An Investigation of Dynamic Influence to Doctors’ Stress in Government Hospitals in Nigeria Using Logistic Regression Approach

This study examined some dynamic factors related to doctors’ stress in government hospitals in Nigeria using Lagos State as case study. The working hours and the number of patients the professionals attended to showed that they are likely to be stressed. A model was developed to predict the dynamic influence to doctors’ stress using logistic regression model. It was discovered that illness, environmental factors, profession and workloads and hours are the variables that highly influenced Doctors’ stress

Sleep quality and psychological morbidity among physicians in southwest Nigeria

Objectives: The role of the physician has increasingly become more expansive, and demanding. These demanding schedules have played a heavy toll on sleep patterns and increased psychological stress. The objective of the study was to assess sleep quality and psychological morbidity among Physicians.Method: A cross-sectional survey of 95 voluntary consenting physicians from different specialties during a 2-day conference. We administered Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and General Health Questionnaire-12.Results: About 13.6% (n=13 out of 95) had a score above 2 on General Health Questionnaire-12, indicating psychological morbidity. Those who reported poor sleep quality (>5) made up 36.8% (n=35) of the respondents, There were positive significant correlation between hours spent on call and total scores on GHQ at r=0.230, p=0.03. Only subjective sleep quality (component 1) was significantly correlated with total GHQ scores at p=0.001Conclusion: The findings in our study showed a relationship between sleep quality (component 1) psychological morbidity. We observed that long work schedules was the only factor associated with psychological morbidity and sleep quality. It is imperative for work-time stress management to be instituted among physicians.Keywords: Sleep quality, psychological morbidity, physicians, work schedules, Nigeri

Students\u27 Perceptions of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) Process

Researchers have mixed views about Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) as means to evaluate teaching where some agreed and others viewed SET as being biased. This study aims to measure students’ perceptions of the effectiveness and appropriateness of the evaluation process in Lebanon. A survey questionnaire was administered to students from five Lebanese universities. Findings revealed that students were positive and perceived the evaluation process as effective and appropriate to evaluate teaching. Students identified students’ perceptions, instructors’ behavior, and course characteristics as variables that may impact the process. Results and implications were discussed for future research

Detection of RNA from a Novel West Nile-like Virus and High Prevalence of an Insect-specific Flavivirus in Mosquitoes in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico

As part of our ongoing surveillance efforts for West Nile virus (WNV) in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, 96,687 mosquitoes collected from January through December 2007 were assayed by virus isolation in mammalian cells. Three mosquito pools caused cytopathic effect. Two isolates were orthobunyaviruses (Cache Valley virus and Kairi virus) and the identity of the third infectious agent was not determined. A subset of mosquitoes was also tested by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using WNV-, flavivirus-, alphavirus-, and orthobunyavirus-specific primers. A total of 7,009 Culex quinquefasciatus in 210 pools were analyzed. Flavivirus RNA was detected in 146 (70%) pools, and all PCR products were sequenced. The nucleotide sequence of one PCR product was most closely related (71-73% identity) with homologous regions of several other flaviviruses, including WNV, St. Louis encephalitis virus, and Ilheus virus. These data suggest that a novel flavivirus (tentatively named T\u27Ho virus) is present in Mexico. The other 145 PCR products correspond to Culex flavivirus, an insect-specific flavivirus first isolated in Japan in 2003. Culex flavivirus was isolated in mosquito cells from approximately one in four homogenates tested. The genomic sequence of one isolate was determined. Surprisingly, heterogeneous sequences were identified at the distal end of the 5\u27 untranslated region

Ruthenacycles and Iridacycles as Catalysts for Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation and Racemisation

Ruthenacycles, which are easily prepared in a single step by reaction between enantiopure aromatic amines and [Ru(arene)Cl2]2 in the presence of NaOH and KPF6, are very good asymmetric transfer hydrogenation catalysts. A range of aromatic ketones were reduced using isopropanol in good yields with ee’s up to 98%. Iridacycles, which are prepared in similar fashion from [IrCp*Cl2]2 are excellent catalysts for the racemisation of secondary alcohols and chlorohydrins at room temperature. This allowed the development of a new dynamic kinetic resolution of chlorohydrins to the enantiopure epoxides in up to 90% yield and 98% enantiomeric excess (ee) using a mutant of the enzyme Haloalcohol dehalogenase C and an iridacycle as racemisation catalyst.

