A survey of e-book awareness and usage amongst students in an academic library

This paper reports on an online survey of e-book awareness and usage level in a British academic library. The main objectives of this survey were to: (a) assess students' awareness of the availability of e-books in their academic library; (b) measure the level of e-book usage among the students; and (c) identify the reasons why students do or don't use e-books. A self-selected sampling method was employed to generate a sample of students consisting of undergraduate and postgraduate instructional students registered with the University of Strathclyde for academic year 2005/6. An announcement email was posted to the student web portal for a period of three weeks inviting them to participate in the survey. A total of 1372 of responses were returned representing just under 10% response rate. In general, this survey found that e-book awareness was low as was the level of e-book usage amongst the students: 57% of students were not aware of the availability of e-books from the library and 60% of them had not used an e-book. Non-users commented that e-books were not widely advertised or promoted which has most probably contributed to this lack of awareness and non usage. Despite the low levels of e-book awareness and usage, non e-book users indicated their desire to learn more about e-books

Evaluation of the potential therapeutic effects of curcumin and lycopene in adult malignant brain tumour cells in vitro

Glioblastoma multiforme are the most challenging of cancers to treat and even with recent advances in therapeutic approaches, the prognosis following diagnosis remains poor. Novel therapeutic approaches able to target such tumours without resulting in significant toxicity are needed. Micronutrients have been shown to exert potential therapeutic effects in cell culture and animal models which include anti-cancer activity and other functional properties such as anti-microbial and anti-oxidative effects. The aim of this research was to investigate the anticancer properties of curcumin (77% pure, derived from the ground rhizome of turmeric) and LycoRed powder (containing 10% lycopene from tomato extract) on four primary brain tumour-biopsy derived cell cultures (glioblastoma multiforme malignant cells) using a normal brain cell line as control (CC2565; passage 10 and above). The morphological appearance of the normal brain cell line and glioblastoma cell cultures was compared under phase contrast microscopy. The cytotoxicity of curcumin and Lycored was determined using a DRAQ 7 cell viability assay. Expression of antigens linked to invasive, angiogenic and apoptotic potential was studied using immunocytochemistry and flow cytometry. Induction of apoptosis was investigated using flow cytometry via Annexin-V staining. Anti-invasive and anti-angiogenic potentials were studied using a FluoroBlok invasion and angiogenesis assay (co-culture method) in vitro, respectively. Brain tumour-biopsy derived cell cultures incubated for 24h with increasing concentrations of curcumin showed significant decreased in cell viability (IC75,50,25 values 14.2 to 19.5μg/ml). LycoRed was not found to affect the cell viability of tumour cells ad no IC values could be established; only curcumin was therefore investigated in subsequent assays (using IC75 concentration). Neither curcumin nor LycoRed showed toxicity to normal brain cells. No significant induction of apoptosis by curcumin was observed in the primary brain tumour cells studied. However, three of the primary brain tumour cell cultures investigated were high in invasive capacity and curcumin treatment at IC75 concentration reduced the percentage of invasion after only 24 hours of incubation. In addition, curcumin was found to have antiangiogenic properties in vitro. In the normal brain cell culture, each parameter (number of nodes, junctions and branches) was maintained when treated with increasing concentrations of curcumin (0 to 40μg/ml). When all glioblastoma cell cultures and normal brain cells showed strong positivity for GFAP confirming that they are astrocytic in origin, expression of other antigens studied (Beta-1-integrin, CD44, VEGF, MMP-14, NG2, GD3) varied between the primary brain tumour cell cultures. This suggests that the invasive or angiogenic capacity of the gliobalstoma cell cultures investigated may not be attributable to one common factor as has been reported before, but perhaps an integration of many factors with overlapping functions. In conclusion, the results indicate that curcumin may have anti cancer properties through inhibition of invasion and angiogenesis in these malignant glioblastomas. Further studies are necessary to establish whether LycoRed possesses therapeutic potential

Survivors of male rape: the emergence of a social and legal issue.

