Characterization of polybenzimidazole (PBI) film at high temperatures

Polybenzimidazole, a linear thermoplastic polymer with excellent thermal stability and strength retention over a wide range of temperatures, was evaluated for its potential use as the main dielectric in high temperature capacitors. The film was characterized in terms of its dielectric properties in a frequency range of 50 Hz to 100 kilo-Hz. These properties, which include the dielectric constant and dielectric loss, were also obtained in a temperature range from 20 C to 300 C with an electrical stress of 60 Hz, 50 V/mil present. The alternating and direct current breakdown voltages of silicone oil impregnated films as a function of temperature were also determined. The results obtained indicate that while the film remained relatively stable up to 200 C, it exhibited an increase in its dielectric properties as the temperature was raised to 300 C. It was also found that conditioning of the film by heat treatment at 60 C for six hours tended to improve its dielectric and breakdown properties. The results are discussed and conclusions made concerning the suitability of the film as a high temperature capacitor dielectric

Working memory learning method and astrocytes number in different subfields of rat's Hippocampus

The aim of this study was evaluation of the astrocytes number in different subfields of rat's Hippocampus after spatial learning with usage of Morris Water Maze technique and working memory method. In this study, between 2005-2006 years in Pasteur institute of Iran-Tehran and histological department of Gorgan University with usage of Morris Water Maze and working memory technique, we used 14 male albino wistar rats. Seventh rats were in control group and 7 rats in working memory group. After histological preparation, the slides were stained with PTAH staining for showing the Astrocytes. Present results showed significant difference in astrocytes number in CA1, CA2 and CA3 areas of hippocampus between control and reference memory group. The number of astrocytes is increased in working memory group. Then we divided the hippocampus to three parts: Anterior, middle and posterior and with compare of different area (CA1, CA2 and CA3) of hippocampus, we found that the differences between Anterior-middle and Middle-Posterior of CA1 and CA2 area of hippocampus were significant, whereas the difference between Anterior-Posterior parts was not significant in CA1 and CA2 areas. In CA3 area, the difference between Anterior-Middle and Anterior-Posterior parts was significant, whereas the difference between middle and posterior parts was not significant. We concluded that the number of astrocytes increased due to spatial learning and working memory technique. © 2008 Science Publications

Strengthening strategic management approaches to address antimicrobial resistance in global human health: a scoping review

Introduction The development and implementation of national strategic plans is a critical component towards successfully addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This study aimed to review the scope and analytical depth of situation analyses conducted to address AMR in human health to inform the development and implementation of national strategic plans. Methods A systematic search of the literature was conducted to identify all studies since 2000, that have employed a situation analysis to address AMR. The included studies are analysed against frameworks for strategic analysis, primarily the PESTELI (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Ecological, Legislative, Industry) framework, to understand the depth, scope and utility of current published approaches. Results 10 studies were included in the final review ranging from single country (6) to regional-level multicountry studies (4). 8 studies carried out documentary review, and 3 of these also included stakeholder interviews. 2 studies were based on expert opinion with no data collection. No study employed the PESTELI framework. Most studies (9) included analysis of the political domain and 1 study included 6 domains of the framework. Technological and industry analyses is a notable gap. Facilitators and inhibitors within the political and legislative domains were the most frequently reported. No facilitators were reported in the economic or industry domains but featured inhibiting factors including: lack of ring-fenced funding for surveillance, perverse financial incentives, cost-shifting to patients; joint-stock drug company ownership complicating regulations. Conclusion The PESTELI framework provides further opportunities to combat AMR using a systematic, strategic management approach, rather than a retrospective view. Future analysis of existing quantitative data with interviews of key strategic and operational stakeholders is needed to provide critical insights about where implementation efforts should be focussed, and also how to build contingency at the strategic level for agile responses to macro-level environmental influences

How the health-seeking behaviour of pregnant women affects neonatal outcomes: findings of system dynamics modelling in Pakistan

Background: Limited studies have explored how health-seeking behaviour during pregnancy through to delivery affect neonatal outcomes. We modelled health-seeking behaviour across urban and rural settings in Pakistan, where poor neonatal outcomes persist with wide disparities. Methods and findings: A system dynamics model was developed and parameterised. Following validation tests, the model was used to determine neonatal mortality for pregnant women considering their decisions to access, refuse and switch antenatal care services in four provider sectors: public, private, traditional and charitable. Four health-seeking scenarios were tested across different pregnancy trimesters. Health-seeking behaviour in different subgroups by geographical locations and social network effect was modelled. The largest reduction in neonatal mortality was achieved with antenatal care provided by skilled providers in public, private or charitable sectors, combined with the use of institutional delivery. Women’s social networks had strong influences on if, when and where to seek care. Interventions by Lady Health Workers had a minimal impact on health-seeking behaviour and neonatal outcomes after trimester 1. Optimal benefits were achieved for urban women when antenatal care was accessed within trimester 2, but for rural women within trimester 1. Antenatal care access delayed to trimester 3 had no protective impact on neonatal mortality. Conclusions: System dynamics modelling enables capturing the complexity of health-seeking behaviours and impact on outcomes, informing intervention design, implementation of targeted policies and uptake of services specific to urban/rural settings considering structural enablers/barriers to access, cultural contexts and strong social network influences

AMCTD: Adaptive Mobility of Courier nodes in Threshold-optimized DBR Protocol for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

