Long term monitoring and field testing of an innovative multi-storey timber building

Peer reviewedPostprin

How organizational performance influences managerial search? - Towards 'informating search' theory

Although we expect managers to use the capabilities of business analytics systems to search for solutions and improve firm performance, we do not have a good understanding of the factors that motivate managers to undertake such search. Drawing on attribution and control theories, we propose a theory that explicates the performance conditions under which managers undertake search activities. Specifically, we theorize that managers are motivated to search for knowledge when both, operational performance and overall organizational performance, are declining. Further, we propose that managers' search response to sustained organizational performance failure is faster (low search latency) when the magnitude of sustained failure is larger. We tested our hypotheses with longitudinal data collected monthly over a period of four years from seven hospitals. Distributed lag model analysis of the data supports our hypotheses. We conclude with implications for research and practice, and plans for future research

Antibacterial susceptibility patterns of blood stream isolates in patients investigated at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi

Background: Microbial invasion of the blood stream can have serious immediate consequences and are a threat to every organ in the body. Timely detection and treatment is vital and necessitates hospital admission and immediate intervention.Objectives: To investigate aetiology and anti-microbial resistance patterns of bacterial isolates in blood stream infections.Design: A retrospective clinical-laboratory study carried over a five year period January 2003 to April 2008.Setting: The Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, Department of Pathology, Division of Microbiology.Subjects: All blood culture specimens received from both in and out-patients’ at the Aga Khan University Hospital’s laboratory.Results: Rates of oxacillin resistance for Staphylococcus aureus were 21%. Streptococci were generally susceptible to beta-lactams. High-level gentamicin resistance was seen in 12% of Enterococci. Vancomycin resistance was conspicuously absent. Resistance rates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, amikacin, imipenem were between 11% and 23%. Salmonella spp. showed multiple resistant patterns toco-trimoxazole, chloramphenicol and ampicillin with resistance rates of greater than 35%. One hundred and twenty three patients (11%) tested positive for HlV. Unlike in HlV negative individuals, Cryptococcus neoformans was an important isolate, positive in 5%. A number of HlV positive patients had Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase negative staphylococcus isolates in their blood cultures. In such clinical circumstances it is difficult to determine the clinical significance of these isolates. Conclusion: Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns revealed high level resistance among the gram positive organisms and also amongst extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) producing E.coli and Klebsiella spp. This study highlights the challenges of deriving empiric drug regimens in the current clinical scenario. However, we do know it is important to cover adequately for gram positive organisms

An inventory of multipurpose Avenue trees of Urban Chandigarh, India

Trees in urban ecosystems play a very significant role in environmental protection by checking air and noise pollntants, abating wind, and handling many other functions, in India, Chandigarh is the mosl modern and em,iromnentally safe city and qualifies to be called a GREEN CITY because of its rich tree component. This is so in spite of its high population density, currently over 9,443 people per square kin, perhaps the highest in the country. It has nearly 42,000 trees growing along the roads in a systematic manner. The drives are identified with the type of multipurpose tree species. Nearly 66 tree species (over half indigenous) are seen along the roadsides; these trees provide shade, timber, fuel, fodder, fruit, medicine, and other benefits. In addition, the city is decorated with 11 gardens harboring over 200 types of trees

Need to establish long-term ecological research network in India

The paper discusses the purpose, significance and need for establishing Long-Term Ecological Research in India. LTER was first established in 1980 by the National Science Foundation of USA. Its main mission was to understand ecological phenomena on long-term basis through cooperation and collaboration among scientists from different parts of the world. It also emphasizes on training, sharing research data and helping scientists to manage ecosystems throughout the world through personal visits and electronic linkages. Many countries have become member of the international LTER programme while many more are in the process of joining the network. In India, there is an urgent need of recognizing LTER sites as many ecosystems require long-term research and monitoring. A national meeting of ecologists held in December 2002 had discussed the objectives of LTER Network-India. Further, an ad-hoc Committee of ecologists was proposed under the leadership of Prof. J.S. Singh, during the national seminar at Kurukshetra in January 2004

Viscometric Studies of Graft Copolymers of Methylcellulose and Polyacrylamide

Viscometric studies of graft copolymers (methyl cellulose g polyacrylamide) were made at four temperatures. The values of intrinsic viscosity of the graft copolymers were found to be much less than the linear methyl cellulose which was used as a backbone polymer. Intrinsic viscosity also decreased with the increase in the number and length of the branches.Huggin's slope constant k' was found to be much higher than the linear methyl cellulose. k' values also increased with increase in the number of the branches as well as the length of the branches and are temperature dependent. These observations clearly indicate the branched nature of the copolymer

Superpixel-based Two-view Deterministic Fitting for Multiple-structure Data

This paper proposes a two-view deterministic geometric model fitting method, termed Superpixel-based Deterministic Fitting (SDF), for multiple-structure data. SDF starts from superpixel segmentation, which effectively captures prior information of feature appearances. The feature appearances are beneficial to reduce the computational complexity for deterministic fitting methods. SDF also includes two original elements, i.e., a deterministic sampling algorithm and a novel model selection algorithm. The two algorithms are tightly coupled to boost the performance of SDF in both speed and accuracy. Specifically, the proposed sampling algorithm leverages the grouping cues of superpixels to generate reliable and consistent hypotheses. The proposed model selection algorithm further makes use of desirable properties of the generated hypotheses, to improve the conventional fit-and-remove framework for more efficient and effective performance. The key characteristic of SDF is that it can efficiently and deterministically estimate the parameters of model instances in multi-structure data. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed SDF shows superiority over several state-of-the-art fitting methods for real images with single-structure and multiple-structure data.Comment: Accepted by European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV

A Note on the Determination of Ricochet Trace of Small arms Ammunition

A method of obtaining the relationship between various parameters governing the ricochet phenomenon of a projectile has been described. The experimental procedures for determining such parameters and their use have also been discussed

Pre-Harvest Sprouting Tolerance in 36 Bread Wheat Genotypes

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS), promoted by rainfall during crop maturity, is a high problem in many wheat-producing regions of the world. Considering its importance in Brazil, 36 national and international varieties and advanced lines of wheat were evaluated for their tolerance to PHS. For this purpose, two experiments were conducted over three years. Seed pericarp rupture was used as an indicator of the beginning of germination. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance, the Scott-Knott test, and the Lin and Binns method. The wide range of germination percentage values allowed the genotypes to be classified as tolerant (in experiment 1 - ND 674 and Grandin*2/RL 4137 and experiment 2 - Frontana and Grandin) and moderately tolerant (Alsen, CD 114, and Milan/3/Attila//Fang 69/CIMMYT 3 in Experiment 1; Avante, BRS 177, IAC 5-Maringá, Onix, OR 1, RL 4137, and Rubi in Experiment 2). Because tolerance to PHS is under genetic control and can be improved through breeding programs, the challenge for wheat breeders is to combine increased PHS tolerance with other requirements to meet market demands