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Sufficient Supply (sufficient + supply)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	50%

Selected Abstracts

Established ways to keep donor's interest alive

ISBT SCIENCE SERIES: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTRACELLULAR TRANSPORT, Issue n1 2010
J. Ringwald
Background, The future demographic changes will be associated with an enhancement of the worldwide shortage of blood. The ageing of the population in developed countries is associated with a decrease in young individuals being potentially eligible to donate blood and an increase in older individuals who might be in the need of blood transfusion. Therefore, the retention of active blood donors (BD) is becoming more important. A substantial increase in blood donations could be achieved by a relatively small increase in BD return. It is the task of blood donation services (BDSs) to elaborate specific and adequate measures to increase the BD's likelihood to return. Successful BD retention programmes are viable to ensure a sufficient supply with blood and blood components at present and the upcoming years. Aims, To give recommendations for BD retention strategies based on a survey of potential and established measures how BD's interest could be kept alive. Methods, With focus on the last decade, literature about internal and external influences on BD's intention to regular blood donation and their actual return behaviour was reviewed. Furthermore, a special aspect was drawn on published articles about established or potential measures to increase BD's return-rate. Based on this information, different ways how BD's interest could be kept alive were suggested. Results, Overall, individuals of younger age (< 30,40 years), women, those with a lower education level are less likely to return to blood donation. External influences of friends, family or co-workers are import for starting a BD career. To become a committed BD, however, a high level of intrinsic motivation is needed. To keep BD's interest alive for a long time, BDSs should focus on the following to increase the satisfaction of the BD: Make blood donation a good experience and as convenient as possible, reduce adverse events and anxiety, and train and motivate your staff. This could be further supported by an intensive and active communication with the BDs right from the start, the application of loyalty builders to establish BD identity, and the appropriate use of incentives. Finally, temporarily deferred BDs should ask to return personally and advertisement programmes for repeat BDs should appeal on personal motivation and moral norms. However, BDS should always try to adapt their measures on their target population considering that people are different all around the world. Moreover, some promotion programmes should be even tailored for distinct subgroups of BDs to have a successful outcome. Conclusions, There is quite a number of ways to keep BDs interest alive and to start a career as a regular and committed BD. In this context, the self-identification as a BD is definitely of major importance. BDSs are challenged to support this developmental process. They have to make sure that blood donation is associated with a good experience for the BD, making him or her feeling good and happy. [source]

Questions About the Initiative of the European Commission Concerning the Awarding and Compulsory Competitive Tendering of Public Service Concessions

ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2003
H. Cox
The ruling of the European Commission is that the award of contracts by regional or local authorities for the provision of services of general economic interest must be done by way of competitive tendering. Such contracts must not be awarded to the authority's own public enterprises or to any other enterprise, including by means of unilateral State act, without a call for tenders, a practice that had previously been common in many Member States. Public service concessions are also subject to the competition rules of the EC Treaty. Should the European Commission enact a directive concerning compulsory competitive tendering, this would result, for several Member States, in a serious change of paradigm as regards the awarding of public service concessions. Against this background, this article will attempt to find answers to the following questions: ,How is the present relationship of the regional or local authority with its own public enterprise to be considered? ,Are there any limits to applying the rules on competition of the EC Treaty to public service concessions? ,What kind of positive and negative effects concerning economic efficiency and supply of specific public services result from the awarding of public service concessions and from compulsory competitive tendering? ,What kind of, and what amount of, transaction costs result from compulsory competitive tendering and from the awarding of concessions? ,Does competitive tendering work properly, and are public tenderers given equal opportunities? ,Are there any alternatives to compulsory competitive tendering that would achieve an efficient market performance and provide sufficient supply? [source]

Potential of Fortified Fibrin/Hyaluronic Acid Composite Gel as a Cell Delivery Vehicle for Chondrocytes

ARTIFICIAL ORGANS, Issue 6 2009
Sang-Hyug Park
Abstract Numerous treatment methods have been applied for use in cartilage repair, including abrasion, drilling, and microfracture. Although chondrocyte transplantation is the preferred treatment, it has some shortcomings, such as difficulty of application (large and posterior condylar regions), poor chondrocyte distribution, and potential cell leakage from the defect region. The cell delivery system of the tissue engineering technique can be used to overcome these shortcomings. We chose fibrin/hyaluronan (HA) composite gel as an effective cell delivery system to resolve these issues. Both components are derived from natural extracellular matrix. In the first trial, fortified fibrin/HA composite gels with rabbit chondrocytes were tested by implantation in nude mice. At 4 weeks, glycosaminoglycan contents in the fibrin/HA composite (0.186 ± 0.006 mg/mg) were significantly higher than those in the presence of fibrin alone (0.153 ± 0.017 mg/mg). As a next step, we applied the fibrin/HA composite gel to animal cartilage defects using full thickness cartilage defect rabbit models. The fibrin/HA composite gel with rabbit chondrocytes (allogenic) was implanted into the experimental group, and the control group was implanted with the fibrin/HA composite gel alone. Implanted chondrocytes with the fibrin/HA composite showed improved cartilage formation. In conclusion, the key to successful regeneration of cartilage is to provide the repair site with a sufficient supply of chondrogenic cells with a suitable delivery vehicle to ensure maximal differentiation and deposition of the proper extracellular matrix. This study suggests the feasibility of tissue-engineered cartilage formation using fibrin/HA composite gel. [source]

Challenge Facing China's Economic Growth in Its Aging but not Affluent Era

CHINA AND WORLD ECONOMY, Issue 5 2006
Fang Cai
J1; J3; J21; O4 Abstract Demographic transition has occurred more rapidly in China than in most developed countries. As the population ages, the growth rate of the working age population has started to decline and the absolute quantity of the working age population will begin to shrink after 2015, which will inevitably result in structural labor shortage. Under the circumstance where comparative advantage is still embodied in its labor-intensive commodities, timely and sufficient supply of a skilled labor force is vital for China to sustain fast economic growth. (Edited by Zhinan Zhang) [source]