bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Stock Allocation in Turkish Capital Markets: Industry and Firm Level Perspectives
Authors: FURTUNA Ozlem KUTLU
Published: October 2017

Investors’ trading patterns has been an intensively researched topic in emerging markets depending on their significant role and power in the capital markets. This paper provides what global and domestic factors have driven the stock allocation of investors in Turkey and how has the crisis changed investors’ attitude toward stock allocation between the years 2006 and 2016. Year-end stock allocation data are obtained from the Central Securities Depository Institution of Turkey. Stock allocation has been investigated mainly in terms of the domestic and foreign stock investments. A detailed classification of investors as individual and institutional investors in terms of investment funds, corporate and investment trusts with firm and industry levels has also been evaluated. The variations on stock allocation has been examined in BIST Industrials, Financials and Services Industries. Additionally, this paper gives an insight about the firm and industry level stock allocation in Turkish Capital Markets considering the responsible stockholders. Corporate governance practices are considered to be strengthened with the growing role of institutional investors in the financial system, which provide insights about the investor profile of BIST Corporate Governance Index in the related period.
Business Strategies Based on Large Sets of Data and Interaction: Business Intelligence
Authors: Figueroa Juan Luis Peñaloza , Pérez Carmen Vargas
Published: October 2017

.The dominant perspective in Business Intelligence (BI) projects and applications has been the technological conception, usually focused on the technical-instrumental nature of computing. This conception has avoided the change in the paradigm from a business model based on the use of tangible resources in favour of one based on the exploitation of intangible resources (data, interaction, networks, etc.). This would explain why applied BI projects, remain anchored in the old organization and operational patterns of traditional businesses in most companies. The technological perception of BI gives continuity to the stovepipe activity of companies, both in their management and in their organizational structures, where the impact of interaction as a generator of business opportunities is very limited, and often non-existent; and the effect of large volumes of data as a value generator is reduced to an operational and technical problem. Hence, the importance of considering BI as a new business philosophy that entails new forms of business organization and a new way of management based on the interaction and analysis of large volumes of internally generated data. Our interest is not only to emphasize the nature of the new business philosophy in the application of BI, but to carry out a discussion about the organizational and operational structure of businesses -according to a conception based on interaction and data as generators of business value-, and about actionable intelligence.
Strategic Management for Organizational Performance: from Which Come the Mistakes of Strategic Decision-Making
Authors: Imane Ahdil , Driss Harrizi
Published: October 2017

The current context of organizations is marked by changes or even dramatic changes. The main function of decision-makers becomes increasingly difficult and complex. At the same time, performance has become one of the most important topics within companies. That is why management and economics have addressed this central issue. Faced with a turbulent environment characterized by rough and fierce competition, guaranteeing performance and above all maintaining it becomes a strategic priority, which is why strategic management will be called upon. So our article will deal first with the performance of companies and the role of strategic management in this sought-after performance; and the precautions to be taken into account in strategic decision-making. To do this, we will begin our research by the conceptual framework of performance, to justify the contribution of strategic management in the performance of the company. The paper will conclude with an analysis of strategic decision-making and recommendations. The methodology used in this paper is a literature review.
Planning and Financing Services in the City Through Land Value Capture Instruments the Case of Tirana New Bazar
Authors: BEJKO (GJIKA) Anila , MUHARREMAJ Vezir , GABRIELLI Laura
Published: October 2017

Objective: This paper comes as a contribution to the discussion happening in Albania related to limited funding sources for providing urban services, especially at the city level. It aims to bring some ideas on how to finance the new services that the Albanian cities need outside general budgets, or avoiding the accumulation of additional debt for local governments (LGs). Methodology: The approach suggested in the paper is to first identify the beneficiaries of any proposed improvement in providing both facilities and services, and then explore methods, which can involve the direct beneficiaries paying for their part of the benefits. The paper focuses on analyzing and reflecting upon the experience of the Municipality of Tirana for building up/refurbishing the city new bazar, and uses this as a case study to discuss on potential financing of facilities and urban services through land value capture gains, and relevant social implications in the Albanian society. Results: A value based property tax should be introduced first in Albania, not only as the instrument that can guarantee real local autonomy, but also as a precondition for applying other land value capture instruments. To mention some of the most applied ones that could also be explored in the broad Albanian context: betterment charges/fees; tax on the increment on the value of land; inclusionary housing, land assembling and land readjusting, and tradable development rights. For all of them, a substantial revision in the fiscal/public finances legislation is needed in Albania, given the fact that the relevant planning and development of territory legislation has already introduced such instruments. But above all, and what is most important, the social implications of the proposed instruments should be further researched and addressed through appropriate regulations and processes. Conclusion: Through this paper I try to demonstrate the implications of planning and financing services in the cities through land value capture instruments in the context of Albanian cities and society. Being that investments on urban services and facilities are accompanied by increases in land value, it has the features for recovering the capital costs of urban investment, by capturing some or all of the “unearned” increment in land value resulting from the investment. To accomplish this, ‘novel’ financing mechanisms should be used – such as land value capture instruments (betterment fees, special taxes, development agreements, etc.), but their implications in terms of improving the social fabric in the cities should be considered.
The Cross Thai-Cambodian Border’s Commerce Between 1863 -1953 from the View of French’s Documents
Authors: Thaijongrak Nathaporn
Published: October 2017

