An Integrated Development Environment for Declarative Multi-Paradigm Programming

In this paper we present CIDER (Curry Integrated Development EnviRonment), an analysis and programming environment for the declarative multi-paradigm language Curry. CIDER is a graphical environment to support the development of Curry programs by providing integrated tools for the analysis and visualization of programs. CIDER is completely implemented in Curry using libraries for GUI programming (based on Tcl/Tk) and meta-programming. An important aspect of our environment is the possible adaptation of the development environment to other declarative source languages (e.g., Prolog or Haskell) and the extensibility w.r.t. new analysis methods. To support the latter feature, the lazy evaluation strategy of the underlying implementation language Curry becomes quite useful.Comment: In A. Kusalik (ed), proceedings of the Eleventh International Workshop on Logic Programming Environments (WLPE'01), December 1, 2001, Paphos, Cyprus. cs.PL/011104

Changes of Paradigms in the Life Sciences

Among both laymen and active scientists an opinion prevails that the development of science occurs predominantly by the accumulation of knowledge and a gradual improvement in the picture of nature due to the application of new methods and techniques. The breakthroughs, such as the Big Bang theory in cosmology or deciphering of the Biological Code in the life sciences, are treated as rare exceptions. However, a closer scrutiny of almost any scientific discipline points to a noncontinuous process of development and the appearance of paradigms which are constantly subjected to verification as postulated by Kuhn (1970) in the original theory of „scentific revolutions”

The Effect of Night Shifts on Nurses' Health and Well-Being in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of night shift work on nurses’ health and well-being. Methods: 100 nurses in all were chosen at random from various hospital located in Itanagar. Data was collected from night shift working nurses by self-administered questionnaire through personal interview method. Data was used to gather information on socio- demographic, anthropometric measurements, professional, physical activity, food habits and intakes were collected. To study the detrimental impact of night shift employment on the health and wellbeing descriptive frequency and correlation were used. Results: One hundred nurses in all, the majority of them had one or more health issues, digestive problems includes- disturbed appetite (60%), heartburn or stomach-ache (71%), feeling nausea/ dizziness (75%), difficulty in digestion (72%) and suffer from constipation (52%). Cardiovascular problems of the respondents it was found that out of 100 respondents (16%) workers reported that they are on their high blood pressure or cardiac problems and chronic chest disorder (6%) followed by (45%) workers were low blood pressure. About 23% of nurses regularly skip meals, followed by 52% of nurses who did so once or twice, and the majority of nurses did not eat at set times. The results showed that 72% of nurses often ate fast food; only 8% of nurses took home-cooked meals with them for dinner. During night shifts, chips, cookies, sweets, and were the most popular munchies. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that nurses working nights have bad eating habits that cause their diets to be unbalanced. They eat less nutrient-dense foods but a greater number of meals that are rich in calories. They also rarely engage in any sort of exercise outdoors from what they do for a living and frequently prefer to eat snacks rather than full meals. The hospital's nurses need to get nutritional hygiene counseling, and night shift food service needs to be enhanced

Analysis of the coupling of electromagnetic pulses into shielded enclosures of vulnerable systems

In order to predict the immunity to electromagnetic interference of vulnerable systems, not only the electronic system but also its enclosure has to be taken into consideration. In this work, the coupling behavior of electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and continuous wave (CW) signals into the shielded enclosure of a generic system is investigated by metrological and numerical methods. Since this enclosure forms an unwanted or parasitic cavity resonator, the enclosure`s resonance behavior as well as the characteristic quantities, i.e., the resonance frequencies and corresponding quality factors are of great interest, too. The usage of an optical field sensor reduces the influence of the measuring setup on the investigated system and thus, enables the analysis of the enclosure's resonance behavior, which delivers revealing information about the dependence of the quality factor on the aperture size of the enclosure

Pharmacognostic study of Clerodendrum colebrookianum Walp. plant used for medicinal food by Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, India

