Minimum impact and immediacy of citations to physics open archives of arXiv.org: Science Citation Index based reports

The present work has calculated the minimum Open Archive Impact Factors and Open Archive Immediacy Index for the Physics Classes of arXiv.org as calculated for traditional journals in Journal Citation Reports of the Institute of Scientific Information using Science Citation Index without the citation by the classes itself. The calculated Impact Factors reveal that High-Energy Physics classes of arXiv.org (‘hep-th’, ‘hep-lat’, ‘hep-ex’, and ‘hep-ph’) have made more impact on the scientific community than any other classes except ‘nucl-ex’. The Impact Factors for the year 2003 are: ‘hep-th’ (0.999), ‘nucl-ex’ (0.806), ‘hep-lat’ (0.766), ‘hep-ex’ (0.73), ‘hep-ph’ (0.719), ‘nucl-th’ (0.338), ‘quant-ph’ (0.334), ‘cond-mat’ (0.313), ‘astro-ph’ (0.195), ‘math-ph’ (0.162), ‘physics’ (0.061), and ‘gr-qc’ (0.002). If the period for getting the citations to the open archive classes is considered one year as against two years for journal articles, the rank of the classes is the same. The immediacy of citing the Open Archives is also high for the High-Energy Physics classes. The Immediacy Indexes for the year 2003 are: ‘hep-ex’ (0.619), ‘hep-th’ (0.454), ‘hep-ph’ (0.44), ‘hep-lat’ (0.263), ‘nucl-ex’ (0.238), ‘quant-ph’ (0.202), ‘nucl-th’ (0.185), ‘cond-mat’ (0.168), ‘astro-ph’ (0.094), ‘math-ph’ (0.075), ‘physics’ (0.03), and ‘gr-qc’ (0.002). The impact is definitely much higher than what is concluded from the calculated factors because self-citations are not reckoned in the study. Use of web-tools like ‘Citebase’, ‘Citeseer’ etc. may strengthen the above argument

Non-linear effects in standard 2D NOE experiments in coupled spin systems

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Civilian pepper spray for self defense: Understanding user perception and impact of design on user performance

Pepper spray is widely used in the US, and is marketed as an effective self-defense device. While pepper spray can be useful in deterring an attacker, many pepper spray owners do not have any experience using it. There is a dearth of published studies that focus on civilian pepper-spray use, not to mention first time pepper-spray users. A study to analyze pepper-spray designs with first-time users, to see how the design, specifically the safety mechanism, affects response time and overall performance would be helpful. The study was conducted in 2 parts – a survey to understand user perception, and a lab experiment using a 2 × 2 randomized block design with two designs of pepper sprays (side-slide safety and flip-top safety) and the two starting locations for the pepper spray (purse or pocket) as the manipulated factors. Results revealed a significant difference in response times between the flip-top pepper-spray and the side-slide pepper-spray. There was also a significant difference in response times between using the index or thumb as the trigger finger but no significant difference in response times when the pepper-spray for location (purse or pocket). Overall, participants rated the side-slide device as the most effective self-defense device. Relevance to industry Because there is no other research in the area of first-time pepper-spray users, let alone civilian pepper-spray users, much can be learned about how well people use these devices in a real-world situation, and when there is a highly stressful situation how well does pepper-spray allow an individual to protect him or herself. This study starts the discussion on some of these topics

Understanding the Safety and Usability of Personal Vehicles for Non-Driving Individuals with Disabilities and their Families/Care Providers

The connections between shared personal vehicles of individuals with disabilities (IWDs) and their household family members play an important role in the mobility, overall health, and well-being of all involved actors, yet this topic remains mostly overlooked within publicly available research. Families that include a non-driving IWD are more likely to be low-income, and often struggle with the costs of operating a family car but, due to insufficient public transportation options, they own vehicles despite their prohibitive cost. This exploratory study utilized the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) model, a framework focused on assessing the interplaying sociotechnical factors that contribute toward work-systems to gain a holistic understanding of the factors that influence household vehicles, safety, and a sense of well-being for non-driving IWDs and their household family members. A combined effort of surveys, interviews, qualitative coding, and statistical analysis (including one-way ANOVA) revealed a series of influential factors, including: (1) slow bureaucratic processes for vehicle funding; (2) error-prone modifications including lift and tie-downs; (3) miscommunications between IWDs and family members; and (4) residential area development and subsequent social support. Findings highlight the need for improved access to government funding, more reliable modification equipment, and interior vehicle designs that consider better social integration for IWDs

Metadata Standards for Digitization of Traditional Textile Design

This paper describes the applicability of Metadata Standards for the purpose of digitization of selective Traditional textile designs of India. There are wide classes of metadata Standards and only those Standards found applicable to textiles and fashion has been sorted under consideration for the study purpose. Further while describing textiles objects and materials the metadata Standards can be considered. It is very clearly described that while digitizing process of traditional textile design; the cataloguing format should follow the principles and Standards of metadata that is accepted globally. The main objective of this study is to establish metadata Standards to unify the representation, manipulation or transmission of information related to the traditional designs so that two or more different systems can understand in the same way. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15078

Standardization and evaluation of Ayurvedic Medicines - Needs

Internationally there is an emerging interest to adopt and study the Ayurvedic medicines. To exploit its potentials to bring out the therapeutic approaches available in the oldest system of medicines and to put Ayurvedic products from our Natural heritage to National and international healthcare program with competence in the Global Healthcare market, there is extreme need of generating evidential data. The Ayurvedic products like pharmaceuticals products need to be standardized and evaluate with application of reliable evaluatory methods from Modern sciences. A complete literature review on the basis of systematic capture from diverse sources is extremely essential prior to designing pre-clinical and clinical studies. Authenticated and standardized raw materials need to be utilized to lead a quality product. Phytochemical standardization and development of qualitative parameters with the various analytical techniques is also essentials for assurance of quality of single or polyherbal formulations. In order to established reasonable safety of Ayurvedic therapeutics in clinical trials, toxicity studies are of important concerns. To explore effective dosages to be employed for clinical trials for the formulations under evaluations or to demonstrate new phramcological activities of already known medicinal plants or discovery of new natural prodcuts, it becomes obvious to conduct Phyto-phamacological evaluation in fairly reliable animals models. To survive in Global market, clinical research in compliance with internationally acceptable guidelines has to be conducted. All these above ideas are to develop a stable, viable, safe and efficacious Ayurvedic product to the application of Ayurvedic and modern research methodologies