Search

The article presents information on the inclusion of alerting service on health topics for medical journalists. A good journalist has to be able to access the latest information, analyse and filter it, assessing its quality and authoritativeness, while dealing with ever-increasing sources of information. The alerting service was designed using predefined criteria. Medical journals were selected on the basis of their impact factor. The selection of papers was discretional or based on their editorial comments. Various publisher's press alerts where available. Articles were selected when they had received an editorial comment or had been mentioned in the original press alerts from publishers. The service was expected to be objective, authoritative, and to provide items with real news value.

Purpose: This systematic review aims to gain the studies regarding the effect of Nigella Sativa (N. sativa) on adipokines including leptin, adiponectin and resistin. Design/methodology/approach: Search was carried out using databases Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar with no restriction on language or date until February 2023 and alert services were applied to identify any paper after the primary search. Findings: Eighteen animal and human studies were eligible for the current systematic review. Leptin and resistin levels showed a downward tendency after consuming N. sativa and its ingredients [e.g. oil, thymoquinone (TQ) and thymol] as well as its extracts (e.g. water extract). Furthermore, considering 4 of 8 animal research studies and 2 of 5 human studies that evaluated adiponectin levels, a significant increase was observed after using N. sativa and its ingredients (e.g. oil, TQ and thymol). Originality/value: The present paper collates evidence from animal and human studies regarding the effect of N. sativa on adipokines including leptin, adiponectin and resistin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Special issues of scholarly journals have become more common during the last decade of management research. We review this trend and assess the effectiveness of special issues for knowledge dissemination. Methods include interviews with journal editors, compiling data on time to publication and on impact and quality of special issues for five mainstream management journals, and a case study chronicling the creation of the 'Organization Science' special issue on "Knowledge, Knowing, and Organizations." The findings show that journal special issue articles appear to be published more quickly than regular issue articles (time to publication), and for three of the five journals there is a significant difference in impact (measured as citation counts per article) when special and regular issue articles are compared. Further, we find evidence of greater variation in the quality of special issue articles compared to regular issue articles, although this reflects special issues publishing exceptional articles rather than the inclusion of substandard ones. The case analysis suggests that a series of preconferences on a common topic prior to a special issue did not appear to impact the type of papers submitted to or published in the special issue. We discuss the role of special issues and preconferences in knowledge development in organization science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Objectives Methods Results Discussion Conclusion Stakeholders working on the COVID‐19 pandemic response needed access to evidence, requiring a systematic approach to identify and disseminate relevant research.Outline the stages of development of a COVID‐19 Literature Digest; demonstrate the impact the Digest had on decision‐making and knowledge gain; identify the lessons learned.A standardised process was developed to identify and select papers. The main sources for content were PubMed, bioRxiv and medRxiv. A shared EndNote library was used to deduplicate and organise papers. Three user surveys obtained feedback from subscribers to determine if the Digest remained valuable, and explore the benefits to individuals.40–60 papers were summarised each week. 211 Digests were produced from March 2020 to March 2022, with around 10,000 papers included altogether. Survey results suggest benefits of the Digest were gaining new knowledge, saving time and contributing to evidence‐based decision making.Digest procedures constantly evolved and were adapted in response to survey feedback. Lessons identified: learn from failure, communication is key, measure your impact, work collaboratively, reflect and be flexible.The Digest was successfully produced within the limits of available resource. The learning from this Digest will inform evidence monitoring, selection and dissemination for future health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore diachronically the features of legal language in British legislation over a period of 200 years to find out whether the features identified by Crystal and Davy in their seminal work are still present in current British legislation and whether any changes can be attributed to plain language efforts. Further, the paper explores lexical diversity and readability. For these purposes, five corpora of British legislation were compiled from 1820, 1870, 1920, 1970, and 2020. The results show that the current language of British legislation is very different from the legal language described by Crystal and Davy fifty years ago. The plainer texts tend to be lexically less diverse. The readability measures provide rather inconclusive results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Criminal procedure law consists of legal principles, such as a fair and impartial trial and within a reasonable time, presumption of innocence, the principle "in dubio pro reo," independence of the court, equality of parties, the principle "ne bis in idem"3 etc. Among the main principles recognised by International Conventions, the