Assessment of the Exposure of Turkey Farmers to Antimicrobial Resistance Associated with Working Practices

The objective of the present study was the identification of farming practices in the production of turkeys for human consumption, and their ranking in terms of the occupational probability of exposure to antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria, for farm workers. We gathered evidence and data from scientific literature, on risk factors for AMR in farmers, and on the prevalence of those hazards across farming phases. We administered semi-structured interviews to public and private veterinarians in Northern Italy, to obtain detailed information on turkey farming phases, and on working practices. Data were then integrated into a semi-quantitative Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA). Those working practices, which are characterized by direct contact with numerous animals, and which are carried out frequently, with rare use of personal protection devices resulted as associated with the greatest probability of exposure to AMR. For methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), these included vaccination and administration of any individual therapy, and removal and milling of litter, given the exposure of farmers to high dust level. Indeed, levels of occupational exposure to MRSA are enhanced by its transmission routes, which include direct contact with animal, as well as airborne transmission. Level of exposure to extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) is more strictly associated with direct contact and the oral-fecal route. Consequently, exposure to ESBL resulted and associated with the routinely tipping over of poults turned on their back, and with the individual administration of therapies.

Download Full-text

Doctoral Studies in Psychology in Spain

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027//1016-9040.8.1.28 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 28-33

Author(s):

Yolanda García Rodríguez

Keyword(s):

Doctoral Programs ◽

Legal Reform ◽

The State ◽

Teaching Program ◽

Doctoral Studies ◽

Public And Private ◽

Teaching And Research ◽

Doctoral Thesis ◽

Critical Phase ◽

The Individual

In Spain doctoral studies underwent a major legal reform in 1998. The new legislation has brought together the criteria, norms, rules, and study certificates in universities throughout the country, both public and private. A brief description is presented here of the planning and structuring of doctoral programs, which have two clearly differentiated periods: teaching and research. At the end of the 2-year teaching program, the individual and personal phase of preparing one's doctoral thesis commences. However, despite efforts by the state to regulate these studies and to achieve greater efficiency, critical judgment is in order as to whether the envisioned aims are being achieved, namely, that students successfully complete their doctoral studies. After this analysis, we make proposals for the future aimed mainly at the individual period during which the thesis is written, a critical phase in obtaining the doctor's degree. Not enough attention has been given to this in the existing legislation.

Download Full-text

Empirical Study On Attributes Leading To Satisfaction Among Bank Customer

Restaurant Business ◽

10.26643/rb.v118i7.7669 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 118 (7) ◽

pp. 101-110

Author(s):

Ms.U.Sakthi Veeralakshmi ◽

Dr.G. Venkatesan

Keyword(s):

Service Quality ◽

Behavioral Intention ◽

Banking Sector ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Quality Performance ◽

Public And Private ◽

The Difference ◽

The Individual ◽

Private Banking ◽

Service Gap

This research aims at measuring the service quality in public and private banking sector and identifying its relationship to customer satisfaction and behavioral intention. The study was conducted among 500 bank customers by using revised SERVQUAL instrument with 26 items. Behavioral intention of the customers was measured by using the behavioral intention battery. The researcher has used a seven point likert scaling to measure the expected and perceived service quality (performance) and the behavioral intention of the customer. The instrument was selected as the most reliable device to measure the difference-score conceptualization. It is used to evaluate service gap between expectation and perception of service quality. Modifications are made on the SERVQUAL instrument to make it specific to the Banking sector. Questions were added to the instrument like Seating space for waiting (Tangibility), Parking space in the Bank (Tangibility), Variety of products / schemes available (Tangibility), Banks sincere steps to handling Grievances of the customers (Responsiveness). The findings of the study revealed that the customer’s perception (performance) is lower than expectation of the service quality rendered by banks. Responsiveness and Assurance SQ dimensions were the most important dimensions in service quality scored less SQ gap. The study concluded that the individual service quality dimensions have a positive impact on Overall Satisfaction.

Download Full-text

What Can Economists Contribute to the Common Good Tradition?

