Women in the December 26 Tsunami: how have they coped; how can we help?

Fishing communities around the Indian Ocean were severely affected by the December 2004 tsunamis. Programs for rebuilding coastal fisheries livelihoods need to address the pre-tsunami situation that was characterized by overfishing and degraded natural resources. Adopting appropriate strategies to ensure sustainable livelihoods will require community involvement, as well as cross-sectoral, integrated planning and management at ascending government levels. Key recommendations from the WorldFish Center study Sustainable Management of Coastal Fish Stocks in Asia are presented to encourage discussion and debate

Maternal-fetal attachment among Vietnamese mothers in the first, second, and third trimesters of pregnancy: A pilot study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate maternal-fetal attachment (MFA) among Vietnamese women during pregnancy. Design: This study is a quantitative, descriptive pilot study of maternal fetal attachment among twenty-five Vietnamese women during pregnancy. Convenience sample of twenty-five pregnant Vietnamese women were selected. Two questionnaires were used. The demographic survey included the mother\u27s age, ethnicity, primary language spoken at home, country of origin, parity, and the stage of pregnancy. The Maternal-Fetal Attachment scale (Cranley, 1981) is a twenty-four item self-administered Likert-type scale. Result: The study result\u27s showed modest difference in scores in the three trimesters among the Vietnamese women. There were no apparent differences in maternal and fetal bonding as compared to Cranley\u27s study ( 1981 ). Implications: Findings from this study broadened the health care provider\u27s knowledge regarding cross-cultural nursing in maternal and fetal attachment among Vietnamese women. Larger sample size and revising the language of instruments to accommodate the appropriate cultural background of study subject may yield better results

Development of personal area network (PAN) for mobile robot using bluetooth transceiver

The work presents the concept of providing a Personal Area Network (PAN) for microcontroller based mobile robots using Bluetooth transceiver. With the concept of replacing cable, low cost, low power consumption and communication range between 10m to 100m, Bluetooth is suitable for communication between mobile robots since most mobile robots are powered by batteries and have high mobility. The network aimed to support real-time control of up to two mobile robots from a master mobile robot through communication using Bluetooth transceiver. If a fast network radio link is implemented, a whole new world of possibilities is opened in the research of robotics control and Artificial Intelligence (AI) research works, sending real time image and information. Robots could communicate through obstacles or even through walls. Bluetooth Ad Hoc topology provides a simple communication between devices in close by forming PAN. A system contained of both hardware and software is designed to enable the robots to form a PAN and communicating, sharing information. Three microcontroller based mobile robots are built for this research work. Bluetooth Protocol Stack and mobile robot control architecture is implemented on a single microcontroller chip. The PAN enabled a few mobile robots to communicate with each other to complete a given task. The wireless communication between mobile robots is reliable based from the result of experiments carried out. Thus this is a platform for multi mobile robots system and Ad Hoc networking system. Results from experiments show that microcontroller based mobile robots can easily form a Bluetooth PAN and communicate with each other

Electric Field Determination in DC Polymeric Power Cable in the Presence of Space Charge

The pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) technique was used to perform space charge measurements in polymeric power cables. However, for a practical dc power cable the electric field is affected by conductivity of the material, which is a function of both temperature and electric field. The coupled problems inflict difficulties to identify the electric field distribution in high voltage (HV) cables, which therefore poses threat to the reliability in operation of dc power cables. In this paper we proposed a method of determining electric field distribution in XLPE power cable, where under temperature gradient the existence of space charge density of the cable is determined by means of a modified PEA system. Commercial 11 kV ac XLPE power cable is applied and measured under an applied dc voltage of 80 kV. The space charge across the insulation was obtained and COMSOL Multiphysics software package is used to accurately determine the electric field distribution in the dc power cable by considering the influences of both the effects of temperature and electric field on the conductivity of the insulating material. Therefore, the results of the numerical modelling shall give us a clearer representation of the electric field distribution in HVDC cables

Assessing the approaches to learning of twinning programme students in Malaysia

The study set out to examine the psychometric properties of the scores obtained on the modified 20-item Revised Two Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F). The study also investigated the relationship between scores on the R-SPQ-2F and students’ learning-related outcomes. In addition, it also examined for any relationships among student’s background variables of gender, choice of academic discipline, age, English language competency, approaches to learning, and learning-related outcomes. Data based on responses of 368 Malaysian students undertaking the twinning mode of study showed the modified R-SPQ-2F to be reliable and factorially valid. The findings also found deep approaches to learning were positively related to students’ learning-related outcomes, while surface approaches to learning were negatively associated.Students’ background characteristics such as choice of academic discipline and English language competency, and approaches to learning were good predictors of students’ learning-related outcomes

Analysis of potential benefits of integrated-gasifier combined cycles for a utility system

Potential benefits of integrated gasifier combined cycle (IGCC) units were evaluated for a reference utility system by comparing long range expansion plans using IGCC units and gas turbine peakers with a plan using only state of the art steam turbine units and gas turbine peakers. Also evaluated was the importance of the benefits of individual IGCC unit characteristics, particularly unit efficiency, unit equivalent forced outage rate, and unit size. A range of IGCC units was analyzed, including cases achievable with state of the art gas turbines and cases assuming advanced gas turbine technology. All utility system expansion plans that used IGCC units showed substantial savings compared with the base expansion plan using the steam turbine units