Recent advances in fuel cells technology.

The 21st Century will be the Dispersed generation or decentralized power systems (wind turbines, photovoltaic, fuel cells FC) century. Fuel cell is an emerging energy efficient technology with zero carbon emission to replace engines and batteries saving millions of tonnes of carbon emissions. As Fuel cells reduce the dependence on fossil fuels, thus they have a significant environmental and national security. What is fuel cells and hydrogen technology? A fuel cell is a device that directly converts the chemical energy of a gaseous fuel (Hydrogen) into electrical energy, water and heat in a constant temperature process

Information needs and information seeking behaviour of Libyan doctors working in Libyan hospitals

Objective: The aims of this study were to examine urban and rural doctors’ information needs and information seeking behaviours; review their use of information channels; sources; information and communication technologies and to assess their information literacy. It was expected that this would inform future efforts that support doctors in their daily care of patients. Methodology: A multi-method approach was used in this study. The main reason for that was to increase understanding gained from the quantitative data by obtaining more in-depth information from qualitative data and to integrate the advantages of both methods. Concurrent triangulation strategy was chosen to conduct the quantitative and qualitative study. An exploratory survey was the research method, and a paper based questionnaire and face to face interviews (along with critical incident techniques embedded in the interview) were the research techniques used to gather data. Results: out of 1029 questionnaires that were distributed 334 (32.46%) were returned. The valid responses were 256 (24.88%). Patient data, disease information, drug information, medical images & lab results, medical complications and guidelines were the main types of doctors’ information needs. Education and clinical practice were the main contexts that give rise to doctors’ information needs. Ambiguity, uncertainty, rare diseases and the multiplicity of options were the motivations for information needs. Updating, answering colleagues/patient questions and writing research papers were the purposes for which information was used. Personal library and human sources were the heavily used channels to access information. Books rather than journals was indicated the top information source. In addition, more than a quarter of urban doctors and 41.5% of rural doctors ranked online databases as the last source to be consulted. The majority of doctors indicated a difficulty in obtaining electronic information particularly from online databases; moreover the majority reported that sometimes they would like to have the search performed by a mediator. The majority demonstrated that they use field search and more than one term, but there was less use of Boolean parameters or truncation in the search strategies. Availability, ease of access and v use, integration in the work environment and information skills were the main types of barrier to using information sources, particularly electronic sources. Summary, the study identified that context, such as clinical work, where a particular task e.g. decision making leads to information needs. These may lead to information seeking behaviour to fulfil the need. However, doctors’ information seeking encountered barriers that hampered the fulfilment of information needs

Modelling of extended de-weight fuzzy control for an upper-limb exoskeleton

Performing heavy physical tasks, overhead work and long working hours are some examples of activities that can lead to musculoskeletal problems in humans. To overcome this issue, automated robots such as the upper-limb exoskeleton is used to assist humans while performing tasks. However, several concerns in developing the exoskeleton have been raised such as the control strategies used. In this study, a control strategy known as the extended de-weight fuzz was proposed to ensure that the exoskeleton could be maneuvered to the desired position with the least number of errors and minimum torque requirement. The extended de-weight fuzzy is a combination of the fuzzy-based PD and fuzzy-based de-weight controller systems. The extended de-weight fuzzy was then compared with the fuzzy-based PD and PID controllers, and the performances of these controllers were compared in terms of their deviations and required torques to perform tasks. The findings show that the proposed control strategy performs better than the fuzzy-based PD and PID controller systems

Determination of onset, cessation of rains and hydrological growing season in Dadin Kowa and Gombe for agricultural planning

This study determined the onset, cessation of rains and length growing season (HGS) in the Sahel Sudan of northeastern Nigeria. Two stations were selected for the study; Gombe town in Gombe LGA and Dadin Kowa in Yamaltu Deba LGA of Gombe State. Daily rainfall data was obtained from NIMETS and Upper Benue River Basin, Dadin Kowa, Gombe State. The rainfall cumulative model was adopted for this study. The first step of the method was to derive the daily rainfall that occured at each five-day interval in a year. A rainy day in this study is a day with zero point two five millimeters that occured within twenty-four hours. This is followed by computing the total of the five-day period. Finally, when the cumulative rainfall total is plotted against time through the year, the first point of maximum positive curvature on the graph corresponds to the time of rainfall onset, while the last point of maximum negative curvature corresponds to rainfall cessation. The difference between the onset and cessation in days is hydrological growing season (LGS). Result shows that onset dates for Gombe town and Dadin Kowa are 25 and 30 May, with a variability of +10 and +15 days, respectively. While cessation dates, is 12 October, for Gombe town and Dadin Kowa with a variability of + 10 days. The hydrological growing seasons is 140 days with a variability of + 10 days for Gombe town and 137 days with a variability of + 15 days for Dadin Kowa. A radar diagram was used to compare onset, cessation and length of growing season in the two locations temporally from 2001 to 2017. Results revealed that onset and length of growing season followed same trend with Gombe town having the dominant late onset while Dadin Kowa had the longest length of rainy season between 2001 and 2017. In terms of cessation from 2001 to 2017, Dadin Kowa on the average had late cessation. The results of this study would be useful to farmers and other stakeholders in planning agricultural calendars.Keywords: Onset, Cessation, Hydrological Growing Season (HGS) and radar diagra

