Articoli di riviste sul tema "Consensus distribué"

The IoT devices deployed in various application scenarios will generate massive data with immeasurable value every day. These data often contain the user’s personal privacy information, so there is an imperative need to guarantee the reliability and security of IoT data sharing. We proposed a new encrypted data storing and sharing architecture by combining proxy re-encryption with blockchain technology. The consensus mechanism based on threshold proxy re-encryption eliminates dependence on the third-party central service providers. Multiple consensus nodes in the blockchain network act as proxy service nodes to re-encrypt data and combine converted ciphertext, and personal information will not be disclosed in the whole procedure. That eliminates the restrictions of using decentralized network to store and distribute private encrypted data safely. We implemented a lot of simulated experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed framework. The results show that the proposed architecture can meet the extensive data access demands and increase a tolerable time latency. Our scheme is one of the essays to utilize the threshold proxy re-encryption and blockchain consensus algorithm to support IoT data sharing.

Abstract Autonomous and intelligent system show a remarkable step in urban traffic management. Autonomous Intersection Management (AIM) is an outstanding example of using an autonomous vehicle and wireless communication technology. The traffic performance of a single AIM system has been proved in many works however, traffic in the network of multiple AIMs is waiting for an implementation. Coordination of traffic between intersections in the network is an important step of managing the overall networked traffic throughput. The authors modeled the traffic network with the multi-agents concept and used the discrete consensus algorithm to coordinate between autonomous agents and implemented the rerouting algorithm in order to distribute the excessive traffics to neighbored intersections with the optimal condition. Our target is to have a balance traffic in each intersection and reaches the equilibrium where the stability has been not compromised. The results show that reaching consensus condition will bring the networked traffic to an equilibrium state where a peak traffic will not be happened. In addition, this method shows that when traffic in a network reached consensus, it will also converge to the Nash equilibrium in the finite time.

Abstract While countries are in a hurry to obtain SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, we are concerned with the availability of vaccine and whether a vaccine will be available to all in need. We predicted three possible scenarios for vaccine distributions and urge an international united action on the worldwide equitable access. In case the international community does not reach a consensus on how to distribute the vaccine to achieve worldwide equitable access, we call for a distribution plan that includes the employees in international transportation industries and international travelers to halt the disease transmission and promote the recovery of the global economy.

IntroductionInformation included in a patient decision aid (PDA) can significantly influence patients’ decisions and is, therefore, expected to be evidence-based and rigorously selected and summarised. PDA developers have not yet agreed on a standardised process for the selection and summarisation of the supporting evidence. We intend to generate consensus on a process (and related steps and criteria) for selecting and summarising evidence for PDAs using a modified Delphi survey.Methods and analysisWe will develop an evidence summarisation process specific to PDA development by using a consensus-based Delphi approach, surveying international experts and stakeholders with two to three rounds. To increase generalisability and acceptability, we will distribute the survey to the following stakeholder groups: PDA developers, researchers with expertise in shared decision making, PDA development and evidence summarisation, members of the International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDAS) collaboration, policy makers with expertise in PDA certification and patient stakeholder groups. For each criterion, if at least 80% of survey participants rank the criterion as most important/least important, we will consider that consensus has been achieved.Ethics and disseminationIt is critical for PDAs to have accurate and trustworthy evidence-based information about the risks and benefits of health treatments and tests, as these decision aids help patients make important choices. We want to generate consensus on an approach for selecting and summarising the evidence included in PDAs, which can be widely implemented by PDA developers. Dartmouth College’s Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects approved this protocol. We will publish our results in a peer reviewed journal.

The target-encirclement guidance problem for many-to-one missile-target engagement scenario is studied, where the missiles evenly distribute on a target-centered circle during the homing guidance. The proposed distributed target-encirclement guidance law can achieve simultaneous attack of multiple missiles in different line-of-sight directions. Firstly, the decentralization protocols of desired line-of-sight angles are constructed based on the information of neighboring missiles. Secondly, a biased proportional navigation guidance law that can arbitrarily designate the impact angle is cited. The missiles can achieve all-aspect attack on the target in an encirclement manner by combining the biased proportional navigation guidance law and dynamic virtual targets strategy. Thirdly, the consensus protocol of simultaneous attack is designed, which can guarantee that all missiles’ time-to-go estimates achieve consensus asymptotically, and the convergence of the closed-loop system is proved strictly via the Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, numerical simulation results demonstrate the performance and feasibility of the proposed distributed target-encirclement guidance law in different engagement situations.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how consensus decision making serves as a foundation for organizing an alternative economy while the agency of the economic project itself organizes participants because it serves to distribute resources as people need them and foment a community of sharing based on the concept that as individuals we are lacking but as a community we have enough. The paper asserts that as activists looking to foment change, alternative economic projects in themselves are actors in organizing community building and resistance to capitalism. Design/methodology/approach El Cambalache (The Swap in English), located in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, is an exchange-based money-less economy that trades unwanted items as well as knowledge, abilities and skills that one wants to share. The project receives anything; specifically used, broken and/or unwanted electronics as well as just about anything else that one might possess. In exchange people provide laptop maintenance classes, language exchange, land to be worked, rooms, gardening services, objects, stories, etc. The rules in this money-less non-capitalist economy organize participation through one exchange or many. Findings Consensus decision making is an effective method for engaging in non-hierarchical research projects. Originality/value This project contributes to research in heterodox economies by presenting an original project with a new suggestion for exchange value as an inclusive process of exchange among participants in the economy. It also provides evidence that consensus decision making can be a useful and productive method for research.

Cet article porte sur la distribution des présents aux Premières Nations du Canada par l’État impérial britannique pendant la première moitié du XIXe siècle. En analysant les débats entourant une proposition de remplacer des biens matériels distribués en tant que présents par de l’argent, l’auteur observe le développement d’un consensus au sein des autorités métropolitaines et coloniales, mais qui est également partagé par les philanthropes et même par certains Autochtones, selon lequel les Amérindiens, à l’instar des pauvres du milieu urbain, sont imprévoyants par nature. Ces mêmes acteurs croient que les Autochtones ont besoin de la direction et du soutien de l’État paternel, une conviction qui demeure au coeur même de la politique indienne canadienne jusqu’à nos jours. L’article affirme que le discours prônant la « civilisation » des Premières Nations, tenu par les fonctionnaires et les philanthropes, s’appuie sur cette conviction et ainsi participe à former l’idéologie justifiant l’intervention étatique dans les communautés autochtones et la mise en tutelle de ces dernières.

The authors of the article consider consensus-building algorithms that are central to the life cycle of transactional exchange between nodes of a DDPS (Distributed Data Processing System) based on blockchain technology. The term under consideration is formally defined. It is proved that when developing these algorithms, it is necessary to choose the main indicators and methods for calculating them, which can be used to evaluate their effectiveness. The process of false forking is described in detail, and the probability of its occurrence is calculated in order to assess the security of data stored in the distributed ledger. When analyzing existing consensus-building algorithms based on statistical data, it is shown that the Byzantine Fault Tolerance Delegated Proof-of-Stake (BFT-DPoS) algorithm has a higher level of efficiency not only in terms of security, but also in terms of performance compared to other algorithms. There is a lack of comprehensive evaluation of candidates for winning Registrar nodes that generate (mining) blocks and distribute them to verifier nodes. It is concluded that the elimination of the above-mentioned drawback would provide a more correct construction of the distributed ledger, since most of the existing algorithms are focused on applicability only in cryptocurrency systems and are not universal. To solve this problem, we propose the need to synthesize the BFT-DPoS and Proof-of-Importance algorithms in order to make it applicable to any type of DDPS using distributed ledger technology (blockchain).

The authors of the article consider consensus-building algorithms that are central to the life cycle of transactional exchange between nodes of a DDPS (Distributed Data Processing System) based on blockchain technology. The term under consideration is formally defined. It is proved that when developing these algorithms, it is necessary to choose the main indicators and methods for calculating them, which can be used to evaluate their effectiveness. The process of false forking is described in detail, and the probability of its occurrence is calculated in order to assess the security of data stored in the distributed ledger. When analyzing existing consensus-building algorithms based on statistical data, it is shown that the Byzantine Fault Tolerance Delegated Proof-of-Stake (BFT-DPoS) algorithm has a higher level of efficiency not only in terms of security, but also in terms of performance compared to other algorithms. There is a lack of comprehensive evaluation of candidates for winning Registrar nodes that generate (mining) blocks and distribute them to verifier nodes. It is concluded that the elimination of the above-mentioned drawback would provide a more correct construction of the distributed ledger, since most of the existing algorithms are focused on applicability only in cryptocurrency systems and are not universal. To solve this problem, we propose the need to synthesize the BFT-DPoS and Proof-of-Importance algorithms in order to make it applicable to any type of DDPS using distributed ledger technology (blockchain).

This research was aimed to enhance the cryptospatial with geospatial blockchain based on a point in polygon test. Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm (RPCA) was used for developing a blockchain. The steps taken include: (1) Data from the surveyors were entered using application connected to the transaction set; (2) The transaction set sent data to the transaction proposal; (3) The transaction proposal will distribute to every connected validating of nodes for executing the smart contract with the point in a polygon test method; (4) If the process succeeded with the maximum fault tolerance of 20%, then the node records a new chain to the ledger. This method is faster than Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) blockchain for approximately 26% to add a new chain in the ledger and for 52% to decrypt the blockchain with a mobile device. The result of this process is a cryptospatial coordinate for the cultural heritage tourism.