The purpose of this research aims to study and collect data with detailed information of the cross Thai-Cambodian border’s commerce in the past from French’s documents and to provide information as a guideline for potential development of Thai-Cambodian Border Trade. The method used in this research is the qualitative research. The research instrument used historical methods by collecting information from primary and secondary sources, then to analysis process. The research discovered the pattern of trade between Cambodia and Siam that started to be affected when borders were established. Since Cambodia was under French’s rule as one of French’s nation, France tried to delimit and demarcate the boundary lines which divided the community that once cohabitated into a community under new nation state. In each area, traditions, rules and laws are different, but people lived along the border continued to bring their goods to exchange for their livings. This habit is still continuing, even the living communities are divided into different countries. For such reason, it was the source of "Border trade” in western concept. The Thai-Cambodian border’s trade during that period under the French protectorate of Cambodia was effected because of the rules and law which illustrated the sovereignty of the land. At the same time, customs have been defined including several details that have affected the traditional trade. The border’s commerce was more sophisticated. The products had transformed according to the needs of the developed world market and social conditions.
Negotiation Processes as Success Factors in Supply Chain Transactions
Authors: Stelzer Alexander
Published: October 2017

The topics raw materials, waste and energy will be the top economic issues of the future, or influence and affect all other subjects (human resources, culture, society,...); all combined with technology, IT and Tech Communication. The shortage of raw materials is one of the central issues in the future perspective and this fact is already influencing the relationship between buyer, producer and supplier. and producers respect to the procurement of raw materials, goods and products are examined specifically in terms of their economic and psychological satisfaction.
Implementation of Voice Recording Activities in Improving Mandarin Oral Fluency
Authors: YanJu Suo , Mei Suo Yan , Mohamed Yuslina
Published: October 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of voice recording activities in improve undergraduate language students’ oral fluency in Mandarin as a foreign language. The data collected for this study from 44 year two undergraduate Level three Mandarin learners in semester 1 2016/2017 participated Online questionnaire, and data collected and analyzed according to the attitudes and effectiveness of using voice recording activities in the classroom. The study find out that voice recording activities are effective to help foreign language learners to improve oral fluency. Mandarin language teachers might consider devoting additional attention to Mandarin oral fluency teaching by using new technology like voice recording, whatApp, Wechat ect.to help Mandarin learners to improve their Mandarin oral fluency especially for learners who are shy and lack of confidence. It will help learners to improve their foreign language leaning in general.
A New Proposal to Teaching: The Beehive Interactive Learning Model in a Statistics Course
Authors: BASOL Gulsah
Published: October 2017

The purpose of the study is to present the Beehive Interactive Learning Model (BILM) and to provide an example of its application in an undergraduate statistics course. The model is developed by the researcher, who is a professor in Educational Measurement and Evaluation area in Turkey with over 15 years of teaching experience. The model is based on four main components; content, instruction, assessment, and motivational beliefs. The core principal of the model is to stimulate students’ desire for learning. Both the instructor and the students are in the center of the model, placed in the beehives, referring to the hard work and constant interaction among students. The graphical representation of the model is presented in the paper. The model has been improved over a period of 10 years by adding new components and omitting some. The model requires the instructor to encourage active learning through class projects and performance assignments. It heavily relies on technology and the Internet; course portal provides online documents, an opportunity to download and submit assignments online, and to take online self-regulated quizzes with instant feedback. There are lab sessions requiring students to demonstrate their analyzing skills in SPSS. The model aims to pack the knowledge in a way that awakens everybody's desire to learn, satisfies the learner through successful hands-on applications and finally develops a sense of success, hopefully yielding positive attitudes toward the content and learning. The model is in the process of development and any suggestions are welcomed from the researchers around the world.
Heat Waves in the City of Gaziantep in Turkey
Authors: Kum Gülşen
Published: October 2017

