Markups and Contribution Margins of Nursing Homes

Markups and profit margins are different accounting terms that analyze similar transactions and use the same inputs but show additional information. The two use costs and revenues as in their calculations. The critical difference is that while profit margins refer to sales less the cost of goods sold, markups refer to the amount that needs to be added to the cost of goods to get to the final selling price. Understanding these two terms ensures that price setting is done correctly. Too low or high price setting may cause lost profits or sales. Also, with time, the price setting of a firm impacts its market share. This research paper discusses markups and contribution margins of nursing homes.

Popular Republicanism versus Populism: Articulating the People

In problematic ways, populism has become a catch-all formula used with discretion to capture all kinds of discontent with democratic politics today. Populism is not only an essentially contested, but also an unavoidably blurred concept. Its recurrent use as a weapon to discredit all kinds of projects that challenge contemporary liberal democracies has led to a situation in which protest movements that aim at democratic renewal end up being conflated with opposite tendencies whose objective is a reactionary scaling down of democracy. Against this background, this article argues that both for political and for analytical purposes, the key point for distinguishing between “progressive” and “regressive” projects that address the crisis of democracy is to determine how such projects conceive of the identity of the people. Invoking the people is not per se an attribute of populism, but ultimately a feature of all kinds of democratic politics. What does make for a critical difference, though, is how peoplehood is articulated in the process of collective mobilization. The distinction becomes particularly relevant with regard to current debates on how to tackle the issue of diversity and democratic integration in Europe and North America. To substantiate this relevance, the article introduces the concept of popular republicanism, which is fleshed out by discussing two recent examples: Catalan sovereignism and the Kurdish-Turkish HDP.

The Booster, the Snitch, and the Bogus False Arrest Victim: Retailers and Shoplifters in Interwar America and Britain

This article examines shoplifting from department stores and variety chain stores in interwar America and Britain. Patterns of shoplifting show strong similarities—with stores facing a predominantly female, and disproportionately affluent, army of amateur shoplifters, together with a much smaller corps of professional thieves. The incidence and characteristics of shoplifting are explored, together with the stores’ legal and other strategies to deter shoplifters. The article also examines why apparently prosperous women had the highest propensity to shoplift. Britain and the United States had strong commonalities in terms of open display retail formats, the methods used to deter shoplifters, and typical legal penalties. However, America had one critical difference—the much higher incidence of a type of store criminal who specialized in deliberately getting apprehended in order to sue the store for false arrest and, often, false imprisonment, slander, and a range of related charges. This reflected the higher damages typically awarded by U.S. courts compared with their British counterparts, inflated by local antagonism to retail corporations, together with a system—at least in some U.S. cities—whereby corrupt lawyers and judges connived in shoplifting acquittals that paved the way for lawsuits.

FITTING OF NEGATIVE BINOMIAL DISTRIBUTION BY USING RECURRENCE RELATION METHOD BETWEEN RAINFALL AND GROUND WATER LEVELS – A CASE STUDY

Present paper deals with the application of Distribution Theory to analyze and predict Rainfall (RF) and Ground Water Levels (GWLs) in Anantapuramu district based on the data collected from January 2007 to December 2016. Through with Negative Binomial Distribution by using Recurrence Relation Method for the purpose of analysis the district is divided into five zones. We have estimated the Negative Binomial Distribution by using Recurrence Relation values and compared among them by using the data. Further, validation of the fitted distribution identified the best suitable zone that is Residual Sum of Squares (RSS) value of the zone and forecast on the Rainfall and Ground Water Levels of this district. We also calculate Critical Difference (C.D) test and conclusions are drawn based on the results obtained.

Nutritional and Organoleptic Properties of Oat Milk Dessert Enriched with Paneer and Standardized Milk

Background: Dessert with good nutritional value could play an important role in the physical and mental growth and development of infants, children and teenagers as well as great tasty food choice of adult and ageing. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the nutritional and organoleptic quality of oat milk dessert. Nine types of dessert prepared from an admixture of oat milk and standardized milk having different ratio of 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 indicate as TO1, TO2 and TO3, respectively and three different levels of paneer i.e. 5% 10% and 15% indicated as P1, P2 and P3 respectively were compared to each other. Methods: The study was executed in the Research Laboratory of Warner School of Food and Dairy Technology, SHUATS during 2012 - 2013. Dessert prepared from standardized milk with addition of 10 percent paneer which served as T0P2 (control). The experiment was replicated three times and the data was statistically analyzed by using analysis of variance ANOVA and critical difference (C.D) techniques. Dessert were determined according to the AOAC methods and their organoleptic acceptability by using 9 point Hedonic Scale. Result: Nutritional content of oat milk dessert experimental sample (TO3P3) showed that protein (9.23%), carbohydrate (28.55%), ash (2.13%) and fat (12.96%). Oat milk dessert gained acceptability in terms of sensory attributes hence was concluded to be a potential nutritious dessert for all vulnerable age group as nutrient-dense food.

