Realist Evaluation for Practice

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Keynote Speaker: Dr. Mansoor A.F. Kazi, Reader and Director of Centre for Evaluation Studies, The University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD13DH, England - "Realist Evaluation for Practice"The Ohio State University College of Social Wor

Towards the implementation of a sustainable cold chain for the livestock value chain in Bangladesh

The cold chain is essential for food quality and safety. Good management of the postharvest cold chain can reduce food losses. The International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) estimated that the lack of a cold chain causes significant global food losses of up to 20% of the global food supply (IIR, 2009). Besides economic and health considerations, the environmental sustainability of the food cold supply chain should be considered to prevent further increases in emissions that could potentially increase global warming. This paper presents an assessment of the livestock cold chain related gaps in Bangladesh which is one of the initiative within the World Bank LDDP (Livestock and Dairy Development Project) project (LDDP, P161246). Information on technological and non-technological issues which can be tackled are presented. Practical recommendations to develop the cold chain in Bangladesh for milk and meat are provided

Terrestrial free space optical communications in Bangladesh: transmission channel characterization

This research work focused on transmission channel characterization of Free-Space-Optical (FSO) communications technology for deploying in the developing country like Bangladesh. To meet the tremendous amount of data traffic, mobile operators and ISPs need better solution than the existing RF and fiber optic communications. Moreover, Bangladesh is entering in the era of satellite communications by launching its own satellite.  So, Bangladesh needs such communication technology that provides higher channel bandwidth, sophisticated transmission security and can cope channel dispersion. FSO is a good candidate that can meet all these features. The transmission channel characterization plays a significant role in optimizing the performance of FSO link.  In this work, the channel characterization of FSO technology from the weather perspective of Bangladesh has been investigated thoroughly. The obtained results show that the atmospheric scattering effect does not hamper the short range FSO link performance, whereas, the atmospheric turbulence effect is not favorable to deploy FSO technology with reasonable quality signal unless it is optimized properly using antenna aperture averaging technique

Needle localization of non-palpable breast lesions

Screening mammography identifies suspicious, non palpable mammary lesions. Mammographic needle localization (MNL) is currently being used to facilitate excision biopsy of these lesions. Thirty-two patients underwent biopsies of the breast after MNL for non-palpable lesions. Mammographic indications for biopsy consisted of microcalcifications (48%), mass or abnormal density (21%) or mass+abnormal density (24%). The carcinoma was identified in four cases (12%). Two of these were in situ, one was microinvasive and one was frankly invasive. Three were treated with a modified radical mastectomy. One of these non palpable lesion demonstrated nodal metastasis but none showed distant metastasis. All radiologically detected abnormalities were removed and confirmed with repeat radiology. No complications were identified. MNL effectively localizes non-palpable lesion of the breast and compliments accurate diagnosis and treatment of early carcinoma of the breast

Influence des additions minérales sur la résistance mécanique des mortiers

Les grands ouvrages tels que les tunnels sont de gros consommateurs du matériau béton dans lequel des millions de tonnes de ciment sont utilisés pour leur réalisation. La fabrication du ciment ternaire en utilisantdes additions minérales (Fines Siliceuses : FS) représente double intérêt lorsque le ciment Portland n’est pas largement disponible ; d’une part cela permet de diminuer les émissions de CO2 et d’autre part d’obtenir unliant moins coûteux. Cet article présente les résultats des résistances à la compression du mortier contenant différents pourcentages de FS. Le ciment a été partiellement remplacé par 0, 5, 10, 15 et 20 % de FS. Aussinous avons utilisé les dosages recommandés par le fabricant à savoir 15 et 30 Kg/m3. Le rapport liant -sable et liant - eau ont été maintenu respectivement constant à des valeurs 1/3 et 0,52. Les échantillonsont été mis à la cure dans l’eau jusqu’aux échéances de l’écrasement. Des essais de résistance à la compression ont été effectués à différentes échéances 7, 28, 60 et 90 jours. Un mortier témoin (CPA + 15 % de pouzzolane naturelle) a été confectionné pour les besoins de comparaison.Mots-clés : grands ouvrages-tunnels, ciment ternaire, addition minérale, mortier, résistance mécanique

Isolation and characterization of different forms of Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase

This thesis describes the different forms of AC produced by B. pertussis, B. parapertussis, B. bronchiseptica and those expressed in E. coli. The work was done with both crude and purified preparations of AC and also with whole cells of B. pertussis. Immunoblot analysis with various antisera, including anti-AC monoclonal, monospecific, and polyclonal antibodies, revealed the production of two different forms of AC with different electrophoretic mobilities i.e., 210 and 200 kDa as the major cell-associated forms in B. pertussis and B. bronchiseptica. In 3 B. parapertussis and E. coli, the predominant form was 210 kDa. These forms may represent the toxic and non-toxic forms observed by Rogel et al. (1989). Production of the holotoxic AC was not observed in culture supernates under the growth conditions used. Only low MW forms of 45-50 kDa were observed and these forms also appeared to be produced by proteolysis of AC during storage and other experimental manipulations. The breakdown was partially prevented by using a protease inhibitor. The enzymic activity of AC was found to be unstable in purified and crude forms of AC in the absence of urea. Thus, urea seemed to be beneficial in protecting loss of activity of AC during storage. A noteworthy observation of the present study was that the different Bordetellae, including B. pertussis Tn5-insertion mutants deficient in individual virulence factors, and a recombinant B. pertussis strain, produced different amounts of AC enzymic and toxic activities under the same set of condition which indicate that the production varied from strain to strain . The highest yields of enzymically-active and toxic AC were obtained from recombinant strain B. pertussis BP348 (pRMBl) and from B. pertussis Tn5-insertion mutant BP357 (deficient in a functional PT gene). On the other hand, B. pertussis Tohama and Tn5 mutant BP353 showed the lowest AC enzymic and toxic activities of the B. pertussis strains examined. B. bronchiseptica produced an intermediate level of AC enzymic and toxic activities compared to those of the B. pertussis strains. Enzymically and biologically-active AC was obtained from the E. coli constructs. However, the toxic activity was approximately half than that of native AC. E. coli strains harbouring the cloned B. pertussis cyaA, B, D genes together with C genes either from P. vulgaris, E. coli, OTB. pertussis on separate plasmids, showed production of CyaA (AC), as assessed by immunoblotting and the Salomon assay,and its activation by C genes, as assessed by inhibition of chemiluminescence. Various attempts were made to develop more convenient, economical, and sensitive methods for detection of AC and determination of its enzymic and toxic activities. An alternative method for detection of AC by calmodulin-affinity probing of a Western blot was found to be reproducible and suitable for use when specific anti-AC antibodies were not available. This is the first report of such a use for calmodulin. A microplate assay was developed for detection of AC enzymic activity and this proved economical, reproducible, and convenient for preliminary screening of AC-producing strains and as a semi-quantitative assay. The method has some advantages over conventional assays, such as the Salomon assay and the Binding protein assay, in that it does not require radioisotope and it is rapid. Further development of this assay as a diagnostic test for pertussis may be possible. A comparative study was made of different assays for determination of toxic effects of AC on a variety of target cells. These included : haemolysis of sheep and rabbit RBCs, CHO cell elongation, arborization of BHK cells, inhibition of the nitroblue tetrazolium reduction capacity of rabbit neutrophils, and inhibition of the chemiluminescence response of neutrophils to various stimuli. The study indicated that CL inhibition by AC toxin was a sensitive assay and could detect ACT in crude preparations at the level of 1mug protein /10

A Rose of Hope

Superhydrophobic aluminum created by coating floral nanostructured 7075 (Colored SEM Image) aluminum with silanes can be used to increase the efficiency of HVAC systems. Creating such efficient technologies has the potential to ultimately decrease fuel consumption hence reducing carbon emission. Climate change being a great threat to humanity even such small steps may raise our hope for a beautiful future just like the first rose in a garden.Ope

The Effect of an Augmented Reality App on a Learner’s Desire to Use Electronic Resources During the COVID-19 Epidemic

An innovative tool in the field of e-learning, augmented reality applications help students learn more quickly inside of online classrooms. Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, conventional methods of instruction had to be put on hold at the outset of the pandemic. In light of the recent COVID-19 epidemic in Asia, this research explores college students perspective on online education using augmented reality software. Based on the idea of planned behavior, this research developed a conceptual model to investigate the attitudes and intentions of college students about the use of an augmented reality app for course-related e-learning. Information from 135 Asian college students was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Students attitudes and a sense of agency over their own actions had the greatest impact on their propensity to embrace augmented reality applications for e-learning, whereas subjective norms had a very little role, as seen by the studys findings. These findings validate students interest in and acceptance of cutting-edge education methods like augmented reality applications

On the monotone stability approach to BSDEs with jumps: Extensions, concrete criteria and examples

We show a concise extension of the monotone stability approach to backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) that are jointly driven by a Brownian motion and a random measure for jumps, which could be of infinite activity with a non-deterministic and time inhomogeneous compensator. The BSDE generator function can be non convex and needs not to satisfy global Lipschitz conditions in the jump integrand. We contribute concrete criteria, that are easy to verify, for results on existence and uniqueness of bounded solutions to BSDEs with jumps, and on comparison and a-priori $L^{\infty}$-bounds. Several examples and counter examples are discussed to shed light on the scope and applicability of different assumptions, and we provide an overview of major applications in finance and optimal control.Comment: 28 pages. Added DOI https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-22285-7_1 for final publication, corrected typo (missing gamma) in example 4.1