10.1093/oso/9780190670054.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andrew M. Yuengert

Keyword(s):

Common Good ◽

Common Pool Resources ◽

Economic Approach ◽

Public And Private ◽

Private Provision ◽

The Public ◽

The Common Good ◽

The Common ◽

The Individual ◽

Insight Into

Although most economists are skeptical of or puzzled by the Catholic concept of the common good, a rejection of the economic approach as inimical to the common good would be hasty and counterproductive. Economic analysis can enrich the common good tradition in four ways. First, economics embodies a deep respect for economic agency and for the effects of policy and institutions on individual agents. Second, economics offers a rich literature on the nature of unplanned order and how it might be shaped by policy. Third, economics offers insight into the public and private provision of various kinds of goods (private, public, common pool resources). Fourth, recent work on the development and logic of institutions and norms emphasizes sustainability rooted in the good of the individual.

Download Full-text

Optimal Nitrogen Fertilization to Reach the Maximum Grain and Stover Yields of Maize (Zea mays L.): Tendency Modeling

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11071354 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 1354

Author(s):

Sergio E. Medina-Cuéllar ◽

Deli N. Tirado-González ◽

Marcos Portillo-Vázquez ◽

Sergio Orozco-Cirilo ◽

Marco A. López-Santiago ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nitrogen Fertilization ◽

Zea Mays L ◽

N Fertilization ◽

Human Consumption ◽

Alluvial Soils ◽

Grain Production ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Maize Stover ◽

The Individual ◽

Quadratic Models

Utilization of maize stover to the production of meat and milk and saving the grains for human consumption would be one strategy for the optimal usage of resources. Variance and tendency analyses were applied to find the optimal nitrogen (N) fertilization dose (0, 100, 145, 190, 240, and 290 kg/ha) for forage (F), stover (S), cob (C), and grain (G) yields, as well as the optimal grain-to-forage, cob-to-forage, and cob-to-stover ratios (G:F, C:F, and C:S, respectively). The study was performed in central Mexico (20.691389° N and −101.259722° W, 1740 m a.m.s.l.; Cwa (Köppen), 699 mm annual precipitation; alluvial soils). N-190 and N-240 improved the individual yields and ratios the most. Linear and quadratic models for CDM, GDM, and G:F ratio had coefficients of determination (R2) of 0.20–0.46 (p < 0.03). Cubic showed R2 = 0.30–0.72 (p < 0.02), and the best models were for CDM, GDM, and the G:F, C:F, and C:S DM ratios (R2 = 0.60–0.72; p < 0.0002). Neither SHB nor SDM negatively correlated with CDM or GDM (r = 0.23–0.48; p < 0.0001). Excess of N had negative effects on forage, stover, cobs, and grains yields, but optimal N fertilization increased the proportion of the G:F, C:F, and C:S ratios, as well as the SHB and SDM yields, without negative effects on grain production.

Download Full-text

Drivers of Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Overuse across Diverse Hospital Contexts—A Qualitative Study of Prescribers in the UK, Sri Lanka and South Africa

Antibiotics ◽

10.3390/antibiotics10010094 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 94

Author(s):

Carolyn Tarrant ◽

Andrew M. Colman ◽

David R. Jenkins ◽

Edmund Chattoe-Brown ◽

Nelun Perera ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Sri Lanka ◽

Antimicrobial Stewardship ◽

Broad Spectrum ◽

Low Income ◽

System Level ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Public And Private ◽

The Uk

Antimicrobial stewardship programs focus on reducing overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics (BSAs), primarily through interventions to change prescribing behavior. This study aims to identify multi-level influences on BSA overuse across diverse high and low income, and public and private, healthcare contexts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 46 prescribers from hospitals in the UK, Sri Lanka, and South Africa, including public and private providers. Interviews explored decision making about prescribing BSAs, drivers of the use of BSAs, and benefits of BSAs to various stakeholders, and were analyzed using a constant comparative approach. Analysis identified drivers of BSA overuse at the individual, social and structural levels. Structural drivers of overuse varied significantly across contexts and included: system-level factors generating tensions with stewardship goals; limited material resources within hospitals; and patient poverty, lack of infrastructure and resources in local communities. Antimicrobial stewardship needs to encompass efforts to reduce the reliance on BSAs as a solution to context-specific structural conditions.

