Plains zebra (Equus quagga) behaviour in a restored population reveals seasonal resource limitations

Abstract Introduction There is currently an increased demand for elective orthopaedic surgery. However, due to the ever-growing financial, time and resource limitations, there is a pressing need to identify those who would benefit most from surgery but with the lowest risk of complications. Comorbidities are a fundamental factor in this decision and the traditional way to ascertain this is through medical record data abstraction during pre-operative assessment. However, this can be time consuming and expensive. We therefore set out to establish whether patient reported comorbidities are reliable as a principal source of information. Method Searches were performed on PubMed and Medline, and citations independently screened. Included studies were published between 2010 to 2020 assessing the reliability of at least one patient reported comorbidity against their medical record or clinical assessment as gold standard. Cohen’s kappa coefficient values were grouped into systems and a meta-analysis performed comparing the reliability between studies. Results Meta-analysis data showed poor-to-moderate reliability for diseases in cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, neurological and respiratory systems as well as for malignancy and depression. Endocrine diseases showed good-to-excellent reliability. Factors found to affect the concordance included sex, age, ethnicity, education, living alone, marital status, number or severity of comorbidities, mental health and disability. Conclusion Our study showed poor-to-moderate reliability for all systems except endocrine, consisting of thyroid disease and diabetes mellitus, which demonstrated good-to-excellent reliability. Although patient reported data is useful and can facilitate a complete pre-operative overview of the patient, it is not reliable enough to be used as a standalone measure.

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Trends in sympatric otariid populations suggest resource limitations in the Peruvian Humboldt Current System

Marine Environmental Research ◽

10.1016/j.marenvres.2021.105349 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 105349

Author(s):

Susana Cárdenas-Alayza ◽

Dimitri Gutiérrez ◽

Yann Tremblay

Keyword(s):

Current System ◽

Humboldt Current ◽

Resource Limitations ◽

Humboldt Current System

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A recommendation and risk classification system for connecting rough sleepers to essential outreach services

Data & Policy ◽

10.1017/dap.2020.23 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Harrison Wilde ◽

Lucia L. Chen ◽

Austin Nguyen ◽

Zoe Kimpel ◽

Joshua Sidgwick ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Service Providers ◽

Modern Society ◽

Learning System ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Resource Limitations ◽

Modeling Process ◽

The People ◽

Weather Events ◽

Outreach Services ◽

Data Driven Approach

Abstract Rough sleeping is a chronic experience faced by some of the most disadvantaged people in modern society. This paper describes work carried out in partnership with Homeless Link (HL), a UK-based charity, in developing a data-driven approach to better connect people sleeping rough on the streets with outreach service providers. HL's platform has grown exponentially in recent years, leading to thousands of alerts per day during extreme weather events; this overwhelms the volunteer-based system they currently rely upon for the processing of alerts. In order to solve this problem, we propose a human-centered machine learning system to augment the volunteers' efforts by prioritizing alerts based on the likelihood of making a successful connection with a rough sleeper. This addresses capacity and resource limitations whilst allowing HL to quickly, effectively, and equitably process all of the alerts that they receive. Initial evaluation using historical data shows that our approach increases the rate at which rough sleepers are found following a referral by at least 15% based on labeled data, implying a greater overall increase when the alerts with unknown outcomes are considered, and suggesting the benefit in a trial taking place over a longer period to assess the models in practice. The discussion and modeling process is done with careful considerations of ethics, transparency, and explainability due to the sensitive nature of the data involved and the vulnerability of the people that are affected.

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Deep Compressive Offloading

GetMobile Mobile Computing and Communications ◽

10.1145/3471440.3471451 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 39-42

Author(s):

Shuochao Yao ◽

Jinyang Li ◽

Dongxin Liu ◽

Tianshi Wang ◽

Shengzhong Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Embedded Systems ◽

Mobile Devices ◽

Physical Environment ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Important Research ◽

Resource Limitations ◽

Visual Inputs ◽

Research Questions ◽

User Friendly ◽

Tracking Objects

Future mobile and embedded systems will be smarter and more user-friendly. They will perceive the physical environment, understand human context, and interact with end-users in a human-like fashion. Daily objects will be capable of leveraging sensor data to perform complex estimation and recognition tasks, such as recognizing visual inputs, understanding voice commands, tracking objects, and interpreting human actions. This raises important research questions on how to endow low-end embedded and mobile devices with the appearance of intelligence despite their resource limitations.

