Emerging Nuclear Scenario Pakistan's Concerns and Approaches

[Major issues on the canvas of the evolving nuclear scenario include the US-favoured discriminatory approach embodied in NPT taking shape of FMCT; the heightened concerns of safety and security of nuclear assets in the wake of Fukushima disaster in Japan as well as the notions of nuclear material/weapons being acquired by non-state-actors; and the whole debate of disarmament. The US managed to get NSG waivers for India in terms of transfer of technology despite India's questionable proliferation record. A full membership of the NSG for India will be very damaging for Pakistan, as NSG works on consensus and India would veto any effort to get exemptions for Pakistan on sensitive nuclear technology. The move to use the UN increasingly as a forum for nuclear issue conflicts is unfortunate because especially in the case of the UNSC, issues become acutely politicised and hard lines are drawn. That non-state actors - primarily terrorists or other groups using violence for their political ends - would want to acquire nuclear weapons is a highly contentious assumption. As to concerns regarding Pakistan's nuclear safety and security, there are well-designed systems and practices in place - with no untoward incident reported so far, as against numerous examples in several other countries. Within the context of South Asia, it is not technology denial that will address the issue of nuclear stability, but political will.

Electrochemical M2+ recognition by an amidopyridyl-tetrathiafulvalene derivative

A tetrathiafulvalene-based redox-responsive receptor incorporating amide and pyridyl coordinating units exhibits an original multi-wave electrochemical recognition behaviour towards Cd(II)

Ruptures Du Tendon d’Achille Une étude rétrospective des ruptures de tendon d’Achille A propos de 137 cas

une étude rétrospective des ruptures de tendond’Achille à propos de 137 casintroduction :Le tendon d’Achille est le plus épais, le plusvolumineux et le plus résistant des tendons del’organisme. Il présente une zone étroite, Si lediagnostic clinique de la lésion est aisé, sontraitement reste sans consensusmateriel et methode :Il s’agit d’une étude rétrospective, concernant137 cas opérés au service de traumatologie orthopédiede centre hospitalo-universitaireFrance fanon entre 2001 et 2017résultats :Sur une période de 16 ans nous avons recensé137 cas de rupture du tendon d’Achille, ce quicorrespond à une fréquence de 8,6 cas par an.L’âge moyen dans notre série était de 38 ansavec sexe ratio H/F de 9 ; Activité sportive : 99cas soit 72.26 %.100patients ont bénéficié d’unsuture sous cutanée ; 33 patients ont bénéficiéd’un laçage, soit 89.1 %. La technique deBosworth a été réalisée dans 4 cas, soit 10.8 %.Elle a été nécessaire vue la faiblesse de la zonesuturée à cause d’un effilochement des deuxbouts.Discussion :La cause la plus fréquente des ruptures dutendon d’Achille est représentée par lesaccidents de sport ce qui a été rapporté danstoutes les séries de la littérature. Prédominancemasculine s’explique par une activité sportiveplus élevée chez les hommes.Dans notre série 37 patients ont bénéficié d’untraitement chirurgical à ciel ouvert utilisantdifférentes techniques : sutures simple avecsurjet de renforcement ou laçage pour lamajorité des cas .et 100 CAS réparationpercutanéeWeber et al et Farizon ont aussi privilégié lasuture et laçage avec un éventuel s’il existe unefragilité tendineuse.L’équipe du service de traumatologieorthopédie de l’hôpital  a utilisé,selon un article publié en 2003 la technique deBosworth .Lecestre, Rouvillain , Boukhrisetbeaucoup d’autres auteurs ont privilégié laténorraphie percutanée selon la technique deDelponte. Lansdaal et Assal , quant à eux ontutilisé la chirurgie mini invasive.Richard et al ont utilisé le traitementfonctionnel.Conclusion :Cretnik et al. , dans une étude comparantchirurgie à ciel ouvert versus ténorraphiepercutanée recommande cette dernière car elleapporte des résultats fonctionnels comparablesà la réparation ouverte, avec un tauxsensiblement inférieur de complications.Justin Lim a conclu que la réparationpercutanée est recommandée sur la base du bastaux de complications et l’aspect cosmétiqueamélioré

Microbiological Implications of Periurban Agriculture and Water Reuse in Mexico City