Constitutions of States, and Criminal Procedure Laws is the principle, "The right not to be tried twice for the same offence," or as it is also known, "ne bis in idem." The principle "in bis in idem" is used in Kosovo's criminal proceedings, and recognition of this principle by international convention, including its recognition by the Law of the European Union, is analysed in this paper. The legislation of Kosovo was established with the influence and assistance of the international community, which had an administration mandate until 17 February 2008, the date on which Kosovo declared its independence and, hence, separated from the former Yugoslavia. The new state is not a member of the UN but is officially recognised by more than 100 countries. In 2010, the International Court of Justice issued the Advisory Opinion which concluded, "The declaration of independence in respect of Kosovo on 17 February 2008 had not violated general international law." The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the importance of this principle when dealing with criminal cases before regular courts, the legal security that this principle provides to society, and the implementation of international legal instruments in the national law. Methods: The paper uses methods of analysis and synthesis, the descriptive method, as well as the method of doctrinal interpretation of legal norms of criminal proceedings. Results and conclusions: This principle has been accepted by international instruments and by Kosovo's constitutional and legal system. The application of this principle in the criminal justice system in Kosovo forms legal certainty for citizens and constitutes protection of the rights and legitimate interests of persons involved in criminal proceedings. Kosovo has applied international standards in the implementation of criminal legislation and has directly incorporated international human rights instruments into its constitutional system (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by the UN in 1966, ensued by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the current systematic review was to gather the researches about the effect of quinoa (chenopodium quinoa) on inflammatory parameters interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Search was performed using PubMed, Scopus, WOS, ProQuest, and Google scholar databases without any restriction on language or publication date until July 2022 and search alert services were used to detect novel papers published after the initial search. Only 20 animal and in vitro investigations were eligible for this systematic review. According to in vitro researches and 8 of 14 animal investigations, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α level decreased remarkably after quinoa administration, which indicates the capability of quinoa in alleviating inflammatory factors. Quinoa is favorable but not yet a confirmed agent for alleviating systemic inflammation in inflammatory diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An electronic table of contents (eToC) program was implemented by a medical librarian more than 11 years ago at a pediatric hospital (now a clinical and academic health system) with the goal of saving healthcare providers time and assisting them in staying current on the literature in their specific disciplines and/or general medicine. The eToC program still remains a highly popular service with more than 180 clinicians participating. This paper describes the implementation and maintenance of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems of scientists working in "less developed countries" (LOCs) have recently attracted considerable attention, as has their low level of scientific output. This article presents an examination of the editorial evaluation of papers which LDC authors are able to produce, in an attempt to illuminate their problems through analysis of their output. LDC authors are shown to experience far higher rejection rates than authors in developed countries (57% vs. 17%) and to be faulted on specific points which tend to indicate that their major problems are those of maintaining current awareness. It is thus indicated that the problems LDC researchers experience in accessing scientific information are a major factor in inhibiting the quality and quantity of their own scientific information output [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at studying the most widespread social networks among people and the extent to which it can be used to inform the beneficiaries of the existence of services that can be used in providing office service including the current awareness service at the Central Public Library in Basra. This paper also tries to find out which of these applications are used in the library and how to interact with the beneficiary as well as the user of these applications with mentioning the most important types of these applications. The study also aims at finding out the advantages and disadvantages of these applications and the role they play in library services. This paper adopted a descriptive approach, a case study, trying to collect the necessary data via the interview and questionnaire tools, analyzing these data and arriving at the most important findings and recommendations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014 a number of Capacitor Voltage Transformers (CVTs) exploded in the Swedish transmission grid. To address this problem, data driven methods for continuously monitoring CVTs were developed. Thanks to these methods, CVT capacitor punctures are now regularly noticed and addressed before causing serious damage. This paper describes the algorithms used to make this possible. Detecting all CVT capacitor punctures as they occur increases the transmission system stability, avoids equipment damage, lowers risks to personnel when visiting the substations and makes it possible to correct measurement errors in the