Improved Extraction Chromatographic Materials for the Separation and Preconcentration of Metal Ions

Growing public health and safety concerns over the use of nuclear materials have increased the demand for improved methods for the separation and preconcentration of various metal ions from environmental and biological samples for subsequent determination. Historically, solvent extraction and ion-exchange have often been the methods of choice for these separations. Solvent extraction, however, is cumbersome and can generate substantial volumes of organic wastes. Ion-exchange, while less cumbersome, lacks adequate selectivity and requires careful control of pH for satisfactory separation. Moreover it is generally not compatible with acidic samples, such as are commonly encountered in the analysis of biological and environmental samples. Extraction chromatography (EXC) combines the selectivity of solvent extraction with the ease of operation of an ion-exchange column. Since its origins in the late 1950’s, a wide variety of EXC materials have been described, and a number of these materials are now commercially available. The performance of EXC materials is deficient in several important respects, however, including modest retention, physical stability, column efficiency, and metal ion sorption capacity. The objective of this work, therefore, is to address these deficiencies and thus, to produce improved extraction chromatographic materials. With this in mind, a systematic study of the effect of the properties of the solid support, the extractant, and the diluent on these characteristics of EXC materials has been undertaken. Four different approaches have been followed: incorporation of ionic-liquids into EXC materials to improve metal ion retention, extractant encapsulation in silica sol-gels to improve the physical stability, stagnant pore plugging to improve the chromatographic efficiency, and the use of polysulfone capsules to improve the capacity. Unexpectedly, the use of an ionic liquid as a diluent for a crown ether (CE) was not found to provide an EXC material capable of strontium ion retention greater than that achievable with a conventional octanol-based material employing the same extractant. Encapsulation of the crown ether in a sol-gel glass or a polysulfone capsule, however, was found to yield strontium sorbents with improved physical stability, strontium ion uptake, or column efficiency. Lastly, it was found that the chromatographic efficiency of commercially available EXC resins can be significantly improved simply by blocking the relatively inaccessible pores with an inert filler. All of these results represent important steps towards the development of commercially viable alternatives to existing extraction chromatographic materials

FPGA-Based Acceleration of Expectation Maximization Algorithm using High Level Synthesis

Expectation Maximization (EM) is a soft clustering algorithm which partitions data iteratively into M clusters. It is one of the most popular data mining algorithms that uses Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) for probability density modeling and is widely used in applications such as signal processing and Machine Learning (ML). EM requires high computation time and large amount of memory when dealing with large data sets. Conventionally, the HDL-based design methodology is used to program FPGAs for accelerating computationally intensive algorithms. In many real world applications, FPGA provide great speedup along with lower power consumption compared to multicore CPUs and GPUs. Intel FPGA SDK for OpenCL enables developers with no hardware knowledge to program the FPGAs with short development time. This thesis presents an optimized implementation of EM algorithm on Stratix V and Arria 10 FPGAs using Intel FPGA SDK for OpenCL. Comparison of performance and power consumption between CPU, GPU and FPGA is presented for various dimension and cluster sizes. Compared to an Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2637 our fully optimized OpenCL model for EM targeting Arria 10 FPGA achieved up to 1000X speedup in terms of throughput (Tspeedup) and 5395X speedup in terms of throughput per unit of power consumed (T/Pspeedup). Compared to previous research on EM-GMM implementation on GPUs, Arria 10 FPGA obtained up to 64.74X Tspeedup and 486.78X T/Pspeedup

Marquezs The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World A Man of Multifaceted Significance

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World is a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez that features a drowned dead man s arrival at a remote island The story demands attention as a dead man makes the islanders existence meaningful he magically alters a solid reality and contributes to social integration and disintegration To reflect on these particular aspects this paper has relied on Jean Paul Sartre s existentialism to some extent use of magic realism and Talcott Parsons theory regarding social unification Selecting the short story as the primary source the paper here has attempted to unveil how a dead man can bring a change to a living communit

Don DeLillo’S White Noise: A Falling Man’s Tale of Human Darkness

White Noise brings forward one of the most thoughtprovoking stories of American society It is important to note that the narrative took place sometime late in the twentieth century most likely around the 1980s the decade when the novel was written It takes the reader to a place of symbolically woven cultural codes This paper aims to bring out Jack Gladney s journey to a postmodern estrangement and shows how we subconsciously become part of his falling self This novel also unveils the sociopolitical darkness of American society The ultimate purpose of the paper is to bring into focus the corruption that DeLillo wants us to see in the vision of Jack Gladney s modernist displacement and postmodernconscience powered by technology and moral corruption In the end the paper will try to unfold Jack Gladney s internal struggle against his overwhelming fear of deat

Sultanas Dream The Eco-Feminist Vision of Freedom

This paper aims at conn ect ing the relationship between feminist fantasy and Eco - feminism One of the major traits that S ultana s Dream inc orporates is overwhelmingly simple and precise solution to phallocentric oppression Gendered reversal and scientific progress in this story have provided us with the aura of freedom envisioned by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain Representing Sultana in this story which incubates the atmosphere where womanhood is fully observed in full rhythm in the lady land where the story is set is the embod iment of science and gendered exploration has given us a better view of harnessing the energy of nature The ge ndered structure reshaped recreated reversed and relocated by the author have left us with the interpretation of the role of power in the first plac

A model of Islamic tourism towards religious motivation and tourist satisfaction in Malaysia

