The feasibility of posture and movement detection by accelerometry

The discrimination of postures and movements using a minimal set of uniaxial accelerometers was investigated. Postures and movements were distinguished on the bitsis of the high-pm filtered, rectified and low pass filtered signal of one accelerometer. Postures were discriminated by combining the constant valued signals of the accelerometers, mounted on different segments of the body. One sensor mounted ndiully on the trunc and one mounted radially or tangentially on the upper leg appeared to be suficient to discriminate shnding, sitting and lying. Methods are proposed for the discrimination of different cyclical movements

Behavior of high dose O+-implanted Si/Ge/Si structures

The synthesis of a buried oxide layer in multilayer Si/Ge/Si structures by the implantation of high doses of 200 keV O+ ions is studied by Rutherford backscattering analysis. The presence of Ge is found to have a minimal effect upon the mass transport of excess oxygen and interstitial silicon. Infrared transmission spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirm that the oxygen atoms bond preferentially to silicon forming silicon dioxide and SiOx, where x<2, with no evidence for Ge—O bonding

The Ethnomedicine of the Haya people of Bugabo ward, Kagera Region, north western Tanzania

\ud The Kagera region, in north western Tanzania, is endowed with a strong culture of traditional medicine that is well supported by a rich diversity of medicinal plants. However, most of the plants in this region have not been documented nor evaluated for safety and efficacy. As an initiative in that direction, this study documented the knowledge on medicinal plant use by traditional healers of Bugabo Ward in Bukoba District. Key informants were selected with the help of local government officials and information on their knowledge and use of plants for therapeutic purposes was gathered using a semi-structured interview format. In this study 94 plant species representing 84 genera and 43 families were found to be commonly used in the treatment of a variety of human ailments. The family Asteraceae had the highest number of species being used as traditional medicines. The study revealed that Malaria is treated using the highest number of different medicinal species (30), followed by skin conditions (19), maternal illnesses and sexually transmitted diseases (14), respiratory diseases (11) and yellow fever, Herpes simplex and peptic ulcers (10). Majority of the species are used to treat less than five different diseases/conditions each and leaves were the most commonly used part, comprising 40% of all the reports on use of plant parts. Trees comprised the most dominant growth form among all plants used for medicinal purposes in the study area. Bugabo Ward has a rich repository of medicinal plants and this reinforces the need for an extensive and comprehensive documentation of medicinal plants in the area and a concomitant evaluation of their biological activity as a basis for developing future medicines.\u

Forest carbon stocks and fluxes in physiographic zones of India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Reducing carbon Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) is of central importance to combat climate change. Foremost among the challenges is quantifying nation's carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation, which requires information on forest carbon storage. Here we estimated carbon storage in India's forest biomass for the years 2003, 2005 and 2007 and the net flux caused by deforestation and degradation, between two assessment periods i.e., Assessment Period first (ASP I), 2003-2005 and Assessment Period second (ASP II), 2005-2007.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The total estimated carbon stock in India's forest biomass varied from 3325 to 3161 Mt during the years 2003 to 2007 respectively. There was a net flux of 372 Mt of CO₂in ASP I and 288 Mt of CO₂in ASP II, with an annual emission of 186 and 114 Mt of CO₂respectively. The carbon stock in India's forest biomass decreased continuously from 2003 onwards, despite slight increase in forest cover. The rate of carbon loss from the forest biomass in ASP II has dropped by 38.27% compared to ASP I.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>With the Copenhagen Accord, India along with other BASIC countries China, Brazil and South Africa is voluntarily going to cut emissions. India will voluntary reduce the emission intensity of its GDP by 20-25% by 2020 in comparison to 2005 level, activities like REDD+ can provide a relatively cost-effective way of offsetting emissions, either by increasing the removals of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere by afforestation programmes, managing forests, or by reducing emissions through deforestation and degradation.</p

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Sorption and separation of sugars with adsorbents based on reversible chemical interaction

The goal of this work was to enchance the selectivity of the separation of fructose or glucose from carbohydrate mixtures with adsorbents capable of reversible reaction. The experimental data presented demonstrate the feasibility of separating glucose from trans-galacto-oligosaccharides and fructose from fructo-oligosaccharides using resins as adsorbents. Comparison of the sorption properties of a resin functionalised with the bisulphite (HSO-3) ion with its original chloride (Cl-) form showed that the sorption of glucose increased due to interaction with the bisulphite group. In addition, functionalisation with bisulphite resulted in selectivity towards glucose relative to fructose and lactose. Moreover, chromatographic separation of glucose from trans-galacto-oligosaccharides on a bisulphite-loaded resin was improved compared to the same resin in the chloride form. However, the bisulphite unfortunately oxidised. Boronic acid-functionalised resin was selective towards fructose at pH 6.0 compared to glucose, indicating complex formation between fructose and boronic acid. Although complex formation with boronate has been assumed to be even stronger than with boronic acid, increasing the pH to a value above the pKa of the functional group did not improve fructose sorption. Chromatographic separation of fructose from fructo-oligosaccharides was obtained on boronic acid-functionalised resin as a result of complex formation with fructose. These results show that reversible chemical reactions can lead to an improvement in the performance of adsorbents for sugar separations