In analyzing a signal, especially a non-stationary signal, it is often necessary the desired signal to be segmented into small epochs. Segmentation can be performed by splitting the signal at time instances where signal amplitude or frequency change. In this paper, the signal is initially decomposed into signals with different frequency bands using wavelet transform. Then, fractal dimension of ...

Many countries are involved in the “production” and overseas recruitment of care workers in a major international response to the “care crisis” affecting advanced industrialized economies. But the distribution of gains and losses from care-labour migration is becoming increasingly unequal, and the pressure to develop alternative policies is intensifying. The author assesses the relevance of dif...

The management of victims during mass-casualty incidents (MCIs) is improving. In many countries, physicians and paramedics are well-trained to manage these incidents. A problem that has been encountered during MCIs is the lack of adequate numbers of hospital beds to accommodate the injured. In Europe, hospitals are crowded. One solution for the lack of beds is the creation of baseline data syst...

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States are in the transition toward a new, knowledge-based economy. As these states diversify from a petroleum-based economy to knowledge-based industries, the countries’ competitiveness and performance increasingly will depend on their abilities to foster an indigenous capacity for technological innovation. This paper presents a broad framework for a national...

BACKGROUND The Romanian health system is struggling to retain its health workers, who are currently facing strong incentives for migration to Western European health systems. Retention issues, coupled with high levels of migration, complicate Romania's efforts in providing basic health services for rural, underserved, and marginalized populations, as well as in achieving equitable health access...

AdamSmith’s account of themoral sentiments resonateswithmodern themes in evolutionary biology. His distinction between our reasons and the reasons for these reasons recalls the evolutionary biologist’s emphasis on different levels of causal explanation. In this view, the proximate goals of our psychologicalmotivations are different in kind from the ultimate reasons why we have evolved these mot...

We propose a new evolution model for large strain elastoplasticity. In a quasi-static setting the suggested model can be formulated as a variational evolution. We establish existence of a closely related evolution in a regularized context. We then discuss how the proposed model performs in both a rigid-plastic, and a one-dimensional settings and compare the results with those that could be achi...

The shortage of doctors, especially in remote areas, is a critical issue for the development of national health systems and has thus been the focus of a number of international cooperation projects. An exploratory and qualitative study was conducted to examine cooperation between Brazil, Angola and Cuba. A nonsystematic literature review was conducted of selected open access articles and offici...

The MEPS (musculoskeletal--eyestrain--psychosocial--stress) study involved an extensive degree of multidisciplinary and multicultural cooperation. The objective was to examine the effects of multiple ergonomic interventions on visual, musculoskeletal, postural, and psychosocial outcomes amongst operators of visual display terminals (VDTs). The inherent complexity of a comprehensive ergonomic in...

Rare diseases research in China can be traced back to the 1980s. Currently, control of rare diseases has become a national concern. This paper describes developments concerning rare diseases in China with regard to epidemiology, case registration, basic research, establishment of medical networks, and orphan drugs. A national program for rare disease research is being implemented in China to pr...