BACKGROUND: Recycled treated or untreated wastewater represents an important health challenge in developing countries due to potential water related microbiological exposure. Our aim was to assess water quality and health implications in a Mexico City periurban agricultural area. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A longitudinal study in the Xochimilco wetland area was conducted, and 42 sites were randomly selected from 211, including irrigation water canals and effluents of treatment plants. Sample collection took place during rainy and dry seasons (2000-2001). Microbiological parameters (total coliforms, fecal coliforms, streptococci/enterococci, and bacteria other than Vibrio grown on TCBS), Helicobacter pylori, and physicochemical parameters including trihalomethanes (THM) were determined. Fecal coliforms and fecal streptococci are appropriate indicators of human or animal fecal contamination. Fecal coliform counts surpass Mexican and World Health Organization irrigation water guidelines. Identified microorganisms associated with various pathologies in humans and domestic animals comprise Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Salmonella spp., Enterobacter spp., Enterococcus spp., and Pseudomonas spp; H. pylori was also present in the water. An environmental characteristic of the canal system showed high Total Organic Carbon content and relatively low dissolved oxygen concentration; residual chlorine as a disinfection control is not efficient, but THMs do not represent a problem. During the rainy season, temperature and conductivity were higher; in contrast, pH, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, and residual chlorine were lower. This is related with the continuous load of feces from human and animal sources, and to the aquatic systems, which vary seasonally and exhibit evidence of lower water quality in effluents from treatment plants. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: There is a need for improvement of wastewater treatment systems, as well as more efficient monitoring, regulation, and enforcement procedures for wastewater disposal into bodies of water

Developing Guidelines for Assessing the Effectiveness of Intelligent Compaction Technology

Many factors affect pavement compaction quality, which can vary. Such variability may result in an additional number of passes required, extended working hours, higher energy consumption, and negative environmental impacts. The use of Intelligent Compaction (IC) technology during construction can improve the quality and longevity of pavement structures while reducing risk for contractors and project owners alike. This study develops guidelines for the implementation of IC in the compaction of pavement layers as well as performing a preliminary life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of IC technology compared to the conventional compaction approach. The environmental impacts of the improved construction process were quantified based on limited data available from the case studies. The LCCA performed in this study consisted of different scenarios in which the number of operating hours was evaluated to estimate the cost efficiency of the intelligent compaction technique during construction. The analyses showed a reduction in energy consumption and the production of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with the use of intelligent compaction. The LCCA showed that the use of IC technology may reduce the construction and maintenance costs in addition to enhancing the quality control and quality assurance (QC/QA) process. However, a more comprehensive analysis is required to fully quantify the benefits and establish more accurate performance indicators. A draft version of the preliminary guidelines for implementation of IC technology and long-term monitoring of the performance of pavement layers compacted thereby is also included in this report

Towards supplier maturity evaluation in terms of PLM collaboration

The product lifecycle management (PLM) system has a significant role to support the collaboration and manage the partnership between OEM and Supplier to enable the success of supplier integration. Today great rates of co- operation as suppliers have been dedicated to SMEs. Since one of the PLM task is to control the collaboration between OEM and suppliers, this paper provide supplier (SMEs) a framework to find their place in this relationship in the concept of PLM. To respond to this trend, we defined a methodology based on collaborative matrix maturity levels and four PLM axes of strategic, organization, process and tools levels. Finally according to this ma- trix, we proposed a structure of a proper questionnaire and example that show suppliers how to evaluate their positions in terms of collaboration in PLM

Carboxylic acid derivatives of tetrathiafulvalene: key intermediates for the synthesis of redox-active calixarene-based anion receptors

A series of calixarene–TTF (TTF=tetrathiafulvalene) receptors incorporating amide binding units for anion recognition have been synthesized and characterized. For this purpose, two synthetically versatile new TTF carboxylic acid derivatives were prepared and characterized by X-ray diffraction, these structures demonstrating the critical role of the carboxylic function in the solid-state organization. Some of the calixarene–amide–TTF assemblies exhibit strong binding of various anions, as shown by 1H NMR titration studies, and one receptor is able to electrochemically respond in the presence of H2PO4−, C6H5CO2− or CH3CO2− anion

Récepteurs oligopyridines-tétrathiafulvalène : synthèse et propriétés

Date du colloque : 06/2012</p

Tetrathiafulvalene-Polypyridyl Receptors for M2+ Recognition

Date du colloque : 06/2011</p