Abstract The aim of this chapter is to explore the roles of religious motivation in the relationship between tourists' antecedents and their destination and satisfaction , and to provide some guidelines to aid tourism professionals in developing and implementing the niche strategy of Islamic tourism for the advancement of the tourism industry of a country such as Malaysia. In the Malaysian context, the religious motivation of international Muslim tourists is increasingly active in their minds, which suggests that tourism professionals consider Shariah-compliant tourism to keep long-term customer relationships. Perceived value, destination image, and service quality influence international Muslim tourists to look to this destination for satisfaction . As a moderation role, the more the level of religious motivation varies, the more the effect of moderator yields. In addition, tourism professionals necessarily require understanding relevant Shariah rules, character­ istics of international Muslim tourists , and the context of the Islamic country so that they can design a Shariah-compliant tourism strategy and policy effective for further growth of the tourism industr

Identifying the Role of the First ‘Qawmi Madrasah’ Darul Uloom Deoband in the Indian Subcontinent

When Darul Uloom in Deoband was founded, the Muslims endured a difficult period under the British. Darul Uloom was a ray of light for the preservation of Islamic education. The primary objective of this study is to elucidate the protective role played by Darul Uloom Deoband. The study also investigates the institution's endeavors in safeguarding Muslim principles and promoting educational advancement. Data were obtained and examined through direct observation, texts and articles. The results show how Muslims came to understand defending Islamic values and education against Western harm and how Darul Uloom played a vital role during difficult times under British colonial rule

Farmer’s Awareness on Effective Delivery of Farm Information through ICT Mediated Extension Service in Bangladesh

The main focus of the study was to find out the level of awareness about effective delivery of farm information to the farmers through ICT mediated extension service in Bangladesh. The factors influencing awareness of the farmers and the problems faced by the farmers in getting farm information were also explored. Data were collected from a sample of 100 farmers out of 700. A structured interview schedule and check list were used in collection of data through face to face interviewing and focus group discussion (FGD) during October to November in 2012. The awareness was measured by using a 3 point rating scale and appropriate weights were assigned to each of the responses. By adding the weights of responses awareness score was calculated. The effectiveness of ICT mediated extension services was considered based on amount of information being supplied, acceptability, diversity, demand driven and outcome in using information by the farmers. About two-thirds (68 percent) of the farmers had moderate awareness while almost one fourth (26 percent) having high and only 6 percent had low awareness about effective delivery of farm information by ICT centers. The level of education, farm size, family size, annual income, training exposure, organizational participation and extension media contact of the farmers were significantly correlated with their awareness. The stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that out of 9, four variables such as organizational participation, annual income, farm size and family size of the farmers combinedly explain 50 percent variance regarding awareness of effective delivery of farm information. Rendering inadequate services of field extension agents, frequent power disruption, lack of skilled manpower (extension agents) at ICT centers, lack of training facilities for the farmers, and poor supervision and monitoring of field extension activities were the major problems as mentioned by the farmers for effective dissemination of farm information

Differences in perinatal outcomes in teenage mothers with their first and third pregnancies and predictors of adverse neonatal events: A cross-sectional study

Background: Repeated teenage pregnancy is a major burden on the healthcare system worldwide. Objective: We aimed to compare teenagers with their first and third pregnancies and to evaluate the likelihood of neonatal complications. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on female teenagers (aged ≤ 19 yr) with singleton pregnancies. The subjects (n = 298) were screened over 12 months. Ninety-six women were excluded, based on the exclusion criteria. The remaining subjects (n = 202) were divided into two groups: teenagers with first pregnancy (n = 96) and teenagers with third pregnancy (n = 47). The subjects were observed throughout pregnancy and delivery. The final sample size of the first and third pregnancy groups was 96 and 47, respectively. Results: There was a significant risk of preeclampsia in the first pregnancy group (p = 0.01). Low birth weight, five-min Apgar score < 7, and neonatal intensive care unit admission were the most significant neonatal outcomes in the first pregnancy group. In the third pregnancy group, significant predictors of neonatal complications included very young age in the first pregnancy (≤ 15 yr), an inter-pregnancy interval < 2 yr, current anemia, and history of obstetric and/or neonatal complications in previous pregnancies. Conclusion: Based on the results, teenagers with their first pregnancy had comparable obstetric outcomes (except for preeclampsia) as teenagers with their third pregnancy, whereas neonatal complications occurred more frequently in the first pregnancy group. Overall, we can predict high-risk neonates in the third pregnancy, based on the abovementioned parameters. Key words: Teenage pregnancy, Complications, Neonate

Exploring the role of religious motivation towards tourist satisfaction: a proposed Islamic tourism model from a Malaysian perspective

The purpose of the study is to identify factors influencing tourist satisfaction of Islamic tour destination under the Islamic tourism concept. The study is conceptual in nature.It develops a Tourist Satisfaction Model derived from the comprehensive literature review and prior empirical findings where the relationships among Religious Motivation, Destination Selection, Destination Image, Perceived Value, Service Quality and Tourist Satisfaction are depicted. The theoretical supports of this research provides justifiable evidence that the proposed Tourist Satisfaction Model is acceptable. The research indicates that Malaysia as an Islamic tourism Destination haswide acceptance to the Muslim tourists all around the world. A further study can be addressed to test the model empirically and configure relative importance of the causing factors behind the tourist satisfaction. The proposed model may give the practitioners a way to develop their destination as an Islamic tourism center while academician can find a comprehensive model to test for the specific destination. Key words: Tourist Satisfaction, factor influencing, Islamic Tourism and Malaysi