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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2026

Exploring perceptions and willingness to recycle wastes among small businesses in selected townships of the Gauteng province in South Africa.

Although small businesses play an important role in generating employment opportunities and local economic development, their involvement in recycling programs has not been characterized in greater detail. This study explored the perceptions and willingness of selected small businesses in Gauteng province townships to reuse or recycle some of their waste materials. This study used a quantitative research approach to explore the perceptions and willingness of selected small businesses to reuse or recycle some of the waste they generate. The results showed that the perceptions about the contribution of recycling to environmental pollution reduction among small businesses in the study differed significantly across the townships (χ2 = 6.892, p = 0.003). On the other hand, most formal businesses significantly agreed with the potential benefits of waste recycling on environmental pollution reduction (χ2 = 16.118, p = 0.003), saving landfill space (χ2 = 11.610, p = 0.003), improving environmental quality (χ2 = 10.443, p = 0.005), and providing job opportunities (χ2 = 10.263, p = 0.036). However, regardless of their formality (χ2 = 2.957, p = 0.228) or location (χ2 = 9.463, p = 0.051), there was no statistically significant variation in the recycling practices of the small businesses in this study. Moreover, businesses' willingness to use recycling facilities if they were located nearby differed across townships (0.05 > p = 0.010) but was similar despite the formality of the enterprises. In conclusion, recycling perceptions and willingness of small businesses can vary significantly depending on whether they are formal or informal and across townships. As a result, relevant educational interventions should be uniquely developed to raise awareness about the need for waste minimization through recovery, re-use, and recycling among small businesses in the Gauteng province.Implications: Small, Medium, and Micro enterprises (SMMEs) play a crucial role in local economic development in South Africa. However, research on their environmental sustainability is scarce, despite their significant impacts on natural resources and contributions to pollution. Most waste management studies have focused on households and municipalities, leaving a gap in understanding SMMEs' waste management behaviors, particularly in townships.

South Africa↗
PubMed1975

Teaching nursing management by programmed instruction.

Student and faculty dissatisfaction with lectures prompted several revisions of teaching methods for nursing management. Revisions centered around a programmed text for business plus various methods of application to nursing. One part of management (control) was also programmed in nursing terms. Data collected revealed that students who used the programmed business text and participated in small group discussions achieved significantly higher scores than either students who attended lectures or used the programmed business text in conjunction with a tutorial system. Data also demonstrated that students who used the unit programmed specifically for nursing management achieved significantly higher scores than students who used the programmed text for business management. This data suggest students level of achievement is increased when the transfer step from business to nursing is eliminated. For this reason, two faculty members completed the writing of a programmed text for nursing management. This text has been tested over the past two years and will be published in the near future. We were unable to collect objective data regarding the actual application of management principles to nursing practice. Subjectively, we felt the students had a stronger framework of principles unique to nursing management and were able to transfer this knowledge to leading a team with greater ease than previously. Without student dissatisfaction originally, and student acceptance and participation throughout the changes, this study would not have evolved. It was student encouragement which prompted the program specific to nursing.

Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate↗
PubMed1978

Data management and radiotherapy.

The realization by radiation therapists that computerized patient information is a valuable resource is slowly evolving. The uses of this data include business, quality control, and research applications. Computer applications in these areas have been limited due to the small numbers of patients and the complexity of radiation therapy problems. Reductions in costs and improved programming techniques over the last decade have made information processing computer systems feasible. Measureable progress has been made in the areas of billing and scheduling systems, improved department data handling systems, and increased participation in cooperative groups with increased data handling capability. A review of costs in terms of dollars, time, and effort supports the use of information processing systems in therapy.

Computers↗
PubMed1992

Assessment of airborne bacterial contamination of clean wounds: results in a tissue model.