Xanthine oxidase-derived reactive oxygen metabolites contribute to liver necrosis: protection by 4-hydroxypyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine

AbstractXanthine oxidase (XO) generates reactive oxygen metabolites (ROM) as a by-product while catalyzing their reaction. The present study implicates these ROM in the pathogenesis of liver necrosis produced in rats by the intraperitoneal administration of thioacetamide (TAA; 400 mg/kg b.wt.). After 16 h of TAA administration, the activity of rat liver XO increased significantly compared to that of the control group. At the same time, the level of serum marker enzymes of liver necrosis (aminotransferases and alkaline phosphatase) and tissue malondialdehyde content also increased in TAA treated rats. Tissue malondialdehyde concentration is an indicator of lipid peroxidation and acts as a useful marker of oxidative damage. Pretreatment of rats with XO inhibitor (4-hydroxypyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine; allopurinol (AP)) followed by TAA could lower the hepatotoxin-mediated rise in malondialdehyde level as well as the level of marker enzymes associated with liver necrosis. The survival rate also increased in rats given AP followed by the lethal dose of TAA. In either case, the effect of AP was dose-dependent. Results presented in the paper indicate that increased production of XO-derived ROM contributes to liver necrosis, which can be protected by AP

EVALUASI KESESUAIAN PENGGUNAAN LAHAN UNTUK BUDIDAYA PADI ORGANIK MENGGUNAKAN METODE ELECTRE

Pertanian berkelanjutan memiliki urgensi dalam perbaikan kualitas lahan dan potensi untuk meningkatkan pasokan pangan sehat. Evaluasi kesesuaian penggunaan lahan sebagai sarana penting untuk menilai kualitas kesesuaian lahan dalam budidaya pertanian. Khususnya budidaya padi organik memiliki kriteria-kriteria kesesuaian lahan seperti temperatur, curah hujan, kedalaman tanah, pH, c-organik, lereng, tingkat erosi, periode transisi organik yang berdampak pada hasil rangking dan kelas kesesuaian lahan. Delapan lahan pertanian organik digunakan sebagai alternatif yaitu Sawangan, Mangunsari, Tirtosari, Podosoko, Butuh, Krogowanan, Kapuhan, dan Jati. Metode pengambilan keputusan multi criteria (MCDM) yang berfokus pada eliminasi alternatif-alternatif berdasarkan kesesuaian dan ketidaksesuaian yakni Elimination Et Choix Tradusiant la REalite (ELECTRE) digunakan dalam hubungan perangkingan. Sistem pendukung keputusan (SPK) berbasis web dibuat untuk mempercepat integrasi pengolahan data dan menyajikan informasi yang aktual dari proses seleksi kesesuaian lahan. Implementasi DSS dengan Metode ELECTRE untuk evaluasi kesesuain penggunaan lahan pada budidaya padi organik menghasilkan rangking alternatif terbaik yaitu Tirtosari dengan nilai Ekl=5 dan korelasi rank spearman dari hasil perbandingan sistem dengan data pakar menunjukkan rs=0.95. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan integrasi web dengan ELECTRE cukup efektif diterapkan untuk pengambilan keputusan dalam pertanian organik. Kata kunci: pertanian berkelanjutan, padi organik, ELECTRE, SPK, kesesuaian lahan. Sustainable agriculture has an urgency in improving land quality and the potential to increase the supply of healthy food. Land-use suitability evaluation as an important tool for assessing the quality of land suitability in agricultural cultivation. Especially organic rice cultivation has land suitability criteria such as temperature, rainfall, soil depth, pH, c-organic, slopes, erosion level, organic transition periods that have an impact on ranking results, and land suitability classes. Eight organic agricultural lands are used as alternatives, namely Sawangan, Mangunsari, Tirtosari, Podosoko, Butuh, Krogowanan, Kapuhan, and Jati. The multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) method that focuses on eliminating alternatives based on concordance and discordance namely Elimination Et Choix Tradusiant la REalite (ELECTRE) is used in ranking relationships. A web-based decision support system (DSS) was created to accelerate the integration of data processing and present actual information from the land suitability selection process. The implementation of DSS with the ELECTRE Method for land-use suitability evaluation in organic rice cultivation produces the best alternative ranking, Tirtosari with Ekl = 5 and Spearman rank correlation from the system comparison results with expert data shows rs = 0,95. The results of this study indicate that the integration of the web with ELECTRE is quite effectively applied for decision making in organic agriculture. Keywords: sustainable agriculture, organic rice, ELECTRE, DSS, land suitabilit

Effect of Magnetic Water on Physical Properties of Different Kind of Water, and Studying Its Ability to Dissolving Kidney Stone

In this work for measuring pH, TDS, and conductivity of water there are two regions, first at time less than 15min increases rapidly with increase magnetic field intensity, the second region at time more than 15min approximate saturation result. Same result was achieved on CaC2O4 solutions at the same conditions, which indicate that the best result we can gate at minimum exposure time, the best result of TDS can get at time less than 2min Keywords: magnetic water, total dissolved salt