Thematic object pairs produce stronger and faster perceptual grouping than taxonomic pairs

While objects are fundamental units of vision that convey meaning, how different types of semantic knowledge affect perception is not fully understood. In contrast, the concept literature divides semantic information into taxonomic and thematic types. Taxonomic relationships reflect categorization by similarities (e.g., dog – wolf); thematic groups are based on complementary relationships shared within a common event (e.g., swimsuit – goggles; pool). A critical difference between these two information types is that thematic relationships are learned from the experienced co-occurrence of objects whereas taxonomic relationships are learned abstractly. In two studies, we test the hypothesis that visual processing of thematically related objects is more rapid because they serve as mutual visual primes and form a perceptual unit. The results demonstrate that learned co-occurrence not only shapes semantic knowledge, but also affects low level visual processing, revealing a link between how information is acquired (e.g., experienced vs. unobserved) and how it modulates perception.

Characteristic Curves and Criterion of Critical Difference in Assessing the Informativeness of Markers of Renal Damage in Lithotripsy

Aim of study. Determination of the diagnostic significance of laboratory biomarkers of renal tissue damage in remote nephrolithotripsy in patients with urolithiasis.Material and methods. On the basis of the urology department of the Republican Clinical Hospital (Ufa), 35 patients with urolithiasis were examined, who underwent remote shock wave lithotripsy sessions. The laboratory parameters were determined in patients: the number of erythrocytes, leukocytes in the blood, the level of lipocalin and microalbumin in the urine, as well as alpha2-microglobulin and cystatin C in the blood serum. The control group included 14 healthy donors. To determine the diagnostic efficacy of biomarkers of renal injury, characteristic curves were plotted, and lipocalin level shifts were interpreted taking into account the data on the critical difference criterion value.Results. When studying the urinary level of lipocalin in patients with urolithiasis, it was found that the difference in the concentration of the biomarker in them and in healthy individuals is statistically insignificant (0.68 pg/ml versus 0.4 pg/ml). After the first session of extracorporeal lithotripsy, an increase in urinary excretion of lipocalin by 5 times is noted, after the second - by an additional 1.6 times, and after the third - by another 1.7 times (the differences are statistically significant). To analyze the prognostic efficiency of markers of renal injury, characteristic curves were plotted. The area under the ROC curve for lipocalin varied from 0.77 to 0.80 depending on the number of sessions, which indicates a high diagnostic efficiency of this biomarker. The determination of the criterion of critical difference (CCD) showed that an increase in the level of lipocalin in the urine after the first session of lithotripsy more than 2.1 times is statistically significant. The concentration of the specified biomarker in urine exceeding 4.5 pg/ml, 6 pg/ml and 10 pg/ml after the first, second and third sessions of lithotripsy, respectively, can be considered as a basis for changing treatment tactics (delaying the second procedure) or performing lithotripsy in another way.Conclusion. Urinary lipocalin, associated with neutrophil gelatinase, is an informative biomarker of renal injury in the assessment of complications associated with the lithotripsy procedure.

The Remarkable Metabolism of Vickermania ingenoplastis: Genomic Predictions

A recently redescribed two-flagellar trypanosomatid Vickermania ingenoplastis is insensitive to the classical inhibitors of respiration and thrives under anaerobic conditions. Using genomic and transcriptomic data, we analyzed its genes of the core metabolism and documented that subunits of the mitochondrial respiratory complexes III and IV are ablated, while those of complexes I, II, and V are all present, along with an alternative oxidase. This explains the previously reported conversion of glucose to acetate and succinate by aerobic fermentation. Glycolytic pyruvate is metabolized to acetate and ethanol by pyruvate dismutation, whereby a unique type of alcohol dehydrogenase (shared only with Phytomonas spp.) processes an excess of reducing equivalents formed under anaerobic conditions, leading to the formation of ethanol. Succinate (formed to maintain the glycosomal redox balance) is converted to propionate by a cyclic process involving three enzymes of the mitochondrial methyl-malonyl-CoA pathway, via a cyclic process, which results in the formation of additional ATP. The unusual structure of the V. ingenoplastis genome and its similarity with that of Phytomonas spp. imply their relatedness or convergent evolution. Nevertheless, a critical difference between these two trypanosomatids is that the former has significantly increased its genome size by gene duplications, while the latter streamlined its genome.

The Ontological Necessity of Mood, or Vice Versa

The paper begins by emphasizing the importance of so-called complete philosophical works on ontology to include ideas on mood and emotions, noting the lack of this inclusion in many texts. Next, it uses and dives into Heidegger’s Being & Time, as an example of an ontological work that aptly includes explanations of mood & emotions, or “attunement” in Heideggerian terms. It is also noted the critical difference between Heidegger’s approach to these topics and the approach taken by psychologists and those in similar fields. Finally, the paper concludes by arguing for the importance of Being & Time, Heidegger, and ontological work on mood.