Monday, January 27, 2020

Relationship Between Health Status and Systemic Inflammation

Relationship Between Health Status and Systemic Inflammation Participants The Tianjin Chronic Low-grade Systemic Inflammation and Health (TCLSIH or TCLSIHealth) cohort study is a observational study was based on annual health examinations conducted in Tianjin Medical University General Hospital Health Management Center in Tianjin, China[13, 14], and focused on the relationship between chronic low-grade systemic inflammation and the health status. Participants, who had received health examinations, including medical examinations, such as blood tests, abdominal ultrasonography, anthropometric parameters (height and body weight) etc., and had completed questionnaires regarding their smoking and drinking habits and disease history over the course of January 2007 to December 2015, were recruited. Moreover, a detailed lifestyle questionnaire covering economic level, marital status, employment status, educational levels, physical activity, sleep habits, dietary habits, overall computer/mobile device usage times, television time, history of prior infections, and u se of medicines as well as physical performance tests were administered to randomly selected subjects from this population since May 2013. The protocol of the study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tianjin Medical University, and written informed consent was obtained from each participant. A total of XXXX subjects participated in this study. However, participants who had a history of type 1 diabetes mellitus, or who missed information on hs-CRP, IMT or plaques were not included in the present study. After excluding those subjects, the final cross-sectional analysis population comprised 8000 participants including 6009 subjects with normal blood glucose metabolic status, 1428 subjects with pre-diabetes and 563 subjects with diabetes. Assessment of T2DM Fasting blood glucose (FBG) was measured by the glucose oxidase method. Blood samples for analysis of HbA1c were mixed with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (as an anticoagulant) before testing. HbA1c separation and quantification were performed using a high-performance liquid chromatography analyser (HLC-723 G8; Tosoh, Tokyo, Japan) with intra- and interassay coefficients of variation of

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Haircut by Ring Lardner Essay

In his short story, â€Å"Haircut,† Ring Lardner employs an atypical point of view style. Although the story is told completely from the point of view of a barber, what makes it unique is that the reader is a part of the story as the barber’s customer. Lardner makes use of the stereotype that barbers are very talkative while they do their work, and one can learn all the town gossip from them. The barber himself is very talkative by nature, inferred from when he says that he does not mind shaving corpses, except that he gets â€Å"kind of lonesome† with them because he cannot talk to them. He also seems unaware of his gossiping nature because, once, he actually stops himself by saying that he â€Å"shouldn’t ought to be gossipin’† even though he had been gossiping the entire time. This barber goes on with his stories with no input needed from the customer/reader, and so seems to skip from one topic to another, similar to the pattern of idle chatter. This random jumping of topics is actually essential to the story. Lardner builds his characters using little background stories that expose their personalities. This style involves so many characters and so many stories that a straightforward third-person story would not have been nearly as effective. One other importance of the barber’s point of view is that he makes no judgments as he tells his stories. He talks about Jim Kendall, who he has a â€Å"good ole boy† type of relationship with. From the stories, the reader can tell that Jim, the recently deceased funny barbershop patron, was in fact a rather bad man. Jim did not give his wife enough money to live on and cheated on her repeatedly, knowingly broke his children’s hearts, made fun of a mentally ill person, and almost assaulted a woman. Even knowing all these things, the barber still insists that Jim was a â€Å"good fella at heart. † Lardner uses the idle chatter of a friendly barber to tell the story of what was, most probably, a murder of a very unpleasant man.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Al Gore Leadership

