The Desert A City: A Study of Antony the Great’s Life

This paper attempts to provide an insight of asceticism and its development in Egypt through the literal work Athanasius\u27s Life of Antony. It sets out to explain how the peculiar geography and environment in Egypt contributed to the development of asceticism and how the practices of St. Antony reflected the contemporary ideas on soul and body

Application of different tools to investigate features and development of UK-based international foundation students’ academic lexis in assessed writing

Despite extensive research into academic writing of university students from various linguistic backgrounds and disciplines at various levels of study, little research has focused on longitudinal studies of assessed writing produced by heterogeneous groups of students at a foundation level. This study seeks to fill this gap by employing a number of tools complemented by qualitative interviews to investigate the most prevalent examples, features and development of academic lexis used in UK-based international foundation students’ written assignments and the main contributors to this development. These aims are addressed with the assistance of the Text Inspector (Bax n.d.), AntWordProfiler (Antony 2013) and AntConc (Antony 2014) which provide an insight into the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the students’ use of academic lexis comprising individual words and phraseologies in accordance with the Academic Word List (Coxhead 2000), the New Academic Vocabulary List (Gardner and Davies 2013), the Academic Collocation List (Ackermann and Chen 2013), and the Academic Formulas List (Simpson-Vlach and Ellis 2010). The results indicate that despite a rather extensive use of individual academic words, the use of academic collocations and lexical bundles remains limited. Moreover, the most prevalent examples of individual academic vocabulary and collocations seem to be relating to the assignment topics. There also seems to be a link between the use of certain academic collocations and the assignment type. The most prevalent examples of academic lexical bundles, on the other hand, do not appear to be linked to the assignment topic or type. In addition, interview data have identified formative feedback, teaching and exposure to academic lexis in reading materials as primary contributors. These findings have important pedagogical implications by highlighting the importance of feedback, explicit focus on academic items during class time and exposure to relevant reading materials

Case study in six sigma methadology : manufacturing quality improvement and guidence for managers

This article discusses the successful implementation of Six Sigma methodology in a high precision and critical process in the manufacture of automotive products. The Six Sigma define–measure–analyse–improve–control approach resulted in a reduction of tolerance-related problems and improved the first pass yield from 85% to 99.4%. Data were collected on all possible causes and regression analysis, hypothesis testing, Taguchi methods, classification and regression tree, etc. were used to analyse the data and draw conclusions. Implementation of Six Sigma methodology had a significant financial impact on the profitability of the company. An approximate saving of US$70,000 per annum was reported, which is in addition to the customer-facing benefits of improved quality on returns and sales. The project also had the benefit of allowing the company to learn useful messages that will guide future Six Sigma activities

The contribution of ionic currents to changes in refractoriness of human atrial myocytes associated with chronic atrial fibrillation

<b>Objective:</b> To investigate changes in human atrial single cell functional electrophysiological properties associated with chronic atrial fibrillation (AF), and the contribution to these of accompanying ion current changes. <b>Methods:</b> The whole cell patch clamp technique was used to record action potentials, the effective refractory period (ERP) and ion currents, in the absence and presence of drugs, in enzymatically isolated myocytes from 11 patients with chronic (<6 months) AF and 39 patients in sinus rhythm. <b>Results:</b> Stimulation at high rates (up to 600 beats/min) markedly shortened late repolarisation and the ERP in cells from patients in sinus rhythm, and depolarised the maximum diastolic potential (MDP). Chronic AF was associated with a reduction in the ERP at physiological rate (from 203±16 to 104±15 ms, P<0.05), and marked attenuation in rate effects on the ERP and repolarisation. The abbreviated terminal phase of repolarisation prevented fast rate-induced depolarisation of the MDP in cells from patients with AF. The density of L-type Ca<sup>2+</sup> (<i>I</i><sub>CaL</sub>) and transient outward K<sup>+</sup> (<i>I</i><sub>TO</sub>) currents was significantly reduced in cells from patients with AF (by 60–65%), whilst the inward rectifier K<sup>+</sup> current (IK1) was increased, and the sustained outward current (<i>I</i><sub>KSUS</sub>) was unaltered. Superfusion of cells from patients in sinus rhythm with nifedipine (10 micromol/l) moderately shortened repolarisation, but had no effect on the ERP (228±12 vs. 225±11 ms). 4-Aminopyridine (2 mmol/l) markedly prolonged repolarisation and the ERP (by 35%, P<0.05). However, the combination of these drugs had no effect on late repolarisation or refractoriness. <b>Conclusion:</b> Chronic AF in humans is associated with attenuation in adaptation of the atrial single cell ERP and MDP to fast rates, which may not be explained fully by accompanying changes in <i>I</i><sub>CaL</sub> and <i>I</i><sub>TO</sub>

