Multi-purpose adaptable business tier components based on Call Level Interfaces

Call Level Interfaces (CLI) play a key role in business tiers of relational and on some NoSQL database applications whenever a fine tune control between application tiers and the host databases is a key requirement. Unfortunately, in spite of this significant advantage, CLI are low level API, this way not addressing high level architectural requirements. Among the examples we emphasize two situations: a) the need to decouple or not to decouple the development process of business tiers from the development process of application tiers and b) the need to automatically adapt business tiers to new business and/or security needs at runtime. To tackle these CLI drawbacks, and simultaneously keep their advantages, this paper proposes an architecture relying on CLI from which multi-purpose business tiers components are built, herein referred to as Adaptable Business Tier Components (ABTC). Beyond the reference architecture, this paper presents a proof of concept based on Java and Java Database Connectivity (an example of CLI).

Endowing NoSQL DBMS with SQL features through standard Call Level Interfaces

To store, update and retrieve data from database management systems (DBMS), software architects use tools, like call-level interfaces (CLI), which provide standard functionalities to interact with DBMS. However, the emerging of NoSQL paradigm, and particularly new NoSQL DBMS providers, lead to situations where some of the standard functionalities provided by CLI are not supported, very often due to their distance from the relational model or due to design constraints. As such, when a system architect needs to evolve, namely from a relational DBMS to a NoSQL DBMS, he must overcome the difficulties conveyed by the features not provided by NoSQL DBMS. Choosing the wrong NoSQL DBMS risks major issues with components requesting non-supported features. This paper focuses on how to deploy features that are not so commonly supported by NoSQL DBMS (like Stored Procedures, Transactions, Save Points and interactions with local memory structures) by implementing them in standard CLI.

ABTC: multi-purpose adaptable business tier components based on Call Level Interfaces

Call Level Interfaces (CLI) are low level API that play a key role in database applications whenever a fine tune control between application tiers and the host databases is a key requirement. Unfortunately, in spite of this significant advantage, CLI were not designed to address organizational requirements and contextual runtime requirements. Among the examples we emphasize the need to decouple or not to decouple the development process of business tiers from the development process of application tiers and also the need to automatically adapt to new business and/or security needs at runtime. To tackle these CLI drawbacks, and simultaneously keep their advantages, this paper proposes an architecture relying on CLI from which multi-purpose business tiers components are built, herein referred to as Adaptable Business Tier Components (ABTC). This paper presents the reference architecture for those components and a proof of concept based on Java and Java Database Connectivity (an example of CLI).

Outcome of childhood malignancies at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital: a call for implementation of palliative care.

Background: Cancers in children are yet to be recognised as an important cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in developing countries where more than 70% of the world annual cases occur. Despite the limited resources and whatever the projected outcome, children with cancer need treatment, be it curative or palliative. Objectives: To determine outcome of cancers in children at the UPTH; identify factors that influence outcome, highlight the need for palliative care. Method: A retrospective study of cases of childhood malignancies admitted into Paediatric Oncology unit of UPTH over a two year period. Clinical profile of patients and outcome were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: Sixty cases were analysed: 35(58.3%) males, 25(41.7%) females giving a M:F ratio of 1.4:1. Under-fives constituted 55%. Twenty-seven (45%) patients presented within 4 weeks of onset of symptoms. Median duration of symptoms before presentation was 8 weeks while 36 (60%) had metastatic disease at diagnosis. Twenty patients (33.3%) defaulted with or without specific treatment. Mortality was recorded in 26(43.4%) of cases. Conclusion: There were more cases of cancer amongst under-fives with male preponderance. Late presentation, financial constraints and high default rate were contributory factors to poor outcome in most cases. Lack of palliative care left many families to face their sufferings.

Costa Rican personalities

In the chair Creating and Maintaining Database of the School of Library, Documentation and Information, in 1998, students created a database called "Biblos" with information on 632 libraries and information centers and documentation of Costa Rica. A valuable work needed more time to verify, debug, analyze the results statistically, prepare a report, a catalog and indexes required to publish the document: "Libraries Rican."In 1999, finding the students are excited and committed to this document, I suggested we call the project work: "Personalities Rican," which was to develop a database and use it as input to design a Web page that can be installed on Internet or burn a CD. Students were identified and committed to the project. Providing an innovative practices, apply creativity, awareness of acquired knowledge, skills and abilities needed to provide users with products and innovative information services.