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Management strategies to improve French language service coordination and continuity for official language Francophone seniors in Canada

Healthcare Management Forum ◽

10.1177/0840470420931115 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 33 (6) ◽

pp. 271-276

Author(s):

Danielle de Moissac ◽

Jacinthe Savard ◽

Sébastien Savard ◽

Florette Giasson ◽

Lucy-Ann Kubina

Keyword(s):

Healthcare Access ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Language Barriers ◽

French Language ◽

Official Language ◽

Individual Interviews ◽

Resource Limitations ◽

Official Language Minority ◽

Canadian Provinces ◽

Access And Quality

Evidence suggests that language barriers present obstacles to healthcare access and quality for Francophone seniors in official language minority communities across Canada. Addressing language barriers and providing continuity is challenging, as French language services (FLSs) rely heavily on bilingual providers and the practice of active offer by all staff. This qualitative research used semi-structured group and individual interviews to explore mechanisms supporting FLS coordination and continuity in two Canadian provinces. Identification of the language variable in health records, virtual healthcare, and FLS directories are conducive to FLS continuity, but financial and resource limitations present major obstacles. Management strategies to facilitate continuity of FLS across health organizations are discussed.

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A rapid loss of stripes: the evolutionary history of the extinct quagga

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2005.0323 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 291-295 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Jennifer A Leonard ◽

Nadin Rohland ◽

Scott Glaberman ◽

Robert C Fleischer ◽

Adalgisa Caccone ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Dna Sequences ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Rapid Loss ◽

Mt Dna ◽

Pleistocene Climate ◽

Equus Burchelli ◽

History Of ◽

Plains Zebra

Twenty years ago, the field of ancient DNA was launched with the publication of two short mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequences from a single quagga ( Equus quagga ) museum skin, an extinct South African equid ( Higuchi et al . 1984 Nature 312 , 282–284). This was the first extinct species from which genetic information was retrieved. The DNA sequences of the quagga showed that it was more closely related to zebras than to horses. However, quagga evolutionary history is far from clear. We have isolated DNA from eight quaggas and a plains zebra (subspecies or phenotype Equus burchelli burchelli ). We show that the quagga displayed little genetic diversity and very recently diverged from the plains zebra, probably during the penultimate glacial maximum. This emphasizes the importance of Pleistocene climate changes for phylogeographic patterns in African as well as Holarctic fauna.

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Cost Optimization of Net-Zero Energy House

ASME 2007 Energy Sustainability Conference ◽

10.1115/es2007-36077 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

George A. Mertz ◽

Gregory S. Raffio ◽

Kelly Kissock

Keyword(s):

Energy Use ◽

Cost Optimization ◽

Building Design ◽

Building Energy ◽

Zero Energy ◽

Resource Limitations ◽

Net Zero Energy ◽

Net Zero ◽

Building Energy Use ◽

The Cost

Environmental and resource limitations provide increased motivation for design of net-zero energy or net-zero CO2 buildings. The optimum building design will have the lowest lifecycle cost. This paper describes a method of performing and comparing lifecycle costs for standard, CO2-neutral and net-zero energy buildings. Costs of source energy are calculated based on the cost of photovoltaic systems, tradable renewable certificates, CO2 credits and conventional energy. Building energy simulation is used to determine building energy use. A case study is conducted on a proposed net-zero energy house. The paper identifies the least-cost net-zero energy house, the least-cost CO2 neutral house, and the overall least-cost house. The methodology can be generalized to different climates and buildings. The method and results may be of interest to builders, developers, city planners, or organizations managing multiple buildings.

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