In this study, the duration, frequency and the impact of heat waves on comfort conditions, experienced particularly in the summers, have been examined with the purpose of revealing how the annual and monthly temperatures in Gaziantep, a city located in the South Eastern district of Turkey, are affected by the global climate change. Initially, the data on minimum, maximum and average heat in the period from 1940 to 2015, retrieved from the Meteorological Station in the city center, were analyzed using the Mann-Kendall trend analysis, which is a non-parametric test, and the increase/decrease trends in temperature parameters were determined. Afterwards, the impact of heat waves on the comfort levels was demonstrated using the ''Heat Index (apparent temperature)'' method by Steadman (1979), analyzing the heat waves that are predicted to increase in rate and frequency with the climate change, even though the statistical distributions remain the same. According to the results produced by the Heat Index method, it is estimated that the temperatures in the region will shift towards a warmer climate in terms of thermal conditions. It is believed that this study will be highly instrumental in prompting necessary precautions to avert the heat waves reaching a disaster level in Gaziantep, which is located in a position susceptible to heat waves due to its latitude and geographical conditions.
The Use and Functions of Mother Tongue in EFL Classes at the Language Center of South East European University in Tetovo-Macedonia
Authors: Saliu Basri
Published: October 2017

The use of mother tongue (L1) in foreign language classrooms at Language Center is obvious. In this paper, the use and functions of it in various classes have been analyzed and discussed. The purpose of the present study was to find out to what level the instructors use mother tongue in their classes. We attempted to find out whether their mother tongue use changes according to different variables, for which functions they use it, whether they are aware of the amount and the functions, whether the instructors are satisfied with the amount of L1 they use, and whether their students are satisfied with it, and whether this satisfaction differs according to the amount used by their instructors. The study was conducted in the Language Center of South East European University in Tetovo, Macedonia, and it was based on both qualitative and quantitative research designs. The participants were 20 English teachers working in the Language Center and their 167 students. The data were collected through classroom recordings, questionnaires that were administered both to the instructors and the students, and interviews were conducted with all of the teachers and randomly chosen 49 students. The data have revealed that mother tongue is an indivisible part of language teaching, and it actually has different functions like “building up relations”, “making the topic/meaning clear (by giving examples, explaining, making extra explanations, etc.)”, “explaining difficult concepts or ideas”, etc. It was also found out that both the instructors and the students were aware of the importance of using the target language as much as possible in the classes, however, they could not disagree with the need of mother tongue from time to time.
Heart Based Meditation: Panacea for Today’s Youth
Authors: Varu Shailesh M.
Published: October 2017

Restlessness alloyed with negative or destructive emotionalism and experiencing meaninglessness in life in an existential manner has become almost the order of modern life. It is needless to say that for sensitive people it is a perennial problem. Those who take on things defying all the moral and ethical codes seem to have little or less botheration. They do escape the severity of the problems or challenges faced by intellectuals, although they end up with a disaster. It is truly a frustrating fact that reading does make a man learned but not necessarily wise. Therefore it would be better to first delearn and then systematically relearn with proper understanding so that one can equip self consciously with a right and pragmatically suitable knowledge to tread on a righteous path.The youth of today is groping in darkness and periodically snared in the mesh of pessimism. Everything is available in abundance around him but he lacks the art of pruning for self betterment. Therefore, this paper envisages the life free from all shackles for today’s youth and for the same proposes a practical way of experiencing heart based meditation- Heartfulness. So let’s get ready to get involved in a transformation process where one who goes in never comes out. Not because he has ceased to exist, or is dead, but because he has transformed into master. Spiritual power will give the strength to the purpose of living. Finally the paper would attempt to replace stress, conflict and the chaos within by peace, love and harmony, through heart based meditation.
Effects of Physical Activity on Controlling Blood Pressure Among Hypertensive Patients at the Region of Prizren
Authors: Rizanaj Nderim , Bytyqi Agron
Published: October 2017

Aim: To describe the effect of physical activity on controlling blood pressure among hypertensive patients at Region of Prizren. Method: A sample of 101 patients diagnosed with hypertension in the region of Prizren, which were randomly selected from those hypertensive patients who visited the Main Family Medicine Centre and Private ambulance “Nderimed” for their regular follow up. A structured questionnaire (Life Style Questionnaire and Perceived Stress Scale) with questions on different characteristics was administered. In terms of gender composition there were 41 men and 49 women, aged between 45 and 74 years old. Result: Among our sample just 7.8% reported that they make physical activity regularly. 68% of the sample reported that they engaged less than one hour per week in some kind of activity and their motivation to do so was also weak, just half of them report that they want to lose in weight. When participants were asked how many hours they move by walk or bike, with 0 hours reported 69%. Conclusion: The increased risk of physical inactivity in controlling hypertension in this study suggests that general practitioners must be in the habit of prescribing practice of physical exercise and patients are followed up regularly to confirm that they are adhering to the management plan and the blood pressure targets are being met.
The Differential Effect Of Auditor Type on the Value Relevance of Earnings and Book Values: Evidence from Listed Firms in Nigeria
Authors: Mahmood Baffa Asmau , Ibrahim Jibril
Published: October 2017