energy measurement systems. Automatic supervision scripts, using energy meter data, are running continuously and will alert the service personal immediately when problems occur. With the algorithms proposed in this article, the Swedish National Grid (Svk) has detected many old punctures and expects no future capacitor punctures to go undetected. Detecting all new punctures enables Svk to save substantial future cost since planned actions now are possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the Health information service provision at federal medical center, Katsina. A qualitative research method was used in carrying out this study. Interview was used as research instrument for data collection. The population of this study consists of medical doctors, nurses and midwives, pharmacist, laboratory technicians and scientists and radiologists. Two participants were selected from each of these groups, making a total of sixteen (16) participants. The findings of this study have shown that the sources of information resources at the center were mainly from the library, flairs from pharmaceutical companies, professional bodies, internet services, reports, conference proceedings, workshops and seminars. Also, the findings showed that the information services provided at the center were selective dissemination of information (SDI), current awareness services (CAS), Reference services, information searching, referral library services and library user education etc. The paper articulated some of the major factors that militate against effective health information service provision at the center which revolved around inadequate information service providers, lack of effective and virile library services, inadequate internet and ICT facilities, erratic power supply and poor health record management system. Finally, the paper came up with appropriate recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notwithstanding impressive developments in SDI in exchange, sharing, accessibility, and use of spatial data, its operational implementation appears sometimes problematic. This paper explores conditions and factors for effective and sustainable use of SDI and suggests that the inherent complexity of SDI requires a multi-faceted way of monitoring and evaluation rather than confinement to the limited scope of objective oriented performance only. Critical issues, challenges, and dilemmas can be identified while looking at SDI as facilitator of communication, as networked infrastructure, as socio-technical actor-network, as common-pool resource, and as community of practice. Finally, the paper suggests institutionalization of SDI within a spatial data community as a unifying concept towards effectiveness and sustainability of SDI initiatives while recognizing their inherent complexities. Institutionalization is the process in which the SDI will gain an institutional (structural) role within the spatial data community in which it is embedded and consequently contributes to effective exchange, sharing, accessibility, and use of spatial data. The paper also discusses some operational conditions to this end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current awareness services and selective dissemination of information are used at Albany International Research Co. (AIRESCO) to support the research, product development, and other information needs of our scientific and technical community. The nature of our industry, our business objectives, and the variety of information needs pose challenges when compiling timely alerts to newly published information. This paper examines a number of issues affecting the Current Awareness Reports program administered by our one-person science library. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines librarian-faculty collaboration in selected academic libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria. Simple random sampling method was used to select five out of a total population of nine higher institutions in Lagos State. Questionnaire was used as the major instrument for data gathering among librarians in the selected institutions. The study found that librarians are willing to collaborate with faculty in the areas of providing Current Awareness Services (CAS), working with accreditation teams, and helping to develop both the media and information literacy skills of students. The study also found that librarians believe that faculty board meetings and library committee initiatives are effective platforms for promoting librarian faculty collaboration. Further, the study identified essential skills for librarian-faculty collaboration. Overall, findings show that a weak negative correlation exists between gender and area of collaboration at N  = 38, r  = −0.136, p  < 0.05. The survey also found a significant weak negative relationship between age and area of collaboration ( N  = 38, r  = −0.379, p  < 0.05). No significant relationship was found between work experience and area of collaboration ( r  =  − 0.067, p  = 0.696 > 0.05). The study therefore suggests that stakeholders in higher education should imbibe the culture of expanding and strengthening collaboration between librarians and faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Falls pose a major threat for the elderly as they result in severe consequences for their physical and mental health or even death in the worst-case scenario. Nonetheless, the impact of falls can be alleviated with appropriate technological solutions. Fall detection is the task of recognising a fall, i.e. detecting when a person has fallen in a video. Such an algorithm can be implemented in lightweight devices which can then cater to the users' needs, e.g. alerting emergency services or caregivers. At the core of those systems, a model capable of promptly recognising falls is crucial for reducing the time until help comes. In this paper we propose a fall detection solution based on