bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Cochrane Students Journal Club and Creating a Secondary Learning Resource for Gathering and Appraising Evidence
Authors: Chandra Shivika , Shah Naman K. , Sriganesh Vasumathi
Published: November 2013

In the current era of evidence-based healthcare, online learning resources provide accessible and affordable training and teaching resources to stimulate the next generation of medical professionals. In the first of a series of qualitative case studies on the Cochrane student’s journal club, the authors evaluate and portray the outcomes in each of its patient-focused, evidence-based learning activities. This study illustrates an exercise centered on the hypothetical case of a patient treated for Plasmodium vivax presenting with a suspected relapse.
Policy and Socio-Economic Contexts for IT Based Public Sector Reform in Postcolonial Developing Countries
Authors: Njihia James M.
Published: November 2013

IT based public sector reforms takes place within a contested policy and socio-economic context but one that often appears non-controversial since the pursuit of development is generally desirable. In this chapter we explore this context from two discursive perspectives, the dominant international ICT development dialogue associated with western institutions, and from postcolonial theory that emanates from reflections on the postcolonial condition found in most developing countries. They are presented as representing a contrived and an actual context respectively that give rise to policy-practice gaps. The discussion brings out the limitations of developmentalism when conceptualizing IT innovations and change in postcolonial developing countries, and suggests an approach that factors in postcolonial theory in bridging these gaps. This would strengthen existing innovative approaches and provide new analytical perspectives that factor in history, time, global geo-political structures, and the submerged potentially destabilizing voices in former colonies. Future research directions towards post-development and their challenges are also highlighted.
Transformation of Management in the Public Sector
Authors: Angelopoulos Spyros , Kitsios Fotis , Moustakis Vasilis
Published: November 2013

Management is what makes e-government successful by coordinating the use of corporate resources, managing relationships, and empowering strategic alliances. However, current e-government methodologies and models used are only tailored to specific requirements. This restrains the ability to compare cases and draw valuable conclusions as to how to improve e-government and its performance measurements. Therefore, the authors are attempting to address the issues faced by surveying the models consisting of effective practices in e-government and Information Technology integration management and support. The study provides in depth overview of the current status of e-government models and links with emerging Information Technology.
Information Technology and Resistance to Public Sector Reforms
Authors: Bernardi Roberta
Published: November 2013

The objective of the chapter is to discuss how Information Technology can mitigate constraints to policy implementations stemming from a highly contested context. Main recommendations have been drawn by discussing main challenges met by Kenya in the restructuring of its health Information Systems as demanded by health sector reforms. The discussion will focus on how Information Technology can be used to limit the drawbacks of a highly contested policy context, mediate between global and local interests, and mitigate resistance to change. The chapter concludes with main recommendations on how to extend research on the implications of software designs in implementing public sector reforms and other policies in developing countries.
Government and Inter-Organizational Collaboration as Strategies for Administrative Reform in Mexico
Authors: Luna-Reyes Luis F. , Gil-Garcia J. Ramon
Published: November 2013

The use of Information Technologies in government as a strategy for public sector reform has increased in the last few years. Governments around the world are attempting to obtain the benefits of what is now called “electronic government.” However, Information Technologies are only one component of what should be a much more complex reform strategy involving changes in organizational characteristics, institutional arrangements, and contextual factors. Based on a survey of public servants from the federal Mexican government and using institutional theory as the analytical lense, this chapter presents descriptive results about the characteristics, objectives, results, and success of inter-organizational electronic government initiatives. Overall, the projects were considered successful, and some of these aspects could be considered important for administrative reform efforts. The areas identified with the greatest success were (1) improvement in the quality of service, (2) creation of a more transparent government, and (3) creation of the necessary infrastructure for the use of Information Technologies. In contrast, the areas with room for improvement were (1) fostering citizen participation, (2) cost reduction, and (3) increased agency productivity.
Improving Performance and Customer Satisfaction via the Use of Information Technologies in Public Transportation and Logistics Systems
Authors: Sahin Dicle Yurdakul , Eliiyi Deniz Tursel
Published: November 2013

During the last two decades, the enhancements in Information Technologies (IT) and the extension of their usage have transformed completely the ways of doing business. In addition to providing a competitive advantage, the utilization of information technologies help businesses to organize all information related with their customers, increasing their level of satisfaction from the good or service provided, support decision making processes and increase the collaboration between supply chain members. Due to the increase in overseas trade and the globalization trends, the usage and importance of Information Technologies in transportation have risen up extremely. This chapter aims to emphasize the growing need for and role of IT in Turkish public logistics systems, present examples of these systems’ implementation around the world, and specific benefits to be gained in terms of efficient operations and improved performance, profitability, customer satisfaction, and social welfare. In this respect, the authors aim to draw attention to the significance of the management Information Systems in different areas of public service.
E-Government Developments in Turkey for Supporting Public Sector Transformation
Authors: Balci Asim , Medeni Tunc D.
Published: November 2013

