Pemodelan Struktur Perlapisan Bawah Permukaan untuk Penentuan Bidang Gelincir pada Daerah Rawan Longsor. (Studi Kasus Ruas Jalan Nasional 005 Lakuan – Laulalang dan Ruas 006 Laulalang-Lingadan)

Characteristics of roads in Central Sulawesi at some point are an area of frequent landslides. The road segment in question, including the section 005 and section 006 which is a national road linking the province of Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo province. The link conditions that have often suffered landslides have disrupted access to transport and causing high transportation costs. This study aims to determine the geometry of the sliding plane at KM 509 and KM 513 using the method of geoelectric resistivity Wenner configuration with a path length measurement of 300 m and 5 m electrode spacing. The results of the study at two locations and modeling shows the layering structure resistivity value of which is at 100 Ωm - 300 Ωm and modeling results of 2-D geoelectric cross-section shows the sliding plane ground motion varies between 5 to 15 m. Value of resistance and sectional sliding obtained indicate that the location is vulnerable to landslides, and requires a comprehensive treatment to prevent landslides

A location aided fast handoff protocol for the next generation wireless systems

An important and challenging issue in the nextgeneration wireless systems (NGWS) is to support seamless handoff while moving between different integrated networks. This paper presents a location aided fast handoff protocol which is an improvement over the pre-registration low latency handoff proposed by the IETF. Pre-Registration requires layer 2 information that might not be present in the access technology being used. By processing geographical data information acquired through GPS related to mobile node movement and the coverage area of each foreign agent intelligent handoff decisions can be made, allowing more control over the actual handoff latency and buffering requirements

Beta-cell specific autoantibodies : are they just an indicator of type 1 diabetes?

Background: Autoantibodies (AAbs) against islet autoantigens (AAgs) are used for type 1 diabetes (T1D) diagnosis and prediction. Islet-specific AAbs usually appear early in life and may fluctuate in terms of number and titer sometimes for over 20 years before T1D develops. Whereas their predictive power is high for pediatric subjects with high genetic risk who rapidly progress to multiple AAb positivity, they are less reliable for children with low genetic risk, single AAb positivity and slow disease progression. Objective: It is unknown how AAbs develop and whether they are involved in T1D pathogenesis. So far an increase in AAb number seems to only indicate AAg spreading and progression towards clinical T1D. The goal of this review is to shed light on the possible involvement of AAbs in T1D development. Method: We thoroughly review the current literature and discuss possible mechanisms of AAb development and the roles they may play in disease pathogenesis. Results: Genetic and environmental factors instigate changes at the molecular and cellular levels that promote AAb development. Although direct involvement of AAbs in T1D is less clear, autoreactive B cells are clearly involved in various immune and autoimmune responses via antigen presentation, immunoregulation and cytokine production. Conclusion: Our analysis suggests that understanding the mechanisms that lead to islet-specific AAb development and the diabetogenic processes that autoreactive B cells promote may uncover additional biomarkers and therapeutic targets

Developing New Technology-Related Bachelor Programs in The Middle East

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the development of five recently launched bachelor programs at the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza, Palestine. These programs are Technology Education, Business with Technology, Geographic Information Systems, Development Planning, and Building Technology. These programs are non-traditional academic programs where traditional curricula are hybrid with a varying degree of engineering and IT-related technology courses. These programs have been accredited by the local accreditation board and a few hundred students are currently enrolled in these programs, with the first batch of these students have already graduated in the summer of 2010-2011. The paper sheds some details on the curriculum of these programs. Though these engineering and technology-related academic programs were developed with both local and regional interests, universities worldwide could benefit from this experience

Utilization patterns of antihypertensive drugs in the management of hypertension among patients with chronic kidney disease at a tertiary hospital

Background: Objective of the current investigation was to identify the utilization patterns of antihypertensive drugs among hypertensive patients with chronic kidney disease at Sultan Qaboos university hospital.Methods: This is a retrospective study of the utilization patterns of antihypertensive drugs that were prescribed to 181 hypertensive patients with CKD. Patients’ data and drugs’ data were collected from the hospital track care system and analysed.Results: The results show that diuretics were prescribed for 63.53% of the patients followed by β-blockers (61.3%). Drugs were prescribed orally to 90% of the patients. Furosemide was prescribed to 55.8% of patients followed by amlodipine (55.2%). The majority of the patients were on multiple antihypertensive medications (84%). There was no significant difference between drug utilization in patients with albuminuria and those without albuminuria. Among patients with CKD stages two and three, β-blockers were the most common antihypertensive drugs being utilized. Among patients with stage 4 and stage 5, calcium channel blockers and diuretics were the most common antihypertensive drugs being utilized. The prescription of angiotensin II receptor blockers and direct vasodilators showed a significant difference among different stages of CKD.Conclusions: This study showed that diuretics were the most commonly prescribed antihypertensive drugs among the study cohort. The majority of the patients were on multiple antihypertensive medications

Effect of Styrene Butadiene Rubber Latex on Mechanical Properties of Eco Concrete: Limestone Powder Concrete

To make concrete a truly green material, viable cement substitutes are available. This experimental investigation is performed to study the effect of using limestone powder (LSP) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) latex in the concrete mix. In this work, a concrete with 1:1.8:3 cementitious material:sand:gravel and water/cement ratio w/c of 0.5 is produced. First, LSP is used with 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% replacements by weight of cements. The fineness of the LSP is measured using sieve No. 200 and showed about 30% pass. Second, and to improve the matrix of concrete due to the dilution effect, four ratios of SBR latex (0, 5, 10, and 15%) are added by weight of cements to the mix for each LSP ratio. Compressive strength at ages of 3, 7, 14, 28, and 90 days is tested for the concrete specimens mixed with LSP only to examine its effect on concrete strength’s development with time, whereas strengths are recorded at the age of 28 days for the other concretes. Three prisms were cast for each ratio and tested at 28 days. The results show general improvements in terms of compressive and flexural strengths

Structural, electronic, vibrational and dielectric properties of LaBGeO5_5 from first principles

Structural, electronic, vibrational and dielectric properties of LaBGeO$_5$ with the stillwellite structure are determined based on \textit{ab initio} density functional theory. The theoretically relaxed structure is found to agree well with the existing experimental data with a deviation of less than $0.2\%$. Both the density of states and the electronic band structure are calculated, showing five distinct groups of valence bands. Furthermore, the Born effective charge, the dielectric permittivity tensors, and the vibrational frequencies at the center of the Brillouin zone are all obtained. Compared to existing model calculations, the vibrational frequencies are found in much better agreement with the published experimental infrared and Raman data, with absolute and relative rms values of 6.04 cm$^{-1}$, and $1.81\%$, respectively. Consequently, numerical values for both the parallel and perpendicular components of the permittivity tensor are established as 3.55 and 3.71 (10.34 and 12.28), respectively, for the high-(low-)frequency limit