Optimization of zebrafish mating system in UNIMAS fish facility

Danio rerio, commonly known as zebrafish has been used as an excellent vertebrate model organism in biomedical, genetic and developmental researches. Zebrafish has advantageous characteristics of an ideal model organism, mainly its short generation time, large number of transparent embryo per mating. However, zebrafish husbandry is surprisingly under-established. Despite its usefulness in various researches, minimal researches had been carried out in the past to optimize the zebrafish’s mating system. Hence, the aim of this study is to look at different parameters which may affect the fecundity of zebrafish. The parameters selected are length of light cycle, pairing of fish and water temperature. Zebrafish are selected randomly to test the hypothesis whether the mean number of viable embryo production is influenced by subjected parameters. There is no significant difference in number of viable embryo production when the mating pairs are subjected to different water temperature (p = 0.595). Besides that, different ratio of males to females in pairing up zebrafish does not influence the production of viable embryos (p = 0.254). However, there is significant increase in viable embryo production (p = 0.000) if the fish are exposed to longer length of light cycle. At the end of this study, UNIMAS fish facility can ensure a consistent supply of zebrafish embryos and adult stocks

Performance of load-bearing precast concrete wall with base isolation subjected to seismic loadings

The government of Malaysia has been strongly encouraging local construction industry to utilize Industrialized Building System (IBS) to reduce dependence on foreign workers and improve site safety and construction duration. This study investigated the seismic performance of a locally developed precast concrete wall system by local system supplier, namely the HC Precast System (HCPS). The system used load-bearing precast infill panel which was connected to adjacent columns through shear keys and dowel bars protruded by both sides of the wall panel. This type of precast system is not currently covered by Eurocode 8. A full-scale single bay, double storey prototype structure consisted of HCPS was constructed and tested under lateral quasi-static loading at laboratory of Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM). Displacement-controlled cyclic loading of 0.05%, 0.20%, 0.40%, 0.50% and 0.70% roof drift was applied to the prototype structure to obtain the force-displacement hysteresis loops. Observation from the quasi-static test revealed concentration of damage along the wall-to-column interface. Thus, a finite element modeling method was proposed to represent the nonlinearity of the interface element in the numerical model. Next, a 1:3 scaled down of the prototype HCPS was designed and constructed for shake table test. Besides scaling of the test specimen, characteristics of 8 selected ground motions were also scaled correspondingly according to similitude law including the time steps and peak acceleration values. The proposed FEM model was found to be in good agreement with both quasi-static and shake table tests. The verified FEM model was used to generate capacity curves of HCPS by pushover analysis with four different lateral loading configurations respectively. The characteristic of the capacity curves and obtained behaviour factor was compared to the Equal Displacement Rule (EDR) method recommended by Eurocode 8. Thus N2Disp, a method for engineers to estimate the nonlinear displacement of HCPS from linear analysis was proposed. Seismic response of HCPS under Malaysia earthquake loading was carried out with Modal Response Spectrum Analysis (MRSA) and pushover analysis with design ground acceleration ag values of 0.05g, 0.075g and 0.1g. It was found that in all three ag levels, the performance of HCPS remained within Immediate Occupancy (I0) level. High damping rubber bearing (HDRB) was designed to provide seismic base isolation of HCPS at target period of 2.5s. The HDRB was designed, manufactured and tested at real size to obtain the dynamic property such as compressive and lateral stiffness as well as hysteresis damping ratio. The nonlinear base isolated model of HCPS was analyzed for 33 time histories representing a wide variety of epicenter distance, magnitude, soil classification and acceleration to velocity (a/v) ratio. It was revealed that while base isolation provided effective reduction in floor acceleration responses (up to 97%) in most time history cases, adverse results (amplification) were observed in ground acceleration having low (a/v) ratio and providing higher damping ratio (i.e. B = 24%) at the isolation system

Clinician perceptions of factors influencing referrals to a smoking cessation program