This work presents the specific case of Turkey for public sector transformation by e-Government services development. The Turkish case will be presented with an aim to provide interesting and useful information for practitioners as well as academicians in the field of e-government and public transformation, and a focus on central government examples and policy orientations affecting daily lives of citizens. The rationale and perspective of the paper reflects practitioners’ viewpoint, and assumes that the experiences of Turkey case will have echoes on other places, as the experienced and discussed issues have common characteristics with other cases. This practitioner analysis chapter is then based on the co-authors’ personal involvement in and reflections on the various aspects of the Turkish case, while the chapter is written mostly as a result on secondary research. These reflective analyses are embedded within background information about e-government development in Turkey, presented together with academic perspective of transformational government. E-Government Gateway, MERNIS, UYAP, e-tax projects in Turkey are specifically highlighted. A discussion of policy orientations that affect daily lives of citizens follows, and suggestions for future work and directions are also provided. The discussion especially underlines the shared service and citizen-oriented approach to e-government service development with implications for process integration and improvement, if not yet for thorough transformation. It is hoped that the reflections and directions with respect to Turkish case presented in this work provides useful guidelines for new e-government initiatives in Turkey and all around the world.
Addressing Contextual Influences During ICT Innovation for Public Sector Reform
Authors: Prasopoulou Elpida
Published: November 2013

In recent years, ICT innovation is explicitly linked to deep structural reforms in public administrations. In this chapter, I examine the role of context, during the establishment of a minimal and accountable government apparatus, using the concept of negotiation space as my theoretical lens. The process of imbricating ICT innovation within the local context is viewed as a clash between local institutions and the ones carried by new Information Technologies. This clash is empirically examined in the case of TAXIS, the flagship Information Technology project of the Greek government in the mid 1990s. TAXIS’s implementation has been strongly supported by both the political system and Greek society. Nevertheless, ICT innovation did not trigger radical changes in taxation. Instead, it was infused by strongly engrained political practices which resulted in the implementation of an Information System functional yet unable to support radical tax reform.
Broadband Infrastructures as a Common and the Role of Local Governments
Authors: Bouras Christos J , Ganos Petros , Kapoulas Vaggelis
Published: November 2013

Broadband infrastructure is widely viewed as a major development driver. In addition, access to broadband networks is considered by many as a common service to be offered to all. This chapter presents interesting national strategies as well as practices and initiatives of municipalities for to broadband and next generation access networks. It, also, presents five scenarios for business models showing the way in which public agencies and the private sector may work together to offer fibre-to-the-home. Finally, it presents a case study of a Greek inter-municipal company emphasizing to the operating environment, the technical and economic factors, the results of financial analysis, and the assessment of sustainability.
Library Resources and Services in 21st Century Online Education
Authors: Martin Heath , Hesseldenz Peter
Published: November 2013

This chapter analyzes the roles of academic libraries in computer-mediated instruction through examination of past and current practices, existing opportunities and challenges, and emerging trends. By examining key concepts, activities, and scholarship related to library resources and services-- information and communication technology, access to resources, scholarly publishing, information literacy, and models of collaboration - the authors demonstrate the importance of those resources and services to online education and the need to work with other stakeholders to meet the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
Building Virtual Communities
Authors: Tanner René , Amato Tricia
Published: November 2013

Communication deepens learning and builds community. Online classes are built around text-based discussions, and while studies show that students are learning, students do not feel connected in this type of environment. In order to bridge this gap, instructors must use technology and new approaches to build a sense of community and connection. This chapter examines the benefits of and challenges to online discussion and provides solutions to improve interactivity.
Privacy-Preserving Trust Establishment with Web Service Enhancements
Authors: Wu Zhengping , Weaver Alfred C.
Published: November 2013

