Response time variations in an online search system.

The response time characteristics of the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) ELHILL bibliographic search system are examined in this article. Transactions for a five-week period are analyzed and average response times are calculated for typical search commands, by time of day, and by file being searched. Overall, the response time of the system was found to be 2.1 seconds, a very low value. Based on statistical tests of significance applied to the data, it was concluded that response time differences can be explained in terms of the number of users on the system and not the command issued by the user nor the file the user searched.     

Some aspects of science education in Britain: a comparative study

This article gives a broad picture of science education in Britain, starting with school pupils of about 11 years of age and concluding at the Ph.D. level. In the main it considers the education system from the point of view of students preparing for professional scientific work in basic and applied research as well as those who will leave the system at first degree level for a variety of occupations, ranging from school teaching to development and marketing posts in industry. The article is not directly concerned with the education and training of engineers and technologists. The British system is compared briefly with the educational patterns of several western European countries and the USA.     

External quality assessment for the RIA of thyroid related hormones: Second phase

An external quality assessment was conducted to assess the performance of various laboratories for RIA of thhyroid related hormones in two phases. In the first phase thirty five laboratories participated. At the end of first phase a meeting cum workshop was organised to discuss the results of first phase, difficultires faced by the participants and pinpoint the short oming. A second phase was then initiated with an objective of improvement in the performance, if any, where twelve samples from four pools were distributed to twenty four laboratories who participated for the second phase. The overall return of the results increased significantly from 71.8% (1586/2208) for the first phase to 92.4% (732/792) for the second phase. The inter laboratory %CV for T₃, T₄ and TSH were lower during the second phase (30.6%, 19.0% and 31.6% respectively) as compared to those observed during first phase (36.3%, 22.7% and 52.8% respectively). Similarly, there was an improvement in reproducibility of ALTM as %CV for T₃, T₄ and TSH decreased from 6.0%, 9.8% and 13.4% respectively to 4.5%, 4.6% and 8.5% respectively. The individual performances of the participating laboratories viz. bias, variability of bias and imprecision also showed a trend towards improvement as percent laboratories having desirable or acceptable results for T₃, T₄ and TSH increased from 10.7%, 60.7% and 0.0% respectively to 20.8%, 66.7% and 22.2% respectively. External quality assessment thus appears to be beneficial in assessing the performane of a laboratory in comfparison with other laboratories and indeed helps in improving the performance.     

Dielectrophoretic differentiation of mouse ovarian surface epithelial cells, macrophages, and fibroblasts using contactless dielectrophoresis

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancies in women. The primary challenge is the detection of the cancer at an early stage, since this drastically increases the survival rate. In this study we investigated the dielectrophoretic responses of progressive stages of mouse ovarian surface epithelial (MOSE) cells, as well as mouse fibroblast and macrophage cell lines, utilizing contactless dielectrophoresis (cDEP). cDEP is a relatively new cell manipulation technique that has addressed some of the challenges of conventional dielectrophoretic methods. To evaluate our microfluidic device performance, we computationally studied the effects of altering various geometrical parameters, such as the size and arrangement of insulating structures, on dielectrophoretic and drag forces. We found that the trapping voltage of MOSE cells increases as the cells progress from a non-tumorigenic, benign cell to a tumorigenic, malignant phenotype. Additionally, all MOSE cells display unique behavior compared to fibroblasts and macrophages, representing normal and inflammatory cells found in the peritoneal fluid. Based on these findings, we predict that cDEP can be utilized for isolation of ovarian cancer cells from peritoneal fluid as an early cancer detection tool.     

新生代员工核心自我评价与工作投入的关系:有调节的中介模型

采用核心自我评价量表、工作投入量表、心理授权量表和不匹配感知量表对16家企业447名新生代员工进行调查,通过层级回归分析新生代员工核心自我评价与工作投入的关系,以及考察心理授权与过度教育在此关系中发挥的作用。结果表明:(1)新生代员工核心自我评价对工作投入有显著正向影响;(2)心理授权在核心自我评价和工作投入关系中有着部分中介效应;(3)过度教育对心理授权中介效应的调节作用成立,对过度教育的高感知不仅削弱了核心自我评价与心理授权的正向关系,也进而弱化了心理授权对工作投入的积极作用。     

Dietary Fats and Oxidative Stress: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Coronary Artery Disease Subjects Consuming Coconut Oil/Sunflower Oil

Coconut oil has been used by the people of Kerala as a cooking medium for several decades. Due to its alleged hypercholesterolemic activity, general population in recent times is shifting to cooking oils rich in polyunsaturated fats, the most popular being sunflower oil. The effect of long-term consumption of sunflower oil on oxidative stress in humans is not well investigated. We studied oxidative stress among coronary artery disease (CAD) patients who were consuming coconut oil or sunflower oil as a part of their routine diet. Men, aged 35–70 years, with established CAD, who presented to the hospital for routine cardiac evaluations, were enrolled in this observational study. Group 1 and 2 consisted of 73 and 80 subjects consuming coconut oil and sunflower oil respectively for over a period of 2 years. Lipid profile and parameters for oxidative stress were evaluated among them. Conventional lipid parameters did not differ significantly between the two groups. Mean vitamin C concentration was significantly reduced for subjects on sunflower oil compared to those consuming coconut oil (P = 0.044). Malondialdehyde was higher for sunflower oil consumers compared to coconut oil consumers (P < 0.0001). Other parameters such as oxidized LDL, GSH, GPx and SOD were not found to be significantly different between the two groups. The results of the present study show that coconut oil did not induce hypercholesterolemia compared to sunflower oil. On the other hand, sunflower oil group had elevated oxidative stress compared to coconut oil group.     

More is not always better: Effects of collaboration breadth and depth on radical and incremental innovation performance at the project level

This study investigates the effect of project-level collaboration breadth (i.e., the number of collaboration partner types) and collaboration depth (i.e., the intensity of the interactions with these partners) on the incremental and radical innovation performance of innovation projects. The econometric analyses, based on a Community Innovation Study sample of 218 innovation projects conducted in German manufacturing companies, reveal inverted U-shaped relationships between collaboration breadth and radical innovation performance and between collaboration depth and incremental innovation performance. These curvilinear effects speak to the high sensitivity of innovation projects to the extent of collaborative activity, which implies that practitioners should exert caution in managing collaborative innovation projects. This study contributes to the understanding of project-level open innovation and to the overall understanding of the performance effects of innovation collaboration, which, following recent assertions in the literature, could be flawed by analyses conducted at the organizational level.