Computational Statistics and Data Visualization

This book is the third volume of the Handbook of Computational Statistics and covers the field of Data Visualization. In line with the companion volumes, it contains a collection of chapters by experts in the field to present readers with an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of the state of the art. Data Visualization is an active area of application and research and this is a good time to gather together a summary of current knowledge. Graphic displays are often very effective at communicating information. They are also very often not effective at communicating information. Two important reasons for this state of affairs are that graphics can be produced with a few clicks of the mouse without any thought, and that the design of graphics is not taken seriously in many scientific textbooks. Some people seem to think that preparing good graphics is just a matter of common sense (in which case their common sense cannot be in good shape) and others believe that preparing graphics is a low-level task, not appropriate for scientific attention. This volume of the Handbook of Computational Statistics takes graphics for Data Visualization seriously.Data Visualization, Exploratory Graphics.

Reducing employees' turnover in transactional services : a Lean Six Sigma case study

The case study aims to illustrate the application of Lean Six Sigma into the human resource (HR) function of a service industry corporation. The study draws on process information and primary data from a real project. The study describes improvements in the HR management attributable to Lean Six Sigma: decrease of employees' voluntary turnover and increase in employees' satisfaction. Although being extremely successful in the last two decades in the manufacturing sector, the application of Lean Six Sigma to the service industry in general, and HR management in particular, has been a controversial topic: this study illustrates how its application can reduce employees' voluntary turnover rate and increase their satisfaction, hence increasing the return on investment of human capital

Eccentric lamellar keratolimbal grafts harvested with a manually guided microkeratome

Background: To perform lamellar keratolimbal allograft transplantation in a one- step procedure with a single graft, we investigated the feasibility of harvesting eccentric lamellar keratolimbal grafts from conventionally processed corneoscleral buttons using a manually guided microkeratome in conjunction with an artificial anterior chamber system. Methods: We used the Moria LSK- One microkeratome and the automated lamellar therapeutic keratoplasty ( ALTK) system ( Antony, France). Ten human donor eyes were used to obtain single- piece lamellar keratolimbal grafts. Specimens were processed for light and electron microscopy. Results: Eccentric keratolimbal grafts could be obtained from all human donor buttons. Grafts include a crescent- shaped limbal and a large corneal portion. No visible damage to the limbal region was discernible. Conclusion: Our data show that the LSK- One microkeratome in conjunction with the ALTK system allows harvesting eccentric keratolimbal grafts from donor corneoscleral buttons. Copyright (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel

A dynamical systems approach to actin-based motility in Listeria monocytogenes

A simple kinematic model for the trajectories of Listeria monocytogenes is generalized to a dynamical system rich enough to exhibit the resonant Hopf bifurcation structure of excitable media and simple enough to be studied geometrically. It is shown how L. monocytogenes trajectories and meandering spiral waves are organized by the same type of attracting set.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF GREEN SYNTHESIZED SILVER NANOPARTICLES USING STEM OF HIBISCUS VITIFOLIUS L. AND ITS ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL

Objectives: The aim of our work was to synthesize the silver nanoparticle (AgNP) using Hibiscus vitifolius L. stem extract its characterization and evaluation of antimicrobial and antioxidant assay. Materials and Methods: The silver nitrate (1 mM) mixed with aqueous stem extract of H. vitifolius L. after the nanoparticles is examined by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDAX), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta potential, thermogravimetry/differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The aqueous stem extract is examined for phytochemical screening, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis, FT-IR, and UV-vis spectroscopy. The antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidant assay were also evaluated for the AgNPs. Results: The aqueous stem extract shows 20 compounds in GC–MS analysis. The FT-IR and UV-vis spectroscopy show the biocompounds. H. vitifolius stem extract-AgNPs (HVS-AgNPs) examined in UV and FT-IR shows the presence of AgNPs, FE-SEM shows that the particle size is 30–70 nm, EDAX shows the presence of silver metal, and XRD shows that the particles are face-centered cubic. DLS shows the hydrodynamic size 136.9 nm, zeta potential shows the stability (−18.6 mV), and TG/DTA and DSC show that the particles are stable up to 335°C. The HVS-AgNPs are also evaluated in antimicrobial and antioxidant potential and the report shows a good inhibition. Conclusion: The stem extract of H. vitifolius L. can be used for green synthesis of AgNPs and could be used as antimicrobial and antioxidant potential