Ovine skeletal muscle was used as a model wound and inoculated with airborne bacteria collected from a busy communal room. A specialized counting technique involving agar overlay and post-incubation tetrazolium staining was developed to allow accurate counting of small numbers of bacteria on the surfaces of muscle and membrane filters coated with substantial quantities of muscle and fat debris. Two techniques of recovering the inoculated airborne bacteria from the model wound were compared. Pulsed jet lavage with membrane filtration of the recovered fluid showed substantially better recovery, less variability and correlated more closely with controls than a tetrazolium stained 5 microns membrane filter imprint technique. Pulsed jet lavage with membrane filtration is likely to be the more appropriate technique in the assessment of contamination of wounds created in ultraclean air.

Air Microbiology↗
PubMed1978

Prevention of complications from prolonged tracheal intubation.

Eight commercially available soft cuff endotracheal tubes were studied to determine the relationship between inflation pressure distention of the cuff. Although the balloon cuff may be easily distensible in open air, when confined within the trachea small increments in the inflation volume may produce high pressures. This means that continuous external control of cuff pressure is required to prevent ischemia of the tracheal wall. Major tracheal complications in a busy ICU were examined before and after the introduction of a controlled pressure tube. Control of intratracheal cuff pressures decreased major tracheal complications tenfold and eliminated complications specifically related to the cuff.

Dilatation, Pathologic↗
PubMed1976

[The use of an enzyme-kinetic-method for bacteriological examinations of heavy polluted surface waters (author's transl)].

The greatest fraction of nutrients dissolved in water are organic substances which are decomposed, transformed and mineralized by heterotrophic microorganisms. For this reason, investigations concerning energy transfer in an aquatic ecosystem, or practical examinations of the pollution load of surface waters, cannot be set up when based exclusively on more or less good counts of microorganisms of the production or destruction group. Above all, it is important for heterotrophic bacteria that productivity parameters for these numerical estimations are also provided. PARSON and STRICKLAND were successful in measuring the uptake of organic material in waters with uptake-kinetic methods; HOBBIE and WRIGHT developed a method for measuring the uptake of marked test-substrates in certain concentration ranges. As a result, for these substrates it was possible to measure the turnover in natural populations. Consequently, after frequent improvement of the technique in determining the decomposition rates of individual organic substrates, a way was found not only to determine static descriptions of an aquatic biotope, but also to make possible a dynamic description of nutrient transfers. The kinetic parameters computed from these measurements are: the maximum uptake velocity (Vmax), the turnover velocity (Tt) and the transport constant (Kt) (Michaelis Constant). The maximum uptake velocity of a substrate can be regarded as the "heterotrophic capacity" of the biotope for this substrate. One restriction is, however, that only quickly assimilatable substrates can be used, as for example hexoses, organic acids, amino acids, etc. Since this technique was tested practically only in oligotrophic waters, this study undertakes to investigate its applicability in polluted biotopes and to answer the question whether a decomposition gradient is reflected in the kinetic data. A small eutrophic lake in the eastern section of the Holstein Lake District (350 ha, 9.5 m mean water depth) was chosen as the test biotope. Emptying into the lake was the runoff of a biological water treatment plant with 12,000 population equivalents and without notable business and industry. In a rectangular investigation area at first with 30 sampling stations positioned close to the outlet of the water treatment plant into the lake, kinetic tests were carried out in 48 hour intervals and then compared with bacteriological, chemical and meteorological sample results taken at the same time. Two typical result-blocks are illustrated (Fig. 1-4, 5-8). The first shows four successive test days with periodically strong wind and light to fairly strong but short periods of precipitation. The second block illustrates conditions during a following period of fair weather with only very light wind intensities. The corresponding conditions of the stratification of the drainage water in the investigation area are illustrated by the distribution of coliform organisms. In two other tables the kinetic parameters and individual, dominant data are contrasted numerically...

Bacteria↗
PubMed1992

The cost of quality assurance/quality control.