Web services are increasingly utilized in people’s daily lives to achieve various functionalities. Trustworthiness has become a critical factor for service provision and governance. The lack of effective trust establishment mechanisms impedes the deployment of diverse trust models for web services. One important issue is that collaborating organizations need mechanisms to bridge extant relationships among cooperating parties. Meanwhile, a trust establishment mechanism for web services must ensure privacy and owner control at all times due to the subjectivity of trust relationships. As an alternative and complementary approach to direct trust establishment, we describe an indirect trust establishment mechanism to bridge and build new trust relationships from extant trust relationships with privacy protection. Another issue is the lack of mechanisms that can directly establish trust relationships with privacy-preserving capabilities for web services. Current web service technologies encourage a service requester to reveal all its private attributes in a pre-packaged digital credential to the service provider to fulfill the requirements for verification. This may lead to privacy leakage. We propose a mechanism whereby the service requester discovers the service provider’s requirements from a web service policy document, then formulates a trust primitive by associating a set of attributes in a pre-packaged credential with a semantic name, signed with the requester’s digital signature, to negotiate a trust relationship. Thus the service requester’s privacy is preserved because only those attributes required to build a trust relationship are revealed.
Web Services Discovery with Rough Sets
Authors: Li Maozhen , Yu Bin , Sahota Vijay , Qi Man
Published: November 2013

Web services are emerging as a major technology for building service-oriented distributed systems. Potentially, various resources on the Internet can be virtualized as Web services for a wider use by their communities. Service discovery becomes an issue of vital importance for Web services applications. This paper presents ROSSE, a Rough Sets based Search Engine for Web service discovery. One salient feature of ROSSE lies in its capability to deal with uncertainty of service properties when matching services. A use case is presented to demonstrate the use of ROSSE for discovery of car services. ROSSE is evaluated in terms of its accuracy and efficiency in service discovery.
A Framework and Protocols for Service Contract Agreements Based on International Contract Law
Authors: Parkin Michael , Kuo Dean , Brooke John
Published: November 2013

Current protocols to agree to Web/Grid service usage do not have the capability to form negotiated agreements, nor do they take into account the legal requirements of the agreement process. This article presents a framework and a domain-independent negotiation protocol for creating legally binding contracts for service usage in a distributed, asynchronous service-oriented architecture. The negotiation protocol, which builds on a simple agreement protocol to form a multiround “symmetric” negotiation protocol, is based on an internationally recognized contract law convention. By basing our protocol on this convention and taking into account the limitations of an asynchronous messaging environment, we can form contracts between autonomous services across national and juridical boundaries, necessary in a loosely coupled, widely geographically distributed environment such as the Grid.
Security for Web Services
Authors: Martino Lorenzo , Bertino Elisa
Published: November 2013

This article discusses the main security requirements for Web services and it describes how such security requirements are addressed by standards for Web services security recently developed or under development by various standardizations bodies. Standards are reviewed according to a conceptual framework that groups them by the main functionalities they provide. Covered standards include most of the standards encompassed by the original Web Service Security roadmap proposed by Microsoft and IBM in 2002 (Microsoft and IBM 2002). They range from the ones geared toward message and conversation security and reliability to those developed for providing interoperable Single Sign On and Identity Management functions in federated organizations. The latter include Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), WS-Policy, XACML, that is related to access control and has been recently extended with a profile for Web services access control; XKMS and WS-Trust; WS-Federation, LibertyAlliance and Shibboleth, that address the important problem of identity management in federated organizations. The article also discusses the issues related to the use of the standards and open research issues in the area of access control for Web services and innovative digital identity management techniques are outlined.
A Hybrid Approach to Content-Based Image Retrieval
Authors: Asilioglu Görkem , Kaya Emine Merve , Sarikaya Duygu , Gao Shang , Ozyer Tansel , Jida Jamal , Alhajj Reda
Published: November 2013

Digital image storage and retrieval is gaining more popularity due to the rapidly advancing technology and the large number of vital applications, in addition to flexibility in managing personal collections of images. Traditional approaches employ keyword based indexing which is not very effective. Content based methods are more attractive though challenging and require considerable effort for automated feature extraction. In this chapter, we present a hybrid method for extracting features from images using a combination of already established methods, allowing them to be compared to a given input image as seen in other query-by-example methods. First, the image features are calculated using Edge Orientation Autocorrelograms and Color Correlograms. Then, distances of the images to the original image will be calculated using the L1 distance feature separately for both features. The distance sets will then be merged according to a weight supplied by the user. The reported test results demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Abstractions in Intelligent Multimedia Databases
Authors: Parekh Ranjan , Sharda Nalin
Published: November 2013