The application of ubiquitous technologies in the improvement of education strategies is called ubiquitous learning. This strategy amplifies the pedagogical potential of e-learning through a ubiquitous and contextualized perspective. On the other hand, a ubiquitous technological mediation in learning can also increase the isolation of learners and reduce the integration among colleagues. Strategies to encourage the group learning can minimize these possible side effects. In this sense, this article proposes UbiGroup, an agent-based model for ubiquitous recommendation of educational contents for groups of learners. UbiGroup aims to help teachers to search, select and distribute educational materials for groups. The model considers the group profile and the context where learners are. The recommendation for dynamic groups of learners through a consensus profile is the main scientific contribution of this research. The model was evaluated through simulated scenarios. The results were encouraging and show potential for implementing UbiGroup in real learning environments.

Ethereum is one of the oldest examples of blockchain technology provides a system that converts centralized storage to distributed and records transactions by way of decentralized and not by a centralized system and can be verified by each node, therefore it is suitable for storing fingerprints from official diploma documents and transcripts that are published. Smart contract is needed for making contract transactions to Ethereum with programming code, so contracts such as diplomas and transcripts uploaded on the Ethereum blockchain can distribute and produce diploma validation and the authenticity of transcripts with transaction hash, consensus, and comply with ERC-721 token standardization. The results showed that a sample of 5 electronic documents in pdf format with a transaction speed of 1 second on each file that were published and secured with Ethereum blockchain technology can be easily verified for authenticity, the system proposed and developed by us takes in consideration invalid and failure cases by giving the necessary feedback to the user.

In a real-time distribute transactional system, customers generate transactions, which should be scheduled to be executed on different servers. The transactions have temporal constraints and must be executed before their deadlines. To schedule these transactions the circulating mutisequencer, the multi-tokens and the consensus algorithms have been considered to obtain a global view of the system. In this paper, mathematical models are developed to obtain the average stay time of a transaction within the system. These models introduce a bulk arrival M/G/1 station with K classes of customers where bulks are considered according to FIFO discipline and customers (actions) are scheduled according to EDF within a group and with the HOL discipline for the algorithm operating. The response time distribution is also computed. This allowed us to determine the minimum relative deadline, to affect to a generated transaction, to guarantee a given probability p that the transaction does not miss its deadline. The system is then called p-feasible. This study enables to determine the number of tokens to use for the multi-tokens algorithm, for a given number of servers and shows that the circulating mutisequencer algorithm presents the best results.

RésuméL’opposition entre droit naturel et droit positif, qui peut être considérée comme l’une des façons d’affirmer la distinction entre le fait et le droit, essentielle à l’activité juridique, a été construite en Occident médiéval au XIIe siècle. À l’encontre d’une historiographie qui célèbre le naturalisme du droit médiéval, on souligne que c’est le droit positif qui constitue le terme marqué de l’opposition, comme le montre une étude précise de la formation lexicale et conceptuelle de l’opposition, autour de Pierre Abélard et de Thierry de Chartres. Cette positivité repose sur deux fondements: l’idée d’un dépassement de la nature déchue par une grâce distribuée après coup et la distinction progressive entre éthique et droit. À l’inverse de l’éthique, qui privilégie l’intention, le droit ne peut s’établir que sur des faits. La lutte contre l’hérésie, bloquée par les ambivalences de l’intention, accentue encore le recours aux faits. Le cantonnement du droit naturel se comprend au sein du processus d’abstraction juridique, qui formalise et objective les situations de conflit ou de transgression. C’est précisément un consensus autour de l’artifice juridique qui assure l’autonomie nouvelle du droit et le développement d’un Jus commune et d’une Common Law au Moyen Âge.

We present the analysis and some preliminary specifications to describe a multi-agent society to represent dynamic appointments under in Answer-Sets Programming, by means of knowledge-base updates. This is a case study to represent a group of intelligent BDI agents with a common goal of scheduling a meeting, and we use an example to show how to distribute and change their specifications under unforeseen circumstances, as well as a simple protocol to realise a consensual meeting. We claim that the proposed framework is appropriate to have the benefits from a strong foundation like Answer-Sets Programming, simplicity for its declarative logic programming, as well as practicality for existent implemented solvers, which can be used to implement a more-complete and useful system of agent societies.

This paper focuses on exploration when using different data distribution schemes and ADMM as a solver for swarms. By exploration, we mean the estimation of new measurement locations that are beneficial for the model estimation. In particular, the different distribution schemes are splitting-over-features or heterogeneous learning and splitting-over-examples or homogeneous learning. Each agent contributes a solution to solve the joint optimization problem by using ADMM and the consensus algorithm. This paper shows that some information is unknown to the individual agent, and thus, the estimation of new measurement positions is not possible without further communication. Therefore, this paper shows results for how to distribute only necessary information for a global exploration. We show the benefits between the proposed global exploration scheme and benchmark exploration schemes such as random walk and systematic traversing, i.e., meandering. The proposed waypoint estimation methods are then tested against each other and with other movement methods. This paper shows that a movement method, which considers the current information within the model, is superior to the benchmark movement methods.

The rapid advancement in the area of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has provided numerous comforts to users due to its capability to support vehicles with wireless data communication. The exchange of information among vehicle nodes is critical due to the rapid and changing topologies, high mobility of nodes, and unpredictable network conditions. Finding a single trusted entity to store and distribute messages among vehicle nodes is also a challenging task. IoV is exposed to various security and privacy threats such as hijacking and unauthorized location tracking of smart vehicles. Traceability is an increasingly important aspect of vehicular communication to detect and penalize malicious nodes. Moreover, achieving both privacy and traceability can also be a challenging task. To address these challenges, this paper presents a blockchain-based efficient, secure, and anonymous conditional privacy-preserving and authentication mechanism for IoV networks. This solution is based on blockchain to allow vehicle nodes with mechanisms to become anonymous and take control of their data during the data communication and voting process. The proposed secure scheme provides conditional privacy to the users and the vehicles. To ensure anonymity, traceability, and unlinkability of data sharing among vehicles, we utilize Hyperledger Fabric to establish the blockchain. The proposed scheme fulfills the requirement to analyze different algorithms and schemes which are adopted for blockchain technology for a decentralized, secure, efficient, private, and traceable system. The proposed scheme examines and evaluates different consensus algorithms used in the blockchain and anonymization techniques to preserve privacy. This study also proposes a reputation-based voting system for Hyperledger Fabric to ensure a secure and reliable leader selection process in its consensus algorithm. The proposed scheme is evaluated with the existing state-of-the-art schemes and achieves better results.

Blockchain is a promising technology for local trading of the electricity. It has specific components, such as smart contracts, data ledger, consensus, and provides many benefits for both buyers and sellers because they are obtaining/generating electricity at better prices compared with the electricity from the public grid. This practice leads to a better integration of renewable energy sources, increasing the appetite for new local generation sources and storage facilities, transparency and trading opportunities for all market players. Grid operators also benefit from blockchain since the grid loading will be reduced as the grid does not have to transmit or distribute electricity from large power plants located far away from consumption place. In the end, the market players will benefit from reducing the grid loading and alleviating the congestions as onerous investment in grid infrastructure is avoided. In this paper, we will analyse the advantages of different electricity market mechanisms for trading and settlement. Several auction mechanisms such as pay-as-bid, uniform price, generalised second price or Vickrey-Clarke-Groves are taken into account as feasible options for local markets and peer-to-peer trading.

Resumo Este estudo tem como objetivo avaliar a qualidade da ação do Governo Português no sector da saúde, no período de intervenção da Troika (2011-2015), tomando como critério a preocupação com a aplicação dos princípios de Boa Governança, em termos de grau e diversidade. Pretende-se perceber em que medida a ação pública promovida pelo Ministério da Saúde se desenvolveu procurando contribuir para o fortalecimento das práticas de Boa Governança. Com base em análise documental, suportada nos diplomas legais e em outros documentos oficiais, foram analisadas 50 medidas de ação do Ministério da Saúde, que se distribuem por nove áreas de intervenção. Os princípios de Boa Governança que representam uma preocupação mais transversal são claramente o da “transparência” e o da “eficácia/eficiência”, presentes em oito das nove áreas de intervenção. A preocupação com a “orientação para consensos” está essencialmente presente nas medidas tipificadas como Acordos, a “independência” na área Ética, o “reforço do Estado de direito” na área Controlo e a “equidade/inclusão” na área Cidadão no Centro do SNS.

Résumé Le modèle suédois (ou plutôt scandinave) traditionnel, « caractérisé par une domination totale du secteur public dans le financement et la production de services sociaux et de sécurité sociale », est en mutation vers un nouveau modèle, caractérisé par une coopérativisation croissante et partielle du secteur public. Pour l'auteur, le tiers secteur (sans but de distribution de profit) se compose d'une part de l'économie coopérative et sociale (qui ne distribue pas des profits mais des excédents) et, d'autre part, du secteur à but non lucratif (qui ne distribue ni profits ni excédents). L'économie coopérative et sociale inclut les coopératives, les mutuelles et associations, que Salamon et Anheir décrivent comme des organisations à caractère commercial. Le secteur à but non lucratif (nonprofit ou Ideell en Suède) intègre les associations à faible activité économique et fort pourcentage de bénévoles. L'auteur décrit le passage de la subsidiarisation à la contractualisation (reprend Kramer et Grossman qui parlent de l'Etat contractuel) et décrit trois modèles : concurrentiel (ressemble à l'approche du marché parfait), de négociation (avec processus de décision consensuel et progressif) et de coopération (là où l'Etat ne peut souvent fonctionner qu'avec un seul entrepreneur). Alors que les Etats-Unis ont adopté un mélange des deux premiers modèles, la Suède fonctionne surtout selon la formule dite de coopération, dans laquelle « le contractant (souvent la coopérative formée par les anciens employés des services publics) devient l'unique fournisseur et un monopoleur ». Le monopole de financement demeure à peu près inchangé mais la production de services s'effectue par des voies diversifiées, souvent par de nouvelles et petites coopératives. À cause du mode de contractualisation de coopération, Lorendahl voit une intégration partielle de l'économie publique et de l'économie coopérative et sociale, et même une certaine dépendance du secteur public à l'égard du secteur coopératif et social (il n'y a pas d'alternative plus attrayante) mais aussi des entreprises coopératives face aux politiques, règlements et ressources publics.

