A comparative study on the embryonic development of gynogen, triploid, haploid and normal diploid embryos of stinging catfish, Heteropneustes fossilis

UV irradiation and cold shock were applied on the eggs of stinging catfish, Heteropneustes fossilis, to produce haploid,. gynogen and triploid embryos. A comparative account of the various features· of embryonic development in chromosomally manipulated groups viz. haploid, gynogen and triploid and non-manipulated normal diploid group of H fossilis has been discussed. A slow development and delayed hatching were observed in gynogen and triploid embryos compared to those in normal diploid (control) groups. Mass mortality was observed in all chromosomally manipulated groups particularly during the gastrulation stage. The hatchlings of the gynogen, triploid and normal diploid were similar in overall appearance

Final Year Project Allocations for Undergraduate Engineering Students in TNE Programs

Final year project allocations become a challenging task, particularly, in the case of a large number of undergraduate students enthusiast to get a project of their interest and/or to work with a supervisor of their choice. The problem is challenging as the interest of all the students should be matched while keeping the staff workload in balance. It becomes a matching problem with the constraints of staff workload, student preferences, and staff skillset. Particularly, in the Transnational Education (TNE) programs, the physical availability (or lack of it) of the staff plays an important part in the student project selections which gives an additional challenge to the allocation problem. Authors provide a review of different final year project allocation methods currently in practice and discuss their strengths and weaknesses with respect to the constraints highlighted. Authors finally conclude by discussing an algorithm which can work effectively and efficiently in the context of project allocations for TNE programs

Assessment and feedback for large classes in transnational engineering education: student–staff partnership-based innovative approach

Assessment and feedback (A&F) are two major components of any educational program and must be properly in place to ensure student learning and quality of experience. However, these important components come under severe challenges of meeting student expectations in the large class size context. When the program delivery relates to a transnational educational (TNE) scenario, the additional constraints on staff–student physical interaction, regional time differences and cultural background gaps introduce additional challenges: Conducting proper assessments and provide timely and constructive feedback to the students. In this paper, the authors propose a novel assessment and feedback framework which exploits having a large student number as a positive factor by introducing staff–student partnership to implement efficient assessment and feedback strategies. Authors propose to use students for peer-review, assessment design, evaluation rubric design and tutorial-based feedback. The students also take part in preparing feedback clusters based on which the instructor provides pseudo-personalised video feedback. Through feedback clusters, authors introduce the trade-off between individual feedback and generic feedback. The results of the study are particularly promising in terms of student satisfaction and learning enhancement

Deglobalization and the value of geographic diversification: evidence from Brexit

Purpose This paper aims to explore the value of geographic diversification in the context of deglobalization, drawing evidence from a quasi-natural experiment – the Brexit referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the UK. Design/methodology/approach This study applies an event study methodology to estimate the impact of the Brexit vote on a cross-section of firms with varying levels of geographic diversification – undiversified UK firms, UK firms with significant operations in the European Union (EU) and globally diversified UK firms. This study deploys a Heckman two-stage regression approach to address sample selection bias. Findings This study finds that undiversified UK firms experienced negative cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) around the Brexit referendum. The value of UK firms with majority sales within the UK declined by 0.9 percentage points, on average, in the three days centred on the Brexit referendum. In contrast, UK firms that are globally diversified, with the majority of sales within the EU are unaffected, while diversified firms in the rest of the world generated positive CARs of 1.8 percentage points over the same period. These results are robust to firm characteristics, selection bias and alternative measures of CARs and diversification. Research limitations/implications This study is subject to some limitations that open avenues for future work. There are a few available proxies of diversification and further work on developing other proxies is much needed. Further work may also examine the long-term impact of diversification on UK firms. This study considered Brexit as a quasi-natural experiment, and this study could be applied to other deglobalization events like COVID-19 and can enhance the generalizability of diversification strategy in the deglobalized world. Findings may stimulate future work to explore how another form of diversification – product diversification has affected firm returns around Brexit. Finally, this study has focused on the UK as its base case. It may be interesting to corroborate the findings by exploring the impact of Brexit on European firms, who hitherto Brexit, had some operations in the UK. Practical implications This work offers some insights for policymakers and regulators around the impact of deglobalization on local firms. Findings suggest that these trends significantly negatively impact the most vulnerable firms (smaller firms with less global reach), while their larger counterparts with significant global reach might be insulated. This finding is important for determining the nature of support needed by different firms in times of deglobalization. The work also offers insights to managers of firms operating in countries where there are real prospects of deglobalization. Specifically, the work highlights the importance of geographic diversification when free movement of goods, services and people is restricted. Originality/value This study shows that a certain group of globally diversified firms earned significantly higher returns from the prospect of the UK leaving the EU, thereby highlighting the value of geographic diversification in a time of deglobalization

Effect of a mixture of caffeine and nicotinamide on the solubility of vitamin (B2) in aqueous solution