In dense underwater sensor networks (UWSN), the major confronts are high error probability, incessant variation in topology of sensor nodes, and much energy consumption for data transmission. However, there are some remarkable applications of UWSN such as management of seabed and oil reservoirs, exploration of deep sea situation and prevention of aqueous disasters. In order to accomplish these applications, ignorance of the limitations of acoustic communications such as high delay and low bandwidth is not feasible. In this paper, we propose Adaptive mobility of Courier nodes in Threshold-optimized Depth-based routing (AMCTD), exploring the proficient amendments in depth threshold and implementing the optimal weight function to achieve longer network lifetime. We segregate our scheme in 3 major phases of weight updating, depth threshold variation and adaptive mobility of courier nodes. During data forwarding, we provide the framework for alterations in threshold to cope with the sparse condition of network. We ultimately perform detailed simulations to scrutinize the performance of our proposed scheme and its comparison with other two notable routing protocols in term of network lifetime and other essential parameters. The simulations results verify that our scheme performs better than the other techniques and near to optimal in the field of UWSN.Comment: 8th International Conference on Broadband and Wireless Computing, Communication and Applications (BWCCA'13), Compiegne, Franc

Risk perception of antimicrobial resistance by infection control specialists in Europe: a case-vignette study

Background Using case-vignettes, we assessed the perception of European infection control (IC) specialists regarding the individual and collective risk associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among inpatients. Methods In this study, sixteen case-vignettes were developed to simulate hospitalised patient scenarios in the field of AMR and IC. A total of 245 IC specialists working in different hospitals from 15 European countries were contacted, among which 149 agreed to participate in the study. Using an online database, each participant scored five randomly-assigned case-vignettes, regarding the perceived risk associated with six different multidrug resistant organisms (MDRO). The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), varying from 0 (poor) to 1 (perfect), was used to assess the agreement for the risk on a 7-point Likert scale. High risk and low/neutral risk scorers were compared regarding their national, organisational and individual characteristics. Results Between January and May 2017, 149 participants scored 655 case-vignettes. The perceptions of the individual (clinical outcome) and collective (spread) risks were consistently lower than other MDRO for extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae cases and higher for carbapenemase producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) cases. Regarding CPE cases, answers were influenced more by the resistance pattern (93%) than for other MDRO. The risk associated with vancomycin resistant Enterococci cases was considered higher for the collective impact than for the individual outcome (63% vs 40%). The intra-country agreement regarding the individual risk was globally poor varying from 0.00 (ICC: 0–0.25) to 0.51 (0.18–0.85). The overall agreement across countries was poor at 0.20 (0.07–0.33). IC specialists working in hospitals preserved from MDROs perceived a higher individual (local, p = 0.01; national, p < 0.01) and collective risk (local and national p < 0.01) than those frequently exposed to bacteraemia. Conversely, IC specialists working in hospitals with a high MDRO clinical burden had a decreased risk perception. Conclusions The perception of the risk associated with AMR varied greatly across IC specialists and countries, relying on contextual factors including the epidemiology. IC specialists working in high prevalence areas may underestimate both the individual and collective risks, and might further negatively promote the MDRO spread. These finding highlight the need to shape local and national control strategies according to risk perceptions and contextual factors

E-Commerce to Improve Homemaker Productivity (Women Entrepreneur Empowerment at Meruya Utara, Kembangan District, West Jakarta, Indonesia)

Saat ini banyak ibu rumah tangga memiliki bisnis sampingan yang sesuai dengan keterampilan dan hobi mereka. Adapun tujuan dari bisnis sampingan tersebut adalah untuk membantu kebutuhan keuangan rumah tangga mereka. Penelitian sebelumnya telah menunjukkan bahwa ibu rumah tangga yang juga pengusaha perempuan memiliki kontribusi yang signifikan terhadap kesejahteraan keluarga. Namun demikian, terdapat kesulitan dari ibu rumah tangga dalam memasarkan produk dan layanan mereka. Pengabdian ini melaksanakan sosialisasi terkait cara membuat akun e-commerce dan menggunakannya sebagai alternatif untuk menjual produk dan layanan mereka. Selain itu, hasil dari kegiatan layanan masyarakat Internasional ini adalah bahwa ibu rumah tangga dapat menjual produk dan layanan mereka melalui e-commerce. Menurut hasil survei pada kegiatan sosialisasi ini, diketahui bahwa hambatan bagi ibu rumah tangga adalah masih rendahnya pendidikan mereka dimana 65% dari mereka memiliki pendidikan sekolah menengah. Juga, kepemilikan aplikasi internet banking dan mobile banking masih rendah, yaitu 35%. Dengan demikian, kepemilikan yang rendah atas aplikasi internet banking dan mobile banking membuat mereka kesulitan untuk menjual produk dan layanannya melalui e-commerce. Semua peserta sosialisasi menyatakan bahwa kegiatan ini bermanfaat dan menambah pengetahuan mereka. Selanjutnya untuk dapat meningkatkan omset penjualan mereka adalah melalui perbaikan kemasan produk dan layanan mereka untuk membuatnya lebih menarik bagi pembeli. &nbsp;Kata kunci: Ibu Rumah Tangga, Pengusaha Wanita, Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, E-Commerce. &nbsp

Active neutrino Oscillations and the SNO neutral Current measurement

We discuss the relation between the observed CC, ES, and NC fluxes with the flavor fractional content of the solar neutrino flux seen by SNO. By using existing estimates of the cross sections for the charged and neutral current reactions which take into account the detector resolution, we show how the forthcoming SNO rates unconstrained by the standard $^8$B shape could test the oscillations into active states. We perform a model independent analysis for the Super-K and SNO data, assuming a non distorted spectrum.Comment: 6pages, 4 figure