There is a rising tide of criminal activity to manufacture and distribute falsified, counterfeit, or fake medicines. The exact size of this problem is unknown but estimates vary from US$75 billion to US$200 billion per year, and evidence clearly demonstrates it is on the increase. Depending on the world region, infiltration into the legitimate supply chain versus the illegitimate (e.g., the internet) varies greatly. However, what is certain is that the direction of travel by regulatory agents is to develop supply chains that allow access to medicines via the World Wide Web. Within this context, there has been a long-running debate about how to correctly describe the various forms of medicines that are fraudulently or otherwise manufactured and distributed. This article attempts to describe the evolution of the definitions and recommends that a consensus be formed to describe such medicines that reach the public: • Falsified medicine: This being the term used and defined in the Falsified Medicines Directive and which is primarily concerned with public health. • Counterfeit medicine: This is closely associated and legally defined within intellectual property legislation and concentrates on trademark protection. • Fake medicine: This is the term that best serves to communicate with the public to raise awareness about the phenomenon.

The modern weapons key features are: autonomy, precision, long arm (range more than 2000 km). Such AUAV (Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are quite expensive. The traditional way of delivering a payload is a priori programming each AUAV to the concrete OI (Object of Interest). Since the probability of successful payload delivery is usually about 0.8 or less, then to increase the successful solution probability to the problem posed, the method of launching two or more AUAVs at one OI is used. Thus, a method that minimizes the cost of a solution, i.e. minimizes the AUAV squad, while maintaining a given probability of completing a flight task is of obvious economic interest. A flock of AUAVs can exchange data before the payload delivery, before the final guidance stage, distribute the available AUAVs to the OI to maximize the total task efficiency. To solve the problem of AUAV reprogramming, a method of AUAV data exchange in the synchronization zone is proposed. The geometrical parameters of the zone, the possibility of radio communication with the required exchange rate, and the speed of the synchronization algorithms have been determined. The program exchange parameters are determined and one of the possible Raft algorithms is selected for solving consensus problems in the unreliable computations network.

AbstractThis article describes the development of the moral economy of merit among the fishermen and rural poor of Dalai Village, Magtaal soum, Mongolia. In 1971, the historian E. P. Thompson used the term “moral economy” to describe a popular consensus on what was considered right and wrong in economic behavior, arguing that its provocation motivated the eighteenth-century English poor to engage in crowd-based political action. In contemporary, post-socialist eastern Mongolia, the rural poor have constructed a pervasive local discourse on what is considered legitimate (“merit-making” or buyantai) versus what is illegitimate in economic behavior that morally-condones their illegal wildlife procurement, selling, and smuggling activities. The political contexts of these case studies are compared in order to detail a similar political-economic progression: (1) the recent market liberalization of the commons, sparking moral outrage amongst those classes newly disadvantaged through this shift to the market; and (2) the formation of an anti-profiteering moral discourse among these classes, designed to limit the ability of others to economically capitalize off of these circumstances. Comparing the case studies, the moral economy is manifested as exchange practices involving commons-marked goods that distribute their benefits among the participants, envisioned as thereby promoting group wellbeing rather than the uneven accumulation by individuals.

O Programa Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD) é uma política pública que avalia, seleciona e distribui livros didáticos (LDs) para estudantes da educação básica brasileira. Apesar disto, os livros apresentam limitações e abordagens conceituais ou estruturais inadequadas, que repercutem no ensino e aprendizagem em sala de aula. O entendimento de “energia” “não é algo simples nem consensual”; por isso foram observadas descrições relativas à “energia” do metabolismo celular em oito coleções de LDs de Biologia do Ensino Médio (LDBEM) do Guia do PNLD/2012 (BRASIL, 2011) para a 1ª série. Fundamentada em Moraes e Galiazzi (2007), procedeu-se a transcrição de excertos dos LDBEMs analisados ao conceituar “energia” e suas relações com o metabolismo. Após, entrevistas semiestruturadas foram realizadas com cinco professores de Biologia do Ensino Médio, acerca de suas concepções de “energia”. Outra etapa da pesquisa foi compreender as aprendizagens dos estudantes do EM sobre o conceito “energia”, por meio da análise das respostas de um questionário estruturado e de esquemas conceituais sobre o tema. A triangulação dos dados da pesquisa permite reflexões sobre a significação conceitual e a necessidade de inter-relações na área de Ciências, tanto na educação básica quanto na formação docente, relativas ao complexo conceito “energia”.

In a critical review of seven prominent flagship reports from five international organisations – the International Labour Organization (ILO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and World Bank – this article explores how the policy narratives set out during 2019 and early 2020 have characterised the major future of work challenges associated with new technologies and inequality. It identifies some similarities in viewpoints, including about the unevenness of job changes caused by new technologies and about the declining labour income share, a key measure of inequality. However, there are major points of differentiation. The ILO, OECD and UNDP express serious concerns about the interaction between new technologies and growing inequalities, on the one hand, and a rise in precarious work, concentration of corporate power and erosion of labour bargaining power on the other. Also, UNIDO emphasises the inequalities in technological capacities between developed and developing countries, which make it difficult for markets to distribute the gains from growth evenly. While the World Bank makes some concessions, it remains less open to real-world heterodox evidence about how labour markets function in society. The World Bank aside, there is a growing consensus that labour institutions around the world need to be reinvigorated in order to respond to the challenges facing the future of work.

The article discusses the possibility of using the external ethics of science to formulate a new social contract between science and the state (society). To do this, it is necessary to re-think the value thesaurus inherited from the cold war and the arms race, when the state gave scientists a social order, concentrated resources and allowed the scientists them-selves to distribute them on the basis of anonymous (secret) expert reviewing and refereeing. The resulting model of relationships within the scientific community can be called Pareto-competition, in which the winner re-ceives everything and the vanquished are screened to the periphery. The current situation of Big Science and Distributed Knowledge puts on the agenda the question of transition to a different relationship in the style of Pare-to-collaboration. In it, both victory and defeat are common cause, each group is prescribed its share of obligations and advantages, and all scientists have a chance to move in the sys-tem of epistemic virtues and sins. The new state of the scientific community, described by the term “full constituency” (S. Fuller), not only leads to internal democratic consensus, but also allows for social criticism. Its desirable result is such a restructuring of the whole society, in which cognitive and moral values come to the fore.

The emergence of the Internet has changed the ways in which we create, distribute, access, and use information. The Internet provides manifold opportunities for users, operators, businesses, and the public at large for speedy, cheap, and global dissemination of information, knowledge, research, and entertainment. At the same time, it also poses complex conceptual and empirical challenges for intellectual property and related rights. Works of intellectual property can be digitized and transferred over the Internet. Many trademarks have been placed on it by the companies for advertising and marketing goods and services. In the field of copyright, a number of works of literature, film and art, and notably computer programs, have been transferred over the Internet. The patent system has also migrated onto the Internet. It is now popular for companies to patent their online business methods. In the Internet Sphere, the infringer can easily misdirect consumers to its website by using another’s trademark as a meta-tag, and it is also easy to copy and distribute other’s copyright materials unlawfully. Due to global nature of the Internet, an Internet IP infringement usually happens not only within one country but also across borders. All of these have raised many difficulties for the protection of IPRs in Internet sphere. Therefore everyone has been dubious of what the actual laws concerning Intellectual Property rights are in relation to Internet sphere. Today the Internet explosion has made the question of how to enforce IP law on a global scale as an imperative issue. In this Article, the author tries to accentuate the existing as well as changing IPR challenges brought about by the Internet and project what issues a national legislature should consider to meet the demands of the digital revolution. The core object of this study is to scrutinize the compelling factors behind the Intellectual Property Rights Infringements through the Internet and investigate the existing Legal Responses in International, Regional and Local levels. However, the findings demonstrate that mass-awareness, consensus and mutual co-operation among the developed and developing countries, proper enforcement of the existing laws as well as bringing amendments to some areas of Law can be cited as a potential solution.

The ability to distribute private intimate images across public networks including social media through smart devices or computers has emerged as a serious 21st century concern. Initially, legal systems and operators within criminal justice systems were slow to respond to the reported harms associated with the non-consensual distribution of intimate images (colloquially referred to as revenge porn). However, increasing recognition of the serious harm and victimisation that may result from this behaviour has led many jurisdictions across the world to create new criminal offences. This article reviews the appropriateness of offences that have been created or proposed with a particular reference to developments in Australia. It takes the most recent proposed offence in Western Australia as an opportunity to review the significant differences in how offences have been defined. In suggesting how new offences might be defined, this article relies on the ‘ladder principle’ and recommends that there should be a ladder or hierarchy of new offences to respond appropriately to both the seriousness of harm and culpability of the perpetrator.