A determining factor of investors’ decision is mostly represented by the auditing of financial statements carried out by a Big4 company, because investors appreciate the quality of the auditing service in terms of image, size and reputation of the auditing firm. This study examines the differential effect of auditor type classified as Single Big4 audit firm; Single Non-Big4 audit firm; and joint audit team of Big4/Non-Big4 audit firms, on the value relevance of earnings and book values of listed firms in Nigeria. A sample of one hundred and seventeen listed (117) firms trading on the floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange from 2009 to 2015 were examined. The study adopted Ohlson model (1995) modified to include auditor type variable and control variables. A simultaneous pooled OLS regression using the Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimates (SUEST) approach was utilized in running the analysis of all relevant data collected. The findings of the study reveal that while Nigerian investors perceive the earnings of firms audited by a Single Big4 to be of high quality, they seem indifferent as to whether it is audited by a joint audit team of Big4/Non-big4, or a Single Non-Big4 audit firm. The study therefore recommends that investors looking for more value relevant EPS should focus on firms audited by single Big4, since they are more likely to have greater value relevant earnings with stronger positive connection to price.
Kansei approach for the design of functional products for the elderly
Authors: CHEN Kuo-Hsiang , LIANG Ching-Chien , LEE Ya-Hsueh
Published: October 2017

Based on the theory of Kansei engineering, this study adopts the methods and steps of user research and divides the whole process into three stages: (1) survey and categorization of functional household items for the elderly; (2) interview with the high-involvement elderly regarding their affective preference; (3) questionnaire survey and statistical analysis of the representative functional household item for the elderly. Early results showed that (1) in terms of product search ratio, mobility assisting and communication products have the highest proportion; (2) in terms of product sales ratio, mobility assisting products reaches 25% and footwear products are the highest among them; (3) interviews with high-involvement elderly show that footwear with 40.8% is the highest demand among functional household items. Therefore, footwear products will be used as example to conduct subsequent study on Kansei preference and affective design for the elderly.
The Impact of Baghdad-Berlin Railway on Britain's Nautical and Commercial Interests in Iraq's Rivers
Authors: Dhuwaib Jamal Hashim Ahmad
Published: October 2017

With the beginning of 20th century, Germany emerged as a strong state after the unification of Germany in 1871. It found itself behind the major powers in the field of colonialism. After the accession of Emperor William II the rule, he looked forward to gaining colonies and to get the ranks of major countries such as Britain and France. Germany has found in railway projects the means to achieve its ambitions. It has turned its attention to Iraq and the Arabian Gulf because of the enormous wealth that was there in Iraq. It also wanted to use it as a market for its products. Since Iraq and the Arabian Gulf were under the authority of Britain that had many interests in, as the road to India, it stood against the German penetration. As these areas were monopolized by Britain alone, it opposed the extension of the rail into Iraq and the Arabian Gulf.
Political Opposition in Turkey: An Analysis of the Oppositionist Styles of Necip Fazil Kisakurek and Nazim Hikmet Ran
Authors: Güler Hazan
Published: October 2017

Opposition culture in a society gives important clues about the socio-political structure of the country. The more a country welcomes differences in its social, political and cultural life; the more it comes close to a democratic regime. Opposition in Turkey, in its long history, has always been problematic because of the domination of statism not only in politics but also in other fields, such as social and cultural areas. In general perception of Turkey, separating from the central opinion has always been equal to chaos, which prevents the development of opposition cult in socio-political life. Supporting the refusal of opposition through some religious factors, Turkish political culture, starting with the Ottoman period, has settled such a limited understanding that it doesn’t allow an ideal form of opposition to grow. However it is known that political opposition, if practiced well, can help a political structure to renew itself, to continue development, to have a dynamic management and to reflect the preferences of people as many as possible. All these important points bring the necessity to analyse the social and political opposition culture in Turkey deeply. Therefore this study first tries to take attention to the understanding of importance of opposition culture in the eyes of politics and society. By analysing striking actors in Turkish literature Necip Fazil Kısakurek and Nazim Hikmet, the study aims to underline how the perception of opposition gave harm to political and social development of the country. By the way, this analysis reveals the need for a better understanding and practice of opposition culture for further developments in Turkey. The study starts with a general theoretical framework of opposition; in which the definition and scope of political opposition, different types and importance of opposition culture are explained. In the second part, Turkish political culture and the way it perceives the idea of opposition is revealed from a historical perspective. At the last part Kisakurek and Hikmet, who were the men of letters touching Turkish politics by their poems and proses, are analysed. Seeing similar processes of the two, who had in real completely different ideological backgrounds, the holistic structure of state mechanism against all kinds of differences is to be illustrated.
Country Branding: The Personality of Vietnam as a Brand
Authors: Polyorat Kawpong , Tassanawat Sathira
Published: October 2017