transformers, i.e. state-of-the-art neural networks for computer vision tasks. Our model takes a video clip and decides if a fall has occurred or not. In a video stream, it would be applied in a sliding-window fashion to trigger an alarm as soon as it detects a fall. We evaluate our fall detection backbone model on the large UP-Fall dataset, as well as on the UR fall dataset, and compare our results with existing literature using the former dataset. • Fall detection task tackled using only RGB data. • The network directly learns from RGB data, no extra features are computed. • UP-Fall and UR Fall dataset are used for the evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a dynamic financial ecosystem, digitalisation is supporting banks in revamping their business processes to be more efficient, reducing costs, coping with customers' evolving demands, and keeping them abreast of market competition. This two-stage research aims to investigate three issues in Pakistan's banking industry from 2006 to 2020: (i) banking efficiency; (ii) the impact of digitalisation on banking efficiency; and (iii) banking efficiency's absolute and conditional convergence. In our first-stage analysis, bootstrap data envelopment analysis has been applied, which exhibits bias-corrected overall, pure, and scale efficiencies of 74, 77, and 96%, respectively. In the second-stage analysis, we executed Tobit and two-step dynamic panel data system generalised method of moments (DPDSYS-GMM) models, and the results uncover that digitalisation has a positive influence on banking efficiency. Findings confirm that return on assets, bank size, interest rate, and gross domestic product growth rate have a positive association with banking efficiency. Our research reveals that state-controlled banks outperform their private sector and special-purpose counterparts. Our DPDSYS-GMM findings validate β and σ-convergence, implying that initially, low-efficient banks caught up (converged) to the more efficient opponents, reducing cross-sectional efficiency dispersion and attaining common equilibrium. The findings of banking efficiency conditional β-convergence assert that the adoption of digital technology has played a critical role in the convergence process and that digitalisation has acted as a catalyst for less efficient banks to catch up significantly faster to their more efficient rivals. This study displays digitalisation's disruptive influence on the overall transformation of Pakistan's banking system in the modern era, resulting in significant efficiency gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Praehistorische Zeitschrift is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Blogging software has gained popularity as a vehicle to promote library resources, services and events, and as a distribution tool for current awareness services. The paper outlines the process that was undertaken to redevelop a Word based current awareness newsletter to two blog-based news services. Although the focus is on a health information news service, the key tasks undertaken: environment and user analysis, development of blog design and news content selection guidelines, news service accreditation, marketing initiatives, and site evaluation and improvement, can be adapted to guide the best practice development and management of any blog-based current awareness news service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global popularity of microblogs has led to an increasing accumulation of large volumes of text data on microblogging platforms such as Twitter. These corpora are untapped resources to understand social expressions on diverse subjects. Microblog analysis aims to unlock the value of such expressions by discovering insights and events of significance hidden among swathes of text. Besides velocity; diversity of content, brevity, absence of structure and time-sensitivity are key challenges in microblog analysis. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised incremental machine learning and event detection technique to address these challenges. The proposed technique separates a microblog discussion into topics to address the key problem of diversity. It maintains a record of the evolution of each topic over time. Brevity, time-sensitivity and unstructured nature are addressed by these individual topic pathways which contribute to generate a temporal, topic-driven structure of a microblog discussion. The proposed event detection method continuously monitors these topic pathways using multiple domain-independent event indicators for events of significance. The autonomous nature of topic separation, topic pathway generation, new topic identification and event detection, appropriates the proposed technique for extensive applications in microblog analysis. We demonstrate these capabilities on tweets containing #microsoft and tweets containing #obama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to shed light on the contribution of universal versus language specific factors on reading. We examined eye movements of Arabic readers and analyzed effects specific to Arabic such as perceptual complexity, diglossia and morphology, in addition to universal factors such as word length and frequency. Twenty native Arabic speakers read continuous texts in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) while their eye movements were monitored. A corpus-based analyses was carried to test effects specific to Arabic and effects of the benchmark eye movement factors. We found that perceptually more complex words received longer fixation durations, moreover, differences in processing words unique in MSA versus words shared between MSA and spoken Arabic Vernacular were found. This is the first indication for these effects during an eye movement reading task. However, the effect of morphological length was not significant when included in the model with all predictors. Lastly, the benchmark