Clerodendrum colebrookianum Walp.is used as a medicinal food plant among tribal communities of Arunachal Pradesh, India. The shoot of the herb is used as vegetable as well as a medicine to control high blood pressure. This herb is one of the widely used and well-known medicinal food plants in North East India. The present study was carried out to discourse the Pharmacognostic characters of the Clerodendrum colebrookianum shoot. The anatomical discourse revealed up the main vascular bundle and lateral vascular bundle with well developed central pith, secondary xylem, and conspicuous endodermis with the outer surface covered by numerous multicellular trichomes. The fluorescence study of powder shows dull green to brownish in daylight and ash colour to dark brown under UV light. The plant sample contains total ash of 11.15%, the acid in-soluble ash is 1.7% and water-soluble ash is 8%. Methanol gave the highest extractive value with 12.56% while petroleum ether gave the lowest extract of 1.40%. Alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, saponin, glycosides, carbohydrates, proteins and amino acids, fixed oils and fats were found positive but volatile oil was not recorded in all six different solvents used in the phytochemical screening. The present study characterises the diagnostic Pharmacognosy features of C. Colebrookianum, and would give useful data to differentiate the authentic drug sample from the adulterated sample

GIS based site ranking using neighbourhood analysis and comparison

This paper presents a Geographical Information Systems (GIS)-based toolkit, developed for site comparison and ranking that can be used to facilitate the decision making process in second stage of the site selection process. The toolkit has been developed as an analytical component of a multi-criteria spatial decision support system for geoenvironmental and geoenergy applications. The methodology adopted to develop this analytical module is based on a systematic comparison of the surrounding areas of each site in accordance with key environmental, socio-economic and public-health indicators. The sites are ranked based on the most favorable key indicators using a Criterion Sorting Mechanism (CSM) or Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). An application of the site selection toolkit is presented in relation to an unconventional geoenergy development. The application exercise deals with the ranking of a number of potential sites for coalbed methane recovery in Wales, UK. The locations of potential sites are first selected with respect to the gas resource (techno-economic viability). The toolkit is then used to select and rank the potential sites based on key environmental indicators, in the site’s neighbourhood. The results of the site ranking using CSM and TOPSIS methods are compared and a number of scenarios are discussed. This approach of using a combination of site ranking methods along with the neighbourhood analysis reduces the risk of personal judgment and choice. The decisions on site selection can thus be evidenced on a quantified logic

Finding space to grow urban hedges as a natural air filter along pedestrian paths: a GIS‑based investigation of a UK urban centre

Road vehicles are a significant source of air pollution in cities, with impacts on human health. Previous work has shown that hedges located between the road carriageway and pavement can help to mitigate the impact of vehicle emissions for pedestrians and residents. For continuous improvement of air quality around the city centre area, roadside hedges can be of value. This study has used UK government statistics to map the traffic emissions along major roads in an urban centre. Using appropriate geoprocessing techniques, suitable locations for planting roadside hedges have been identified along these roads. It is envisaged that planting suitable urban hedges at these locations can help further improve air quality

Design and development of a generic spatial decision support system, based on artificial intelligence and multicriteria decision analysis

A new integrated and generic Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) is presented based on a combination of Artificial Intelligence and Multicriteria Decision Analysis techniques. The approach proposed is developed to address commonly faced spatial decision problems of site selection, site ranking, impact assessment and spatial knowledge discovery under one system. The site selection module utilises a theme-based Analytical Hierarchy Process. Two novel site ranking techniques are introduced. The first is based on a systematic neighbourhood comparison of sites with respect to key datasets (criterions). The second utilises multivariate ordering capability of one-dimensional Self-Organizing Maps. The site impact assessment module utilises a new spatially enabled Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix. A spatial variant of General Regression Neural Networks is developed for Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) and prediction analysis. The developed system is proposed as a useful modern tool that facilitates quantitative and evidence based decision making in multicriteria decision environment. The intended users of the system are decision makers in government organisations, in particular those involved in planning and development when taking into account socio-economic, environmental and public health related issues