Country as a brand reflects the marketing orientation to manage a country image to achieve the desired country position. Country personality is an important marketing strategy for this purpose. The present study attempts to examine the country personality of Vietnam, a major emerging Asian country. This exploratory study adopts Aaker’s (1997) brand personality framework to uncover the country personality of Vietnam. Data were collected with Thai undergraduate students. Results from a factor analysis reveal 9 dimensions of Vietnam’s country personality including competence, excitement, ruggedness, sophistication, new generation, down-to-earth, elegance, originality, and spiritedness. A number of theoretical and practical implications regarding country branding and country personality can be drawn from the study results.
Examining Levels of Job Burnout Among Teachers Working in Kosova in Terms of Different Variables
Authors: Turtulla Sermin
Published: October 2017

This study examines job burnout levels of teachers teaching in primary and lower secondary schools in Kosova and changes in levels of teacher burnout according to demographic variables. Research data was collected using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) and analysed using SPSS. Findings show moderate levels of exhaustion and disengagement for teachers teaching in primary and lower secondary schools; while, variables of gender, age, years of service, type of service, perceived socio-economic level, and marital status do not significantly affect burnout levels of teachers teaching in the southern part of Kosova, respectively Prizren.
Determinants of Tendency to Deviant Social Identity among Delinquent Youth
Authors: Afrasiabi Hossein
Published: October 2017

Deviant identity has been recognized as one of the main causes of the crime in a large number of the studies. Formation of criminal or deviant identity are affected by different social conditions this study was conducted in order to investigate the factors underlying the deviant identity among the delinquent youth. The research sample consisted of 15-25years old delinquent youth in Yazd city. A survey was used as research method and data were collected using the questionnaires. The results showed that destructive social capital, Anomie and deviance in the family, have a significant relationship with deviant identity.
Free Zone or Processing Area for Export
Authors: Katiaj Elisabeta
Published: October 2017

Some countries apply as primary fiscal facilities the "Free Zone"; some of them guarantee contract for investors, investor protection, the reduction of bureaucracies, the partial state capital, providing incentives for every employee and other promotional policies. In theory, the goal is very clear for their creation. The attraction of strategic investors, improvement of the technology, providing jobs, fast movement of goods and capital, increase of competitiveness, increase of economic cooperation between the border countries and other chain effects, lead with economic growth and development in a country. The last 8 years in Albania, have been approved 11 Decisions of the Council of Ministers, for the Establishment of Economic Free Zones that today is called: ”Technology Zone and Economic Development”. Some questions that will be treated in this topic, are based on the official data of the respective institutions. What are these decisions? What was the primary purpose of the 2008-2009 policy, where the development strategy was based on the free zones revolution? Who were the winners of these competitions? What extent is today in these areas of investment, what is the number of employees drawn up to date? Which could be a competitive bidding package for boosting foreign investment?
Revisiting the Issue of Interdisciplinarity and Disciplinary Distinctions in Social Sciences
Authors: Değirmenci Koray
Published: October 2017

Interdisciplinarity depicts a theoretical and pedagogical approach and a set of academic practices that has been increasingly more popular and widespread. Being more than a general term describing theoretical, pedagogical and institutional activities, interdisciplinarity has radically altered the conception of disciplinary distinctions and caused various disciplines to redefine their symbolic and methodological boundaries. Moreover, academic communities are on the way of changing their symbolic and institutional territories, very solidly defined at times, upon influence of interdisciplinarity. This article focuses on the concept of interdisciplinarity with respect to the relatively long history of disciplinary distinctions and attempts to critically analyze the various definitions of and problematic points regarding the concept.
The impact of cultural intelligence in an international company – 2st level survey
Authors: Gruber Reinhold
Published: October 2017

Different cultures – different language – different names – different behaviors. In literature, different cultures are mostly described between continents and borders. International companies reach their limits in implementing new top down strategy to all subsidiaries across the planet. Different work methods in different areas and even in different departments can frustrate the responsible international manager. Cultural intelligence can help to minimize the storming time and loss of efficiency of new international teams. Good trained managers (on Cultural Intelligence) do at least speak a view words of the language of the new colleagues and pronounce the names of the team members in the right way. In the first part of the paper it was examined how biased people can be if they hear foreign names. Names even can decide on if someone gets a job or not. The 2nd part of the survey carried on the examination of the cultural differences within a company. The 1st part was done with respondents from different companies. It is interesting to know, especially for the managers, how the employees feel and think. How they work and how they prefer to communicate. The 2nd part describes the 1st survey, consists of a sequence of four steps which will be performed within the group. In total 28 companies are parts of the group on three continents (Europe, Asia and America).
Mol2vec: Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach with Chemical Intuition
Authors: Jaeger Sabrina , Fulle Simone , Turk Samo
Published: October 2017