Estratégias competitivas genéricas nas empresas comerciais varejistas de shopping centers: um estudo a partir do modelo de Porter

Os shoppingcenters são grandes instituições repletas de empresas quecompetem entre si formas de como melhor satisfazer as necessidade dosclientes. Sendo assim, cada empresa utiliza-se de estratégias com o intuito deatingir a maior parcela de compradores possíveis sem comprometer suaexistência e sua vantagem competitiva. Este estudo está baseado na teoria dasestratégias competitivas genéricas de Porter (1980; 1985) o qual estabeleceem seu modelo que todas as empresas existentes no mercado possuam pelomenos uma das três abordagens estratégicas (diferenciação, liderança emcusto e enfoque). Desta forma, este trabalho identifica de que maneira estádistribuída as estratégia competitiva nas empresas de shoppingcenters deNatal/RN. Primeiramente buscou-se levantar a relação das estratégias destasempresas com a teoria proposta por Porter (1985) e sua alocação de acordocom os agrupamentos resultantes da combinação das estratégias. Nestemomento, foram aplicados questionários com 89 gerentes de lojas de shoppingcenters que resultou após análises estatísticas em cinco agrupamentos comabordagens válidas. Em seguida foram selecionadas as empresas quepossuíam maior afinidade com cada agrupamento e que melhor representavamos resultados dispostos em cinco clustersacerca da teoria proposta e nestaamostragem foi aplicada entrevista com os gerentes. Os resultados obtidos com as entrevistas validaram a análise dos dados encontrados nosquestionários anteriormente aplicados estando em conformidade com aproposta teoria. Identificou-se também duas modalidades de empresas queutilizavam simultaneamente mais de uma estratégia competitiva (meio-termo),sendo uma dentro e outra fora do modelo proposto pelo autor. Embora omodelo das estratégias competitivas genéricas tenha sido instituído comaspectos voltados as organizações industriais, os resultados obtidos nestetrabalho validaram a aplicação desta teoria em empresas comercias deshopping centers que vem se adequando para obter resultados financeirosmais satisfatórios e melhor posicionamento em relação à concorrência

Comunicação e imagem organizacional: um estudo de suas relações no comércio varejista de shopping centers

This study shows the results of an exploratory-descriptive research that aimed to identify the latent dimensions of communication, as well as finding relations between such dimensions and organizational image. The sample came to a total of 267 respondents, being 89 managers or owners and 178 salespeople of clothing and footwear stores that are situated in the main five shopping centers located in Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte. The collection of the data was made by the use of two structuralized and validated instruments, being the answers measured in the likert scale of 6 points. For the measurement of communication it was used the instrument developed by Downs and Hazen (2002), made up of 8 latent dimensions and 32 indicators. For the image it was used the model of Mael and Ashforth (1992) that contains 5 indicators. The analysis of the data was made through of the use of statistical techniques of factorial analysis and structural equations modeling. The results of the factorial analysis demonstrated communication as being formed by five latent dimensions. The modeling, on the other hand, demonstrated to exist positive relations between communication and organizational image, whose results revealed that the image is influenced by the communication with the supervisor, by the organizational integration and as being stronger explained by the vertical communication

The call for sailing uncharted seas: Motivations and expectations of recently graduated individuals

We explore the motivations and expectations that are impacting Portuguese recently graduated individuals in their decision of becoming international managers. Throughout a qualitative analysis over 20 interviews we construct a theoretical framework of recent graduates actual expectations and motivations regarding their international assignments. Accordingly, individuals are conducted by the desire of cultural-diversity experiences, social pressures and challenging environments. Expectations are not a result of a straightforward process; instead, they are dynamic and influenced by the challenges that international managers have to cope with during their international journey. Moreover, expectations and motivations are not mutually exclusive; they produce impact on each other, characterizing a dynamic process of international managers‟ lives.

A REVIEW OF THE SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTERS PROGRAM

Members of the General Assembly requested that we conduct an audit of the Small Business Development Centers program. We planned to review the accuracy of the program’s reporting of its effectiveness, expenditures, and structure. The audit objectives were listed as follows: Determine if the SBDC program’s reporting, including the program’s effectiveness, is in compliance with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s guidelines and is accurate and complete ; Determine if the current structure of the SBDC is the most beneficial to the small business clients, provides appropriate oversight to SBDC staff, and allows for necessary sharing of best practices throughout all SBDC offices ; Review a sample of SBDC’s use of funding to ensure that the program is efficiently handling federal, state, and other funds for expenditures, including technology upgrades and training conferences.

