The relationship between stress and job performance among IT professionals in Jaffna district.

The modern-day businesses heavily depend on Information Technologies and systems. It leads to expanded job roles, increased the work demands and over pressures of Information Technology professionals. This study intended to find out the relationship between stress and job performance among IT professionals in Jaffna district. Snowball sampling technique was used and data were collected from 88 respondents by using E-Questionnaires through electronic media. Correlation analysis was done to carry out the study. The findings of the study revealed that stress is negatively co related (r= - 0.6917) with job performance of IT Professionals. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research

Energy-aware distributed tracking in wireless sensor networks

We consider a wireless sensor network engaged in the task of distributed tracking. Here, multiple remote sensor nodes estimate a physical process (for example, a moving object) and transmit quantized estimates to a fusion center for processing. At the fusion node a BLUE (Best Linear Unbiased Estimation) approach is used to combine the sensor estimates and create a final estimate of the state. In this framework, the uncertainty of the overall estimate is derived and shown to depend on the individual sensor transmit energy and quantization levels. Since power and bandwidth are critically constrained resources in battery operated sensor nodes, we attempt to quantify the trade-off between the lifetime of the network and the estimation quality over time. A unique feature of this work is that instead of merely allowing a greedy minimization of uncertainty in each time instance, the lifetime of the wireless sensor network is improved by incorporating a heuristic scaling on the operating capability of each node. This heuristic in turn depends on the remaining energy, equivalent to the past history of power and quantization decisions. Simulation results demonstrate the quality of the state estimate as well as the extended lifetime of the network when power and quantization levels are dynamically updated

Microgravity Liquid-Gas Two-Phase Flow: Review of Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer Correlations and Guidelines for Equipment Operability

In this report we have catalogued the flow regimes observed in microgravity, summarized correlations for the pressure drop and rate of heat transfer that are commonly used, and discuss the validation of a few correlations from available experimental results. Two-phase flow through some specific components such as bends, tees, filters and pumps are discussed from a physical perspective to guide the designer on how reduced gravity might affect their performance. Phase separation in zero gravity is addressed through the behavior and basic design concepts for devices based on passive centrifugal action, capillary forces, gas extraction through a membrane installed in a channel wall and the use of a syringe with a perforated piston to remove bubbles from small liquid volumes. We address the common instabilities that develop in flow loops owing exclusively to the two-phase nature of the flow, e.g., Ledinegg instability and concentration waves. Finally we briefly review flow metering and gauging; two-phase flow through porous media, where pressure drop and flow regime map correlations in zero-g are a current research topic; and basic operation principles of heat pipes and capillary pumped loops

Two Phase Flow Modeling: Summary of Flow Regimes and Pressure Drop Correlations in Reduced and Partial Gravity

The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of state-of-the-art predictions for two-phase flows relevant to Advanced Life Support. We strive to pick out the most used and accepted models for pressure drop and flow regime predictions. The main focus is to identify gaps in predictive capabilities in partial gravity for Lunar and Martian applications. Following a summary of flow regimes and pressure drop correlations for terrestrial and zero gravity, we analyze the fully developed annular gas-liquid flow in a straight cylindrical tube. This flow is amenable to analytical closed form solutions for the flow field and heat transfer. These solutions, valid for partial gravity as well, may be used as baselines and guides to compare experimental measurements. The flow regimes likely to be encountered in the water recovery equipment currently under consideration for space applications are provided in an appendix

An Automated Algorithm to Distinguish and Characterize Solar Flares and Associated Sequential Chromospheric Brightenings

We present a new automated algorithm to identify, track, and characterize small-scale brightening associated with solar eruptive phenomena observed in H{\alpha}. The temporal spatially-localized changes in chromospheric intensities can be separated into two categories: flare ribbons and sequential chromospheric brightenings (SCBs). Within each category of brightening we determine the smallest resolvable locus of pixels, a kernel, and track the temporal evolution of the position and intensity of each kernel. This tracking is accomplished by isolating the eruptive features, identifying kernels, and linking detections between frames into trajectories of kernels. We fully characterize the evolving intensity and morphology of the flare ribbons by observing the tracked flare kernels in aggregate. With the location of SCB and flare kernels identified, they can easily be overlaid on top of complementary data sets to extract Doppler velocities and magnetic field intensities underlying the kernels. This algorithm is adaptable to any dataset to identify and track solar features.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure

Spray Drying as an Approach for Enhancement of Dissolution and Bioavailability of Raloxifene Hydrochloride.

The present study investigated the effect of spray drying raloxifene HCl (RHCL) with different classes of hydrophilic carriers (different grades of polyvinyl pyrrolidones) and cellulosic polymers) in order to determine the potential effect on dissolution rate and bioavailability of RHCL. Pre-formulation studies were conducted to select the appropriate carriers and drug:carrier ratio for preparing the spray dried compositions.The solid state interactions of the spray dried mixtures were evaluated by DSC & XRD. Preformulation studies revealed that amorphous compositions of RHCL could be obtained only with Plasdones (K12, K29/32 and S630). DSC studies showed that the crystalline nature of RHCL was significantly reduced on spray drying. Significant enhancement in dissolution rate was observed with the prepared spray dried compositions and out of the three grades of Plasdone, Plasdone K12 demonstrated the maximum enhancement in rate of release of RHCL. The pharmacokinetics of spray dried composition (1:1 RHCL: K12) and pure RHCL was evaluated following oral administration (25 mg/kg) in healthy female Sprague Dawley rats. The extent of the mean plasma exposures of RHCL was 7-fold higher in animals treated with spray dried mixture of RHCL, K12 (1:1) compared to animals treated with RHCL. Spray drying of RHCL with Plasdones, especially Plasdone K12, reduced drug crystallinity, increased the rate and extent of dissolution, and improved bioavailability

The Prevalence of Social Science in Gay Rights Cases: The Synergistic Influences of Historical Context, Justificatory Citation, and Dissemination Efforts

Disjunctive legal change is often accompanied by a period of frantic activity as the competing forces of stasis and evolution vie for domination. Nowhere is the battle for legal change likely to be more sharply joined than when the findings of modern science, in their varied and multifarious forms, are pitted directly against prevailing moral or societal precepts. One of the latest incarnations of this trend is the battle over the legal recognition of gay rights. In recent history, the courts have been inundated by gay litigants seeking the rights and protections already afforded other discrete groups within society. In the resulting legal skirmishes, gay individuals are resorting with increasing regularity to the sciences in an effort to overcome the moral opprobrium surrounding homosexuality. The judicial opinions which have resulted from the onslaught of gay litigants have not remained untouched by the scientific information adduced. Rather, as this Article will demonstrate, a disproportionally large number of gay rights opinions contain citations and references to social science information. These judicial opinions have become artifacts of the battle between modern science and existing moral conceptions of homosexuality and provide a discrete microcosm within which to examine science\u27s contribution to legal change. The lessons derived from gay rights cases may help to elucidate other contexts in which science and morality meet head-on