Asian elephants as agricultural pests: Economics of control and compensation in Sri Lanka

Despite growing attention to crop and property damage caused by the Asian elephant, uncertainty exists about the magnitude of this problem. This article explores the nature and, Magnitude of this problem in Sri Lanka. An economic analysis of individual farmers'. decisions to control elephants is provided. Government policies to assist farmers in coping with the elephant pest problem are assessed. Appropriate compensation schemes for farmers are seen as potentially more effective for conserving elephants in Sri Lanka than legal prohibitions on the killing of elephants. The issues raised here have wider relevance than merely to Sri Lanka or Asian elephants.

Mathematical modelling of schistosomiasis japonica: comparison of control strategies in the People's Republic of China

We present the first mathematical model on the transmission dynamics of Schistosoma japonicum. The work extends Barbour's classic model of schistosome transmission. It allows for the mammalian host heterogeneity characteristic of the S. japonicum life cycle, and solves the problem of under-specification of Barbour's model by the use of Chinese data we are collecting on human-bovine transmission in the Poyang Lake area of Jiangxi Province in China. The model predicts that in the lake/marshland areas of the Yangtze River basin: (1) once-early mass chemotherapy of humans is little better than twice-yearly mass chemotherapy in reducing human prevalence. Depending on the heterogeneity of prevalence within the population, targeted treatment of high prevalence groups, with lower overall coverage, can be more effective than mass treatment with higher overall coverage. Treatment confers a short term benefit only, with prevalence rising to endemic levels once chemotherapy programs are stopped (2) depending on the relative contributions of bovines and humans, bovine treatment can benefit humans almost as much as human treatment. Like human treatment, bovine treatment confers a short-term benefit. A combination of human and bovine treatment will dramatically reduce human prevalence and maintains the reduction for a longer period of time than treatment of a single host, although human prevalence rises once treatment ceases; (3) assuming 75% coverage of bovines, a bovine vaccine which acts on worm fecundity must have about 75% efficacy to reduce the reproduction rate below one and ensure mid-term reduction and long-term elimination of the parasite. Such a vaccination program should be accompanied by an initial period of human treatment to instigate a short-term reduction in prevalence, following which the reduction is enhanced by vaccine effects; (4) if the bovine vaccine is only 45% efficacious (the level of current prototype vaccines) it will lower the endemic prevalence, but will not result in elimination. If it is accompanied by an initial period of human treatment and by a 45% improvement in human sanitation or a 30% reduction in contaminated water contact by humans, elimination is then possible. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Locus de Control y Ira

La ira se ha relacionado con atribuciones externas en distintos modelos atribucionales, sin embargo, desde los planteamientos de la teoría del “locus de control” (Rotter, 1966) la respuesta emocional de ira no ha sido objeto de estudio con la frecuencia que sería deseable (aunque sí la conducta agresiva). El presente trabajo explora las relaciones del locus de control externo con la emoción de ira, así como con la expresión y control de la misma. Para ello se utilizó una muestra de 177 estudiantes universitarios (27 hombres y 150 mujeres) a los que se evaluó mediante los instrumentos siguientes: Escala de Rotter (Rotter, 1966, versión española de Pérez García, 1984); el Inventario de Expresión de Ira Estado/Rasgo -STAXI-de Spielberger (1988, 1991), versión española de Spielberger, Miguel-Tobal, Cano-Vindel y Casado, 1992); y el Inventario de Control, Defensa y Expresión de Emociones -CDE-(Cano Vindel y Miguel Tobal, 1996). Se realizó un análisis correlacional entre las distintas escalas de los instrumentos y diferencias de medias para dos grupos extremos (altos y bajos) en locus de control (equiparados en la variable sexo). Nuestros resultados muestran una relación positiva y significativa entre el locus de control externo y la respuesta emocional de ira, así como una tendencia a expresar externamente la ira y a controlarla menos en sujetos con atribuciones de causalidad externas. Conocer los procesos atribucionales asociados a la ira y a su afrontamiento permitirá una intervención más eficaz sobre la misma.