Inspired by natural language processing techniques we here introduce Mol2vec which is an unsupervised machine learning approach to learn vector representations of molecular substructures. Similarly, to the Word2vec models where vectors of closely related words are in close proximity in the vector space, Mol2vec learns vector representations of molecular substructures that are pointing in similar directions for chemically related substructures. Compounds can finally be encoded as vectors by summing up vectors of the individual substructures and, for instance, feed into supervised machine learning approaches to predict compound properties. The underlying substructure vector embeddings are obtained by training an unsupervised machine learning approach on a so-called corpus of compounds that consists of all available chemical matter. The resulting Mol2vec model is pre-trained once, yields dense vector representations and overcomes drawbacks of common compound feature representations such as sparseness and bit collisions. The prediction capabilities are demonstrated on several compound property and bioactivity data sets and compared with results obtained for Morgan fingerprints as reference compound representation. Mol2vec can be easily combined with ProtVec, which employs the same Word2vec concept on protein sequences, resulting in a proteochemometric approach that is alignment independent and can be thus also easily used for proteins with low sequence similarities.
Molecular level investigation of the role of peptide interactions in the glyphosate analytics
Authors: Ahmed Ashour A. , Gros Peter , Kühn Oliver , Leinweber Peter
Published: October 2017

The detection of the herbicide glyphosate (GLP) in environmental samples is most often conducted after derivatizing the target molecule with the chromophore 9-fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl chloride (FMOC-Cl). However, this method is sensitive to all primary and secondary amines, which can occur in the sample matrix as well. In order to quantify the interference of primary and secondary amines on GLP detection, we have used the oligo peptide pentaglycine (PG) as an example. PG has been added to the derivatization solution of GLP at different constant concentration levels and UV extinction coefficients have been determined. Data analysis supported by quantum chemical modeling of the GLP–PG, FMOC–GLP, and FMOC–PG complexation reactions facilitated the identification of two interfering impacts of PG on GLP derivatization: (i) increase of the signal due to its reaction with FMOC-Cl leading to an overestimation of GLP concentration and (ii) decrease of GLP recovery due to complex formation and therefore inhibition of GLP derivatization, which leads to an underestimation.
Management of sepsis in resource poor countries: cutting your coat according to your cloth
Authors: Shrestha Gentle S
Published: October 2017

Abstract not availableBangladesh Crit Care J September 2017; 5(2): 75-76
Prevention of Nosocomial Infection & role of Hand Hygiene Compliance in a Private Hospital of Bangladesh
Authors: Begum Afsana , Bari Md Shafiqul , Azad Md Abul Kalam , Hossain Md Iqbal , Saha Pradip Ranjan
Published: October 2017

Background: Nosocomial infection (NI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality of patients attending the healthcare facilities all over the world. Only a few studies regarding this issue have been conducted in Bangladesh.Objective: To describe the load of NI and to assess role of hand hygiene compliance of doctors and nurses regarding its prevention.Method: In this cross-sectional study, medical records of all patients admitted from January 2014 to June 2014 were reviewed and data were collected from patients who had diagnosis of NI. Collected data includes month wise number of NI patients, types of NI, organism responsible for NI and hand hygiene compliance of doctors and nurses. Regarding hand hygiene compliance only critical care areas were considered.Results: During the study period, a total of 8769 patients were admitted in all inpatient departments and critical care areas (cardiac intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit, general intensive care unit, coronary care unit, general high dependency unit and cardiac high dependency unit) of the hospital and number of NI was 201 (2.29%). The highest NI was respiratory tract infection (63%) and the lowest was skin & soft tissue infection (2%). Predominant organisms responsible were E. coli (16%), acinetobacter species (15%), Pseudomonas species (14%), Klebsiella species (13%), Serratia species (13%) and Candida species (13%). The highest average hand hygiene compliance (67.67%) and lowest NI (1.14%) was observed in June 2014.Conclusion: In this study, NI rate was the lowest when the hand hygiene compliance was the highest. So, it is obvious that implementation of hand hygiene may be one of the important measures to prevent NI. So, hospitals should have strict guidelines and review measures to prevent this man made phenomenon. All these efforts will not only reduce patient morbidity, but will also reduce the use of antibiotics and healthcare costs of the country.Bangladesh Crit Care J September 2017; 5(2): 83-87
Ultrasound guided emergency cannulation of internal jugular vein in coagulopathic adult patients  a prospective observational pilot study.
Authors: Shrestha Gentle Sunder , Koirala Sabin , Gurung Arjun , Chand Prakash
Published: October 2017