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Referral of patients to smoking cessation telephone counseling (i.e., quitline) is an underutilized resource by primary care physicians. Previously, we conducted a randomized trial to determine the effectiveness of benchmarked feedback on clinician referrals to a quitline. Subsequently, we sought to understand the successful practices used by the high-referring clinicians, and the perceptions of the barriers of referring patients to a quitline among both high and non-referring clinicians in the trial.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a qualitative sub-study with subjects from the randomized trial, comparing high- and non-referring clinicians. Structured interviews were conducted and two investigators employed a thematic analysis of the transcribed data. Themes and included categories were organized into a thematic framework to represent the main response sets.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>As compared to non-referring clinicians, high-referring clinicians more often reported use of the quitline as a primary source of referral, an appreciation of the quitline as an additional resource, reduced barriers to use of the quitline referral process, and a greater personal motivation related to tobacco cessation. Time and competing demands were critical barriers to initiating smoking cessation treatment with patients for all clinicians. Clinicians reported that having one referral source, a referral coordinator, and reimbursement for tobacco counseling (as a billable code) would aid referral.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Further research is needed to test the effectiveness of new approaches in improving the connection of patients with smoking cessation resources.</p> <p>Trial Registration Number</p> <p>Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00529256</p

Benzodithiophene and benzotrithiophene as \ucf\u80 cores for two-and three-blade propeller-shaped ferrocenyl-based conjugated systems

The syntheses of linear and star-shaped bis- and tris(ferrocenyl) derivatives of benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b\u2032]dithiophene and benzo[1,2-b:3,4-b\u2032:5,6-b\u2032\u2032]trithiophene are achieved through one-pot CuI/TMEDA-catalyzed (TMEDA = tetramethylethylenediamine) multiple annulations of bromoethynylbenzenes with sodium sulfide. In addition, the preparation of the parent benzotrithiophene in a good yield with a short reaction time is achieved through the threefold annulation of 1,3,5-trifluoro- Introduction Benzo[b]thiophene (BT, Scheme 1) and its derivatives are an important class of fused thiophene compounds owing to their wide range of biological properties[1,2] and various applications in materials science.[3] Scheme 1. Fused thiophene compounds: benzo[b]thiophene (BT), benzo- [1,2-b:4,5-b\u2032]dithiophene (BDT), and benzo[1,2-b:3,4-b\u2032:5,6-b\u2032\u2032]trithiophene (BTT). In particular, (multi)thiophene fused aromatic compounds are attracting interest as promising electronic materials for organic conductors,[4] organic light-emitting diodes,[5] photovoltaic cells,[6] and field-effect transistors.[7] For this reason, thiophene- based \u3c0-conjugated oligomers have been investigated widely as organic semiconductors.[8] Recently, much effort has been focused on benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b\u2032]- dithiophene (BDT) and benzo[1,2-b:3,4-b\u2032:5,6-b\u2032\u2032]trithiophene (BTT, Scheme 1) as potential \u3c0 cores for a new class of organic semiconductors as they contain two or three identical thiophene moieties with C2h or C3h symmetries that enable twoand three-dimensional molecular extensions. [a] Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova Via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy E-mail: [email protected] http://www.chimica.unipd.it/ Supporting information and ORCID(s) from the author(s) for this article are available on the WWW under https://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.201701045. Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2017, 5966\u20135974 5966 \ua9 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 2,4,6-tris(trimethylsilyl)ethynylbenzene. The computed structural and electronic features of these ferrocenyl derivatives as well as their UV/Vis spectra and electrochemistry are discussed, and the results provide insights into the effect of the presence of three rather than two ferrocenyl units. To the best of our knowledge, 2,5,8-tris(ferrocenyl)benzo[1,2-b;3,4-b\u2032;5,6-b\u2032\u2032]trithiophene is the first organometallic complex containing benzotrithiophene

Study of e+e−→ppˉe^+e^- \rightarrow p\bar{p} in the vicinity of ψ(3770)\psi(3770)