Little is known about the crime of adult male-on-male rape. The present study aims to explore the nature and impact of male rape on men's lives using statistics from SurvivorsUK (1344 cases) and a victimisation survey of 16 men to generate qualitative data for this purpose. The reluctance of men to report rape is explored using this data, as are men's needs in terms of service provision. Semi structured interviews with seven male rape counsellors are used to further examine these points. A newspaper content analysis over a 13-year period documents the emergence of male rape as a social and legal issue and also illustrates that male rape myths are perpetuated by coverage of this phenomenon. A questionnaire of 93 police officers across seven divisions of the Metropolitan Police Service considers police responses to, and attitudes towards, male rape, and demonstrates that such myths are manifest within the police service. The findings demonstrate that the impact of rape on men's lives is severe and that men experience rape trauma syndrome as identified in female rape victims. This trauma is intensified by rape myths rooted within society, perpetuated by newspapers, and manifest within the police service. An acute information gap in police training on male rape is identified and the research illustrates a strong need for multi-agency support systems for male survivors. The Male Victims of Sexual Abuse Steering Group is a multi-agency group chaired by the Metropolitan Police and established to draw information from different agencies to develop research and awareness of male rape and sexual abuse. Current initiatives from this group are presented. The research explores the theoretical positions of positivism, feminism and masculinities and examines the importance of these in understanding the male survivor of rape. In focusing on the experiences of male survivors the study identifies the need for social and cultural change to validate these experiences. It is suggested that these be supported with changes in legislation to include oral and object penetration under existing rape law so as to give legal recognition to these experiences. It is evident that policy changes are therefore needed to reflect the needs and demands for survivors of a very real social and legal issue. The research demonstrates a clear contribution to the theoretical debates in criminology which provide an understanding of rape, and which underpin the empirical work. The empirical work is a contribution to research in terms of understanding the phenomenon of male rape and the findings demonstrate the wider policy implications of that work. As such, the thesis is an advancement of knowledge and research and provides for future policy directions to suppor

MRI brain classification using support vector machine

The field of medical imaging gains its importance with increase in the need of automated and efficient diagnosis in a short period of time. Other than that, medical image retrieval system is to provide a tool for radiologists to retrieve the images similar to query image in content. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an imaging technique that has played an important role in neuroscience research for studying brain images. Classification is an important part in retrieval system in order to distinguish between normal patients and those who have the possibility of having abnormalities or tumor. In this paper, we have obtained the feature related to MRI images using discrete wavelet transformation. An advanced kernel based techniques such as Support Vector Machine (SVM) for the classification of volume of MRI data as normal and abnormal will be deployed

Polyethersulfone/HFO mixed matrix membrane for enhanced oily wastewater rejection

The recent growth of oil and gas industry has led to the increase of oily wastewater release. Membrane technology has been in the spotlight in recent advancement to treat the oily wastewater. Fouling due to surfactant adsorption and/or oil droplets plugging the pore has become one of the major hindrances in most of the research on oily wastewater treatment. In this work, self-synthesized hydrous ferric dioxide nanoparticles (HFO NPs) via chemical precipitation method were incorporated in polyethersulfone (PES) to fabricate a novel nanocomposite mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) for ultrafiltration (UF). The morphologies and physicochemical properties of prepared HFO NPs and MMMs were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission electron microscope (TEM), contact angle goniometer, before further subjected to water permeation test and oil rejection test. It was found that contact angle of membrane decreased remarkably with an increase in HFO nanoparticle loading from 70° to 38° at which proved its improved hydrophilicity which led to a significant rise in permeate flux, achieving 168.06 L/m2h bar in comparison to 63.67 L/m2h bar shown by the plain PES membrane. Total rejection of oil (100% rejection) demonstrated by the MMMs has confirmed the superior potential of PES/HFO UF membrane for total purification of oily wastewater especially to be reused in oilfield and refinery processes as well as to be released to the environment

Feasibility study on utilization of palm fibre waste into fired clay brick

Malaysia is the second largest of palm oil producer after Indonesia, which contribute to 50 % of palm oil production. With this demand, the increasing of palm oil plantation over the years has led to the large production of agricultural waste, for example palm fibre waste. This study investigates different percentages of palm fibre (0 %, 1 %, 5 % and 10 %) to be incorporated into fired clay brick. Manufactured bricks were fired at 1 °C/min heating rate up to 1050 °C. The effects of manufacture bricks on the physical and mechanical properties of manufactured brick were also determined. All brick samples were tested due to the physical and mechanical properties which include dry density, firing shrinkage, initial rate of suction (IRS), water absorption, porosity and compressive strength. Findings show that increasing palm fibre waste affected the properties of brick, which decreased their density, besides increased firing shrinkage, IRS, water absorption, porosity and compressive strength. However, all the manufactured brick still followed the requirement