Aim: This study aims to evaluate the safety of ultrasound guided emergency cannulation of internal jugular vein in coagulopathic adult patients.Methods: Adult subjects admitted in the intensive care unit, undergoing emergency cannulation of internal jugular vein under real time ultrasonographic guidance with platelet count less than 50,000/cu mm and/or international normalized ratio (INR) more than 1.5 were enrolled. Major and minor complications during the procedure were noted.Results: Internal jugular vein was successfully cannulated in all the patients. The mean INR of patients having minor complications (provided that platelet count > 50000) was found to be 3.07 with 95% confidence interval(CI) being 2.37-3.77. The mean platelet count of patients having minor complications (provided that the INR<1.5) was found to be 27428 with 95% CI being 19428-36000. There was a significant relationship between margin of safety and occurrence of minor complications (>7mm vs 7mm or less; p value 0.027). Number of attempts while performing internal jugular vein cannulation was associated with minor complications (mean 1.5 with CI 1.2-1.78 vs mean 1.08 with 95% CI 1.00-1.25; p value 0.023). No major complications were reported during the study regardless of platelet count, INR, margin of safety or number of attempts.Conclusions: Emergency cannulation of internal jugular vein may be safely performed in coagulopathic adult patients under real-time ultrasound guidance when performed by an experienced physician.Bangladesh Crit Care J September 2017; 5(2): 93-96
Echocardiographic assessment of cardiac dysfunction in maintenance hemodialysis patients
Authors: Alam Md Zahid , Hossain Mohammad Zakir
Published: October 2017

Background and Objectives: The hemodialysis (HD) procedure may acutely induce regional left ventricular systolic dysfunction. This study evaluated the echocardiographic parameters in patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) on HD and to correlate those with clinical findings, more specifically to see whether there is any change in ejection fraction (EF) by developing new regional wall motion abnormality (RWMA) after hemodialysis, and to correlate these changes with the symptoms & hemodynamic condition of the patients.Methodology: This prospective observational study was carried on a total of 100 adult ambulant patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) on maintenance hemodialysis in the department of Hemodialysis, BIRDEM General Hospital, Shahbag, Dhaka. Their echocardiogram was done 30 min before and after the hemodialysis.Result: It was revealed that majority of the patients were above 60 years (39%), and male to female ratio of about 3:2. The study subjects had diabetes mellitus (79%), hypertension (96%), dyslipidemia (42%), and family history of ischemic heart disease (24%). Chest pain and breathlessness were present in 31% and 42% subjects respectively before hemodialysis. Palpitation (23%), dizziness (19%), oedema (43%) and raised JVP (15%) were seen in the study subjects. Mean (±SD) serum creatinine level was 9.38 (±2.22) mg/dl and hemoglobin level was 9.0 (±1.08) g/dl. Ejection fraction (EF) before hemodialysis were ?55, 40-54 & 30-39 in 62%, 34% and 4% study subjects respectively and after hemodialysis it was ?55, 40-54 & 30-39 in 44%, 46% and 10% study subjects respectively. After HD, left ventricular failure (LVF) occurred in 32% subjects. HD-induced regional left ventricular systolic dysfunction occurred in total 36 patients (36%) and total 14 (14%) patients developed LVF 30 minutes after dialysis. Patients with hemodialysis-induced left ventricular systolic dysfunction were more in those who had worse predialysis EF. Blood pressure, heart rate, chest pain, palpitation, raised Jugular Venous Pressure (JVP) and edema did not differ significantly before and after hemodialysis. Simple regression analysis revealed that the hemodialysis procedure significantly (P<0.05) induce regional left ventricular systolic dysfunction.Conclusions: HD acutely induces regional wall motion abnormalities in a significant proportion of patients. It occurs within 30 min after hemodialysis and is not related to changes in blood pressure, heart rate, JVP and oedema.Bangladesh Crit Care J September 2017; 5(2): 97-100
Prognostic Value of NT-proBNP in Predicting Adverse In-hospital Outcomes among Patients of STEMI getting Thrombolytic therapy without Clinical Manifestation of Heart Failure
Authors: Dutta Bijoy , Mohibullah AKM , Karmoker Kajal Kumar , Siddique Khandaker Ayesha , Chowdhury Sanjib , Kundu Samir Kumar , Rahman Zillur , Roy Dipankar
Published: October 2017