Good Manufacturing Practice Guidelines have an inherent philosophy to maintain high standards and to promote uniformity within trading areas. Reaching these standards in some countries and maintaining them in others is costly. The Cost of Quality is regarded as a significant indicator of business performance. Quality costs are increasing as demands for improved accuracy and precision are made on the industry. The paper also details actual costs for validating a modern biological production facility and establishing biological quality control facilities. Bench mark quality control testing costs for a typical large and small animal vaccine are given.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

The stress interview: unfinished business.

The stress interview, once a common method of psychophysiological research, is today unused because of concerns for research design and ethical issues. As it almost uniquely allows direct structured observations of bodily responses to stress in man it ought to be revived, incorporating modern instrumentation, current methods of refinement of subjective judgments, and now-conventional ethical safeguards. A considerable range of prospective applications to current needs in gastrointestinal research is presented, and the ethical justification for such studies is reviewed. The potential gains far outweight the small risks which would be incurred.

Gastrointestinal Diseases↗
PubMed1977

High-quality, high-throughput, early whole-body bone scanning.

99mTc-IDP allows for high-quality, high-throughput and early whole-body bone scanning. Whole-body bone scans obtained at 30 min after intravenous administration of the tracer were compared with the standard and delayed 180 min p.i images. A subtraction technique allowed for the anlysis of the 30 min scans and it was found that in both types of investigation the same clinical information was present. This procedure will therefore increase considerably the throughput of whole-body bone scans in a busy department of nuclear medicine. It is however inadequate for detailed analysis of the skeleton (evaluation of benign bone disease).

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Guinea worm disease: epidemiology, control, and treatment.

Guinea worm infection is one of the most easily prevented parasitic diseases, but it is nevertheless a common cause of disability in rural areas of Africa, south-west Asia, and India. Infection occurs when drinking water is infested with infected Cyclops, a microcrustacean. Worms up to 70-80 cm in length develop in the subcutaneous tissues of the feet or legs and larvae are liberated to renew the cycle when an infected individual steps into a well or pond from which others draw drinking water. Infection is markedly seasonal because of (a) the influence of the climate on the types of water source used and (b) the developmental cycle of the parasite. The disability may be economically very important if the period of infection coincides with busy periods in the agricultural year. Sieving water through a cloth is sufficient to remove the Cyclops, but on a public health scale improved water supplies are required for control. Once the cycle of reinfection can be broken in any district the disease disappears. Chemical treatment of water bodies with temephos is also an effective and safe way of controlling transmission. Treatment consists of rolling out each emerging worm onto a small stick, a few centimetres each day, and certain drugs reduce the pain and pruritus and enable the worm to be removed more quickly.

Africa↗
PubMed2025

DigiNet: Optimizing personalized care for patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) through a digitally connected provider network-analysis plan of a prospective multicenter cohort trial.

PURPOSE: The German sector-based healthcare system poses a major challenge to continuous patient monitoring and long-term follow-up, both essential for generating high-quality, longitudinal real-world data. The national Network for Genomic Medicine (nNGM) bridges the inpatient and outpatient care sectors to provide comprehensive molecular diagnostics and personalized treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in Germany. Building on the established nNGM infrastructure, the DigiNet study aims to evaluate the impact of digitally integrated, personalized care on overall survival (OS) and the optimization of treatment pathways, compared to routine care. METHODS: DigiNet is a prospective, controlled, non-randomized multicenter cohort study including patients with stage IV NSCLC in two study regions (East and West) in Germany. The results of molecular diagnostics and clinical information, along with the entire treatment data are documented in a shared database. A board of lung cancer specialists monitors critical events. Patients digitally complete quality of life questionnaires, with results visualized for physicians. To assess the impact of this personalized digital care, a population-based control group will be identified by matching cohorts within the involved cancer registries. The primary endpoint is OS, and secondary endpoints comprise time on first-line treatment and hospitalization rates. Furthermore, a health economic and business economic evaluation will be conducted. Qualitative interviews with patients and physicians will be performed to assess barriers and facilitating factors for implementing the DigiNet intervention. ETHICS: The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the University Hospital of Cologne (21-1521). TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT05818449, registered retrospectively on December 12, 2022.

Humans↗