Considering the fact that the results of laboratory tests provide useful information about the state of health of patients, determination of reference value is considered an intrinsic part in the development of labora...Considering the fact that the results of laboratory tests provide useful information about the state of health of patients, determination of reference value is considered an intrinsic part in the development of laboratory medi-cine. There are still huge differences in the analytical methods used as well as in the associated reference intervals which could consequently significantly affect the proper assessment of patient health. In a constant effort to increase the quality of patients' care, there are numerous international initiatives for standardiza-tion and/or harmonization of laboratory diagnostics in order to achieve maximum comparability of laboratory test results and improve patient safety. Through the standardization and harmonization processes of analytical methods the ability to create unique reference intervals is achieved. Such reference intervals could be applied globally in all laboratories using methods traceable to the same reference measuring system and analysing the biological samples from the populations with similar socio-demographic and ethnic characteristics. In this review we outlined the results of the harmonization processes in Croatia in the field of population based reference intervals for clinically relevant blood and serum constituents which are in accordance with ongoing activity for worldwide standardization and harmonization based on traceability in laboratory medicine.展开更多
Hydro-climatological study is difficult in most of the developing countries due to the paucity of monitoring stations. Gridded climatological data provides an opportunity to extrapolate climate to areas without monito...Hydro-climatological study is difficult in most of the developing countries due to the paucity of monitoring stations. Gridded climatological data provides an opportunity to extrapolate climate to areas without monitoring stations based on their ability to replicate the Spatio-temporal distribution and variability of observed datasets. Simple correlation and error analyses are not enough to predict the variability and distribution of precipitation and temperature. In this study, the coefficient of correlation (R2), Root mean square error (RMSE), mean bias error (MBE) and mean wet and dry spell lengths were used to evaluate the performance of three widely used daily gridded precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature datasets from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU), Princeton University Global Meteorological Forcing (PGF) and Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) datasets available over the Niger Delta part of Nigeria. The Standardised Precipitation Index was used to assess the confidence of using gridded precipitation products on water resource management. Results of correlation, error, and spell length analysis revealed that the CRU and PGF datasets performed much better than the CFSR datasets. SPI values also indicate a good association between station and CRU precipitation products. The CFSR datasets in comparison with the other data products in many years overestimated and underestimated the SPI. This indicates weak accuracy in predictability, hence not reliable for water resource management in the study area. However, CRU data products were found to perform much better in most of the statistical assessments conducted. This makes the methods used in this study to be useful for the assessment of various gridded datasets in various hydrological and climatic applications.展开更多
The purpose of this report is to present the necessity of proceeding to new reforms in bank regulation and to increase the stability and risk sensitivity of the capital base under applying the Standardised Credit Risk...The purpose of this report is to present the necessity of proceeding to new reforms in bank regulation and to increase the stability and risk sensitivity of the capital base under applying the Standardised Credit Risk Assessment Approach (SCRA) in banks. The dynamics in the bank regulation and supervision of credit risk assessment approaches are explored. In the paper, a thorough theoretical-methodological and historical-logical analysis was made of the evolution of the development and chronology of the global regulatory frameworks for banks—Basel 1, Basel 2, and Basel 3. The contemporary projections and challenges for the banks’ management under the new regulatory and institutional changes are presented. The SCRA is a positive asset in bank capital regulation in contemporary banking. The revisions to the regulatory framework by Basel 3 are a long continuous process influenced by numerous economic, social, and political factors. The preparation of the Bulgarian banking system for a new reform of financial regulation is analyzed. The need for adoption of a new risk-based approach for capital assessment and the importance of transparency in bank financial reporting is proved.展开更多
