NIS

This paper contributes to identify systematic problems in NIS using Thinking Process (TOC-TP) and to eliminate the bottlenecks, which results in improving the innovation process and efficiency of NIS. The Case study in this research is the NIS of Iran. The national documents of the innovation system were studied and all problems of NIS mentioned in documents were gathered.
The causal relationships between the systematic problems were identified by the survey and grouped into 6 components by Exploratory Factor Analysis: weakness in technology diffusion mechanisms, the lack of centralized governance on science and technology policy, the government’s pivotal role as an executor in education and research, weak laws and regulations in the field of research and technology, the lack of adequate financial resources in R&D and the lack of any perspective on the creation of wealth and entrepreneurship among the actors of research and technology. Finally the bottleneck of Iran’s NIS was recognized by Thinking Process tools: the small participation of private sector in research and education system as the result of government’s pivotal role as an executor of Iran’s national innovation system. So the researchers could diagnose the policy gaps related to the identified bottlenecks.

International circumstances, Iran’s special context and its legal system have often been blamed for the relative lack of attention on the part of Iranian scientists towards Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). In spite of these odds, however, the Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) launched a programme to overcome existing shortcomings and encourage nanotechnology researchers to protect their inventions in the country and particularly, overseas. The efficiency and effectiveness of this programme are analysed in this paper. In a country without a national IP policy, successful implementation of this programme could pave the way for extending the same mechanism to other technological fields, although it is unlikely that the deficiencies of Iran's national innovation system could be completely resolved by such sectoral policies.

Influenza vaccination is now recommended for all ages; CDC pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccination (PPV) recommendations are comorbidity-based in nonelderly patients. We constructed a Markov model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of dual influenza and pneumococcal vaccination in 50-year-olds. Patients were followed for 10 years, with differing time horizons examined in sensitivity analyses. With 100% vaccine uptake, dual vaccination cost $37,700/QALY gained compared to a CDC recommendation strategy; with observed vaccine uptake, dual vaccination cost $5,300/QALY. Results were sensitive to shorter time horizons, favoring CDC recommendations. We found dual vaccination of all 50-year-olds economically reasonable. Shorter duration models may not fully account for PPV effectiveness.

Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds of natural occurrence produced by plants that are largely consumed both for therapeutic purposes and as food. Experimental data have shown that many flavonoids could inhibit thyroperoxidase activity, decreasing thyroid hormones ...

Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds of natural occurrence produced by plants that are largely consumed both for therapeutic purposes and as food. Experimental data have shown that many flavonoids could inhibit thyroperoxidase activity, decreasing thyroid hormones ...

In this paper authors analyze seven cases of domestic violence in Nis area during one year of implementation of the new criminal offence domestic violence. Using the method of indirect observation and interviews, authors give us an overview of police's, prosecutors and court's intervention in domestic violence cases. In spite of small number of registered and processed domestic violence cases, some negative phenomenons are observed. Those phenomenons unable efficient and accurate preventive and repressive actions toward abuser. Majority of these observed facts are noted and explained, with underlining the consequences and a way for overcoming them. In order to reach valid and scientifically based conclusion about implementation of laws regarding domestic violence, it is essential to undertake extensive research in Serbia, including a research of a practice of the police, prosecutors and courts. Results of such research would allow qualitative theoretical overview of law enfo...

Abstract. Transactional standards have been promoted by OMG and X/Open to allow heterogeneous resources to participate in an Atomic Commitment Protocol (ACP), namely the two-phase commit protocol (2PC). Although widely accepted, 2PC is a blocking protocol and it introduces a substantial time delay (two phases to commit). Several optimized protocols and non-blocking protocols have been proposed. Optimized protocols generally violate site autonomy while non-blocking protocols are inherently more costly in time and increase communication overhead. This paper proposes a new ACP that provides the non-blocking property while (1) having a lower latency than other ACPs (one phase to commit), and (2) preserving site autonomy, which makes it compatible with existing DBMSs. This protocol relies on the assumption that all participants are ruled by a rigorous concurrency control protocol. Performance analysis shows that our protocol is more efficient in terms of time delay and message complexity...

Purpose of the Study: To estimate the odds of death associated with docu-mented unintentional falls and acute care hospitalization among older adults in the United States. Design and Method: Data were abstracted from the 2005 Nationwide Inpa-tient Sample (NIS) and odds of death were modeled using logistic regression. Results: The age 65 and older fall rate per 1,000 discharges was 53.0 while the mortality rate for those who fell was 33.2. Older-old (odds ration [OR] = 2.93; confidence interval [CI] = [2.50, 3.43]), men (OR = 1.64, CI = [1.54, 1.75]), and non-White (OR = 1.09; CI = [1.01, 1.19]) had higher odds of death compared to younger-old, women, and Whites. Additional comorbidity (OR = 3.41, CI = [3.05, 3.82]), dehydration (OR = 1.14; CI = [1.05, 1.25]) and intracranial fractures (OR = 4.46; CI = [4.02, 4.95]) resulted in greater odds of death. Implications: Among older adults who experienced a fall and hospitalization, odds of mortality appear influenced by factors beyond inju...

Multiple regional trauma systems have been implemented over the past 3 decades to achieve the goal of regionalized care for injured patients. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS-COT) advocates that seriously injured patients should be treated in designated Level I trauma centers that meet criteria including admitting more than 1,200 injured patients annually. Reliable measures are needed to evaluate the implementation of regionalized care nationally. The goal of this study was to measure the proportion of seriously injured patients treated at high injury–volume hospitals.We performed a retrospective observational study of injured patients hospitalized in the US during the years 1995 to 2003, drawn from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Hospitals were ranked in order of annual volume of injured patient admissions. A patient’s severity of injury was calculated using ICD-9–based Injury Severity Score (ICISS). The principal measure was the proportion of seriously injured patients (ICISS ≤ 0.90) admitted to high-volume hospitals.Nine hundred fifteeen injured patients admitted per year is the empiric threshold for hospitals with a high injury volume. Only 7% of hospitals in the US meet this volume threshold. Sixty percent of seriously injured patients are treated in these high-volume hospitals; within the elder (age 65 years or older) subset, this percentage is lower.The proportion of seriously injured patients in high-volume hospitals is a functional metric that provides a practicable and comprehensive measure of regionalized trauma care in the US. Injured elder Americans have less access to experienced trauma hospitals.