TOTEM: The experiment to measure the total proton-proton cross section at LHC

The current large uncertainty on the extrapolation of the proton-proton total cross section at the LHC energy will be resolved by the precise measurement by the TOTEM experiment. Its accurate studies on the basic properties of proton-proton collisions at the maximum accelerator energy could provide a significant contribution to the understanding of cosmic ray physics.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, Proceedings XIV International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions (ISVHECRI 2006), Weihai, China, August 15-22, 200

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe current study evaluated longitudinal mental health trajectories for 107 refugees resettled in Utah during 2011. The aims of this study were to: (1) identify a set of trajectory classes that reflect important variations in mental health experienced by refugees during the course of their first postresettlement year, (2) describe the characteristics of each identified trajectory class, and (3) determine significant pre and early postresettlement predictors of trajectory class membership. Mental health outcomes were measured monthly across the first postresettlement year using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25). Growth Mixture Modeling (GMM) was employed to extract a discrete number of latent trajectory classes from the study sample. Bivariate analyses and Multinomial Logistic Regressions were employed to predict trajectory class membership. Results suggested a 5-Class trajectory model. Significant predictor variables were identified and discussed within the context of theories of refugee adaptation as well as the broad coping and resilience literature. Implications for clinical practice, resettlement policy, and future research were also addressed

Evaluation of the potential for virus dispersal during hand drying: a comparison of three methods

Aims To use a MS2 bacteriophage model to compare three hand-drying methods, paper towels (PT), a warm air dryer (WAD) and a jet air dryer (JAD), for their potential to disperse viruses and contaminate the immediate environment during use. Methods and Results Participants washed their gloved hands with a suspension of MS2 bacteriophage and hands were dried with one of the three hand-drying devices. The quantity of MS2 present in the areas around each device was determined using a plaque assay. Samples were collected from plates containing the indicator strain, placed at varying heights and distances and also from the air. Over a height range of 0.15-1.65 m, the JAD dispersed an average of >60 and >1300-fold more plaque-forming units (pfu) compared to the WAD and PT (P 20 and >190-fold more pfu in total compared to WAD and PT at all distances tested up to 3 m (P 50 and >100-fold more pfu compared to the WAD and PT (P <0.001), respectively. Conclusions Use of the JAD lead to significantly greater and further dispersal of MS2 bacteriophage from artificially contaminated hands when compared to the WAD and PT. Significance and Impact of Study The choice of hand drying device should be considered carefully in areas where infection prevention concerns are paramount, such as healthcare settings and the food industry

The Role of Foreign Direct Investment to Technology Transfer for Local Employees: Evidence from SNNPRS, Hawassa Town, Ethiopia

The study assesses the Role of Foreign Direct Investment to Technology Transfer in SNNPRS, Hawassa Town. To achieve the objective of the study, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed. A total of 112sample respondents were randomly selected from 577 target population to fill the questionnaires. The questionnaire, personal observations and key-informants interview were used for primary data collection. Qualitative data’s were analyzed by narration, while quantitative data’s were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage, frequency, mean, and standard deviation. Moreover, chi-square was used to explain whether two attribute are associated. The survey result signposts that technological inflow through FDI is an important channel in capacitating the local work force, promoting STI and assuring the prosperity of the Town. However, the educational level of the local employees to absorb the transferred technology, the collaboration between foreign firms and local employees, and the national technology policy are very weak to benefit from FDI. The employees in these companies faced multifaceted challenges to absorb the intended technology based know-how thus all stakeholders should come together and mobilize the available local resources to mitigate these challenges of the employees in the study area. Keywords: Technology Transfer, FDI, Foreign Firms, Local Employe

Biography and Homoeopathy in Bengal: Colonial lives of a European heterodoxy

AbstractDespite being recognized as a significant literary mode in understanding the advent of the modern self, biographies as agenrehave received relatively little attention from South Asian historians. Likewise, histories of science and healing in British India have largely ignored the colonial trajectories of those sectarian, dissenting, supposedly pseudo-sciences and medical heterodoxies that have flourished in Europe since the late eighteenth century. This article addresses these gaps in the historiography to identify biographies as a principal mode through which an incipient, ‘heterodox’ Western science like homoeopathy could consolidate and sustain itself in Bengal. In recovering the cultural history of a category that the state archives render largely invisible, this article argues that biographies are more than a mere repository of individual lives, and in fact are a veritable site of power. In bringing histories of print and publishing, histories of medicine, and histories of life writing practices together, it pursues two broad themes: first, it analyses the sociocultural strategies and networks by which scientific doctrines and concepts are translated across cultural borders. It explores the relation between medical commerce, print capital, and therapeutic knowledge to illustrate that acculturation of medical science necessarily drew upon and reinforced local constellations of class, kinship, and religion. Second, it simultaneously reflects upon the expanding genre of homoeopathic biographies published since the mid-nineteenth century: on their features, relevance, and functions, examining in particular the contemporary status of biography vis-à-vis ‘history’ in writing objective pasts.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from CUP at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X1400057