factors were significant showing effects for word length, word frequency and part of speech. Short and frequent words are processed faster than longer and less frequent words. Function words are often skipped. We conclude that eye movement of Arabic readers reflect proficient reading, yet they also exhibit an on-going challenge in processing the written language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background This is the eighth in a series of papers reporting Sustainability in Health care by Allocating Resources Effectively (SHARE) in a local healthcare setting. The SHARE Program was a systematic, integrated, evidence-based program for disinvestment within a large Australian health service. One of the aims was to explore methods to deliver existing high quality synthesised evidence directly to decision-makers to drive decision-making proactively. An Evidence Dissemination Service (EDS) was proposed. While this was conceived as a method to identify disinvestment opportunities, it became clear that it could also be a way to review all practices for consistency with current evidence. This paper reports the development, implementation and evaluation of two models of an in-house EDS. Methods Frameworks for development of complex interventions, implementation of evidence-based change, and evaluation and explication of processes and outcomes were adapted and/or applied. Mixed methods including a literature review, surveys, interviews, workshops, audits, document analysis and action research were used to capture barriers, enablers and local needs; identify effective strategies; develop and refine proposals; ascertain feedback and measure outcomes. Results Methods to identify, capture, classify, store, repackage, disseminate and facilitate use of synthesised research evidence were investigated. In Model 1, emails containing links to multiple publications were sent to all self-selected participants who were asked to determine whether they were the relevant decision-maker for any of the topics presented, whether change was required, and to take the relevant action. This voluntary framework did not achieve the aim of ensuring practice was consistent with current evidence. In Model 2, the need for change was established prior to dissemination, then a summary of the evidence was sent to the decision-maker responsible for practice in the relevant area who was required to take appropriate action and report the outcome. This mandatory governance framework was successful. The factors influencing decisions, processes and outcomes were identified. Conclusion An in-house EDS holds promise as a method of identifying disinvestment opportunities and/or reviewing local practice for consistency with current evidence. The resource-intensive nature of delivery of the EDS is a potential barrier. The findings from this study will inform further exploration.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the information needs of nurses in two hospitals in Nigeria and the ways in which they went about attempting to meet those needs. Design/methodology/approach – The study is a descriptive survey of nurses at the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Yenagoa, and Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDU-TH), Okolobiri, in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Findings – The main reasons that motivated nurses to search for information were better patient care, improved medication administration, and better job performance. The main types of information needed by the nurses were how to avoid contracting HIV-AIDS from patients, information about the outbreak of diseases and new discoveries in nursing. They were hampered by their inability to access foreign nursing journals and a lack of awareness of how to use medical databases. This could be due to a lack of funding to subscribe to local and foreign journals, and lack of education and training in the skills of using medical databases. Originality/value – This type of information may prove useful to decision makers such as unit managers, directors of nursing services, and hospital executives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the Clinical Medical Librarian program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the role of the Reference Librarians includes a myriad of activities, all focused on supporting specific user groups. This paper will outline two Clinical Medical Librarian programs: Psychiatry Service and Nursing Department, and will demonstrate how clinical librarians support their constituents. Data analyzed from an online survey of 134 respondents reinforce the effectiveness of the program and its resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demanding professional environments make it necessary for people to acquire information monitoring skills to stay abreast of new developments in their field. This also applies to the Humanities, although the information seeking behaviour of scholars and professionals in the Humanities will differ from those in the Social and Natural Sciences. The availability of information monitoring services through the World Wide Web (Web) for free or at reasonable fees further contributes to the need for information monitoring skills. The use of such services are discussed and linked to benefits for students in the Humanities. A theoretical framework, that should be used as basis for further research is proposed to take Humanity students from skills learned in information literacy programs to information monitoring and eventually to the use of information that will reflect their knowledge of the latest information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on 59th Annual British Conference on Non-Destructive Testing to be held on September 2020 at the Park Inn by Radisson Hotel, Northampton along with 47th Annual Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation and 59th Annual British Conference on NDT.