Propuesta organizacional aplicando la Filosofía Fish! para el mejoramiento del servicio al cliente de la empresa Telemovil de El Salvador S.A., área de Call Center.

La elaboración del presente trabajo de investigación pretende contribuir con la visión de la Universidad de El Salvador, de proyectar su calidad académica a través de los profesionales que son formados en la institución, mediante la propuesta de soluciones a necesidades de la sociedad, en este caso particularmente, para una empresa del sector servicios de gran trascendencia en el mercado salvadoreño. La investigación se origina de la necesidad de la empresa por mejorar el servicio que brindan a los clientes a través de su recurso humano desde el área de Call Center, con el objetivo de servir de manera más efectiva a sus clientes, y crear una atmósfera agradable de trabajo para los empleados que desarrollan tal actividad. El área de Call Center es una dependencia de la Sección de Operaciones con el Cliente, que tiene la función de atender a los clientes de la empresa que se comuniquen vía telefónica para hacer cualquier tipo de consulta o requerir otros servicios. Los objetivos principales que se cumplieron con la investigación fueron la determinación de la situación actual de algunas herramientas de la organización, como el organigrama, y los manuales de organización y procedimientos, también, de algunos elementos de la dirección, como lo son el liderazgo, comunicación, motivación, trabajo en equipo y clima organizacional; asimismo, conocer la apreciación de los clientes con respecto al servicio que reciben, y así crear una propuesta de mejora que contribuya a aumentar la calidad en el servicio al cliente. El documento está constituido por tres capítulos, donde el primero, desarrolla el marco teórico que agrupa los principales conceptos relacionados con el entorno de la empresa y específicamente el área de investigación, la fase de organización y aspectos de gran relevancia relacionados con la fase de dirección. Dentro del entorno de la empresa se abordan aspectos como historia y aspectos generales de la empresa, así como el marco legal que regula el funcionamiento de la misma, por otro lado, respecto a lo organizacional son tratados conceptos relacionados con las herramientas básicas de la organización como organigramas y manuales, asimismo, en cuanto a la dirección, se hace mención de factores determinantes como el liderazgo, comunicación, motivación, trabajo en equipo y clima organizacional y, finalmente, se desarrolla una temática relacionada con el servicio al cliente en la actualidad y la calidad. El segundo capítulo contempla la investigación de campo, donde se utilizó como metodología principal, la investigación bibliográfica, el muestreo estadístico que se llevó a cabo mediante cuestionarios donde se recopilaron datos e información relacionada con los factores determinados en el estudio, la cual a través de distintas herramientas es posible determinar la situación real que presentaba el objeto de estudio durante el tiempo del diagnóstico. La investigación permitió conocer la apreciación de los clientes acerca del servicio, la cual no es satisfactoria, y está relacionada con las deficiencias en las herramientas de la organización y falta de desarrollo de los elementos de la dirección estudiados, que están incidiendo directamente en la calidad en el servicio que ofrecen a los usuarios, y que debe ser mejorada. Finalmente, en el tercer capítulo, se describe la propuesta de nuevas herramientas de la organización, que serán de utilidad tanto para la dirección del área como para los ejecutivos, y además, un programa de capacitación en los que se incluye la filosofía FISH! para que sea implementada en la unidad de Call Center, y lograr así crear un ambiente de trabajo ideal, en el que los empleados disfruten su trabajo y se sientan satisfechos con su esfuerzo, y así, elevar la calidad en el servicio en un corto plazo, y consolidar la excelencia en el servicio al cliente en el mediano plazo.