Semantic characterization is necessary for developing intelligent multimedia databases, because humans tend to search for media content based on their inherent semantics. However, automated inference of semantic concepts derived from media components stored in a database is still a challenge. The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate how layered architectures and “visual keywords” can be used to develop intelligent search systems for multimedia databases. The layered architecture is used to extract meta-data from multimedia components at various layers of abstractions. While the lower layers handle physical file attributes and low-level features, the upper layers handle high-level features and attempts to remove ambiguities inherent in them. To access the various abstracted features, a query schema is presented, which provides a single point of access while establishing hierarchical pathways between feature-classes. Minimization of the semantic gap is addressed using the concept of “visual keyword” (VK). “Visual keywords” are segmented portions of images with associated low- and high-level features, implemented within a semantic layer on top of the standard low-level features layer, for characterizing semantic content in media components. Semantic information is however predominantly expressed in textual form, and hence is susceptible to the limitations of textual descriptors – viz. ambiguities related to synonyms, homonyms, hypernyms, and hyponyms. To handle such ambiguities, this chapter proposes a domain specific ontology-based layer on top of the semantic layer, to increase the effectiveness of the search process.
Fuzzy Logic for Image Retrieval and Image Databases
Authors: Yan Li , Ma Z. M.
Published: November 2013

Fuzzy set theory has been extensively applied to the representation and processing of imprecise and uncertain data. Image data is becoming an important data resource with rapid growth in the number of large-scale image repositories. However, image data is fuzzy in nature, and imprecision and vagueness may exist in both image descriptions and query specifications. This chapter reviews some major work of image retrieval with fuzzy logic in the literature, including fuzzy content-based image retrieval and database support for fuzzy image retrieval. For the fuzzy content-based image retrieval, we present how fuzzy sets are applied for the extraction and representation of visual (colors, shapes, textures) features, similarity measures and indexing, relevance feedback, and retrieval systems. For the fuzzy image database retrieval, we present how fuzzy sets are applied for fuzzy image query processing based on a defined database models, and how various fuzzy database models can support image data management.
Introduction to Mobile Technologies
Authors: Ciaramitaro Barbara L.
Published: November 2013

Mobile devices are no longer simple voice communication devices. They have become a medium to create voice, music, text, video, and image communications. Importantly, these various interactions can be created and shared on demand by the mobile user. In addition to communication methods, mobile devices are also a tool used to access the Internet, view television and movies, interact with GPS (Global Positioning System), play games, and read and respond to barcode and augmented reality messages. The reach and functionality of mobile devices depends on their underlying network infrastructure and the capabilities of the mobile device or handset. Mobile communications also rely on specific access methods which operate on top of the physical wireless architecture. There are generally three types of access methods in use: FDMA, TDMA and GSM, and CDMA. Although mobile devices are most commonly associated with mobile phones, there are many types of mobile devices. Some have broad usage such as smart phones and mobile tablet devices, and some are very specific such as telematic devices in vehicles and devices that monitor vital signs in healthcare. “It’s all about the apps” is a common refrain we hear in the world of mobile technology. Not only are mobile applications the key to innovation and customer expansion, it is also a high revenue business. There have been over 300,000 mobile applications developed over the last 3 years, and these applications have been downloaded 10.9 billion times. Whether the applications are used for communication, entertainment, socio-economic growth, crowd-sourcing social and political events, monitoring vital signs in patients, helping to drive vehicles, or delivering education, this is where the mobile technology has been transformed from a mode to a medium.
Mobile Handheld Devices in Education
Authors: Blakemore Douglas , Svacha David
Published: November 2013

Small electronic devices, also referred to as handhelds, are impacting education in a variety of ways including teaching methods, student life, and the need for support from technical staff. This chapter discusses the importance of handhelds in education, how handhelds are being used in education, the challenges presented by handhelds for those in education and what might happen with handhelds in the future.
Potentials and Challenges of Mobile Augmented Reality
Authors: Kloss Joerg H.
Published: November 2013

In order to deliver a foundation for orientation and decisions in the growing field of Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR), this chapter intends to deliver a realistic picture about MAR, where it comes from, where it currently stands, and where it is going. It distinguishes between the variants of MAR, explains their similarities, differences, and different development stages and outlooks. While describing potential application fields and their current limitations, the opportunities and challenges of MAR become obvious, as well as how much work is still to do. The chapter intends to categorize the challenges for MAR, covering also related issues in the mobile hardware, software, and operator industry, and their efforts in standardization and open interfacing. Besides the technology-driven discussion, a strong emphasis will be taken also to the essential aspect of user experience. With ubiquitous MAR, the technology will become more and more secondary, and the user and her individual context moves into the center of attention.
The Use of Embedded Mobile, RFID, and Augmented Reality in Mobile Devices
Authors: Gogolin Greg
Published: November 2013