The importance of control monitoring systems in wind parks maintenance

The objective of every wind energy producer is to reduce operational costs associated to the production as a way to increase profits. One other issue that must be looked carefully is the equipment maintenance. Increase the availability of wind turbines by reducing the downtime associated to failures is a good strategy to achieve the main goal of increase profits. As a way to help in the definition of the best maintenance strategies, condition monitoring systems (CMS) have an important role to play. Informatics tools to make the condition monitoring of the wind turbines were developed and are now being installed as a way to help producers reducing the operational costs. There are a lot of developed systems to do the monitoring of a wind turbine or the whole wind park, in this paper will be made an overview of the most important systems.

Schistosomiasis mansoni in an area of low transmission: I. impact of control measures

This work was undertaken in the municipality of Pedro de Toledo (São Paulo State, Brazil) in 1987, to clarify aspects related to the transmission levels of Schistosoma mansoni in a human population where the snail host is Biomphalaria tenagophila. Since 1980 a control programme has been undertaken in this municipality. Urban and rural populations (4,719 subjects) were submitted to faecal examinations (Kato-Katz method). The overall prevalence rate was 4.8% being higher in males (6.2%) and also in the rural zone (5.8%). The geometric mean of S. mansoni eggs was 35.1 eggs per gramme of faeces (epg). Approximately 80.0% of the carriers presented less than 100 epg and only 20 individuals (9.0%) eliminated more than half of total eggs. The highest index of potencial contamination (IPC) was in the age group of 5 to 20 years (57.6%). Two thirds of the investigated patients (207) were autochthonous of Pedro de Toledo. The geographical distribution of the carriers showed a clear aggregation of the autochthonous cases and a close association between human contact sites and breeding places of B. tenagophila. This study shows that schistosomiasis subjects were not randomly aggregated, the youngsters should be the main target in the prophylaxis, and the efficacy of the control programme.

Constructing and validating a scale of employee satisfaction with HRM practices in the healthcare context

The concept of HRM perceptions is a growing interest in the literature, as one of the antecedents of HRM outcomes. Regardless, not only the cognitive aspect of perception is interesting in this field (what you think) but also the affective perspective is of interest (how you feel about it). In this study we propose a scale for assessing satisfaction with the perceptions of the HRM practices. A 24 item Likert-type scale was developed considering literature review, to assess subjects’ satisfaction with Human Resources Practices in a healthcare setting. Talked reflections were held and a survey encompassing all workers from a Hospital was conducted later, with a sample of 922 subjects. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were performed; reliability was tested using Cronbach’s alpha. The scale presents good psychometric properties with alpha values that range from .71 to .91. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis demonstrated that the scale presents a very good fit with CFI= 0.94, AGFI= 0.88, and RMSEA= 0.07. The present study represents a first approach in the usage of this scale and despite having a large sample, respondents originate from a single institution. This study presents a pertinent scale towards measuring a seldom explored construct of the worker-organization relationship. The scale is parsimonious and results are promising. There seems to be very little research on how subjects feel about the HRM practices. This construct, very much in line with more recent studies concerning worker perceptions can be especially interesting in the context of the worker-organization relationship.

Financial structure choice in owner-managed firms : entrepreneurial characteristics, utility of control, and the competitive context

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Wirtschaftswiss., Diss., 2011

Biogeography of Triatominae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in Ecuador: implications for the design of control strategies

Chagas disease control strategies strongly depend on the triatomine vector species involved in Trypanosoma cruzi transmission within each area. Here we report the results of the identification of specimens belonging to various species of Triatominae captured in Ecuador (15 species from 17 provinces) and deposited in the entomological collections of the Catholic University of Ecuador (Quito), Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (Brazil), the Natural History Museum London (UK), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK), the National Institute of Hygiene (Quito), and the Vozandes Hospital (Quito). A critical review of published information and new field records are presented. We analysed these data in relation to the life zones where triatomines occur (11 life zones, excluding those over 2,200 m altitude), and provide biogeographical maps for each species. These records are discussed in terms of epidemiological significance and design of control strategies. Findings relevant to the control of the main vector species are emphasised. Different lines of evidence suggest that Triatoma dimidiata is not native to Ecuador-Peru, and that synanthropic populations of Rhodnius ecuadoriensis in southern Ecuador-northern Peru might be isolated from their sylvatic conspecifics. Local eradication of T. dimidiata and these R. ecuadoriensis populations might therefore be attainable. However, the presence of a wide variety of native species indicates the necessity for a strong longitudinal surveillance system.

