of the metrics used in these reports. Metrics do not address the content of CERs, but, perhaps more importantly, metrics provide the means for conveying the content. In this paper, we analyze metrics used in 79 corporations' recent CER reports. We define and use an 'environmental sustainability' lens, and apply two environmental metrics taxonomies to CER metrics. We also consider the implications of key internal and external firm factors on CER metrics. Our findings suggest that (i) firms' compliance with ISO 14001 increases the presence of future oriented metrics, (ii) a majority of CER content uses lagging metrics with descriptive and operational performance information, (iii) larger firms are more likely than smaller firms to use future oriented metrics and (iv) there are noticeable differences across countries/regions in terms of CER metrics. Several important issues seem evident from the study. First, the metrics most commonly used in CERs provide little information about future performance. Second, the majority of metrics describe operations performance rather than environmental impact. Third, even though the sample was chosen based on a priori indicators of corporate environmental awareness, only about half of the companies sampled had a CER available. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [source] Blindness following a diabetic foot infection: a variant to the ,eye,foot syndrome'?DIABETIC MEDICINE, Issue 7 2000K. C. J. Yuen SUMMARY Aims The ,eye,foot syndrome' was initially described by Walsh et,al. to highlight the important association of foot lesions in patients with diabetic retinopathy. We present a case of a 58-year-old patient with Type 2 diabetes mellitus who developed blindness following endogenous staphylococcal endophthalmitis from an infected foot ulcer. Results Our case describes the link between the eye and the foot but is somewhat different to the association as described by Walsh et,al. Endogenous endophthalmitis is rare with diabetic patients being especially at risk, and we report the first case of endogenous staphylococcal endophthalmitis related to a diabetic foot lesion. Conclusions Our case illustrates several important issues in the management of diabetic patients admitted to hospital with infection; the need to thoroughly examine the feet to ascertain any foot lesions and any underlying peripheral vascular disease or peripheral neuropathy, to treat aggressively any infected foot lesions to prevent serious complications of septicaemia and to consider rare conditions like endogenous endophthalmitis in any diabetic patient presenting with acute visual impairment and septicaemia. [source] The antiepileptic drug levetiracetam selectively modifies kindling-induced alterations in gene expression in the temporal lobe of ratsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 2 2004Jessie Gu Abstract Gene expression profiling by microarrays is a powerful tool for identification of genes that may encode key proteins involved in molecular mechanisms underlying epileptogenesis. Using the Affymetrix oligonucleotide microarray, we have surveyed the expression levels of more than 26,000 genes and expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in the amygdala-kindling model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Furthermore, the effect of the antiepileptic drug levetiracetam (LEV) on kindling-induced alterations of gene expression was studied. Treatment of rats with LEV during kindling acquisition significantly suppressed kindling development. For gene expression profiling, six groups of rats were included in the present study: (i) and (ii) sham-operated rats treated with saline or LEV; (iii) and (iv) electrode-implanted but non-kindled rats treated with saline or LEV; (v) and (vi) kindled rats treated with saline or LEV. Treatment was terminated after 11 or 12 daily amygdala stimulations, when all vehicle-treated rats had reached kindling criterion, i.e. a stage 5 seizure. Twenty-four hours later, the ipsilateral temporal lobe was dissected for mRNA preparation. Six temporal lobe preparations from each group were analysed for differential gene expression. In control (non-kindled) rats, LEV treatment was devoid of any significant effect on gene expression. In saline-treated kindled rats, a large number of genes were observed to display mRNA expression alterations compared with non-kindled rats. LEV treatment induced marked effects on gene expression from kindled rats. Previously described epilepsy-related genes, such as neuropeptide Y (NPY), thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were confirmed to be up-regulated by kindling and partially normalized by LEV treatment. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction confirmed NPY, TRH and GFAP expression data from chip experiments. Furthermore, a number of novel genes were identified from the gene chip experiments. A subgroup of these genes demonstrated correlation between expression changes and kindled phenotype measurements. In summary, this study identified many genes with potentially important roles in epileptogenesis and highlighted several important issues in using the gene chip technology for the study of animal models of CNS disorders. [source] Deterministic and Stochastic Modeling of Aquifer Stratigraphy, South CarolinaGROUND WATER, Issue 2 2000Russell B. Miller Deterministic and stochastic methods of three-dimensional hydrogeologic modeling are applied to characterization of contaminated Eocene aquifers at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina. The results address several important issues, including the use of multiple types of data in creating high-resolution aquifer models and the application of sequence-stratigraphic constraints. Specific procedures used include defining grid