Download Full-text

Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) to improve collaborative project-based learning: Case study of a Study and Research Path in mechanical engineering

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education ◽

10.1177/0306419021999046 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 030641902199904

Author(s):

Elena Bartolomé ◽

Paula Benítez

Keyword(s):

Active Learning ◽

Failure Mode ◽

Mechanical Engineering ◽

Failure Modes ◽

Collaborative Study ◽

Project Based Learning ◽

Educational Process ◽

Effect Analysis ◽

Questions And Answers

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a powerful quality tool, widely used in industry, for the identification of failure modes, their effects and causes. In this work, we investigated the utility of FMEA in the education field to improve active learning processes. In our case study, the FMEA principles were adapted to assess the risk of failures in a Mechanical Engineering course on “Theory of Machines and Mechanisms” conducted through a project-based, collaborative “Study and Research Path (SRP)” methodology. The SRP is an active learning instruction format which is initiated by a generating question that leads to a sequence of derived questions and answers, and combines moments of study and inquiry. By applying the FMEA, the teaching team was able to identify the most critical failures of the process, and implement corrective actions to improve the SRP in the subsequent year. Thus, our work shows that FMEA represents a simple tool of risk assesment which can serve to identify criticality in educational process, and improve the quality of active learning.

Download Full-text

A Multiple Stakeholder Perspective for Evaluating Community-Based Dementia Care

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.197 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 60-61

Author(s):

Johan Suen

Keyword(s):

Dementia Care ◽

Structural Constraints ◽

Care Provision ◽

Care Providers ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Community Based ◽

Relational Factors ◽

Care Relationships ◽

The Individual ◽

The Impact

Abstract For holistic interventions and research on dementia, it is fundamental to understand care experiences from the perspectives of carers, care recipients, and care professionals. While research on care dyads and triads have highlighted the effects of communication and interactional aspects on care relationships, there is a lack of knowledge on how individual-contextual and relational factors shape the provision and receipt of care in terms of decision-making processes, resource allocation, and expectations of care outcomes. Thus, this paper sheds light on (i) how carers negotiate care provision with other important life domains such as employment, household/family roles and conflicts, as well as their own health problems, life goals, values, and aspirations for ageing; (ii) how older adults with dementia perceive support and those who provide it; (iii) the structural constraints faced by care professionals in delivering a team-based mode of dementia care; and, taken together, (iv) how community-based dementia care is impeded by barriers at the individual, relational, and institutional levels. Findings were derived from semi-structured interviews and observational data from fieldwork conducted with 20 persons with dementia (median age = 82), 20 of their carers (median age = 60), and 4 professional care providers. All respondents were clients and staff of a multidisciplinary and community-based dementia care system in Singapore. Our analysis indicates the impact of dementia care is strongly mediated by the interplay between institutional/familial contexts of care provision and the various ‘orientations’ to cognitive impairment and seeking support, which we characterised as ‘denial/acceptance’, ‘obligated’, ‘overprotective’, and ‘precariously vulnerable’.

Download Full-text

Developing HIV assisted partner notification services tailored to Mexican key populations: a qualitative approach

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-10612-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Heleen Vermandere ◽

Santiago Aguilera-Mijares ◽

Liliane Martínez-Vargas ◽

M. Arantxa Colchero ◽

Sergio Bautista-Arredondo

Keyword(s):

Partner Notification ◽

Key Populations ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Hiv Diagnosis ◽

Serostatus Disclosure ◽

Hiv Epidemic ◽

Contact Information ◽

Hiv Awareness ◽

Sex With Men ◽

The Individual

Abstract Background Assisted partner notification services (APNS) may increase HIV testing, early diagnosis, and treatment, but they are not formally implemented in Mexico, where the HIV epidemic is concentrated in men who have sex with men (MSM) and transwomen (TW). This study aimed to explore the awareness of and need for HIV partner notification, as well as to outline potential strategies for APNS based on identified barriers and facilitators. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews to explore partner notification with MSM, TW, and counselors. Afterwards, brainstorm sessions were carried out to produce strategies for implementing APNS. Results Most participants reported experiences with informal partner notification and serostatus disclosure, but not with APNS. Only one counselor indicated assisting notification systematically. The main barriers for notifying or disclosing mentioned by both MSM and TW included fear of (violent) reactions, discrimination and lacking contact information of casual partners. Participants thought it was easier to inform a formal partner, conditional of being well informed about HIV. Given current stigma and lack of awareness, it was suggested that APNS should be preceded by HIV awareness efforts, and be provided by counselors or peers to mitigate potential rejection or violent reactions. Conclusions While APNS are not formally implemented in Mexico, all participants supported the service, indicating that APNS could potentially enhance early HIV diagnosis in Mexico. Strategies to implement such services need to be flexible addressing the individual needs of participants, guaranteeing the safety of more vulnerable participants.