The proliferation of mobile devices such as smart phones and other handheld devices has stimulated the development of a broad range of functionality, including medical, retail, and personal applications. Technology that has been leveraged to enable many of these uses includes radio frequency identification (RFID), embedded mobile, and augmented reality. RFID involves communication between a tag and a reader. Mobile RFID extends the technology by tagging the mobile device with an RFID tag to perform tasks on the device. Embedded mobile refers to preprogrammed tasks that are performed on a mobile device. Personal care and monitoring is one of the most common uses of embedded mobile. Augmented reality involves the use of computer generated or enhanced sensory input such as audio and visual components to enhance the perception of reality. This is commonly used in situations such as video games where there is feedback in the game controllers.
Next Generation Multimedia on Mobile Devices
Authors: Zorrilla Mikel , Carretero María del Puy , Ugarte Alejandro , Mogollón Juan Felipe , Oyarzun David , Olaizola Igor García
Published: November 2013

The multiplatform consumption of multimedia content has become a crucial factor in the way of watching multimedia. Current technologies such as mobile devices have made people desire access to information from anywhere and at anytime. The sources of the multimedia content are also very important in that consumption. They present the content from many sources distributed on the cloud and mix it with automatically generated virtual reality into any platform. This chapter analyzes the technologies to consume the next generation multimedia and proposes a new architecture to generate and present the content. The goal is to offer it as a service so the users can live the experience in any platform, without requiring any special abilities from the clients. This makes the architecture a very interesting aspect for mobile devices that normally do not have big capabilities of rendering but can benefit of this architecture.
Transforming eMaintenance into iMaintenance with Mobile Communications Technologies and Handheld Devices
Authors: Sharda Nalin
Published: November 2013

iMaintenance stands for integrated, intelligent and immediate maintenance; which can be made possible by integrating various maintenance functions, and connecting these to handheld devices, such as an iPhone, using mobile communication technologies. The main innovation required for developing iMaintenance systems is to integrate the disparate systems and capabilities developed under the current eMaintenance models, and to make these immediately accessible by ubiquitous and intelligent computing technologies –such as Digital Ecosystems and Cloud Computing– connected via wireless networks and handheld devices such as the iPhone. A Digital Ecosystem is a computer-based system that can evolve with the system that it monitors and controls, and can be embedded in the system’s components, thereby providing the ability to integrate new functionality without any downtime. Cloud Computing can provide access to additional software services that are not available in the local Digital Ecosystem. This chapter will show how these computing paradigms can provide mobile computing and communication facilities required to create novel iMaintenance systems.
The Role of GIS in City Competitiveness
Authors: Rahaman Khan R. , Lourenço Júlia M.
Published: November 2013

Virtually every city and region is engaged in activities to improve their relative global competitiveness. The Geographic Information System (GIS) is one of the powerful tools of information storage and information access, providing spatial data to different stakeholders and cities across the world. This chapter will highlight the role of GIS technology in empirical assessment of the competition among cities or regions, using a variety of data assembled by many different individuals, businesses, and institutions. This valuable information can be used in decision-making by stakeholders who are taking part in the competition and can be disseminated, accessed, and updated in a dynamic way. This chapter discusses the origins of urban competitiveness, dynamics and functions of competition, and current and future research possibilities made possible by GIS.
City Competitiveness and Airport
Authors: Postorino Maria Nadia
Published: November 2013

Transport systems allow people to take part in social and working activities, which are variously spread in space and time. Cities where transport systems are widely developed benefit from a high-quality accessibility, which makes them more attractive both to users and investors. As a consequence, they can gain in competitiveness and economic growth. Particularly, an airport can play an important role in assuring the development of the city best linked to it, as it enlarges its external accessibility and attractiveness. As information science applications can be used to obtain more reliable, efficient and safer systems, with reference to these latter aspects this chapter describes the importance of improvements concerning surface transport systems linking cities to their nearest airports as well as improvements assuring safer operations and capacity enhancement at the city airport airside.
City Branding and the Role of the City Websites in Building City Brands
Authors: Özdemir Erkan
Published: November 2013

In today’s globalized world, the competition experienced intensively in many fields is being experienced amongst cities as well. Competition is taking place not only in the traditional environment, but in the online environment as well. In order to differentiate their cities from the rest and build an image and identity for themselves in this atmosphere of intensive competition, city administrators are taking advantage of the branding techniques used by private sector companies. At this point, the city websites have a key role for building and communicating the city brand. The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the role of the city websites in building city brands and promoting their brands. In order to fulfill the aim, the city branding, related concepts, and the role of the city websites in building city brands are introduced in the background section. Then, randomly selected city websites from the City Brands Index are evaluated using content analysis, and the results of this analysis are presented and discussed respectively.
The Effect of Google Data Centers on City Competitiveness
Authors: Sousa Jacqueline Bueno
Published: November 2013