Abstract Commercial beekeepers need healthy, productive honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies, even when the landscape lacks adequate pollen forage to sustain the colonies. As a result, many commercial beekeepers spend significant money and labor on the use of pollen substitutes in their colonies. However, there is little consensus in the literature about the benefits and drawbacks of pollen substitute use on honey bee colony health. In order to understand this critically, it is important to know first how honey bees distribute pollen substitute patties throughout their colonies. We traced the fate of three commercially available pollen substitute patties (MegaBee, UltraBee, AP23) dyed with a nontoxic food coloring (Brilliant Blue FCF) and undyed as negative controls, a dyed positive control (fondant), and a dyed consumption control (Crayola Model Magic Clay) in 44 honey bee colonies. Using spectrophotometry and visual inspection, we analyzed adult bee guts, larval guts, bee bread stores and colony debris underneath the hive for presence of the dye. Our data suggest that (1) a proportion of adult bees ingest the patty, (2) adult bees likely do not feed patty directly to larvae, (3) adult bees do not store patty like bee bread, and (4) only a very small proportion of patty is lost as debris. Collectively our data suggest that honey bee colonies use pollen substitute patties. However, patties likely do not replace the function of natural pollen entirely in terms of larval provisioning and long-term storage as bee bread.

Contexto y antecedentes: La elaboración e implementación de guías clínicas pretende brindar ayuda en la toma de decisiones respecto de un determinado problema de salud, sintetizando en forma de recomendaciones la mejor evidencia disponible. Con respecto a la diverticulitis aguda, pese a la gran cantidad de guías que se han elaborado, aún hoy seobserva un bajo nivel de consenso en varios aspectos de su manejo.Objetivos: Este trabajo representa la primera encuesta que mide el nivel de consenso y la aplicación de guías internacionales sobre el manejo de la diverticulitis aguda entre los miembros de la SACP o entre cualquier otra agrupación médica a nivel nacional.Métodos: Se distribuyó una encuesta online a 313 miembros de la SACP, las respuestas se recolectaron en un período de 2 meses.Resultados: La encuesta obtuvo una tasa de respuesta de 19,5%. Solo 17 enunciados superaron el corte de 70% de nivel de consenso. De ellos, 11 enunciados estuvieron de acuerdo mientras que 2 enunciados estuvieron en desacuerdo con las recomendaciones de las guías internacionales y en los 4 enunciados restantes no pudo valorarse la concordancia debido afalta de respuesta univoca en las guías.Conclusiones: La amplia heterogeneidad en el manejo de la diverticulitis aguda entre los miembros de la SACP junto con la baja evidencia de los trabajos científicos, la pobre metodología empleada en las guías internacionales y la necesidad de contar con datos locales sobre costos y preferencias, hacen evidente la necesidad que en nuestro ámbito se comience a investigar en forma sistematizada para lograr una guía y consenso nacional.

L’AESP a amorcé une nouvelle dynamique dans l’enseignement de la psychiatrie. Un des travaux a été de coordonner, avec le collège National des universitaire de psychiatrie (CNUP), le référentiel national universitaire de psychiatrie . Une attention particulière a été portée au développement d’un matériel pédagogique consensuel, cohérent et harmonisé, afin de favoriser l’enseignement de la sémiologie et de la nosographie psychiatrique [2,3]. Ce référentiel a été le premier labélisé SIDES, « Système informatisé distribué d’évaluation en santé » . Le déploiement de ces différents matériels pédagogiques sous forme numérique représente maintenant un nouvel enjeu pédagogique demandé par les étudiants et amorcé par le ministère de l’éducation nationale . Ainsi, les trois présentations de notre session proposent de démontrer l’intérêt pour l’enseignement de la psychiatrie des technologies du numérique. 1. Les enseignements sous forme de cours en ligne seront dans un premier temps présentés. Ces enseignements numériques ont notamment pour intérêt d’apporter la possibilité de faire participer massivement les étudiants et les enseignants dans l’évaluation et l’amélioration continue du contenu, afin de renforcer la cohérence du matériel pédagogique, notamment en psychiatrie . Dans un deuxième temps, les conditions d’utilisation de matériel vidéo, les questions éthiques engendrées, mais aussi les techniques utilisant des patients virtuels interactifs seront détaillées. L’intérêt est de permettre aux étudiants de mieux comprendre le recueil sémiologique psychiatrique, ainsi que les dimensions émotionnelles et empathiques engagées dans la relation avec le patient. . Enfin, dans un troisième temps sera abordée la question des « objets connectés », qui seront bientôt un outil de recueil d’informations sémiologiques essentielles. L’enseignement de la sémiologie en psychiatrie doit donc tenir compte de ces outils qui permettent une description quantifiable et objective des symptômes vécus par le patient en condition de vie réelle et possiblement sur une longue période de suivi.

Objective: To discuss the provision of pharmaceutical services and pharmaceutical care in Brazil. Findings: Professional training and pharmaceutical services are undergoing a period of restructuring in Brazil, including the adoption of incentives for pharmaceutical care. Some important national measures include the rational use of medications, evidence-based medicine, and pharmacovigilance. A new and more generalist pharmacy curriculum is being implemented and tailored for the Brazilian Public Health System; recently, the Brazilian government has provided resources for pharmaceutical care research. Discussion: A proposal for national consensus in Brazilian pharmaceutical care was published in 2002. The components of this proposal include drug dispensing, counseling, health education, symptoms advice, and pharmacotherapy follow-up. Pharmacy practice is currently focused on drug dispensing and logistic aspects of drug distribution. Professionals are satisfied with patients' confidence in being counseled by pharmacists and reveal interest in extending their role in patient care. Most pharmacy customers were originally unaware of the term “pharmaceutical care”; however, following an explanation, they showed an interest in this service. Furthermore, over 50% stated that they would pay for this service. Despite these initiatives, numerous barriers to the development of pharmaceutical care remain, the main ones being the commercial objective of most pharmacies that sell medications and the insufficient training of professionals. Although government-owned pharmacies also distribute medications, they do not meet all of the needs of the population and lack sufficient pharmacists. Conclusions: Several actions are required to stimulate the implementation and development of pharmaceutical care and services in Brazil. Recent research incentives in pharmaceutical care and reorientation of pharmacy education will contribute to this development.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain W303 is a widely used model organism. However, little is known about its genetic origins, as it was created in the 1970s from crossing yeast strains of uncertain genealogy. To obtain insights into its ancestry and physiology, we sequenced the genome of its variant W303-K6001, a yeast model of ageing research. The combination of two next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies (Illumina and Roche/454 sequencing) yielded an 11.8 Mb genome assembly at an N50 contig length of 262 kb. Although sequencing was substantially more precise and sensitive than whole-genome tiling arrays, both NGS platforms produced a number of false positives. At a 378× average coverage, only 74 per cent of called differences to the S288c reference genome were confirmed by both techniques. The consensus W303-K6001 genome differs in 8133 positions from S288c, predicting altered amino acid sequence in 799 proteins, including factors of ageing and stress resistance. The W303-K6001 (85.4%) genome is virtually identical (less than equal to 0.5 variations per kb) to S288c, and thus originates in the same ancestor. Non-S288c regions distribute unequally over the genome, with chromosome XVI the most (99.6%) and chromosome XI the least (54.5%) S288c-like. Several of these clusters are shared with Σ 1278B, another widely used S288c-related model, indicating that these strains share a second ancestor. Thus, the W303-K6001 genome pictures details of complex genetic relationships between the model strains that date back to the early days of experimental yeast genetics. Moreover, this study underlines the necessity of combining multiple NGS and genome-assembling techniques for achieving accurate variant calling in genomic studies.

IntroductionMeasures of epidemiological burdens are an important contribution to estimating disease severity and determining the at-risk populations for seasonal influenza. In the absence of these data, it is extremely difficult for policy-makers to decide on how to distribute limited resources. This systematic review will synthesise the literature on reported burden of seasonal influenza (eg, morbidity and mortality) in sub-Saharan Africa.Method and analysisWe will include published epidemiological studies that capture the burden estimation of seasonal influenza between 1 January 2000 and 31 August 2018. Studies that have reported disease burden estimates associated to influenza-like illness, acute respiratory illness, acute lower respiratory illness, severe acute respiratory illness and severe or very severe pneumonia using laboratory-confirmed influenza cases will be included. We will perform a multiple electronic database search in PubMed, Embase, African Journals Online, Cochrane, Web of science, CINAHL and Google scholar for eligible studies. The reference lists of relevant studies will also be hand-searched for potentially eligible studies. The titles and abstracts of identified records will be screened independently by two authors. The full-text articles of potentially eligible studies will be assessed independently by two authors. Discrepancies will be resolved by discussion, and by a third author if the first two authors fail to come to a consensus. The measures of the burden of influenza will be aggregated using a meta-analysis for homogeneous studies and narrative synthesis if the studies are heterogeneous. The strength of the evidence will be assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach.Ethics and disseminationThis systematic review will use publicly available data; and as such, no formal ethical review is required. Our findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and also disseminated through conferences and stakeholder meetings.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42017074091.

In river management, it is important to obtain ice velocity quickly and accurately during ice flood periods. However, traditional ice velocity monitoring methods require buoys, which are costly and inefficient to distribute. It was found that UAV remote sensing images combined with machine vision technology yielded obvious practical advantages in ice velocity monitoring. Current research has mainly monitored sea ice velocity through GPS or satellite remote sensing technology, with few reports available on river ice velocity monitoring. Moreover, traditional river ice velocity monitoring methods are subjective. To solve the problems of existing time-consuming and inaccurate ice velocity monitoring methods, a new ice velocity extraction method based on UAV remote sensing technology is proposed in this article. In this study, the Mohe River section in Heilongjiang Province was chosen as the research area. High-resolution orthoimages were obtained with a UAV during the ice flood period, and feature points in drift ice images were then extracted with the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm. Moreover, the extracted feature points were matched with the brute force (BF) algorithm. According to optimization results obtained with the random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm, the motion trajectories of these feature points were tracked, and an ice displacement rate field was finally established. The results indicated that the average ice velocities in the research area reached 2.00 and 0.74 m/s, and the maximum ice velocities on the right side of the river center were 2.65 and 1.04 m/s at 16:00 on 25 April 2021 and 8:00 on 26 April 2021, respectively. The ice velocity decreased from the river center toward the river banks. The proposed ice velocity monitoring technique and reported data in this study could provide an effective reference for the prediction of ice flood disasters.

