An Analytical Study of the Effects of Age and Experience on Flight Safety

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are any significant decreases in the safety and effectiveness of pilots by age 60. The data for this study came from records of general aviation accidents (i.e., for private pilots, commercial pilots, and air transport pilots), and airline accidents (Part 121). These accident data were acquired from many specialized aviation data banks; these include: NTSB, AOPA, FAA, and the COMSIS Research Corporation. The data were organized into groups according to the ages of the pilots-in-command responsible for the accidents. Groupings progress in five-year increments starting at 20-24, and ending with 55-59. The data were analyzed in terms of both accidents per 1,000 pilots and accidents per 100,000 annual hours flown. The results indicate that age and experience both affect safety. The magnitude of these effects and their implications on flight safety are discussed

Biochemical, Histopathological and Therapeutic Studies in Alloxan- and Streptozotocin-induced Diabetes Mellitus in Rabbits.

The present experimental study was designed to establish diabetes mellitus in New Zealand white rabbits using diabetogenic drugs so as to investigate/elucidate biochemical, histopathological and behavioural changes/complications. In one group of rabbits diabetes mellitus was induced by intraperitoneal administration of alloxan (@ 80 mg/kg b.w.) and the other group of rabbits was made diabetic using intravenous administration of streptozotocin (@ 65 mg/kg b.w.).Another group of rabbits was kept as control (normal healthy) which received normal saline. The establishment of diabetes mellitus in rabbits was confirmed by periodical elevated levels of fasting blood glucose, blood urea and serum creatinine. The subsequent effect of hyperglycemia on tissue morphology of diabetic rabbits was studied by processing of different organs viz., pancreas, kidneys, liver, lungs, heart, brain and gut of both diabetic and normal rabbits for histological/hiostopathological study using Haematoxylin and Eosin stain and modified Gomori’s staining technique.Digital copy of Thesis.University of Kashmir

Diversity and Bioecological studies of butterflies of Kashmir Himalaya.

Butterflies are the most abundant group of insects on the earth which belong to the insect order Lepidoptera, under phylum Arthropoda and are recognizable among the general public, and science due to their beautiful colours, and graceful flight. The butterflies are found in every part of the world wherever the flowering plants are existing and even in very high-altitude, arctic, antarctic mountains, covered with perpetual snow and glaciers. Butterflies are one of the best studied groups, not only geographical subspecies, but even varieties, races, seasonal and sexual forms have been named and described from different regions of the world. The study area, Kashmir Valley, is of paramount importance, because of its central position in Asia, and also as a doorway in between Palaearctic and Oriental region in the Northern India. Kashmir Valley lies between 330.20/ and 430.54/ N Latitude and 730.55/ and 750.35/ E Longitude, covering an area of 15,948 Sq. Kms. Topographically, it is a deep elliptical bowl-shaped valley bounded by lofty mountains of the Pir Panjal Range in the south and south east and the Great Himalayan Range in the north and east, with 64% of the total area being mountainous. The valley is an asymmetrical fertile basin stretching from northeast to northwesterly direction. Its diagonal length (from southeast to northwest corner) is 187 Km, while the breadth varies considerably, being 115.6 Km along the latitude of Srinagar. The altitude of the floor of the valley at Srinagar is 1600m (above sea level). On the basis of temperature and precipitation, the Kashmir valley has four seasons as: (a) Winter Season (December to February); (b) Spring Season (March to May); (c) Summer Season (June to August) and (d) Autumn Season (September to November) in a year.Digital copy of ThesisUniversity of Kashmi

Supply Chain Coordination for False Failure Returns (ed.2)

False failure returns are products that are returned by consumers to retailers with no functional cosmetic defect. The cost of a false failure return includes the processing actions of testing, refurbishing if necessary, repackaging, the loss in value during the time the product spends in reverse supply chain (a time that can exceed several months for many firms), and the loss in revenue because the product is sold at a discounted price. This cost is significant, and is incurred primarily by the manufacturer. Reducing false failure returns, however, requires effort primarily by the retailer, for example informing consumers about the exact product that best fits their needs. We address the problem of reducing false failure returns via supply chain coordination methods. Specifically, we propose a target rebate contract that pays the retailer a specific dollar amount per each unit of false failure returns below a target. This target rebate provides an incentive to the retailer to increase her effort, thus decreasing the number of false failures and (potentially) increasing net sales. We show that this contract is Pareto–improving in the majority of cases. Our results also indicate that the profit improvement to both parties, and the supply chain, is substantial