Many studies were conducted to evaluate safety at railway crossings equipped with different types of warning devices. In this study, a desktop driving simulator (fixed simulator) and an advanced simulator (moving simulator) were used to identify the impacts of two warning devices namely stop sign and in-vehicle audio warning on alerting drivers at railway crossings. Although these high-end technologies have been widely used for safety evaluation in many areas, there is a little research on their application and comparison at railway crossings. This paper reports the results of a comparison of the two simulators. As a preliminary result, vehicle speeds at given distance/time were analyzed. The results showed that when the warning started, drivers in the fixed simulator were slower than those in the moving simulator in responding. However, after four seconds of warning, the speed from both simulators showed statistically identical results. In summary, the different properties of the simulator lead drivers to react to warnings differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2020 was marked by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. After months of uncontrolled spread worldwide, a clear conclusion is that controlling the mobility of the general population can slow down the propagation of the pandemic. Tracking the location of the population enables better use of mobility limitation policies and the prediction of potential hotspots, as well as improved alert services to individuals that may have been exposed to the virus. With mobility in their core functionality and a high degree of penetration of mobile devices within the general population, cellular networks are an invaluable asset for this purpose. This paper shows an overview of the possibilities offered by cellular networks for the massive tacking of the population at different levels. The major privacy concerns are also reviewed and a specific use case is shown, correlating mobility and number of cases in the province of Málaga (Spain). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the corona virus diseases (COVID-19) in the late 2019 has affected all facets of educational system including library and information services. Reference services, an important aspect of library services are not exempted from this impact. This study therefore, investigated the impact of COVI\D-19 pandemic on the use of reference services and sources by postgraduate students using Kenneth Dike Library (KDL), University of Ibadan, as a case study. Using descriptive survey of correlational type, the study adopted the use of structured questionnaire to randomly select three hundred (300) postgraduate users of reference sources and services in KDL using online survey monkey. Of the three hundred (300) copies, two hundred and twenty three (223) copies, representing 74.3% were retrieved and used for analysis. Findings revealed that, in spite of COVID-19 pandemic, most postgraduate students used Current Awareness Services (203, 91.0%, mean = 3.19), Reference Sources (202, 90.5%, mean = 3.18) and On-line Public Access Catalogue (195, 87.4%, mean = 3.13); low frequency of bibliotherapy (mean=2.22), Reader’s Advisory services (mean=2.30) and inter-library loan (mean=2.13) and that COVID-19 pandemic had high impact on post- graduate students’ use of reference services in Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan. Based on the findings, recommendations were made that library management should consider the adoption of virtual reference services (VRS) in addition to the conventional mode of reference services to enhance patronage in the COVID-19 era. The library users should also be trained on how to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to learn new skills in the digital space that will eventually optimize the usage of the library remotely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Locally advanced intestinal neoplasms including colon cancer may require radical en bloc pancreaticoduodenectomy and right hemicolectomy (PD‐RC) to achieve curative, margin‐negative resection, but the safety and benefit of this uncommon procedure has not been established. The Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland IMPACT initiative has also highlighted a lack of awareness about current services available within the UK for patients with advanced colorectal cancer and concerns about low‐volume centres managing complex cases. Thus, we aimed to review the feasibility, safety and long‐term outcomes of this procedure at a single high‐volume hepatopancreaticobiliary surgery unit in the UK. Method: A retrospective cohort study was performed using a database of all consecutive patients with intestinal cancer who had been referred to our regional advanced multidisciplinary team and undergone PD‐RC in a 7‐year period (2013–2020). Clinico‐pathological and outcome data were reviewed. Results: Ten patients (mean age 54 ± 13, 8/10 men) were identified. Final histology revealed the primary tumour sites were colon (n = 7) and duodenum (n = 3). R0 resection was achieved in all cases. The major complication rate (Clavien–Dindo ≥ 3) was 10% (1/10) with no deaths within 90 days of surgery. The Kaplan–Meier estimated 5‐year overall survival was 83.3% (95% CI 58.3%–100%). Univariate survival analysis identified perineural invasion and extra‐colonic origin as predictors of poor survival (log‐rank P < 0.05). Conclusion: En bloc PD‐RC for locally advanced intestinal cancer can be performed safely with a high proportion of margin‐negative resections and resultant long‐term survival in carefully selected patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the provision of reference services and use of library information resources by undergraduates in universities in Bayelsa state, Nigeria. The study used a correlational survey research methodology, and the instrument for gathering data was a questionnaire. 