Rotating shaft seal Patent

Liquid-vapor interface seal design for turbine rotating shafts including helical and molecular pumps and liquid cooling of mercury vapo

Placentophagy: a controversial trend

This work presents the latest scientific results of research in placenta, highlighting the description of the organ’s associated microbiotic, whose possible deleterious effects will be of greater magnitude in a hemomonochorial placental barrier, as is the case in the human species. We want to make solid scientific evidence available to Health Professionals in the delivery and post-delivery care area, so that they may adequately inform their patients that the supposed benefits of the placentophagy are not supported by scientific studies. On the contrary, they are based on misguided popular beliefs spread on social media and untrustworthy maternity/health blogs and internet pages. None of these sources warn mothers about the fact that placentophagy involves a potential risk of exposure of the baby to vertically transmitted infections, risk of the mother developing a thromboembolism due to the estrogen content in the organ, or that the accumulation of heavy metals and/or environmental toxins in the placenta could prove poisonous to mother and baby. It is also of great concern that the presence of normal prions in the placenta has been reported lately, because, normal prions can be transformed into the infective forms albeit by a mechanism that yet remains unclear. This adds another risk to those previously described. Therefore, it is imperative that Health Professionals warn their patients that placentophagy is not a safe practice and can constitute unnecessary risks for both mother and baby

Handling Large Farm Animals

Livestock Handling Techniques for 4-H Yout

A recurrent neural network approach to quantitatively studying solar wind effects on TEC derived from GPS; preliminary results

This paper attempts to describe the search for the parameter(s) to represent solar wind effects in Global Positioning System total electron content (GPS TEC) modelling using the technique of neural networks (NNs). A study is carried out by including solar wind velocity (Vsw), proton number density (Np) and the Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF Bz) obtained from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite as separate inputs to the NN each along with day number of the year (DN), hour (HR), a 4-month running mean of the daily sunspot number (R4) and the running mean of the previous eight 3-hourly magnetic A index values (A8). Hourly GPS TEC values derived from a dual frequency receiver located at Sutherland (32.38° S, 20.81° E), South Africa for 8 years (2000–2007) have been used to train the Elman neural network (ENN) and the result has been used to predict TEC variations for a GPS station located at Cape Town (33.95° S, 18.47° E). Quantitative results indicate that each of the parameters considered may have some degree of influence on GPS TEC at certain periods although a decrease in prediction accuracy is also observed for some parameters for different days and seasons. It is also evident that there is still a difficulty in predicting TEC values during disturbed conditions. The improvements and degradation in prediction accuracies are both close to the benchmark values which lends weight to the belief that diurnal, seasonal, solar and magnetic variabilities may be the major determinants of TEC variability

Towards a GPS-based TEC prediction model for Southern Africa with feed forward networks

In this paper, first results from a national Global Positioning System (GPS) based total electron content (TEC) prediction model over South Africa are presented. Data for 10 GPS receiver stations distributed through out the country were used to train a feed forward neural network (NN) over an interval of at most five years. In the NN training, validating and testing processes, five factors which are well known to influence TEC variability namely diurnal variation, seasonal variation, magnetic activity, solar activity and the geographic position of the GPS receivers were included in the NN model. The database consisted of 1-min data and therefore the NN model developed can be used to forecast TEC values 1 min in advance. Results from the NN national model (NM) were compared with hourly TEC values generated by the earlier developed NN single station models (SSMs) at Sutherland (32.38°S, 20.81°E) and Springbok (29.67°S, 17.88°E), to predict TEC variations over the Cape Town (33.95°S, 18.47°E) and Upington (28.41°S, 21.26°E) stations, respectively, during equinoxes and solstices. This revealed that, on average, the NM led to an improvement in TEC prediction accuracy compared to the SSMs for the considered testing periods

Believing selves and cognitive dissonance : connecting individual and society via “belief”