Download Full-text

Transnational sustainability certification for the bioeconomy? Patterns and discourse coalitions of resistance and alternatives in biomass exporting regions

Energy Sustainability and Society ◽

10.1186/s13705-021-00278-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Thomas Vogelpohl

Keyword(s):

Empirical Studies ◽

General Pattern ◽

New Paradigm ◽

Public And Private ◽

Governmental Organizations ◽

Non Governmental Organizations ◽

Political Economies ◽

The Individual ◽

Sustainability Standards ◽

Discourse Coalitions

AbstractThe bioeconomy is nowadays widely proclaimed by governments and corporations around the world as a new paradigm for a sustainable economy. Essentially, it broadly denotes the promotion, development and establishment of the use of biogenic resources in diverse kinds of industrial technologies, production processes and products. Yet, in order for the bioeconomy to be sustainable, it has to be assured that these biogenic resources are sourced sustainably. In the last 30 years, transnational sustainability certification (TSC) has established itself as a popular instrument in this context, for example in the case of European biofuels sustainability regulation. In the last decade or so, however, TSC initiatives in several biomass production sectors like palm oil, soy, fruits, aquaculture or fisheries—mostly initiated by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and corporations from the Global North—are increasingly met with resistance from actors from the resource-producing countries, mostly located in the Global South. Issues brought up in this context concern their lack of legitimacy and respect for national regulatory sovereignty and conflicting priorities in terms of sustainable development. Consequently, governmental and corporate actors from the resource-producing countries have developed sustainability standards that now at least partly compete with TSC. Against this background, this contribution investigates this apparent dilemma of biomass certification by taking stock of existing TSC initiatives and territorial responses to them in several sectors of the bioeconomy in order to discover general patterns and dynamics of transnational biomass sustainability certification. This analysis is based on a review of existing empirical studies on these issues as well as on conceptual literature on discourse coalitions and transnational hybrid governance for the classification of the different aspects and developments in the individual sectors. Results show that TSC is indeed challenged in all sectors around story lines of sovereignty and sustainability, employed by closely associated state and industry actors in the specific context of the prevalent state-industry relations and the practices and institutions of the respective international political economies. Beyond this general pattern, these alternative systems take on different shapes and complex relations between transnational and territorial sustainability governance emerge that are not always antagonistic, but also exist in parallel or even complementarily and involve various hybrid configurations of public and private actors. Overall, this casts some doubt on the potential of TSC as an instrument to safeguard the sustainability of the bioeconomy and shows one of its potential pitfalls, which is reflected upon in the conclusion.

Download Full-text

Fuzzy risk assessment for electro-optical target tracker

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management ◽

10.1108/ijqrm-03-2015-0034 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (6) ◽

pp. 830-851 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Soumen Kumar Roy ◽

A K Sarkar ◽

Biswajit Mahanty

Keyword(s):

Failure Mode ◽

Failure Modes ◽

Linear Equations ◽

Mode Analysis ◽

Failure Behavior ◽

Membership Functions ◽

Design And Development ◽

Effect Analysis ◽

Content Type ◽

Criticality Analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evolve a guideline for scientists and development engineers to the failure behavior of electro-optical target tracker system (EOTTS) using fuzzy methodology leading to success of short-range homing guided missile (SRHGM) in which this critical subsystems is exploited. Design/methodology/approach – Technology index (TI) and fuzzy failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) are used to build an integrated framework to facilitate the system technology assessment and failure modes. Failure mode analysis is carried out for the system using data gathered from technical experts involved in design and realization of the EOTTS. In order to circumvent the limitations of the traditional failure mode effects and criticality analysis (FMECA), fuzzy FMCEA is adopted for the prioritization of the risks. FMEA parameters – severity, occurrence and detection are fuzzifed with suitable membership functions. These membership functions are used to define failure modes. Open source linear programming solver is used to solve linear equations. Findings – It is found that EOTTS has the highest TI among the major technologies used in the SRHGM. Fuzzy risk priority numbers (FRPN) for all important failure modes of the EOTTS are calculated and the failure modes are ranked to arrive at important monitoring points during design and development of the weapon system. Originality/value – This paper integrates the use of TI, fuzzy logic and experts’ database with FMEA toward assisting the scientists and engineers while conducting failure mode and effect analysis to prioritize failures toward taking corrective measure during the design and development of EOTTS.

Download Full-text