17451 undergraduate students from the four universities in Bayelsa State made up the study's population, with a sample size of 349 representing 20% of the total population. 349 copies of the questionnaire were distributed and 346 were retrieved and found usable. Data were analyzed with frequency count, simple percentages, mean, and standard deviation while Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significant level. The study's findings showed a strong positive link between responding to reference requests and undergraduate students' use of library information resources at universities in Bayelsa State (r =.598; p 0.05). The usage of library information resources by students is significantly positively correlated with the referral service (r =.168; p 0.05), user education (r =.482; p 0.05), and current awareness services (r =.236; p 0.05). Undergraduate students' use of library information resources at universities in Bayelsa State is significantly positively correlated with selective information distribution (r =.127; p 0.05). According to the study's findings, reference services provided by librarians are still essential for university libraries to achieve their primary goals. The study concluded that librarians and libraries urgently need to prioritize offering reference services to undergraduates in light of their favorable impact on library use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined the role of information and communication technology (ICT)) towards providing effective library services in special libraries of Adamawa broadcasting corporation Yola, Adamawa State Nigeria. The study employed four objectives of the study and four research questions. The study adopted the descriptive survey research method. Questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The population of the study consists of fifteen (15) staff. This study adopted purposive sampling technique where. Descriptive statistic was used as the method of data analysis. The study revealed that there is availability of ICTs such as: CDs, hard drives, flash and also photocopier and printers in the library. The study also, revealed that the staff possessed competencies in retrieving document from storage devices. The study also, showed that current awareness services are effective in using ICTS for providing effective services in the library. The study showed that poor funding and facilities are the major problem hindered the effective use of information and communication technology in the library. The study concluded that among others that there is availability of information and communication technologies; also, staff in the library possessed competencies of retrieving document from the storage devices and poor funding and inadequate facilities are the major problems hinders the effective use of the library. The study recommended among others that the management of ABC should make ICTs available and should make sufficient funds available in other to acquire modern ICT facilities for effective services delivery [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined social media use: a catalyst for service delivery in academic libraries in south-south Nigeria. Four objectives and research questions guided the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study (197) comprises of 82 library staff in University of Benin (UNIBEN), Edo State, 90 in University of Uyo (UNIUYO), Akwa Ibom State and 25 in Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Akwa Ibom State all in South-South Nigeria. No sample was used for the study due to the manageable size of the population. A structured questionnaire titled: "Social Media Use for Service Delivery Questionnaire (SMUSDQ) was developed in line with the research questions. Copies of the questionnaire, which contained four research questions and thirty-five items were distributed to the respondents and collected on the sport while 100 percent return-rate was achieved. Data collected with questionnaire was analysed using frequency tables and simple percentages. The findings of the study indicated that social media platforms used by library staff for services delivery include Whatsapp, Facebook, Telegram, Twitter, also that the services rendered by library staff using social media include current awareness services, display of new arrivals, reference service, posting of library and institution's events, overdue reminder user education, document delivery service, reservation service. The study further revealed that hindrances to rendering services through social media include poor internet connectivity, erratic power supply, issues of privacy and inadequate feedback from users, technophobia, inability to use social media tools, inadequate awareness of social media tools, poor cooperation among staff and poor finance of the library. Possible solutions to these hindrances as revealed by the study include attending workshops, seminars and conferences, constant power supply, regular internet subscription for the library, personnel training and development and unity among staff. The study concluded that libraries will serve their patrons effectively if they utilise the potentials inherent in social media for their services and will have a fast communication and responses rate from their patrons. The study recommended amongst others that academic libraries should create social media handles like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, Tiktok, blogs and so on and specifically assign a staff to manage it and make it visible to the library patrons. Also the academic library management should advocate for regular Internet subscription and use of alternative power supply like solar powered inverter for the library so that the library can always connect with its patrons at all times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of several articles related to the medical field such as data management, the Lancet REduce research Waste And Reward Diligence (REWARD) Campaign, and technology tools and trends.