Background: Risk stratification is extremely important in ACS patients especially acute STEMI. We studied in-hospital outcomes of acute STEMI according to their NT-proBNP level as a new prognostic marker.Methods: This observational prospective study was conducted to evaluate the significance of raised plasma NT-proBNP level on in-hospital outcomes in patients with STEMI, without clinical manifestation of heart failure. A total 88 patients of STEMI were included in the study. Among them 10 Patients have normal levels of NT-proBNP (<110 pg/ml) and were included in Group-A (n = 10). Patients with increased proBNP level (e110 pg/ml) were included in Group-B (n = 78). Patients were followed to see worse in-hospital outcomes (Heart failure, cardiogenic shock, significant arrhythmia and death) during index hospitalization period.Results: Plasma NT-proBNP level was observed to be significantly higher among patients who developed heart failure, cardiogenic shock and death than the patients who did not developed these outcome (p < 0.001). The binary logistic regression analysis of Odds Ratios for characteristics of the patients likely to cause worse in-hospital outcome shows that NT-ProBNP and smoking habit were found to be the independent predictors of worse in-hospital outcome with ORs being 5.0 and 4.7 respectively.Conclusion: On admission plasma NT-pro BNP level in patients with STEMI is a strong independent predictor of adverse in-hospital outcome.Cardiovasc. j. 2017; 10(1): 8-12
Comparison of the GRACE and TIMI Risk Scores in Predicting the Angiographic Severity of Coronary Artery Disease in Patients with non STelevation Myocardial Infarction
Authors: Roy Sharadindu Shekhar , Azam STM Abu , Khalequzzaman Md , Ullah Mohammad , Kundu Samir Kumar , Hossain Muhammad Azmol , Kawsar ABM Riaz , Howlader Anup Kumar , Siddiqui Mohammad Khalilur Rahman , Md Jafar Abul Hasnat
Published: October 2017

Background: The superiority of the GRACE and TIMI risk scores in predicting the angiographic severity of coronary artery disease in patients with non ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) has not yet been established. This study was done to compare the GRACE and TIMI risk scores in predicting the angiographic severity of coronary artery disease in this group of patients.Method: The cross sectional study done in the Department of Cardiology, NICVD, Dhaka. The patients admitted with NSTEMI were evaluated to calculate the GRACE and TIMI risk score from April, 2015 to April, 2016.Coronary angiogram was done during index hospitalization and the severity of the coronary artery disease was assessed by vessel score and Gensini score.Results: Of 115 patients assessed, a positive correlation of the vessel score and Gensini score was observed with both the GRACE and TIMI risk scores (p=<0.001) and the GRACE score (r=0.59) correlated better than the TIMI score (r=0.52). The GRACE score presented area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.844(95% CI = 0.774  0.914) significantly superior to the area under the ROC curve of 0.752(95% CI =0.658 0.846) of the TIMI score for the difference between the two scores.Conclusion: Both the GRACE and TIMI scores had good predictive value in predicting the severity of coronary artery disease in the patients with NSTEMI but when both the scores were compared, the GRACE score was found to be superior and correlated better with the severity of coronary artery disease.Cardiovasc. j. 2017; 10(1): 45-51
Nosocomial Bloodstream Infections in Children in Intensive Care Unit: Organisms, Sources, Their Sensitivity Pattern and Outcome of Treatment
Authors: Tauhid Syed Ahsan , Chowdhury MAK Azad , Hoque Md Mahbubul , Kamal MA , Haque Emdadul
Published: October 2017

Background: Nosocomial bloodstream infection in paediatric ICU is a leading, preventable infectious complication in critically ill patients and has a negative impact on patients outcome. This study was done to determine the type of pathogens responsible for nosocomial infections and its sensitivity pattern, to evaluate the probable sources (fomites) of nosocomial infections and also to compare the outcome of treatment between children with and without nosocomial bloodstream infections in terms of length of ICU stay and mortalityMaterial and methods: This study was conducted in the intensive care unit of Dhaka Shishu(children) hospital. Children between 0-5 years of age were included in the study. Blood culture positive case at the time of admission and Children discharged or died within 48 hours of admission were excluded. When children clinically suspected to have nosocomial infections, their blood culture and swab culture of probable sources were done.Results: Out 110 patients, 23(20.9%) patients developed nosocomial BSI. Neonates were found to be more susceptible to develop nosocomial BSI. Most of the organisms (86%) were Gram negative bacilli. Klebsiella was the most common pathogens (30.78%) followed by acinatobacter (21.73%), E-coli (13.04%), Pseudomonas (8.7%). Type of micro-organisms and their sensitivity pattern obtained from blood culture and sources culture of corresponding patient were almost similar which indicate the clue for probable source of nosocomial infection. Microorganisms were almost sensitive to Imipenem but there were high resistance to commonly used antibiotics including third generation cephalosporins. ICU acquired infections increase hospital mortality and duration of hospital stay.Conclusion: Nosocomial bloodstream infections in children in ICU are associated with high mortality rate and prolong hospital stay. Neonates are more susceptible to develop nosocomial BSI than children aged above 28 days. Gram negative organisms are predominant isolates and are developing resistance to commonly used antibiotics including third generation cephalosporin. Imipenem is the most effective and reliable antibiotic option. Fomites especially health care device including IV canula, suction catheter, endotracheal tubes, oxygen mask are the important probable sources of nosocomial infections.J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2017; 35(3): 115-122