A pilot programme for assessing laboratory performance in clinical chemistry laboratories in Zimbabwe is described (ZEQAS). Twenty four laboratories providing patient care services participated. Eight lyphilised bovine sera were distributed over one year. Consensus values and the spread of interlaboratory agreement were calculated for each of 12 analytes and compared with results previously obt...

Ground-penetrating radar was used successfully to discover and map buried archaeological sites containing pit-structures in the American Southwest. Sites tested contained different archaeological features, geological matrix, and varying deptlis of burial. These varying site conditions necessitated the application of different acquisition, data processing and interpretation techniques. With pit-...

The present study examines the relationship between academic burnout and quality of learning experience and self-efficacy among undergraduate students. The sample consisted of 233 undergraduate students (106 men and 127 women) who were selected by stratified random sampling method. The participants completed the Quality of Learning Experience Scale, Academic Burnout scale, and General Self-Effi...

The profession is in the process of defining the Why, What and How of surgical training. In some areas, it is more developed than others. However, there is a common agenda and desire to define surgical training standards. Why? Teaching has to become more efficient and at the same time effective to ensure that the surgeons of tomorrow are well equipped. There are a lot of external pressures. The...

Despite organometal halide perovskite solar cells have recently exhibited a significant leap in efficiency, the Sn-based perovskite solar cells still suffer from low efficiency. Here, a series homogeneous CH3NH3Pb(1-x)SnxI3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) perovskite thin films with full coverage were obtained via solvent engineering. In particular, the intermediate complexes of PbI2/(SnI2)∙(DMSO)x were proved to r...

Each successive paper by Mariano Tommasi puts an additional block in building up a coherent framework to analyze the r elationship among institutions and policy design, reform and implementation, drawing on earlier work by others in applying concepts of institutional economics (specially those associated with transaction costs) to the realms of politics. In this paper he uses this framework to ...

In this study we present evidence that anthropogenic stressors can reduce the resilience of age-structured populations. Enhancement of disturbance in a model-based Daphnia population lead to a repression of chaotic population dynamics at the same time increasing the degree of synchrony between the population's age classes. Based on the theory of chaos-mediated survival an increased risk of exti...

The quality of analytical results required in clinical practice is generally dictated by analytical rather than clinical criteria. The increasing availability of analytical technology that can be used outside the hospital laboratory challenges this situation. In an attempt to highlight this dilemma one method of glucose analysis outside the laboratory has been assessed using a pilot external qu...

spontaneous perforation of the sigmoid colon or rectom is defined as a sudden perforation of the colon in the absence of diseases such as tumors, diverticulosis or external injury. it is a very rare finding, and if neglected, results in severe peritonitis and high mortality. the causes of this rare condition are numerous, and in this case it might be due to the chronic constipation induced by a...