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award-BNQA-SA was introduced in 1987 in US companies to create overall excellence in all parts of an organisation, leading to “integrated companies” as the ultimate goal for sustain...Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award-BNQA-SA was introduced in 1987 in US companies to create overall excellence in all parts of an organisation, leading to “integrated companies” as the ultimate goal for sustained performance by using the Baldrige Excellence Framework (BEF). The “Balanced Score Cards” (BSC) methodology, as an instrument of designing, cascading and communicating strategy, was introduced in 1992. Operations excellence is an outcome of a well-designed, monitored and implemented operations strategy (OS). This paper traces the evolution of an “OS Wheel” model of operations strategy, for continuous manufacturing industries (CMI), deployed using the BEF, using BSC’s, to achieve performance excellence and sustained competitive advantage. The model was applied in a large scale, CMI company in India, over a period of fifteen years (a longitudinal study), the description of which will demonstrate its utility.展开更多
In regional water resources management and disaster preparedness, the analysis of extreme rainfall events is essential. The need to investigate drought and flood conditions is now heightened within the context of clim...In regional water resources management and disaster preparedness, the analysis of extreme rainfall events is essential. The need to investigate drought and flood conditions is now heightened within the context of climate change and variability. The Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) was employed to assess the extreme rainfall event on Tordzie watershed using precipitation data from 1984-2014. The SPI on the time scale of 3, 6, 9 and 12 months were determined using “DrinC” software. The drought was characterised into magnitude, duration, intensity, frequency, commencement and termination at the time scales of SPI-3, SPI-6, SPI-9 and SPI-12. Results indicated that the middle reaches (Kpetoe) of the watershed experienced less severe drought condition compared to the lower reaches (Tordzinu). Mann-Kendall (MK) test and Sen’s slope (SS) revealed general increasing drought trend but insignificant at 95% confidence interval. The SS indicated change in magnitude of 0.016 mm/year, 0.012 mm/year, 0.026 mm/year and 0.016 mm/year respectively at the mentioned time scales at 95% confidence interval at the Tordzinu and that of Kpetoe were 0.006 mm/year, 0.009 mm/year, 0.014 mm/year and 0.003 mm/year. These changes could have implication for agriculture and water resources management and engender food insecurity among smallholder farmers.展开更多
West Africa was hit by an unprecedented drought in the 1970’s and 1980’s years, with dramatic consequences for surface and groundwater resources. In the context of climate change, there are many studies for the pred...West Africa was hit by an unprecedented drought in the 1970’s and 1980’s years, with dramatic consequences for surface and groundwater resources. In the context of climate change, there are many studies for the prediction of the increase in the occurrence of these droughts. To predict this situation in the Senegalese region, it is necessary to use regional climate models, which carrying out the study. This work deals with the interest to examine the capacity of the RCMs (regional climate models) in order to reproduce the deficit on the 1970’s year rainfall in Senegal. In this work, we used daily precipitation data from five (5) regional climate models to characterize the droughts in Senegal by using the SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index) on different time scales (3, 6, 12 and 24 months). For this purpose, the index was calculated over two distinct periods: 1951-1969 and 1970-1990. The results show that the period 1970-1990 was drier than the period 1951-1969. For the zonal average, the results show that the North of Senegal was more affected by this deficit rainfall than the South part. The analysis of the interannual variability of rainfall for some stations in Senegal shows that the drought did not start at the same time throughout the zone.展开更多
Background: Pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) involves defects in β-cell function with impaired first and second phase insulin response, and reduced insulin sensitivity. Diabetic dyslipidemia is an important and...Background: Pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) involves defects in β-cell function with impaired first and second phase insulin response, and reduced insulin sensitivity. Diabetic dyslipidemia is an important and common risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). Aims: This study examined the effect of glycemic control on post prandial insulin and lipid parameters in response to a standardised meal challenge among Type 2 diabetes patients with good and poor glycemic control. Methods: We cross-sectionally studied 31 T2DM patients with good glycemic control and 32 T2DM patients with poor glycemic control. Subjects were given, after minimum 10 hours of fasting, a standard meal containing 58% fat. Fasting and serial postprandial blood samples were taken over 8 hours to determine levels of triglyceride, direct LDL-C, apoB lipoprotein, non-esterified-fatty-acid, insulin and blood glucose. Results: Post prandial NEFA was significantly higher in poor controlled diabetes patients compared to good control diabetes patients (p = 0.019), and post-hoc analysis showed significant difference from 3 hours post prandial to 4 hours post prandial, where p= 0.021. Although the difference in insulin between the 2 groups did not reach statistical significance (p =0.058), post-hoc analysis showed significant difference between the 2 groups from fasting to 1 hour post prandial (p = 0.034) despite postprandial glucose being significantly higher in poor controlled diabetes patients (p < 0.001), throughout the postprandial period. Conclusion: T2DM patients with good glycemic control have improved insulin response with lower non-esterified fatty acid.展开更多