The problem of finding a theoretical consensus of jusnaturalist theoretical and legal positions, which has always been relevant, is now becoming one of the most pressing, and the main hopes for its solution are traditionally associated with the philosophy of law. In the article the author formulates the following thesis: the degree of development of human nature, which is a direct source of natural human rights and legal systems derived from these rights, directly depends on the volume and level of cultural development as a process of cultivating one's own ancestral strength. The author proposes to understand the accumulated mass of cultural achievements inherited and cultivated by a certain (local or global) human community, which together with the existing natural conditions form the natural basis of the necessary historical form of common way of life the level of cultural and tribal development achieved by them. Under the level of cultural development, the author proposes to understand the relationship between a given human community as a subject of nature-transforming practice, based on the available volume of cultural development, and the natural environment as an object of such nature-transforming practice. materialist historiosophical tradition is called the level of development of the productive forces of society. Anthropocultural dimension of a kind of "golden section", formed by the ratio of two relations - the level of cultural development (as the ratio between the existing volume of ancestral development of a particular human community and "first" nature) and a set of modifications (or classes) of human types as carriers of certain fragments essence will be a historical type of sociality, which in the framework of the approach proposed by the author will be nothing more than a way to distribute among people the historically accumulated volume of their ancestral development. The natural carrier of the naturalness of both social relations and the legal mechanisms of their regulation is a certain human type, the priority of social will over the social will of other human types is a necessary prerequisite for maximizing the pace of cultural development of the community. Natural (or related) will always be the type of legality that guarantees the priority of the social will of the human type, the guarantee of social dominance which ensures the ascending development of society.

Proportionality is an intrinsic feature of parliamentary democracy. It is a principle stating that, depending on its size, each political party has a commensurate ability to influence legislature. This is confirmed by comparative studies which show that proportionality is a significant principle in the distribution of parliamentary posts in a majority of West European states. Consequently, even deputies from the smallest parties can chair commissions or lead sessions of the chambers, and by this token participate in the political decision-making process. This softens the domination of the majority party and – in line with Arend Lijphart’s concept – generates consensual democracy, based on the search for broad compromises instead of simply outvoting the opponent. Given this picture, a question emerges whether the situation is similar in the representative institution of the European Union, i.e. the European Parliament. The paper answers this question positively. The standard of proportionality has strong roots in the European Parliament forming a fundamental principle expressed in terms of d’Hondt’s formula applied to distribute posts among different political groups. This mainly concerns the division of the members of the Presidium and commission chairmen, who exercise the most important decisive functions. The implementation of the idea of appropriate representation may not be ideal, but divergences are rare, insignificant and usually they result from political bargaining that favors smaller fractions. The proportionality principle is also binding when distributing parliamentary posts inside political groups. There is a strong and positive correlation between the size of national delegations and the number of key posts they obtain in the Parliament – members of the Presidium, commission chairmen and coordinators. Only in the case of the latter is proportionality subjected to certain distortions, following from their key political importance. This, however, does not interfere with the general picture of symmetric participation of national groups in appointing parliamentary posts. In conclusion, the standard of proportionality allows all political groups to adequately participate in the work of the European Parliament, which deserves to be emphasized, the more so, as it is not formalized.

AbstractBased on Article 2 of Law Number 8 of 1971 concerning State Oil and Gas Mining Companies, it is stated that the Government grants mining rights to Pertamina. The Pertamina One Village One Outlet (OVOO) program ensures that Pertamina’s services reach remote villages. Pertamina offers the latest PERTASHOP (Pertamina Shop) product to the public. Until now, the operational basis of Pertashop is still in the form of Pertashop Operational Permit. In addition, Pertashop entrepreneurs often encounter high losses when shipping fuel oil through PT Patra Niaga as the transporter. This research is a legal research that uses a statutory approach and a conceptual approach. This research discusses the binding power of Pertashop’s Operational Permit as the basis for the legal relationship between the parties and Pertamina’s accountability to Petrashop in disputes over the distribution of fuel oil. The results of this study state that Pertashop’s Operational Permit is not an agreement, but a condition of approval or agreement from Pertamina which will eventually give birth to a Cooperation Agreement. The legal relationship between Pertamina and the Pertashop Entrepreneur gave birth to an agreement that started from an agreement so that it gave birth to an act, namely the distribution of fuel oil. Settlement of default in fuel distribution disputes can be carried out through deliberation for consensus, alternative dispute resolution or lawsuits in general courts.Keywords: Fuel Oil; Pertamina; Pertashop; Default. AbstrakBerdasarkan Pasal 2 Undang-Undang Nomor 8 Tahun 1971 tentang Perusahaan Pertambangan Minyak dan Gas Bumi Negara disebutkan bahwa Pemerintah memberikan hak pertambangan kepada Pertamina. Program Pertamina One Village One Outlet (OVOO) memastikan layanan Pertamina menjangkau pelosok desa. Pertamina menawarkan produk terbaru PERTASHOP (Pertamina Shop) kepada masyarakat. Hingga saat ini, dasar operasional Pertashop masih berupa Izin Operasional Pertashop. Selain itu, Pengusaha Pertashop sering mendapati losses yang tinggi saat pengiriman Bahan Bakar Minyak melalui PT Patra Niaga selaku transportir. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian hukum yang menggunakan pendekatan perundang-undangan dan pendekatan konseptual. Penelitian ini membahas tentang kekuatan mengikat dari Izin Operasional Pertashop sebagai dasar hubungan hukum para pihak dan tanggung jawab Pertamina kepada Petrashop dalam sengketa pendistribusian bahan bakar minyak. Hasil penelitian ini menyatakan bahwa Izin Operasional Pertashop bukanlah suatu perjanjian, melainkan suatu syarat persetujuan atau kesepakatan dari Pertamina yang pada akhirnya akan melahirkan suatu Perjanjian Kerjasama. Hubungan hukum antara Pertamina dengan Pengusaha Pertashop tersebut melahirkan suatu perjanjian yang berawal dari suatu perjanjian sehingga melahirkan suatu perbuatan yaitu pendistribusian bahan bakar minyak. Penyelesaian wanprestasi dalam sengketa distribusi BBM dapat dilakukan melalui musyawarah untuk mufakat, alternatif penyelesaian sengketa atau gugatan di pengadilan umum.Kata Kunci: Bahan Bakar Minyak; Pertamina; Pertashop; Wanprestasi.

Le rôle d'intermédiaire entre la population et le gouvernement que LEISERSON attribue aux partis politiques ne peut être rempli de façon adéquate que si le parti politique réussit à se constituer en organisation, c'est-à-dire que si le parti réussit à regrouper plusieurs individus dont il coordonnera les activités en vue de la poursuite de certains objectifs acceptés par tous. Comme l'exprime très bien ELDERSVELD, l'organisation permettra «de recruter des leaders, d'élaborer une politique, d'organiser la prise de décision, d'assurer les communications entre les gouvernants et les gouvernés, de façonner le consensus, d'assurer la responsabilité et d'orienter la société vers la solution de ses conflits». La dimension organisationnelle des partis, même si elle est loin d'être la seule, semble donc constituer un élément fondamental pour qui veut acquérir une meilleure compréhension de la vie des partis politiques. D'ailleurs, les politistes qui ont le plus contribué à l'élaboration d'une théorie des partis politiques les ont d'abord envisagés comme des organisations. On perçoit dès lors que l'une des priorités des dirigeants du parti sera d'assurer le maintien et la continuité de l'organisation. En d'autres mots, l'organisation devra faire en sorte que ses membres ne quittent pas l'organisation et qu'ils continuent à participer et à poursuivre les objectifs reconnus par tous. À la suite de BARNARD et de SIMON, nous allons considérer l'organisation d'un parti politique comme un système d'échanges où des individus fournissent certaines ressources en retour de la satisfaction de certains besoins qu'ils estiment importants. Un certain équilibre doit donc s'établir entre les contributions des membres et les incitations que leur fournit leur participation à l'organisation, sinon la survie du parti est mise en danger. Si les membres constatent que les ressources qu'ils investissent dans l'organisation ne permettent pas de satisfaire certains de leurs besoins, ils remettront en question leur adhésion à l'organisation et peut-être la quitteront-ils. Les incitations doivent, par conséquent, être au centre des préoccupations des personnes responsables du maintien et de la continuité de l'organisation. Or, l'administration du stock d'incitations dont disposent les dirigeants d'une organisation est rendue difficile par les caractéristiques même des incitations. Comme toutes les ressources, elles sont rares et elles ne sont pas distribuées également entre les individus. De plus, une organisation ne pourra pas offrir à ses membres une quantité d'incitations plus grande que les ressources à sa disposition. Ces incitations devront aussi convaincre les membres d'investir, par leurs contributions, des ressources qui pourront être transformées en incitations, de telle sorte que les ressources disponibles soient plus nombreuses que les incitations. Avant d'aller plus loin, une distinction s'impose entre les concepts de motivation et d'incitation tels qu'ils sont employés dans cet article. Pour nous, une incitation doit être vue comme une ressource distribuée par l'organisation pour assurer la participation de ses adhérents. C'est dans ce sens que le terme est utilisé par CLARK et WILSON tout au long de leur article. Par contre, la motivation est la perception qu'a l'adhérent des récompenses qu'il reçoit de son activité dans une organisation. Alors que l'incitation est analysée du côté de l'organisation, la motivation se perçoit plutôt du côté du membre. Dans cet article, nous nous attacherons surtout aux motivations, c'est-à-dire aux récompenses que les individus ont l'impression de retirer de leurs activités politiques. Nous estimons en effet que l'équilibre des échanges dans l'organisation se définit surtout en fonction de l'évaluation subjective qu'en font les membres. Cela ne nous empêchera pas, cependant, de recourir au système d'incitations quand le besoin s'en fera sentir. Après avoir brièvement présenté la méthode utilisée au cours de notre recherche, nous mettrons en relief la structure générale des motivations, telle qu'elle ressort des réponses de nos informateurs, et dans une seconde partie, nous tenterons d'établir des relations entre quelques variables indépendantes et les motivations. Méthode Pour obtenir nos données, nous avons conduit une entrevue avec chacun des vingt-trois chefs de paroisse de l'Union Nationale dans une circonscription électorale rurale située non loin de la ville de Québec. Les noms de ces vingt-trois organisateurs nous avaient été fournis par le député de la circonscription. Trois des entrevues ont été faites en mars 1969 dans le cadre d'une recherche plus générale sur les organisations partisanes de circonscription dans la région de Québec. Quatre autres se sont déroulées en juillet et la majorité (seize) au mois d'août 1969. Les entrevues ont été les mêmes pour chaque informateur. Dans une première partie, l'informateur devait répondre à des questions concernant la dernière élection provinciale (celle de 1966) et les communications à l'intérieur de l'organisation depuis cette date. La seconde partie contenait surtout des questions sur les caractéristiques socio-économiques des interviewés. À la fin de cette section, nous avions inclus les trois questions touchant les motivations de nos chefs de paroisse. Si on exclut les trois premières entrevues qui ont duré environ deux heures, la presque totalité des entrevues n'a pas dépassé une heure. Les trois questions que nous avons posées aux chefs de paroisse pour découvrir leurs motivations ont été empruntées à Eldersveld. L'utilisation des questions d'Eldersveld nous permettait non seulement d'établir des comparaisons avec ses données, mais aussi avec deux autres études, l'une américaine 0 et l'autre norvégienne, n qui ont eu recours à peu près au même genre de questions.