Background: This paper describes the design of a multifunction alerting display for intraoperative anesthetic care. The design was inspired by the multifunction primary flight display used in modern aviation. Results: The display retrieves live data from multiple sources; the physiologic monitors, the anesthesia information management system, the laboratory values and comorbidities from patient’s problem summary list, medical history or history & physical. This information is integrated into a display composed of readily identifiable icons of organ systems, which are color coded to signify normal range, marginal range, abnormal range (by green, yellow, red respectively) and orange outlines for comorbidities/risk factors. There are dozens of text alerts, which can be presented as black text (informational), red text (important information) and red scrolling text (highest importance information). The alerts are derived from current standards in the literature and some involve complex calculations being conducted in the background. Conclusions: The goal of such a system is to improve the quality and safety of anesthetic care by providing enhanced situational awareness in a fashion analogous to the “glass cockpit” and its primary flight display which has improved aviation safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In critical alert services (e.g., a collision alert in a vehicular network) a message must reach all the recipients in a prespecified area within a maximum time, usually of few milliseconds, with guaranteed reliability. In this paper, we consider a Device-to-device (D2D)-enabled cellular network where User Equipments (UEs) use D2D transmissions to spread a message in their proximity, according to a centrally computed multihop schedule. Reception of D2D transmissions is probabilistic, with probabilities known a priori, e.g. based on the distance between two UEs. We want a given message to reach all the UEs in the network, within a maximum amount of time, with a pre-specified target probability. We show that the problem of computing: a) the minimal set of UEs that should initially possess the message to be disseminated, and b) the schedule that achieves the above objectives, is integer-non-convex, hence too complex to be solved optimally, and we propose a polynomial heuristic based on iterative decompositions, which always finds a feasible solution in negligible computation time. We analyze the performance of our scheme via simulation, showing that our centralized approach outperforms distributed ones relying on node cooperation, is considerably faster and requires far fewer transmissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Information Resources team within the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield has a long-standing interest in the application of new and emerging Web 2.0 technologies for research, learning, and teaching. In early 2008, members of the group began to discuss the development of customized web portals, also referred to as personal start pages, to aggregate various streams of specialist information relevant to researchers within the School and in the wider National Health Service (NHS) research community. This paper documents the background to the portals, their development, and reflects on the challenges and issues the team encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web syndication has become a popular means of delivering relevant information to people online but the complexity of standards, algorithms and applications pose considerable challenges to engineers. This paper describes the design and development of a novel Web-based syndication intermediary called InterSynd and a simple Web client as a proof of concept. We developed format-neutral middleware that sits between content sources and the user. Additional objectives were to add feed discovery and recommendation components to the intermediary. A search-based feed discovery module helps users find relevant feed sources. Implicit collaborative recommendations of new feeds are also made to the user. The syndication software built uses open standard XML technologies and the free open source libraries. Extensibility and re-configurability were explicit goals. The experience shows that a modular architecture can combine open source modules to build state-of-the-art syndication middleware and applications. The data produced by software metrics indicate the high degree of modularity retained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]