Using 2917 $\rm{pb}^{-1}$ of data accumulated at 3.773~$\rm{GeV}$, 44.5~$\rm{pb}^{-1}$ of data accumulated at 3.65~$\rm{GeV}$ and data accumulated during a $\psi(3770)$ line-shape scan with the BESIII detector, the reaction $e^+e^-\rightarrow p\bar{p}$ is studied considering a possible interference between resonant and continuum amplitudes. The cross section of $e^+e^-\rightarrow\psi(3770)\rightarrow p\bar{p}$, $\sigma(e^+e^-\rightarrow\psi(3770)\rightarrow p\bar{p})$, is found to have two solutions, determined to be ($0.059\pm0.032\pm0.012$) pb with the phase angle $\phi = (255.8\pm37.9\pm4.8)^\circ$ ($<$0.11 pb at the 90% confidence level), or $\sigma(e^+e^-\rightarrow\psi(3770)\rightarrow p\bar{p}) = (2.57\pm0.12\pm0.12$) pb with $\phi = (266.9\pm6.1\pm0.9)^\circ$ both of which agree with a destructive interference. Using the obtained cross section of $\psi(3770)\rightarrow p\bar{p}$, the cross section of $p\bar{p}\rightarrow \psi(3770)$, which is useful information for the future PANDA experiment, is estimated to be either ($9.8\pm5.7$) nb ($<17.2$ nb at 90% C.L.) or $(425.6\pm42.9)$ nb

An Analysis on students' difeeculties in learning reported speech: a case study the first year student of MA Pemabungan UIN Jakarta

Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisa kesulitan-kesulitan yang dihadapi siswa dalam mempelajari kalimat laporan. Sebagaimana telah diketahui bahwa kalimat laporan adalah salah satu materi dalam tata bahasa Inggris (grammar) yang harus dipelajari oleh siswa ketika dia belajar bahasa Inggris. Pada faktanya grammar adalah salah satu sub skill yang sulit untuk dipelajari oleh siswa karena bahasa Indonesia tidak memiliki tata bahasa seperti yang dimiliki Bahasa Inggris. Dalam penelitian ini, penulis akan melakukan penelitian tentang kesulitan-kesulitan yang dihadapi oleh siswa ketika siswa merubah dari kalimat langsung menjadi kalimat tidak langsung khususnya dalam kalimat Tanya. Penulis menfokuskan kepada kesulitan dalam perubahan tense and pronoun pada kalimat langsung menjadi kalimat tidak langsung. Penulis menggunakan metode kuantitatif dan tekhnik analisa deskriptif untuk menganalisa data dengan menggunakan rumus: P= F x 100%. Data diambil dari test siswa. N Dengan menganalisa jawaban yang salah dari siswa maka penulis mendapatkan rata-rata kesulitan siswa dalam perubahan tense dan kata ganti. Untuk mengetahui tentang penyebab kesulitan siswa dalam mempelajari kalimat laporan. Penulis juga mengambil data melalui observasi dikelas siswa dan mewawancara guru bahasa Inggris dan beberapa siswa. Populasi pada penilitian ini adalah siswa kelas tahun pertama di Madrasah Aliyah Pembangunan UIN Jakarta. Penulis hanya mengambil 1 kelas sebagai sampel pada penelitiannya. Sampelnya berjumlah 30 siswa. Hasil penelitian ini adalah siswa tahun pertama MA Pembangunan UIN Jakarta masih mendapatkan kesulitan dalam merubah kalimat langsung menjadi kalimat tidak langsung

Fast subcritical assembly construction and use in basic integral data measurements

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Not availabl

Fast subcritical assembly construction and use in basic integral data measurements

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Not availabl

Usability of the next generation attenuation equations for seismic hazard assessment in Malaysia

This study investigated the applicability of five popular seismic attenuation equations developed under the Next Genera tion Attenuation (NGA) project , for Peninsular Malaysia condition. These five equations were originally developed by Campbell and Bozorgnia, Chiou and Young s , Boore and Atkinson, Abrah amson and Silva, and Idriss. P ublished in 2008 , these models were actually meant for the Western United States. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the suitabili ty of using the se NGA models in predicting ground motion for Peninsular Malaysia. Earthquakes data obtained from the United States Geological Survey database surrounding Peninsular Malaysia were attenuated to a distance of 400 km, indicating similar distance between the Sumatran strike-slip faults to Kuala Lumpur city. Comparisons between the five NGA models revealed that Abrahamson and Silva’s model performed better in attenuating longer distance seismic waves as the peak ground acceleration (PGA) value obtained was closer to the pre-existing seismic hazard maps for the region. However, a closer study indicated a strong need for the NGA model to be fine-tuned and calibrated because the gap of discrepancy with the existing PGA values was still not negligible