Diet is one of the main factors related to various diseases including Diabetes Mellitus (DM). High carbohydrate, fat, protein, and low fiber diets can increase the risk of type 2 DM occurrence, especially in the patient’s family as a risk group. Previous research on students with DM families in Central Java still had a high-calorie food consumption pattern. The diversity of population, culture, and age may affect the results. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the diet in the family of patients with type 2 DM in the working area of Puskemas (Community Health Center) Garuda Bandung.This research used a quantitative descriptive method by purposive sampling technique. The respondents in this study involved 46 people who were the children of type 2 DM patients in the working area of Puskesmas Garuda. Dietary data obtained from the food record sheet for 3 days and was calculated using Nutrisurvey software in kilocalories (kcal) as the unit of measurement then the results were categorized based on Consensus Perkeni 2015. Data analysis was using frequency distribution.The results showed that 39 (84.8%) respondents in the diet category less than body requirements, 37 (80.4%) respondents in the category of sufficient carbohydrate intake, 39 (84.6%) respondents in the category of excess fat intake, 45 (97.8%) respondents in the category of adequate protein intake, and 41 (89.1%) respondents in the category of less fiber.The conclusions from this study that almost all families of patients with type 2 DM in the work area of Puskesmas Garuda were in the diet category less than body requirement but with the excess fat intake and less fiber. Based on these results, the nurses in Puskesmas are expected to optimize the outreach programs by addressing families of DM patients to make the diet as an attempt to prevent the risk in the family of patients with type 2 DM.Key words: Diet, DM patients’ families, food record. Gambaran Diet pada Keluarga Pasien Diabetes Melitus Tipe 2AbstrakDiet adalah salah satu faktor utama yang berhubungan dengan berbagai penyakit termasuk Diabetes Melitus (DM). Diet tinggi karbohidrat, lemak, protein, serta rendah serat dapat meningkatkan risiko kejadian DM tipe 2 terutama pada keluarga pasien sebagai kelompok berisiko. Penelitian sebelumnya pada mahasiswa dengan keluarga DM di Jawa Tengah masih memiliki pola konsumsi makanan yang tinggi kalori. Perbedaan populasi, budaya, serta usia mungkin akan mempengaruhi hasil. Oleh karena itu, tujuan penelitian ini untuk menggambarkan diet pada keluarga pasien DM tipe 2 di wilayah kerja Puskemas Garuda Kota Bandung.Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kuantitatif dengan teknik purposive sampling. Responden dalam penelitian ini berjumlah 46 orang yang merupakan anak kandung pasien DM tipe 2 di Wilayah Kerja Puskesmas Garuda. Data diet diperoleh melalui lembar food record selama 3 hari dihitung mengunakan software Nutrisurvey dengan hasil ukur dalam kilokalori (kcal) yang kemudian hasilnya dikategorikan berdasarkan Konsensus Perkeni 2015. Analisis data menggunakan distribusi frekuensi.Hasil penelitian menujukkan bahwa sebanyak 39 (84,8%) responden dalam kategori diet kurang dari kebutuhan, sebanyak 37 (80,4%) responden dalam kategori asupan karbohidrat cukup, sebanyak 39 (84,6%) responden dalam kategori asupan lemak berlebih, sebanyak 45 (97,8%) responden dalam kategori asupan protein cukup, dan 41 (89,1%) responden dalam kategori serat kurang.Simpulan dari penelitian ini bahwa hampir seluruh keluarga pasien DM tipe 2 di wilayah kerja Puskesmas Garuda berada pada kategori diet kurang dari kebutuhan tetapi dengan asupan lemak berlebih dan serat yang kurang. Berdasarkan hasil tersebut, maka perawat puskesmas diharapkan dapat mengoptimalkan program luar gedung dengan menyasar keluarga penderita DM untuk menjadikan diet sebagai upaya untuk mencegah risiko DM pada keluarga pasien DM tipe 2.Kata kunci : Diet, food record, keluarga pasien DM.