The effect of caffeine (CAF) and nicotinamide (NMD) on the solubility of a vitamin B2 derivative (FMN) has been evaluated for mixtures containing either a single hydrotrope (CAF or NMD) or the two hydrotropes simultaneously. A model for analysis of ternary systems, which takes into account all possible complexes between the molecules, has been developed and tested with experimental NMR data on the three-component mixture FMN–CAF–NMD. The results indicate that special attention should be given to the concentration of a hydrotropic agent used to enhance the solubility of a particular drug. A decrease in the efficacy of solubility of the vitamin on addition of large amounts of hydrotropic agent is expected in the two-component systems due to the increased proportion of self-association of the hydrotrope. It is found that a mixture of two hydrotropic agents leads to an increase in the solubility of the vitamin in three-component compared to the two-component system. Rather than using just one hydrotropic agent, it is proposed that a strategy for optimising the solubility of aromatic drugs is to use a mixture of hydrotropic agents

The existence of energy managers in an industry - a need of the time in the energy starved environment

Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.It all starts or fails with energy managers! No energy manager in a firm means no voice to invest in energy efficiency. No voice implies no annual budget for energy conservation measures. Having no annual budget means no energy efficiency measures are implemented. No implementation results in less profit and no energy cost reduction. It is expected from an energy manger to follow a sequential and iterative procedure and suggest design improvements in existing energy systems. In line with the Government‟s effort to be more energy efficient as indicated within the Strategic Plans of Saudi Arabia, the Energy Efficiency (EE) programmes would focus especially in the industrial and commercial sectors. With the proposed introduction of Efficient Management of Electrical Energy Regulation, amendments to the Uniform Building By-laws, labelling of electrical appliances and the use of high-efficient motors, the focus on energy efficiency within the commercial and industrial sector would be further enhanced. These developments coupled with the recent increase in energy cost worldwide spells a real need to develop local experts with the required knowledge and experience in energy efficiency. As energy and environmental problems intensify, there is urgent demand nationwide for energy managers who can set up and implement real practical solutions. It is not just concerned with saving energy, but also with increasing productivity, improving standards of living and saving money. This paper discusses various aspects of certification of energy managers process in terms of academic requirements for the certification as well as the accreditation requirements needed from training institutes. Various technical aspects of the process have been discussed keeping in view of labour market requirements and perspective.dc201

The use of artificial neural network for low latency of fault detection and localisation in transmission line

One of the most critical concerns in power system reliability is the timely and accurate detection of transmission line faults. Therefore, accurate detection and localisation of these faults are necessary to avert system collapse. This paper focuses on using Artificial Neural Networks in faults detection and localisation to attain accuracy, precision and speed of execution. A 330 kV, 500 km three-phase transmission line was modelled to extract faulty current and voltage data from the line. The Artificial Neural Network technique was used to train this data, and an accuracy of 100% was attained for fault detection and about 99.5% for fault localisation at different distances with 0.0017 μs of detection and an average error of 0%–0.5%. This model performs better than Support Vector Machine and Principal Component Analysis with a higher fault detection time. This proposed model serves as the basis for transmission line fault protection and management system

The use of instantaneous overcurrent relay in determining the threshold current and voltage for optimal fault protection and control in transmission line

When a fault occurs on the transmission line, the relay should send the faulty signal to the circuit breaker to trip or isolate the line. Timely detection is integral to fault protection and the management of transmission lines in power systems. This paper focuses on using the threshold current and voltage to reduce the time of delay and trip time of the instantaneous overcurrent relay protection for a 330 kV transmission line. The wavelet transforms toolbox from MATLAB and a Simulink model were used to design the model to detect the threshold value and the coordination time for the backup relay to trip if the primary relay did not operate or clear the fault on time. The difference between the proposed model and the model without the threshold value was analysed. The simulated result shows that the trip time of the two relays demonstrates a fast and precise trip time of 60% to 99.87% compared to other techniques used without the threshold values. The proposed model can eliminate the trial-and-error in programming the instantaneous overcurrent relay setting for optimal performance

Stem Cell Organoids in Primary Cultures of Human Non-Malignant and Malignant Colon

YesA sub-population of cells named cancer stem cells (CSCs) that initiate and promote tumour growth have been demonstrated to exist in several malignancies including colon carcinoma. The objective of our pilot study was to isolate CD133+CD26+CD44+ CSCs from patient colon tumours, culture spheres or organoids and observe their proliferation in primary cultures. Parallel cultures of non-cancer controls from colon normal lining and nonadenomatous polyps were set up. Magnetic activated cell sorting was used to isolate CD133+CD26+CD44+ cell populations followed by primary cell culturing under stem cell culture conditions. Number, cells/organoid and daughter generations of organoids were calculated using phase contrast microscope. Trypan blue exclusion method was used to test the viability of the cells. Both colon tumour and colon non-adenomatous polyp formed floating organoids in suspension; however non-adenomatous polyp cultures did not show self-renewal properties for more than 1 passage. Normal colon singlecell suspension did not create organoids. Metastatic colon tumours rapidly produce cancer cell organoids in less than 24 hours in larger numbers compared to non-metastatic colon tumours (1-3 weeks). Metastatic colon tumour organoids have the ability for proliferation for upto five daughter generations in primary culture compared to three generations for those grown from non-metastatic tumours. This in vitro CSC organoid model will help study colon cancer biology, in particular providing a valuable source of primary cell-derived tissue for studying personalized molecular profiling using ‘omics strategies to direct therapeutic intervention