architecture stratigraphically, upscaling, modeling lithologic properties, and creating multiple equiprobable realizations of aquifer stratigraphy. An important question answered by the study is how to incorporate gamma-ray borehole-geophysical data in areas of anomalous log response, which occurs commonly in aquifers and confining units of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and other areas. To overcome this problem, gamma-ray models were conditioned to grain-size and lithofacies realizations. The investigation contributes to identifying potential pathways for downward migration of contaminants, which have been detected in confined aquifers at the modeling site. The approach followed in this investigation produces quantitative, stratigraphically constrained, geocellular models that incorporate multiple types of data from borehole-geophysical logs and continuous cores. The use of core-based stochastic realizations in conditioning deterministic models provides the advantage of incorporating lithologic information based on direct observations of cores rather than using only indirect measurements from geophysical logs. The high resolution of the models is demonstrated by the representation of thin, discontinuous clay beds that act as local barriers to flow. The models are effective in depicting the contrasts in geometry and heterogeneity between sheet-like nearshore-transgressive sands and laterally discontinuous sands of complex shoreline environments. [source] Generation of endoderm-derived human induced pluripotent stem cells from primary hepatocytes,HEPATOLOGY, Issue 5 2010Hua Liu Recent advances in induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell research have significantly changed our perspective on regenerative medicine. Patient-specific iPS cells have been derived not only for disease modeling but also as sources for cell replacement therapy. However, there have been insufficient data to prove that iPS cells are functionally equivalent to human embryonic stem (hES) cells or are safer than hES cells. There are several important issues that need to be addressed, and foremost are the safety and efficacy of human iPS cells of different origins. Human iPS cells have been derived mostly from cells originating from mesoderm and in a few cases from ectoderm. So far, there has been no report of endoderm,derived human iPS cells, and this has prevented comprehensive comparative investigations of the quality of human iPS cells of different origins. Here we show for the first time reprogramming of human endoderm-derived cells (i.e., primary hepatocytes) to pluripotency. Hepatocyte-derived iPS cells appear indistinguishable from hES cells with respect to colony morphology, growth properties, expression of pluripotency-associated transcription factors and surface markers, and differentiation potential in embryoid body formation and teratoma assays. In addition, these cells are able to directly differentiate into definitive endoderm, hepatic progenitors, and mature hepatocytes. Conclusion: The technology to develop endoderm,derived human iPS cell lines, together with other established cell lines, will provide a foundation for elucidating the mechanisms of cellular reprogramming and for studying the safety and efficacy of differentially originated human iPS cells for cell therapy. For the study of liver disease pathogenesis, this technology also provides a potentially more amenable system for generating liver disease-specific iPS cells. (HEPATOLOGY 2010;51:1810,1819) [source] Philanthropy, social capital or strategic alliance?INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 3 2002The involvement of senior UK business executives with the voluntary sector, implications for corporate fundraising Although corporate fundraising is popular there has been very little discussion in the voluntary sector literature of its context. Using questionnaire data from senior executives representing one-third of the FTSE350 companies, and in-depth interviews with a number of top level business men, this paper reports the first UK survey of the personal involvement of senior executives with charities, voluntary and community organisations,[Walker, C. and Pharoah, C. (2000) ,Making time for charity: A survey of top business leaders' involvement with voluntary organisations', Charities Aid Foundation, Kent.] and pinpoints messages about corporate involvement which may help fundraisers develop corporate fundraising strategies. The data give the first indications of how many of the UK's top business executives give time to charity, how much time they give and what they do. It also addresses what there is to gain for and from the charity, the senior executive and their company. The results present a picture of widespread and enthusiastic involvement of senior executives with the voluntary sector; a picture of both a deep personal commitment and of a strong sense of corporate benefit. The survey also raises several important issues and implications for corporate fundraising: should charities be doing more to attract top executives into an active relationship with them? How can they do this? What are the pros and cons of an alliance between corporate figureheads and charitable organisations; how might this relationship be viewed by the public; and how might it best be managed? This paper draws on the results of the survey to illustrate and discuss these issues. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications [source] Towards a model of implicit feedback for Web searchJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 1 2010Xin Fu Abstract This research investigated several important issues in using implicit feedback techniques to assist searchers with difficulties in formulating effective search strategies. It focused on examining the relationship between types of behavioral evidence that can be captured from Web searches and searchers' interests. A carefully crafted observation study was conducted to capture, examine, and elucidate the analytical processes and work practices of human analysts when they simulated the role of an implicit feedback system by trying to infer searchers' interests from behavioral traces. Findings provided rare insight into the complexities and nuances in using behavioral evidence for implicit feedback and led to the proposal of an implicit feedback model for Web search that bridged previous studies on behavioral evidence and implicit feedback measures. A new level of analysis termed an analytical lens emerged from the data and provides a road map for future research on this topic. [source] Industrial energy policy: a case study of demand in KuwaitOPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 2 2006M. Nagy Eltony The purpose behind building the industrial energy demand model was to enable assessment of the impact of potential policy options and to forecast future energy demand under various assumptions, including the impact of the possible removal of energy subsidies in accordance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement. The results of the model, based on three scenarios, underline several important issues: With nominal energy prices staying the same (the status quo) and with inflation and economic growth continuing to expand (i.e. baseline scenario), it is expected that industrial demand will grow. In this sector, energy consumption is projected to grow at an annual growth rate of about 3.5 per cent throughout the forecast period. In the moderate scenario, however, this drops to 1.9 per cent and when all energy subsidies are removed as in the case of the extreme scenario, the energy consumption is projected to grow by only 1.5 per cent annually throughout the same period. Moreover, with regards to inter-fuel substitution, the model forecast indicates that electricity and natural gas consumption will decline, while the consumption of oil products will increase in all scenarios. The results of the model also indicate that the changing price structure of energy resources should be done in a comprehensive manner. In other words, electricity prices should be adjusted upwards instantly with the adjustment of oil products' prices and natural gas otherwise, a massive inter-fuel substitution will occur within the various consuming industries. [source] School-based health centers: Strategies for meeting the physical and mental health needs of children and familiesPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 3 2003Michael B. Brown School-based health centers are fast becoming a part of mainstream health care in the United States. The centers provide enhanced access to comprehensive physical and mental health services for children and families. Although originally established in urban areas, they can also have a significant impact on service delivery for children in rural and suburban areas. This manuscript describes the role and primary functions of school-based health centers, describes several important issues in developing and implementing the centers, and reviews the effectiveness of services provided through school-based health centers. School psychologists are in an excellent position to provide leadership for the establishment of school-based health centers. Participation in school-based health services delivery enables school psychologists to expand their role and broadens both their client population and the range of services. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 279,287, 2003. [source] Continuing education self-assessment quiz: Failure to obtain adequate anaesthesia associated with a bifid mandibular canal: a case reportAUSTRALIAN DENTAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2006Article first published online: 12 MAR 200 In the case report by Lew and Townsend on page 86 of this issue several important issues are raised about the administration of mandibular anaesthesia in dental practice. Test your knowledge here by first reading the article entitled: Failure to obtain adequate anaesthesia associated with a bifid mandibular canal: a case report, answer the following questions and then forward the completed questionnaire to the Australian Dental Journal Office and we will let you know how you scored. Please place a tick in the box alongside the option that you think provides the best answer to each question, i.e., one tick per question. The Editor's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. [source] Understanding the Psychological Impact of Terrorism on Youth: Moving Beyond Posttraumatic Stress DisorderCLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: SCIENCE AND PRACTICE, Issue 3 2007Annette M. La GrecaArticle first published online: 23 JUL 200 Comer and Kendall's (2007) comprehensive review of the impact of terrorism on youth organizes this important and burgeoning area of research. The present commentary focuses on youth outcomes associated with proximal contact with terrorist attacks, and highlights several important issues that merit attention. Specifically, the commentary emphasizes the importance of examining youths' postattack outcomes broadly (in addition to posttraumatic stress disorder and its symptoms), assessing traumatic grief and bereavement when mass casualties occur, and evaluating issues of comorbidity and functional impairment. Future research on the impact of terrorism on youth would benefit from adopting a developmental psychopathology perspective in understanding variables that may influence and be influenced by youths' reactions to terrorist events. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed. [source] | ||||||||||||||||