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has precipitated an enormous collaborative global effort within the scientific and medical community in search of therapeutic and preventative solutions. The aim of this review is to collate the key developments regarding pharmacological treatments tested and vaccine candidates that have been approved to treat and arrest the spread of COVID-19. Introduction COVID-19 Transmission The COVID-19 outbreak has caused one of the most widespread and significant public health crises in decades. It has become one of the leading causes of death internationally. The primary route of transmission from person-to-person is from airborne aerosol spread through close physical contact, particularly in enclosed, poorly ventilated areas.(1) Transmission through contaminated objects was originally considered a major transmission contributor; however, it is no longer considered a significant driver of the spread. Wearing masks has shown to be effective at preventing or curtailing viral transmission, especially when combined with other measures like social distancing and depopulation of indoor communal spaces.(2) Mechanism of action: The mechanism of action and entry into human physiology at a cellular level has been described previously.(3) Briefly, the virus binds and enters the host cell through a spike protein expressed on its surface. The infection begins when the long protruding spike proteins that latches on to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2), a receptor involved in regulating blood pressure ACE-2 protein. From this point, the spike transforms, unfolding and refolding itself, using coiled spring-like parts that start out buried at the core of the spike. The reconfigured spike hooks and docks the virus particle to the host cell. This forms a channel allowing the viral genetic material into the unsuspecting cell, in the case of COVID-19, type II lung cells. From this point onwards, most of the damage caused by COVID-19 results from the immune system going into overdrive to stop the virus from spreading.(4) The influx of immune cells to the infected tissue causes severe damage in the process of cleaning out the virus, infected cells, and bacterial infections with potentially lethal consequences. Treatments Medical therapies to treat COVI-19 evolved rapidly. Treatments include drugs that were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and drugs made available under FDA emergency use authorizations (EUA). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has strongly encouraged clinicians, patients, and their advocates to consult the treatment guidelines published by the National Institute of Health (NIH). These guidelines are based on scientific evidence and expert opinion.(5) Several therapeutic modalities have been tested and deployed to treat the disease, some of which are summarized here. Anti-virals: Antivirals are drugs that arrest the replication of the virus. They are generally considered most effective when administered in the early phase of infection. Remdesivir: To date, remdesivir is currently the only antiviral approved under EUA by the FDA to treat COVID-19. The approval was based on findings that hospitalized patients who receivedremdesivir recovered faster.(6)Remdesivir can be administered either alone or in combination with other medications. Molnupiravir: An antiviral drug, previously known as EIDD-2801, appears safe and effective. Viral levels reduce to undetectable levels in COVID-19 patients after five days of administration, according to data from a US-based Phase II clinical trial. While molnupiravir is proven to inhibit coronavirus replication in infected patients, more data is required to determine whether it can prevent severe illness.(7) Lopinavir/ritonavir: Lopinavir/ritonavir are anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drugs. Both have been investigated and neither drug showed any efficacy in large randomized controlled trials in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.(8) Anti-inflammatories: One reason for mortality in COVID-19 infected patients is an overactive response by the patient’s immune system. This response leads to several inflammatory disorders, not least of which is the much publicized “cytokine storm”. The following outlines agents have been tested to dampen the inflammatory response to COVID-19. Dexamethasone: Dexamethasone is an anti-inflammatory corticosteroid used for many years to treat autoimmune conditions and allergic reactions. It is cheap and widely available and has been shown to reduce mortality in the sickest hospitalized patients by dampening the immune response.(9) A meta-analysis study evaluating the results of seven trials shows the death rates were lower in hospitalized patients who took one of three different corticosteroids — dexamethasone, hydrocortisone, or methylprednisolone.(6) Baricitinib: Baricitinib is an anti-inflammatory drug used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. In November 2020, the FDA issued an EUA to use baricitinib in combination with remdesivir in hospitalized adults and children two years and older requiring respiratory support. However, there is not enough evidence to support the use of this therapy with or without remdesivir.(10) Antibody Based Treatments: Antibodies are proteins generated by the immune system to help fight infections, such as viruses, by binding to and destroying them. Antibody-based treatments are likely most helpful soon after infection, rather than after the disease has progressed. Monoclonal antibodies: Monoclonal antibodies are synthesized in the laboratory. The FDA has approved two monoclonal antibody treatments, one single antibody from Eli Lilly, and a combination of two antibodies from Regeneron. The Eli Lilly antibody, Bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555), works by blocking COVID-19 from entering and infecting human cells. Preliminary results indicated that patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who received bamlanivimab were less likely to be hospitalized. Studies are still underway, both as a monotherapy and combination therapy. Regeneron’s treatment utilizes a combination of two monoclonal antibodies, casirivimab and imdevimab (REGN-COV2), referred to as an antibody cocktail. Preliminary trial data reported that REGN-COV2 reduced viral load and relieved symptoms sooner in non-hospitalized patients. These treatments are available for patients under EUAs, but more data is required before becoming part of routine care.(6) Convalescent plasma: One of the first groups of antibody-based treatments used convalescent plasma (plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients). This treatment involves administering plasma from a recovered individual into someone infected with the virus. Theoretically, the antibodies fromthe recovered individual neutralize the virus in the infected individual. Although the FDA issued an EUA for convalescent plasma for hospitalized patients with COVID-19, the data to date has been conflicting and inconclusive.(6) Anti-coagulants: Because of the systemic nature of COVID-19 where the circulatory system supplies all parts of the body, some COVID-19 deaths are believed to be caused by blood clots forming in major arteries and veins. A recent study has reported that full-dose blood thinners decreased the need for life support and improved outcome in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. (11) This worldwide large clinical trial, where full dose treatments were administered to moderately ill patients hospitalized for COVID-19, reduced the requirement of vital organ support—such as the need for ventilators. In addition to some of the FDA approved drugs cited in the previous section, multiple treatments were investigated during the early phase of the COVID crisis, with varying results.(12) In contrast to the overall trials for COVID-19 treatments, the programs initiated for vaccine development have been incredibly successful, surpassing all expectations. Vaccines From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines ultimately offer the most appealing and robust therapeutic modality as they prevent the disease from taking hold. This has led to a global vaccine R&D effort that is unprecedented in terms of scale and delivery. The urgency to create a vaccine for COVID‑19 led to expedited schedules that compressed the standard vaccine development timeline from years to months. At the time of writing, three vaccines have been authorized for emergency use by the FDA in the US, with more likely to come onstream as they progress through the development pipeline. A fourth vaccine, from Oxford-AstraZeneca, has also been approved for distribution within the European Union (EU). The three vaccines approved in the US are highly effective at preventing hospitalization, death, and severe disease. Vaccines work by triggering an immune response that generate highly specific antibodies against an antigen, in the case of COVID-19, the virus spike protein expressed on the surface of the virus. Moreover, the immune system is taught to recognize the spike protein specific to the virus. If this spike protein is encountered in the future, an immune response is swiftly mounted, thus preventing escalation of the virus. Two of the authorized vaccines, developed by both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, have revolutionized a technology referred to as messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. This technology acts as a delivery system to cells within our bodies with specific instructions to carry out a specific task.(13) Of importance: mRNA vaccines do not use live virus, but rather a portion of the message encoding for the spike protein. mRNA is produced by DNA, but does not enter the nucleus of the cell containing the DNA. Once the mRNA vaccine finishes producing the protein that is expressed on the cell surface, it is broken down and removed by normal cellular processes. The Johnson and Johnson (J&J) and Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccines utilize a more conventional approach, referred to as a viral vector. This vaccine utilizes a harmless modified version of a common cold virus to deliver the gene encoding for the spike protein into the cell.(13) Vaccine comparison: Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been reported to confer over 94% protection rates against symptomatic COVID-19 infection.(14,15) The single shot J&J vaccine has shown to be 85% effective at protecting against severe disease, 66% against preventing moderate to severe disease, and also appears to be effective against the South African variant of the virus (B.1.351).(16) Although superficially the single shot J&J appears less effective, it is difficult to compare all three vaccines directly because of differences in trial design and outcomes. From a logistical point of view, the J&J vaccine is advantageous as it is a single-dose regimen that can be stored for up to three months in a refrigerator. The most recent data from the AstraZeneca phase three trial reports that the vaccine is 76% effective against symptomatic cases of the virus.(17) Several other trials are ongoing Several other trials are ongoing. The most important point from the information collected from 7 large efficacy trials is that all vaccines confer 100% protection against severe disease, hospitalizations, and death. Moreover, it is not just the vaccinated individual who benefits from vaccination. Most vaccines also reduce transmission of infection among people, and in so doing, help protect those who fail to mount an effective immune response to vaccines or who cannot receive the vaccinate because of their age or compromised immune system.(18) Vaccines and viral variants: Several variants of the virus have been reported, with the two properties causing the most concern being enhanced contagion and immune response evasion. The current vaccines were developed based on the spike protein before it contained the mutations identified in the variants. A recently published study investigated the effectiveness of the FDA approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against the newly-emerged variants from the United Kingdom (UK) and South Africa (SA).(19) While both variants are deemed more transmissible, the levels of antibody generated in response to the vaccine are so high that it seems unlikely that it will impact the overall efficacy of the vaccine for these strains. This preliminary study also highlights the ongoing evolution of COVID-19, necessitating continuous monitoring of the significances of viral mutations for vaccine efficacy. While research suggests that COVID-19 vaccines have lower efficacy against the variants, and further research is needed, the vaccines appear to provide protection against severe COVID-19.(20) Vaccine manufacturing and distribution: The development of the vaccines, from basic R&D through human clinical trials, has been carried out within a very rapid time frame. Ramping up production, however, has been slow and cumbersome. After a slow start, Pfizer/BioNTech andModerna have raised output by gaining experience, scaling up production lines, and taking other steps like making certain raw materials on their own.(21) Of the three candidates, AstraZeneca has already struck a deal with COVAX, the global initiative to distribute COVID-19 vaccines equitably. Moderna has partnered with Lonza and Catalent Inc. to manufacture and distribute millions of doses.(22) Moreover, a recent agreement between J&J and Catalent has secured a US FDA emergency clearance that allows Catalent’s facility to manufacture and distribute, thus aiding the vaccination supply. Vaccination and reinfection: The first large scale study investigating whether reinfection can occur recently reported that the vast majority of people who had COVID-19 are protected from catching it again, for at least six months.(23) This Danish study found that protection against repeat COVID-19 infection is both robust and detectable in the majority of individuals, 80% or more of the naturally infected population younger than 65 years. However, individuals aged 65 years and older had less than 50% protection against repeat infection, since the older age group is more susceptible serious illness. Their finding highlights the need for continued vigilance to keep themselves and others safe. This also indicates that vaccination of previously infected individuals should be done because natural protection cannot be relied upon, consistent with the general consensus that vaccines confer a level of immune response that is higher than previous COVID-19 infection. Follow-up studies will give a better idea of the duration of vaccine protection. Conclusion As the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, it is extremely difficult to eliminate a virus from the human population once it has entered. The pandemic spread has been compounded because the virus spreads asymptomatically. That said, the virus is manageable, similar to the manner in which vaccines have worked against other preventable communicable diseases. Monitoring the protective effects of the different vaccines will likely last for several years. For now, the outlook is positive as global cases decline, the vaccines roll out, and the momentum to investigate and repurpose drugs continues. Acknowledgments The author is grateful to Tara Finn for the careful reading of this manuscript. Conflict of interest There is no conflict of interest. References Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): How is it transmitted? Bai, N. Still Confused About Masks? Here’s the Science Behind How Face Masks PreventCoronavirus. Murphy, J.F. COVID-19: An Immunological Perspective. MOJ Immunol. 2020, 7(1), 10. Kupferschmidt K, Cohen J. Science. Race to find COVID-19 treatments accelerates. 2020. Information for Clinicians on Investigational Therapeutics for Patients with COVID-19Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tran, J. The Latest Research on COVID-19 Treatments and Medications in the Pipeline. Drug launched at Emory reduces virus that causes COVID-19 to undetectable levels. Group RC. Lopinavir-ritonavir in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19(RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial. Lancet. Baragona, S. Treating COVID-19 One Year In: Better, but No Breakthrough. Harvard Health Publishing. Treatments for COVID-19. NIH: National Institutes of Health. Full-dose blood thinners decreased need for life support and improved outcome in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Lehrer, S., Rheinstein, P.H. Ivermectin Docks to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Receptor-binding Domain Attached to ACE2. 2020. Murphy JF. COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Baden, L.R. et al Efficacy and Safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine. 2021 Information about the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine. 2021 Ledford, H. J&J’s single-dose COVID vaccine raises hopes for faster rollout. 2021 Cohen, J. AstraZeneca lowers efficacy claim for COVID-19 vaccine, a bit, after board's rebuke. 2021 Emanuel, E. Take whatever COVID vaccine you can get. All of them stop death and hospitalization. 2021 Xuping, X et al. Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 spike 69/70 deletion, E484K and N501Y variants by BNT162b2 vaccine-elicited sera. 2021 COVID-19 vaccines: Get the facts 2021. Loftus P. Covid-19 Vaccine Manufacturing in U.S. Races Ahead. 2021. COVAX Announces additional deals to access promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates; plans global rollout starting Q1 2021. Hansen HH et al Assessment of protection against reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 among 4 million PCR-tested individuals in Denmark in 2020: a population-level observational study.2021.