The decision by Google several years ago to begin building major data center campuses prompted economic-development officials nationwide to vie to have their communities chosen as a Google Data Center site. They hoped the facilities would bring hundreds of jobs, lure other technology companies and help create technology hubs in their areas. However, this study of three of the communities where Google built major data centers -- Goose Creek, South Carolina; Lenoir, North Carolina; and Council Bluffs, Iowa—shows that the centers haven’t always lived up to expectations. The author interviews economic development officials in each of the three communities.
Urban Geospatial Management System
Authors: Todaro Rudj Maria , Cangel Ayça
Published: November 2013

The City of Venice has been a unique tourism destination for decades and has attracted thousands of visitors every year coming for various purposes (leisure, restoration, business, etc.). Particularly important to Venice is its reputation for being the “City of Water,” but this legacy also involves challenges. The city is constantly under the threat of degradation caused by salty lagoon water that flood into the city in certain times of the year. At this point, urban maintenance of city elements is essential to ensure minimum functional levels of city infrastructure. The system introduced in this chapter is an Urban Geospatial Maintenance System designed for Venice that focuses on planning and execution of maintenance work and is based on the logic of integration of classical management concepts and Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) concepts.
Nurse to Bed Ratio and Nutrition Support in Critically Ill Patients
Authors: Honda Carolina Keiko Yamamoto , Freitas Flávio Geraldo Rezende , Stanich Patricia , Mazza Bruno Franco , Castro Isac , Nascente Ana Paula Metran , Bafi Antonio Toneti , Azevedo Luciano Cesar Pontes , Machado Flávia Ribeiro
Published: November 2013

Background

Inadequate nutrition support is common among critically ill patients, and identification of risk factors for such inadequacy might help in improving nutrition support.

Objective

To determine how often daily calorie goals are met and the factors responsible for inadequate nutrition support.

Methods

A single-center prospective cohort study. Each patient’s demographic and clinical characteristics, the need for ventilatory support, the use and dosage of medications, the number of nursing staff per bed, the time elapsed from admission to the intensive care unit until the effective start of enteral feeding, and the causes for nonadministration were recorded. Achievement of daily calorie goals was determined and correlated with risk factors.

Results

A total of 262 daily evaluations were done in 40 patients. Daily calorie goal was achieved in only 46.2% of the evaluations (n = 121), with a mean of 74.8% of the prescribed volume of enteral nutrition infused daily. Risk factors for inadequate nutrition support were the use of midazolam (odds ratio, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.18–2.11) and fewer nursing professionals per bed (odds ratio, 2.56; 95% CI, 1.43–4.57).

Conclusion

Achievement of daily calorie goals was inadequate, and the main factors associated with this failure were the use and dosage of midazolam and the number of nurses available.
Parents’ Report of Child’s Response to Sibling’s Death in a Neonatal or Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
Authors: Youngblut JoAnne M. , Brooten Dorothy
Published: November 2013

Background

Research on sibling death in a pediatric/neonatal intensive care unit is limited, despite many qualitative differences from deaths at home or in hospitals’ general care areas and has overlooked cultural differences.

Objectives

To describe parents’ reports of children’s responses to a sibling’s death in a neonatal or pediatric intensive care unit via qualitative interviews at 7 months after the death.

Methods

English-speaking (n = 19) and Spanish-speaking (n = 8) parents of 24 deceased infants/children described responses of their 44 surviving children: 10 preschool, 19 school-age, and 15 adolescent. Parents’ race/ethnicity was 48% black, 37% Hispanic, 15% white. Ten siblings died in the neonatal unit and 14 in the pediatric intensive care unit. Semistructured interviews in parents’ homes were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed with content analysis.

Results

Six themes about surviving children emerged. Changed behaviors were reported by parents of school-age children and adolescents. Not understand what was going on was reported primarily by parents of preschoolers. Numbers of comments in the 4 remaining themes are as follows: maintaining a connection (n = 9), not having enough time with their siblings before death and/or to say goodbye (n = 6), believing the sibling is in a good place (n = 6), not believing the sibling would die (n = 4). Comments about girls and boys were similar. White parents made few comments about their children compared with black and Hispanic parents. The pattern of comments differed by whether the sibling died in the neonatal or the pediatric intensive care unit.