Dyslipidemia and blood lipid levels in patients tratied in primary care centers in east SAN JOSE

Dyslipidemia, i.e. high levels of blood lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides), is strongly related to cardiovascular disease (CVD). In order to reduce the risk of CVD at any moment in a person ́s life, it is crucial to know his/her –and the population’s– lipid profile. The aim of this study was to assess the (statistical) indicators of blood lipids and the prevalence of dyslipidemia in patients treated in the Integral Health Attention Program from Universidad de Costa Rica. A descriptive study was conducted including 10,044 patients aged 20 to 65 years, who were tested for a blood lipid profile in 2006. A total of 2,969 (29.6%) male and 7,075 (70.4%) female patients took part in the study, with an average age of 43.5 years. General averages for blood lipids were: 203.3 mg/dl for total cholesterol, 50.1 mg/dl for HDL, 120.1 mg/dl for LDL, and 165.6 mg/dl for triglycerides. Prevalence of 17.2% was determined for hypercholesterolemia (≥240 mg/dl), as well as 21.3% for low HDL levels (<40 mg/dl), 11.9% for high LDL levels (≥160 mg/dl), and 26.3% for high triglyceride levels (≥200 mg/dl). Women showed higher overall levels of dyslipidemia than men. Based on health areas, no significant differences were found in general lipid levels by age or sex. Results indicate that the general prevalence of dyslipidemia is close to half the rate reported in worldwide literature and lower than results reported in Costa Rican studies. However, general averages exceeded optimal levels for each blood lipid; consequently, it is important to develop health interventions oriented to reduce the impact of dyslipidemia in the studied population.

Prospects and Opportunities. New Technology Trends yield new opportunities for Libraries and Information Centers

A number of important trends currently impact libraries. Academic libraries face the fundamental shift of collections toward ever increasing proportions of electronic content; public libraries continue to see vigorous interest in print materials, now supplemented by demand to provide e-books for lending. Breeding will explore these and other trends and describe some of the technologies available and emerging to help libraries meet the challenges involved in this context.

"I’ll call you when we are ready" (One family’s experience of critical care and end of life decision making)

The purpose of this paper is to explore through narrative accounts one family's expérience of critical care, after the admission of a family member to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and their subséquent death five weeks later. Numerous studies support the need for effective communication and clear information to be given to the family. In this instance it was évident from their stories that there were numerous barriers to communication, including language and a lack of insight into the needs of the family. Many families do not understand the complexities of nursing care in an ICU so lack of communication by nursing staff was identified as uncaring behavior and encounters. Facilitating a family's proximity to a dying patient and encouraging them to participate in care helps to maintain some sensé of personal control. Despite a commitment to involving family members in care, which was enshrined in the Unit Philosophy, relatives were banished to the waiting room for hours. They experienced feelings of powerlessness and helplessness as they waited with other relatives for news following investigations or until 'the doctor had completed his rounds'. Explanations of "we must make 'the patient' comfortable" was no consolation for those who wished to be involved in care. The words "I'il call you when we are ready" became a mantra to the forgotten families who waited patiently for those with power to admit them to the ICU. Implications are this family felt they were left alone to cope with the traumatic expériences leading up to and surrounding the death. They felt mainly supported by the priest, who not only administered the last rites but provided spiritual support to the family and dealt sensitively with many issues. Paternalism in décision making when there is a moral obligation to ensure that discussions on end of life dilemmas are an inclusive process with families, doctors, nurses was not understood, therefore it caused conflict within the family over EOL décision making. The family felt that the opportunity to share expériences through telling and retelling their stories would enable them to reconfigure the past and create purpose in the future.

Optimal power allocation and load distribution for multiple heterogeneous multicore server processors across clouds and data centers

For multiple heterogeneous multicore server processors across clouds and data centers, the aggregated performance of the cloud of clouds can be optimized by load distribution and balancing. Energy efficiency is one of the most important issues for large-scale server systems in current and future data centers. The multicore processor technology provides new levels of performance and energy efficiency. The present paper aims to develop power and performance constrained load distribution methods for cloud computing in current and future large-scale data centers. In particular, we address the problem of optimal power allocation and load distribution for multiple heterogeneous multicore server processors across clouds and data centers. Our strategy is to formulate optimal power allocation and load distribution for multiple servers in a cloud of clouds as optimization problems, i.e., power constrained performance optimization and performance constrained power optimization. Our research problems in large-scale data centers are well-defined multivariable optimization problems, which explore the power-performance tradeoff by fixing one factor and minimizing the other, from the perspective of optimal load distribution. It is clear that such power and performance optimization is important for a cloud computing provider to efficiently utilize all the available resources. We model a multicore server processor as a queuing system with multiple servers. Our optimization problems are solved for two different models of core speed, where one model assumes that a core runs at zero speed when it is idle, and the other model assumes that a core runs at a constant speed. Our results in this paper provide new theoretical insights into power management and performance optimization in data centers.