Development and application of process-based simulation models for cotton production: a review of past, present, and future directions

The development and application of cropping system simulation models for cotton production has a long and rich history, beginning in the southeastern United States in the 1960's and now expanded to major cotton production regions globally. This paper briefly reviews the history of cotton simulation models, examines applications of the models since the turn of the century, and identifies opportunities for improving models and their use in cotton research and decision support. Cotton models reviewed include those specific to cotton (GOSSYM, Cotton2K, COTCO2, OZCOT, and CROPGRO-Cotton) and generic crop models that have been applied to cotton production (EPIC, WOFOST, SUCROS, GRAMI, CropSyst, and AquaCrop). Model application areas included crop water use and irrigation water management, nitrogen dynamics and fertilizer management, genetics and crop improvement, climatology, global climate change, precision agriculture, model integration with sensor data, economics, and classroom instruction. Generally, the literature demonstrated increased emphasis on cotton model development in the previous century and on cotton model application in the current century. Although efforts to develop cotton models have a 40-year history, no comparisons among cotton models were reported. Such efforts would be advisable as an initial step to evaluate current cotton simulation strategies. Increasingly, cotton simulation models are being applied by non-traditional crop modelers, who are not trained agronomists but wish to use the models for broad economic or life cycle analyses. While this trend demonstrates the growing interest in the models and their potential utility for a variety of applications, it necessitates the development of models with appropriate complexity and ease-of-use for a given application, and improved documentation and teaching materials are needed to educate potential model users. Spatial scaling issues are also increasingly prominent, as models originally developed for use at the field scale are being implemented for regional simulations over large geographic areas. Research steadily progresses toward the advanced goal of model integration with variable-rate control systems, which use real-time crop status and environmental information to spatially and temporally optimize applications of crop inputs, while also considering potential environmental impacts, resource limitations, and climate forecasts. Overall, the review demonstrates a languished effort in cotton simulation model development, but the application of existing models in a variety of research areas remains strong and continues to grow

Structural and magnetic studies of Co and Fe implanted BaTiO 3 crystals

Singly-charged Co or Fe ions with energy 40 keV were implanted into single-domain ferroelectric plates of barium titanate (BaTiO 3) with high fluences in the range of (0.5-1.5) × 10 17 ion/cm 2 to create new magnetoelectric materials. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) studies have shown that high-fluence implantation with 3d-ions results in formation of cobalt or iron nanoparticles in the near-surface irradiated region of perovskite-type crystal. With increasing the fluence, the both Co- and Fe-implanted BaTiO 3 samples reveal at first superparamagnetic, and then ferromagnetic properties at room temperature. Analysis of magnetic hysteresis loops measured in the in-plane and out-of-plane geometries have shown that ferromagnetic BaTiO 3:Co(Fe) nanocomposite layers display the "easy plane" magnetic anisotropy similar to that found for thin granular magnetic films. Together with our previous observation of the magnetoelectric effect in these samples, our structural and magnetic investigations show that the ion implantation is suitable to synthesize the desired magnetoelectric nanocomposite materials. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Transverse Momentum Dependent Parton Distribution/Fragmentation Functions at an Electron-Ion Collider

We present a summary of a recent workshop held at Duke University on Partonic Transverse Momentum in Hadrons: Quark Spin-Orbit Correlations and Quark-Gluon Interactions. The transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs), parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions, and multi-parton correlation functions, were discussed extensively at the Duke workshop. In this paper, we summarize first the theoretical issues concerning the study of partonic structure of hadrons at a future electron-ion collider (EIC) with emphasis on the TMDs. We then present simulation results on experimental studies of TMDs through measurements of single spin asymmetries (SSA) from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) processes with an EIC, and discuss the requirement of the detector for SIDIS measurements. The dynamics of parton correlations in the nucleon is further explored via a study of SSA in D (`D) production at large transverse momenta with the aim of accessing the unexplored tri-gluon correlation functions. The workshop participants identified the SSA measurements in SIDIS as a golden program to study TMDs in both the sea and valence quark regions and to study the role of gluons, with the Sivers asymmetry measurements as examples. Such measurements will lead to major advancement in our understanding of TMDs in the valence quark region, and more importantly also allow for the investigation of TMDs in the sea quark region along with a study of their evolution.Comment: 44 pages 23 figures, summary of Duke EIC workshop on TMDs accepted by EPJ