Schistosomiasis mansoni: follow-up of control program based on parasitologic and serologic methods in a Brazilian community of low endemicity

A field survey on schistosomiais was carried out in 1998, in the municipality of Pedro de Toledo, a low endemic area in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. According to the parasitologic Kato-Katz method, the prevalence rate was 1.6%, with an infection intensity of 40.9 eggs per gram of stool. By the immunofluorescence test (IFT) for detection of IgG and IgM antibodies in the serum, IgG-IFT and IgM-IFT, respectively, prevalence indices of 33.2% and 33.5% were observed. To assess the impact of the schistosomiasis control program in the area, parasitologic and serologic data obtained in 1998, analyzed according to the age, sex, and residence zone, were compared to previous data obtained in a epidemiologic study carried out in 1980, when prevalence indices were of 22.8% and 55.5%, respectively by Kato-Katz and IgG-IFT. A significant fall of the prevalence was observed, indicating that the control measures were effective. Nonetheless, residual transmission was observed, demonstrating the need for a joint effort to include new approaches for better understanding the real situation and improving the control of the disease in low endemic areas.

Application of control measures for infections caused by multi-resistant gram-negative bacteria in intensive care unit patients

Multi-resistant gram-negative rods are important pathogens in intensive care units (ICU), cause high rates of mortality, and need infection control measures to avoid spread to another patients. This study was undertaken prospectively with all of the patients hospitalized at ICU, Anesthesiology of the Hospital São Paulo, using the ICU component of the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System (NNIS) methodology, between March 1, 1997 and June 30, 1998. Hospital infections occurring during the first three months after the establishment of prevention and control measures (3/1/97 to 5/31/97) were compared to those of the last three months (3/1/98 to 5/31/98). In this period, 933 NNIS patients were studied, with 139 during the first period and 211 in the second period. The overall rates of infection by multi-resistant microorganisms in the first and second periods were, respectively, urinary tract infection: 3.28/1000 patients/day; 2.5/1000 patients/day; pneumonia: 2.10/1000 patients/day; 5.0/1000 patients/day; bloodstream infection: 1.09/1000 patients/day; 2.5/1000 patients/day. A comparison between overall infection rates of both periods (Wilcoxon test) showed no statistical significance (p = 0.067). The use of intervention measures effectively decreased the hospital bloodstream infection rate (p < 0.001), which shows that control measures in ICU can contribute to preventing hospital infections.

A framework for assessing the scale of influence of environmental factors on ecological patterns

The distribution of living organisms, habitats and ecosystems is primarily driven by abiotic environmental factors that are spatially structured. Assessing the spatial structure of environmental factors, e.g., through spatial autocorrelation analyses (SAC), can thus help us understand their scale of influence on the distribution of organisms, habitats, and ecosystems. Yet SAC analyses of environmental factors are still rarely performed in biogeographic studies. Here, we describe a novel framework that combines SAC and statistical clustering to identify scales of spatial patterning of environmental factors, which can then be interpreted as the scales at which those factors influence the geographic distribution of biological and ecological features. We illustrate this new framework with datasets at different spatial or thematic resolutions. This framework is conceptually and statistically robust, providing a valuable approach to tackle a wide range of issues in ecological and environmental research and particularly when building predictors for ecological models. The new framework can significantly promote fundamental research on all spatially-structured ecological patterns. It can also foster research and application in such fields as global change ecology, conservation planning, and landscape management.

Study of adaptation and validation of the Practice environment scale of the nursing work index for the portuguese reality

Objective: Testing the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index. Method: A descriptive, analytical and cross-sectional study, for the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the psychometric properties of the scale. The study participants were 236 nurses from two hospitals in the regions of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo. Results: The 0.92 Cronbach’s alpha was obtained for overall reliability and support of a five-dimension structure. Conclusion: The excellent quality of adjustment of analysis confirms the validity of the adapted version to hospital care settings, although there was no total coincidence of items in the five dimensions


The illusion of control, the structures of prizes and the demand for football pools in Spain

Using data for all the fixtures for the seasons from 1972-73 to 2002-03, we estimate a dynamic model of demand for football pools in Spain paying attention to whether their main economic explanatory variable is the effective price of a ticket or the jackpot. Additionally, we evaluate the importance of the composition of the list of games in terms of whether First Division matches are included or not. Results show that the jackpot model is preferred to the effective price model, having important implications in terms of how the structure of the game should be changed in order to increase demand.