Desde sus orígenes, la ciencia política estudia las instituciones de gobierno y la forma como se produce y distribuye el poder en una sociedad; esto lo hace de manera comparada. El artículo se propone examinar el vínculo no necesario, pero muy influyente, entre las instituciones políticas y el análisis comparativo. Su consolidación resultó del cambio que produjo en la ciencia política la irrupción del conductismo y la teoría de la elección racional, y sentó las bases para renovar el estudio de las instituciones políticas y privilegiar la política comparada como estrategia metodológica. El artículo argumenta que la reconfiguración del vínculo entre instituciones políticas y política comparada, a partir de las últimas décadas del siglo XX, ha establecido una suerte de consenso ortodoxo en la ciencia política, que supone un modelo de ciencia empírica hipotético-deductiva y una estrategia metodológica comparativa aplicada a este objeto de estudio específico para la explicación politológica.

There is overwhelming consensus about the science of climate change. Climate politics, however, remains volatile, driven by perceptions of injustice, which motivate policy resistance and undermine policy legitimacy. We identify three types of injustice. The first pertains to the uneven exposure to climate change impacts across countries and communities within a country. Socially, politically, and economically disadvantaged communities that have contributed the least to the climate crisis tend to be affected the most. To address climate change and its impacts, countries and subnational units have enacted a range of policies. But even carefully designed mitigation and adaptation policies distribute costs (the second justice dimension) and benefits (the third justice dimension) unevenly across sectors and communities, often reproducing existing inequalities. Climate justice requires paying careful attention to who bears the costs and who gets the benefits of both climate inaction and action. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 25 is May 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

AbstractThis study aims to evaluate the crowdfunding alternatives regarding new service development process pathways of clean energy investment projects. In this framework, a new model has been generated by considering the consensus-based group decision-making with incomplete preferences, Pythagorean fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Moreover, a comparative evaluation has been performed with Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I. Kompromisno Resenje methodology and sensitivity analysis has been made by considering 4 different cases. The main contribution is to identify appropriate crowdfunding-based funding alternatives for the improvement of the clean energy investments with a novel MCDM model. By considering the iteration technique and consensus-based analysis, the missing parts in the evaluations can be completed and opposite opinion problems can be reduced. Furthermore, with the help of hybrid MCDM model by combining DEMATEL and TOPSIS, more objective results can be reached. It is concluded that the analysis results are coherent and reliable. The findings indicate that the full launch is the most significant criterion for equity and debt-based crowdfunding alternatives. On the other side, the analysis has the highest weight for reward and donation-based alternatives whereas design is the most essential item regarding the royalty-based alternative. Additionally, it is also defined that equity-based crowdfunding alternative is the most significant for the service development process of clean energy investment projects. In this way, it will be possible to provide a continuous resource for clean energy investment projects. On the other hand, by providing financing with equity, there will be no fixed financing cost for clean energy investors. If these investors make a profit, they distribute dividends with the decision of their authorized bodies.

Introduction : La ventilation non invasive (VNI) est une technique utilisée, depuis longtemps, dans les urgences et lesréanimations. L'objectif de notre travail était d'évaluer la prévalence de la pratique de la VNI, la maîtrise des paramètres,les indications et les critères d'échec dans notre contexte marocain.Matériels et méthodes : Une première partie des praticiens a été interrogée par un questionnaire auto-administré lorsdu congrès de la société marocaine d'anesthésie, d'analgésie et de soins intensifs tenu en janvier 2018. Une secondepartie a été abordée par un questionnaire électronique. Il comprenait les caractéristiques démographiques, les méthodesde mise en œuvre de la VNI, les indications et les critères de défaillance.Résultats : Parmi les 800 questionnaires distribués, nous avons recueilli 183 réponses avec un taux de participation de23 %. La majorité des participants (88 %) ont déclaré avoir pratiqué la VNI. Le mode PSV-PEP était préféré dans 70 %des cas. L'œdème pulmonaire cardiogénique et la décompensation de la maladie pulmonaire obstructive chronique ontété retenus comme premières indications de la mise en place. Un protocole n'existait que dans 5 % des structures. LaVNI est plus utilisée par les médecins anesthésistes-réanimateurs et dans les CHU et les structures privées.Conclusion : La VNI est une technique couramment utilisée en situation d'urgence. Ses indications et paramètres deréglage étaient conformes à la conférence de consensus. Cependant, l'absence de protocole peut entraver le démarrage.

Mobile applications that facilitate each stage of the advance care planning process (i.e., obtaining knowledge, contemplating options, and acting on decisions) may be one effective way to support patient-centered care and patient autonomy. The purpose of the current review was to identify and evaluate advance care planning mobile applications for patients. Our specific aim was to examine app features, design quality, content, and readability. We searched the Apple iOS and Google Play stores using keywords developed in conjunction with an academic librarian. Two coders with expertise in palliative care applied guidelines from a previous review and used a consensus coding procedure. We also calculated a Flesh Reading Ease score for each app. Nine apps met criteria and could be evaluated. Overall, apps are limited in features and poor in terms of design quality, layout, and functionality. Regarding content, most apps emphasize making decisions or taking action about advance care planning: 6 apps permit users to document a preferred decision maker, and 6 apps offer a mechanism to distribute and share advance care planning documentation. Three apps focus on knowledge about advance care planning, and only 4 support contemplation about advance care planning. Apps range in terms of readability, from very difficult to fairly easy. This review identifies limitations in features, design quality, and content of existing advance care planning mobile apps. We present recommendations based on the results of this review for the development of future advance care planning apps.

ObjectivesDelirium is common and distressing in palliative care settings. This survey aims to describe current practice regarding delirium identification in specialist palliative care units (SPCU), such as inpatient hospices, in the UK.MethodsAn 18-item anonymous online survey was distributed by Hospice UK to their network of clinical leads (n=223), and to their research mailing list (n=228). The survey was also sent to the chair of the Hospice UK executive clinical leads forum for direct dissemination to forum representatives (n=20). Clinical leads and forum representatives were asked to distribute the survey to healthcare staff in their SPCUs.Results220 SPCU staff (48% nurses; 31% doctors; 10% healthcare assistants) completed the survey. Approximately half reported using clinical judgement alone to screen (97/204; 48%) and/or diagnose (124/220; 56%) delirium. Over a third used an assessment tool to screen for delirium (76/204; 37%). The majority (150/220; 68%) reported screening in response to clinical symptoms, while few reported routine on-admission (11/220; 5%) or daily-during-admission (12/220; 6%) screening. Most respondents had received some training on delirium (137/220; 62%). However, 130/220 (59%) said their SPCU did not have a training programme for delirium screening and only 79/220 (36%) reported that their SPCU had delirium clinical guidelines. The main barriers to routine screening included: lack of delirium training, lack of guidelines and complexity of patient’s conditions.ConclusionThere is variation in practice for delirium screening and diagnosis in SPCUs. Clinical guidelines for delirium, including consensus on which screening tools to use, are needed for this setting.

Calibrar un conjunto de ítems mediante el juicio de expertos es un proceso que consiste en establecer en una métrica común la dificultad de cada ítem partiendo de una muestra de datos que ha sido recogida previamente a individuos especialistas en el tema sobre el que versan los ítems y que contiene estimaciones sobre el nivel de dificultad de cada uno de ellos. Este proceso de calibración no es una tarea simple, pues normalmente implica repartir el conjunto de ítems en distintos tipos de cuestionarios a distribuir entre los expertos, puede ser necesario que algunos ítems se repitan en varios cuestionarios y es conveniente comprobar que el valor estimado de la dificultad se hace sobre ítems no anómalos y se basa en las aportaciones de expertos fiables. Además, se deben consensuar los criterios, a veces dispares, de los expertos consultados.Este artículo se centra en la construcción y calibración del banco de ítems a partir del juicio de expertos de una manera electrónica y describe un procedimiento para este tipo de calibración utilizando una plataforma educativa web: Moodle. En la actualidad, Moodle es uno de los paquetes de software libre más populares para la creación de cursos y sitios Web basados en Internet, siendo utilizado por instituciones educativas a nivel mundial, para ofrecer formación online.

This study was designed to mirror the deep issues behind the crisis in the Niger Delta region, using the oil exploration of Ogoniland as the case study and proffering possible solutions on how best to combat the identified problems. To achieve this aim, focus group discussions, unstructured interviews and oral testimonies were employed for the collection of data; and data analysis were carried out using simple coding for recognition, transcription from the local dialect to English Language, rewriting and interpretations. The results revealed that the people’s expectation from the Government and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) has not been met; illegal refineries and other criminal vices are now fully in operation in Ogoniland. The people blamed the Shell Petroleum Development Company, the Federal Government, some of their corrupt chiefs, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and some of the community youths for the problems in the communities. However, the Ogoni people believed that the full implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programmes (UNEP) report on Ogoniland and the Ogoni Bill of Rights will ameliorate all their sufferings. It was recommended that SPDC should avoid reaching agreements with the traditional rulers and politicians from Ogoni on projects bordering on development of the land that excludes the people. It was also recommended that SPDC should carry out town hall meetings, focus group discussions or even distribute questionnaires in the local communities in Ogoni communities to ascertain the best solutions from the local people (who are the majority) rather than taking only the decisions from Ogoni leaders, which may not be the consensus opinion of the people.