基金Supported by The Ministry of science and technology,Zagreb,Croatia,No.55.3-01-143
文摘Considering the fact that the results of laboratory tests provide useful information about the state of health of patients, determination of reference value is considered an intrinsic part in the development of laboratory medi-cine. There are still huge differences in the analytical methods used as well as in the associated reference intervals which could consequently significantly affect the proper assessment of patient health. In a constant effort to increase the quality of patients' care, there are numerous international initiatives for standardiza-tion and/or harmonization of laboratory diagnostics in order to achieve maximum comparability of laboratory test results and improve patient safety. Through the standardization and harmonization processes of analytical methods the ability to create unique reference intervals is achieved. Such reference intervals could be applied globally in all laboratories using methods traceable to the same reference measuring system and analysing the biological samples from the populations with similar socio-demographic and ethnic characteristics. In this review we outlined the results of the harmonization processes in Croatia in the field of population based reference intervals for clinically relevant blood and serum constituents which are in accordance with ongoing activity for worldwide standardization and harmonization based on traceability in laboratory medicine.
文摘Hydro-climatological study is difficult in most of the developing countries due to the paucity of monitoring stations. Gridded climatological data provides an opportunity to extrapolate climate to areas without monitoring stations based on their ability to replicate the Spatio-temporal distribution and variability of observed datasets. Simple correlation and error analyses are not enough to predict the variability and distribution of precipitation and temperature. In this study, the coefficient of correlation (R2), Root mean square error (RMSE), mean bias error (MBE) and mean wet and dry spell lengths were used to evaluate the performance of three widely used daily gridded precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature datasets from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU), Princeton University Global Meteorological Forcing (PGF) and Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) datasets available over the Niger Delta part of Nigeria. The Standardised Precipitation Index was used to assess the confidence of using gridded precipitation products on water resource management. Results of correlation, error, and spell length analysis revealed that the CRU and PGF datasets performed much better than the CFSR datasets. SPI values also indicate a good association between station and CRU precipitation products. The CFSR datasets in comparison with the other data products in many years overestimated and underestimated the SPI. This indicates weak accuracy in predictability, hence not reliable for water resource management in the study area. However, CRU data products were found to perform much better in most of the statistical assessments conducted. This makes the methods used in this study to be useful for the assessment of various gridded datasets in various hydrological and climatic applications.
文摘The purpose of this report is to present the necessity of proceeding to new reforms in bank regulation and to increase the stability and risk sensitivity of the capital base under applying the Standardised Credit Risk Assessment Approach (SCRA) in banks. The dynamics in the bank regulation and supervision of credit risk assessment approaches are explored. In the paper, a thorough theoretical-methodological and historical-logical analysis was made of the evolution of the development and chronology of the global regulatory frameworks for banks—Basel 1, Basel 2, and Basel 3. The contemporary projections and challenges for the banks’ management under the new regulatory and institutional changes are presented. The SCRA is a positive asset in bank capital regulation in contemporary banking. The revisions to the regulatory framework by Basel 3 are a long continuous process influenced by numerous economic, social, and political factors. The preparation of the Bulgarian banking system for a new reform of financial regulation is analyzed. The need for adoption of a new risk-based approach for capital assessment and the importance of transparency in bank financial reporting is proved.