Between his service as a two-term Vice President and his later and current work as a statesman and respected politician, Al Gore has shown that his style of leadership has the ability to greatly impact America.This essay will examine three areas in which Gore has made his mark on American society.   First, Gore established himself as a leader as a United States Representative and Senator.   Next, Gore further developed his leadership style through his service as Bill Clinton’s Vice President.   Finally, Gore continues to show his lasting impact on America through his continued service as a promoter of the environment and global warming.Al Gore was first elected as a United States Representative from Tennessee in 1976, at the young age of twenty-eight.   With a Harvard degree and military service in his background, plus a father who had also served the state of Tennessee as both a Representative and Senator, it seemed a natural move for Gore to go into his first politic al role at the time he did, even though it meant leaving behind his legal studies.   Gore was re-elected as a Representative for three additional terms in 1978, 1980 and 1982.   (Wikipedia, 2007)During his term, Gore served on the House Intelligence Committee.   While on that Committee, he published a paper in the Congressional Quarterly that proposed an intelligent missile solution to slow the nuclear arms race.   (Rowen, 2000)   Notably, Gore was the first politician whose speech before the House was carried live on C-Span in 1979.   (Wikipedia)   Even early in his political career, Gore had found a way to impact the American people.In 1984, Gore was elected to the United States Senate.   While in the Senate, he sponsored the bill for which his career would be most well known: the Gore Bill, which became the High Performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991.   This noteworthy piece of legislation lead to the widespread use of the Internet in the early 199 0s, as more Americans then were able to access the so-called Information Superhighway.   (Wikipedia, 2007)After an unsuccessful primary bid for the Presidency during the 1988 campaign cycle, Al Gore was chosen by Democratic Presidential Nominee in 1992 to become his running mate.   Gore would become the longest serving Democratic Vice President since the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson.   As Vice President, Al Gore was able to use his leadership skills to impact both the American people and people around the world on nearly a daily basis.   As a staunch advocate against sending aid to Iraq and Saddam Hussein during the 1980s, Gores views became instrumental in early 1990s foreign policy towards the Middle East.One of the first projects Gore worked within after ascending to the Vice Presidency was the creation of the National Performance Review.   The National Performance Review was instrumental in identifying and eliminating governmental waste.The program was also able to ide ntify other instances of governmental misuse of money, and was used as a key tool in the downsizing of the federal government that occurred during the Clinton administration.   (NOAA, 2002)   During his eight years as Vice President, Al Gore also embraced a number of other key issues that continue to impact the American people today.   Among those issues are the environment, NAFTA and free trade, and launching a satellite to provide constant imaging of the earth.   (Wikipedia)During the 2000 election cycle, Al Gore was the frontrunning Democratic candidate from the start of the primary election season.   In a move that was billed by the news media as decidedly strange, Gore chose to distance himself from the ups and downs of the Clinton administration and instead run a campaign entirely on his own merits as a long-serving politician and strong leader.The public’s overall approval of Al Gore was apparent in the 2000 Presidential election, which Gore lost by a narrow margin in a defeat that was not confirmed until weeks later.   Clearly, after more than twenty years in public office, the American people were able to recognize Al Gore as a strong leader.   Although he did not win, the American people continue to look to Al Gore as a leader and purveyor of strong ideas.After the 2000 campaign, Al Gore continues to be a public figure and respected leader.   He has shown that leadership ability in a number of initiatives over the past decade.   Gore has spoken out vocally against President George Bush’s policies in Iraq, and warned, quite perceptively, of the enormous cost that would become a burden to the American people while achieving little overseas.   During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Gore personally chartered several airplanes to airlift nearly three hundred storm victims from Louisiana.   (Wikipedia)   He later publicly criticized the government for its disorganized response to the disaster.Perhaps Gore’s lasting legacy as a leader has been his continuing passion for issues related to the environment.   In a recently produced movie titled The Inconvenient Truth, Gore reveals the work of researchers and the bleak outlook on the affects of Global Warming.   This award-winning documentary is arguably Gore’s most direct impact on the American people, bringing concerns to them in a media accessible to all.From the accomplishments that can be traced during the course of Al Gore’s political career that began in the mid-1970s, it is clear to see that he has exhibited the skills of a strong leader for many decades.   It will be that abiding leadership that will become his legacy and ensure his lasting impact on the American people.ReferencesAl Gore.   Wikipedia.   Retrieved Sept. 27, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore.National Performance Review. NOAA Satellite and Information Service.   Retrieved Sept. 27,2007 from http://ipo.noaa.gov/About/npr.html.Rowe n, B. (2000). Vice President Al Gore. Infoplease Campaign 2000.   Retrieved Sept. 27,2007 from http://www.infoplease.com/spot/algore1.html.  

Friday, January 3, 2020

Strategic Financial Analysis - Diageo Whiskey Company

Diageo Whiskey Company Analysis Introduction Diageo holds a title of being the globe’s largest producer of whisky, connected to some 29 distilleries and warehouses storing seven million casks of maturing spirits. Their products are sold in more than 180 countries and the company holds offices in 80 countries. Diageo’s best-selling brand (Johnnie Walker) has been sold in the fiscal year of 2011 in an astonishing amount of 17.8 million â€Å"nine-liter cases†, which were mainly traded overseas. The demand for whisky globally is rising since the 1990s at that time the market was deemed â€Å"flat†, while according to the Scotch whisky association exports of scotch were valued at  £3 billion in the first nine months of the year 2011, which is a†¦show more content†¦From this point Diageo’s growth was much sounder and fueled up by positive quarter results lead by encouraging forecast figures. As a result, Diageo’s stock grew by more than 80 percent within a three year span, beating FTSE 100 Index’s performance (approximately 33 percent) by an impressive 47 percent. Q3. Determine the current value of the equity in this company, using each of the following methods: 1) Net Asset Value (NAV). Net asset value is used by financial analysts as a complementing tool to define the value of a company’s stock. Net Asset Value is basically tells the current balance sheet value of assets after deducting liabilities (Carmichael et al., 2003). To calculate NPV of Diageo we have to look for data in the most recent financial statements, published on â€Å"Investor Relations† page on the company’s website. The total value of Diageo’s assets is reported to be 19,777,000,000 GBP. Total Liabilities and Debt of Diageo was 14,532,000,000 GBP (all data as of July 31, 2010). Net Asset Value = Total Assets – Total Liabilities = 19,777,000,000 – 14,532,000,000 = 5,245,000,000 GBP Net Asset Value per share = NAV/ Number of shares outstanding = 5,245,000,000 GBP/249,000,000 shares = 21.06 As we see, the number is very small and doe s not reflect the current value of the company’s stock. The NAV value is not only far from the current stock value, but it also can’t be considered as a fair value. The inconvenience lies in the fact thatShow MoreRelatedStrategic Financial Analysis - Diageo Whiskey Company2497 Words   |  10 PagesDiageo Whiskey Company Analysis Introduction Diageo holds a title of being the globe’s largest producer of whisky, connected to some 29 distilleries and warehouses storing seven million casks of maturing spirits. Their products are sold in more than 180 countries and the company holds offices in 80 countries. 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