Conclusions

Children’s responses following a sibling’s death vary with the child’s sex, parents’ race/ethnicity, and the unit where the sibling died. Children, regardless of age, recognized their parents’ grief and tried to comfort them.
Gesinsbediening in ’n postmoderne kerk vanuit Bybels-teologiese perspektiewe
Authors: Van Staden J.M. , Dreyer Yolanda
Published: November 2013

Biblical perspectives on family ministry in a postmodern church. The aim of the article is to reflect on biblical-theological perspectives on family in order to enrich postmodern faith communities. In the post-biblical period the biological family was central to the process of the institutionalisation of the church and the spiritual aspect of family was underplayed. The church father, Augustine, indowed marriage with sacramental status. This emphasised the presence of God in the family, but ‘procreation’ dominated his theology of marriage. The sacramental status of marriage along with the dominance of patriarchy made marriage indisputable. This obstructed any possibility of thinking creatively about marriage in a postmodern context. In his reformation of marriage Martin Luther succeeded in deconstructing the sacramental status of marriage, but did not succeed in overturning patriarchal dominance. The reality of postmodern families differs vastly from that of biblical times and the times of Augustine, Aquinas and Luther. The challenge of the church in a postmodern world is to reflect in a responsible biblical theological way on the relationship between adults and children from the perspective of the kingdom of God. This article aims to contribute in this regard.
Assessing the organisational and individual strengths use and deficit improvement amongst sport coaches
Authors: Stander Frederick W. , Mostert Karina
Published: November 2013

Orientation: The orientation of this study is towards strengths use and deficit improvement and the relationship with engagement.Research purpose: To (1) determine whether adapted versions of the Strengths Use and Deficit Improvement Questionnaire (SUDIQ) and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) are valid and reliable, (2) determine the relationship of the SUDIQ dimensions in the nomological net, and (3) test a structural model.Motivation for the study: To gain a better understanding of the outcomes of following a balanced approach within a sport coaching context.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional research approach was used. An availability sample (N = 364) of teachers occupying roles as sport coaches from various schools across three provinces in South Africa was used. Structural equation modelling was used to test the factor structures and the structural model.Main findings: The results indicated a valid factor structure for the adapted SUDIQ and UWES. Relationships between the SUDIQ dimensions and job and personal resources were positive and significant. Individual strengths use was the strongest predictor of engagement. Individual deficit improvement and organisational strengths use were also significant predictors. Organisational deficit improvement did not significantly predict engagement.Practical/managerial implications: Evidence suggests the adapted SUDIQ and UWES can be utilised effectively in a sport coaching environment. Organisational strengths use is also important in managing engagement levels of sport coaches.Contribution/value-add: Valid and reliable measures were provided for use in a sport coaching environment. It substantiates the outcomes that can be gained by following a combined approach based on strength and deficit.
Maths4Stats: Educating teachers
Authors: Blignaut Renette J. , Luus Retha , Lombard Ronell , Latief Abduraghiem , Kotze Danelle
Published: November 2013

The inadequate nature of the education infrastructure in South Africa has led to poor academic performance at public schools. Problems within schools such as under-qualified teachers and poor teacher performance arise due to the poorly constructed education system in our country. The implementation in 2012 of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) at public schools in South Africa saw the further crippling of some teachers, as they were unfamiliar with parts of the CAPS subject content. The Statistics and Population Studies department at the University of the Western Cape was asked to join the Maths4Stats project in 2012. This project was launched by Statistics South Africa in an effort to assist in training the teachers in statistical content within the CAPS Mathematics curricula. The University of the Western Cape’s team would like to share their experience of being part of the Maths4Stats training in the Western Cape. This article focuses on how the training sessions were planned and what the outcomes were. With the knowledge gained from our first Maths4Stats experience, it is recommended that future interventions are still needed to ensure that mathematics teachers become well-informed and confident to teach topics such as data handling, probability and regression analysis.
Effects of relative humidity on aerosol light scattering: results from different European sites
Authors: Zieger P. , Fierz-Schmidhauser R. , Weingartner E. , Baltensperger U.
Published: November 2013