文摘Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award-BNQA-SA was introduced in 1987 in US companies to create overall excellence in all parts of an organisation, leading to “integrated companies” as the ultimate goal for sustained performance by using the Baldrige Excellence Framework (BEF). The “Balanced Score Cards” (BSC) methodology, as an instrument of designing, cascading and communicating strategy, was introduced in 1992. Operations excellence is an outcome of a well-designed, monitored and implemented operations strategy (OS). This paper traces the evolution of an “OS Wheel” model of operations strategy, for continuous manufacturing industries (CMI), deployed using the BEF, using BSC’s, to achieve performance excellence and sustained competitive advantage. The model was applied in a large scale, CMI company in India, over a period of fifteen years (a longitudinal study), the description of which will demonstrate its utility.
文摘In regional water resources management and disaster preparedness, the analysis of extreme rainfall events is essential. The need to investigate drought and flood conditions is now heightened within the context of climate change and variability. The Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) was employed to assess the extreme rainfall event on Tordzie watershed using precipitation data from 1984-2014. The SPI on the time scale of 3, 6, 9 and 12 months were determined using “DrinC” software. The drought was characterised into magnitude, duration, intensity, frequency, commencement and termination at the time scales of SPI-3, SPI-6, SPI-9 and SPI-12. Results indicated that the middle reaches (Kpetoe) of the watershed experienced less severe drought condition compared to the lower reaches (Tordzinu). Mann-Kendall (MK) test and Sen’s slope (SS) revealed general increasing drought trend but insignificant at 95% confidence interval. The SS indicated change in magnitude of 0.016 mm/year, 0.012 mm/year, 0.026 mm/year and 0.016 mm/year respectively at the mentioned time scales at 95% confidence interval at the Tordzinu and that of Kpetoe were 0.006 mm/year, 0.009 mm/year, 0.014 mm/year and 0.003 mm/year. These changes could have implication for agriculture and water resources management and engender food insecurity among smallholder farmers.
文摘West Africa was hit by an unprecedented drought in the 1970’s and 1980’s years, with dramatic consequences for surface and groundwater resources. In the context of climate change, there are many studies for the prediction of the increase in the occurrence of these droughts. To predict this situation in the Senegalese region, it is necessary to use regional climate models, which carrying out the study. This work deals with the interest to examine the capacity of the RCMs (regional climate models) in order to reproduce the deficit on the 1970’s year rainfall in Senegal. In this work, we used daily precipitation data from five (5) regional climate models to characterize the droughts in Senegal by using the SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index) on different time scales (3, 6, 12 and 24 months). For this purpose, the index was calculated over two distinct periods: 1951-1969 and 1970-1990. The results show that the period 1970-1990 was drier than the period 1951-1969. For the zonal average, the results show that the North of Senegal was more affected by this deficit rainfall than the South part. The analysis of the interannual variability of rainfall for some stations in Senegal shows that the drought did not start at the same time throughout the zone.
文摘Background: Pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) involves defects in β-cell function with impaired first and second phase insulin response, and reduced insulin sensitivity. Diabetic dyslipidemia is an important and common risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). Aims: This study examined the effect of glycemic control on post prandial insulin and lipid parameters in response to a standardised meal challenge among Type 2 diabetes patients with good and poor glycemic control. Methods: We cross-sectionally studied 31 T2DM patients with good glycemic control and 32 T2DM patients with poor glycemic control. Subjects were given, after minimum 10 hours of fasting, a standard meal containing 58% fat. Fasting and serial postprandial blood samples were taken over 8 hours to determine levels of triglyceride, direct LDL-C, apoB lipoprotein, non-esterified-fatty-acid, insulin and blood glucose. Results: Post prandial NEFA was significantly higher in poor controlled diabetes patients compared to good control diabetes patients (p = 0.019), and post-hoc analysis showed significant difference from 3 hours post prandial to 4 hours post prandial, where p= 0.021. Although the difference in insulin between the 2 groups did not reach statistical significance (p =0.058), post-hoc analysis showed significant difference between the 2 groups from fasting to 1 hour post prandial (p = 0.034) despite postprandial glucose being significantly higher in poor controlled diabetes patients (p < 0.001), throughout the postprandial period. Conclusion: T2DM patients with good glycemic control have improved insulin response with lower non-esterified fatty acid.