From toothpick legs to dropping vaginas: Gender and sexuality in Joan Rivers' stand-up comedy performance

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 Intellect.This article employs sociocultural analysis to examine Joan Rivers’ stand-up comedy performances in order to reveal how she successfully operates in a sphere of artistic expression that has been, and continues to be, male-dominated. The analysis uncovers how Rivers’ stand-up comedy performance involves a complex combination of elements and how it fuses features that are regarded as ‘traditionally masculine’, such as aggression, with features frequently used by other female stand-up comedians, such as self-deprecating comedy and confessional comedy. Furthermore, the analysis exposes the complex ways in which constructions of gender and sexuality are negotiated and re-negotiated in Rivers’ stand-up comedy performance, and illustrates how dominant ideological identity constructions can be simultaneously reinforced and subverted within the same comic moment

Time Value of Commercial Product Returns

Once lightly regarded, the flow of product returns has become a significant concern for many manufacturers. For products, such as PCs, whose value deteriorates rapidly with time, the increasing rates of return from on-line sales have elevated the need for effective reverse supply chain designs. Products lose value in the return stream in two important ways: first, their value diminishes during time delays while awaiting evaluation, repair or refurbishing; second, losses can be incurred through erroneous disposition decisions due to incorrect assessments of the product’s value over time. Using field data for several consumer electronics products, we build analytical models to capture the economic value of a time-sensitive product over its life cycle and then use these models to develop supply chain designs that maximize value recovered from the return steam. We show that the returned product’s "time value" is a critical design parameter

Mismatch Repair Genes Mlh1 and Mlh3 Modify CAG Instability in Huntington's Disease Mice: Genome-Wide and Candidate Approaches

The Huntington's disease gene (HTT) CAG repeat mutation undergoes somatic expansion that correlates with pathogenesis. Modifiers of somatic expansion may therefore provide routes for therapies targeting the underlying mutation, an approach that is likely applicable to other trinucleotide repeat diseases. Huntington's disease HdhQ111 mice exhibit higher levels of somatic HTT CAG expansion on a C57BL/6 genetic background (B6.HdhQ111) than on a 129 background (129.HdhQ111). Linkage mapping in (B6x129).HdhQ111 F2 intercross animals identified a single quantitative trait locus underlying the strain-specific difference in expansion in the striatum, implicating mismatch repair (MMR) gene Mlh1 as the most likely candidate modifier. Crossing B6.HdhQ111 mice onto an Mlh1 null background demonstrated that Mlh1 is essential for somatic CAG expansions and that it is an enhancer of nuclear huntingtin accumulation in striatal neurons. HdhQ111 somatic expansion was also abolished in mice deficient in the Mlh3 gene, implicating MutLγ (MLH1–MLH3) complex as a key driver of somatic expansion. Strikingly, Mlh1 and Mlh3 genes encoding MMR effector proteins were as critical to somatic expansion as Msh2 and Msh3 genes encoding DNA mismatch recognition complex MutSβ (MSH2–MSH3). The Mlh1 locus is highly polymorphic between B6 and 129 strains. While we were unable to detect any difference in base-base mismatch or short slipped-repeat repair activity between B6 and 129 MLH1 variants, repair efficiency was MLH1 dose-dependent. MLH1 mRNA and protein levels were significantly decreased in 129 mice compared to B6 mice, consistent with a dose-sensitive MLH1-dependent DNA repair mechanism underlying the somatic expansion difference between these strains. Together, these data identify Mlh1 and Mlh3 as novel critical genetic modifiers of HTT CAG instability, point to Mlh1 genetic variation as the likely source of the instability difference in B6 and 129 strains and suggest that MLH1 protein levels play an important role in driving of the efficiency of somatic expansions