Abstract. The effect of aerosol water uptake on the aerosol particle light scattering coefficient (σsp) is described in this study by comparing measurements from five European sites: the Jungfraujoch, located in the Swiss Alps at 3580 m a.s.l.; Ny-Ålesund, located on Spitsbergen in the Arctic; Mace Head, a coastal site in Ireland; Cabauw, a rural site in the Netherlands; and Melpitz, a regional background site in Eastern Germany. These sites were selected according to the aerosol type usually encountered at that location. The scattering enhancement factor f(RH, λ) is the key parameter to describe the effect of water uptake on the particle light scattering. It is defined as the σsp(RH) at a certain relative humidity (RH) and wavelength λ divided by its dry value. f(RH) at the five sites varied widely, starting at very low values of f(RH = 85%, λ = 550 nm) around 1.28 for mineral dust, and reaching up to 3.41 for Arctic aerosol. Hysteresis behavior was observed at all sites except at the Jungfraujoch (due to the absence of sea salt). Closure studies and Mie simulations showed that both size and chemical composition determine the magnitude of f(RH). Both parameters are also needed to successfully predict f(RH). Finally, the measurement results were compared to the widely used aerosol model, OPAC (Hess et al., 1998). Significant discrepancies were seen, especially at intermediate RH ranges; these were mainly attributed to inappropriate implementation of hygroscopic growth in the OPAC model. Replacement of the hygroscopic growth with values from the recent literature resulted in a clear improvement of the OPAC model.
Comparing impacts of climate change on streamflow in four large African river basins
Authors: Aich V. , Liersch S. , Vetter T. , Huang S. , Tecklenburg J. , Hoffmann P. , Koch H. , Fournet S. , Krysanova V. , Müller E. N. , Hattermann F. F.
Published: November 2013

Abstract. This study aims to compare impacts of climate change on streamflow in four large representative African river basins: the Niger, the Upper Blue Nile, the Ubangi and the Limpopo. We set up the eco-hydrological model SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model) for all four basins individually. The validation of the models for four basins shows results from adequate to very good, depending on the quality and availability of input (observed climate, soils, land use, water management) and calibration (discharge) data. For the climate impact assessment we drive the model with outputs of five bias-corrected Earth System Models of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) for the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 2.6 and 8.5. This climate input is put into the context of climate trends of the whole African continent and compared to a CMIP5 ensemble of 19 models in order to test their representativeness. Subsequently, we compare the trends in mean discharges, seasonality and hydrological extremes in the 21st century. The uncertainty of results for all basins is high, mainly due to the climate input. Still, climate change impact is clearly visible for mean discharges but also for extremes in high and low flows. The uncertainty of the projections is the lowest in the Upper Blue Nile, where an increase in streamflow is most likely. In the Niger and the Limpopo Basins, the magnitude of trends in both directions is high and has a wide range of uncertainty. In the Ubangi, impacts are the least significant. Our results confirm partly the findings of previous continental impact analyses for Africa. However, contradictory to these studies we find a tendency for increased streamflows in three of the four basins (not for the Ubangi). Guided by these results, we argue for attention to the possible risks of increasing high flows in the face of the dominant water scarcity in Africa. In conclusion, the study shows that impact intercomparisons have added value to the adaptation discussion and may be used for setting up adaptation plans in the context of a holistic approach.
Christian Slavery, Colonialism, and Violence
Authors: Amponsah David Kofi
Published: November 2013

This article examines the short but eventful life and writings of Jacobus Johannes Elisa Capitein, the eighteenth-century Gold Coast mulatto ex-slave turned missionary who defended slavery as necessary for the eventual salvation of Africans. I examine the racial assumptions and assertions that were at play in Capitein's writings and place his views and actions within the context of the religious, political, and economic climates of eighteenth-century Netherlands, Europe more broadly, and the Gold Coast. I complicate the narrative that interprets Capitein's defense of slavery as a mere alibi intended to garner support for his missionary agenda, contending that reducing his position to his missionary ambition underplays the import of Capitein's position and the particular circumstances of his life in the Gold Coast. I further explore the existential dilemma that Capitein, an African ex-slave missionary, faced upon his return to his native Gold Coast, and I conclude by suggesting that Capitein's defense of slavery should be understood as a heuristic and rhetorical device.
Sherman A. Jackson and the Possibility of a “Blackamerican Muslim” Prophetic Pragmatism
Authors: Houston Sam
Published: November 2013

In this paper, I argue that in his endeavor to reorient Muslim American priorities and perceptions of authority in the name of a “Blackamerican Islam,” Sherman A. Jackson's conception of “protest appropriation” and its concomitant blending of epistemological and social critique informed by the experience of black suffering stands in the tradition of African American forms of pragmatism, especially that of Cornel West. Just as West's “prophetic pragmatism” enabled him to develop a religious tradition of social criticism informed by Christian elements and the experiences of African Americans, so too does Jackson's “Blackamerican Islam” evince certain pragmatic sensibilities in its quest to do the same for Sunni Islam in the face of white and immigrant Muslim ideologies. In the process of making this argument, I hope to make distinct the harmonies and dissonances between Jackson's and West's work, and thus better ascertain the possibility of a “Blackamerican Muslim” prophetic pragmatism.