“Belief” as an analytical tool and critical category of investigation for the study of religion has been a resurging topic of interest. This article discusses the problems of language and practice in the discussion of “belief” and proceeds to map a few of the emergent frameworks, proposed within the past decade, for investigating “belief”. The issue of inconsistency, however, continues to remain a perennial issue that has not been adequately explained. This article argues for the utility and value of the “believing selves” framework, in conjunction with revisionist theories of cognitive dissonance, to advance the claim that beliefs are representations, as well as functions, of cultural history which bind individual and society.http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religionshb2016Anthropology and Archaeolog

Conflict mediation and Bungoma activism in a South African township

The following article draws on fieldwork with traditional African healers in an urban South African township and examines mediation sessions undertaken by a group of healers with a view to contemporary conflicts that emerged during their praxis. I argue that the healers’ mediation practices are a form of activism that addresses the hermeneutical and institutional gap between traditional healing and the magistrates’ court system. This activism further presents a social positioning by healers for greater legitimacy, recognition, and integration with governmental structures. The article introduces the township of Alexandra and two different conflict resolution pathways that exist there, which reflect two divergent judicial moralities of reproduction with their respective cultural frameworks. The article then provides an overview of the institution of traditional healing and, lastly, describes the healers’ mediation as a form of activism.https://brill.com/view/journals/jra/jra-overview.xmlhj2022Political Science

Belief and acceptance for the study of religion

„Belief‟ in the study of religion has been vexed by complexities underlying the relationship between language, cognition, and religious behavior. Drawing on anthropological, sociological, and psychological literature, this article discusses the degrees and textures of „belief‟ to highlight the inadequacies of language and the variety of motivations for participating in rituals. Particular emphasis is given to discrimination, implicit bias, and the issue of discrepancy. The article argues that dual-process models of cognition provide a richer account of „belief‟ and maps an epistemological distinction between belief and acceptance as a viable methodology for the investigation of „belief‟ in the study of religion.http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/157006822019-01-31hb2017Anthropology and Archaeolog

MOLECULAR DOCKING OF ANTITRYPANOSOMAL INHIBITORS FROM EUCALYPTUS TERETICORNIS FOR SLEEPING SICKNESS

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the antitrypanosomal inhibitors of Eucalyptus tereticornis for sleeping sickness through molecular docking and studies on Absorption distribution metabolism excursion and toxicology (ADMET). Methods: In silico molecular docking in ArgusLab software and ADMET analysis in AdmetSAR software was performed for the antitrypanosomal inhibitors of E. tereticornis for sleeping sickness. Results: Interactions were studied for the ten proteins responsible for sleeping sickness with the 50 antitrypanosomal inhibitors of E. tereticornis. Docking was performed to see the interaction and the best binding energy of compounds with the proteins involved in sleeping sickness. The docking scores were highest for betulonic acid with −15.66 kcal/mol followed by euglobal with −12.24 kcal/mol, B-pinene with −10.313 kcal/mol, A-pinene with −10.3418 kcal/mol, and the least docking score for P-cymene with −10.6045 kcal/mol. Docking results showed that only betulonic acid and euglobal showed that hydrogen bond interaction was as b-pinene, a-pinene, and p-cymene yielded no hydrogen bond interactions so we will be taking the former docking results for further studies. The best docking result was shown by betulonic acid with trypanothione reductase giving binding energy of −15.66 kcal/mol with hydrogen bond interaction of 2.9, so this result was taken for further analysis. Conclusion: The results of the compound extracted from E. tereticornis will become physiological relevant only when (i) the pure compounds of this plant is available in large quantities; (ii) the Eucalyptus is biochemically stabilized to avoid degradation and enhance absorption in the gastrointestinal tract; and (iii) special delivery methods for this drug to reach the areas of treatment. In this work, the efficacy of E. tereticornis to act against trypanosomal protein was initiated and thus further research in this process would help us to take full advantage of the remedial effects of the compounds extracted from this plant