Control in the technical societies: a brief history

By the time control engineering emerged as a coherent body of knowledge and practice (during and just after WW2) professional engineering societies had existed for many decades. Since control engineering is an interdisciplinary branch of the profession, new sections devoted to control were quickly established within the various existing technical societies. In addition, some new bodies devoted specifically or primarily to control were established. This article, a revised version of a paper presented at the IEEE 2009 Conference on the History of Technical Societies, describes how control engineering as a distinct branch of engineering became represented in technical societies in a number of countries

Pollution des eaux superficielles et des nappes en milieu urbain : cas de la zone industrielle de Douala-Bassa (Cameroun)

Une étude a été menée dans la zone industrielle de Douala-Bassa afin d'évaluer l'ampleur de la pollution des cours d'eau et des nappes superficielles et de prédire la vulnérabilité de ces dernières. L'étude est basée sur l'analyse des eaux issues de deux campagnes de terrain portant chacune sur 7 prélèvements dans les eaux de surface et 8 dans les eaux souterraines. Outre les analyses physico-chimiques de base, la particularité de l'étude a porté sur la caractérisation de la matière organique et la dynamique de métaux lourds, notamment le plomb, lenickel et le cuivre. Les résultats montrent que les eaux de surface sont neutres (pH 6,2), peu minéralisées (conductivité moyenne 262 mS/cm) et peu turbides (7 NTU) à l'amont. Elles s'enrichissent ensuite dans leréseau où elles deviennent acides (pH 5,8), plus minéralisées (623 à 818 mS/cm) suite aux apports générés par les activités industrielles et domestiques. Les eaux de surface sont polluées (carbonique organique total, 13,0 mg/l ; turbidité 168 NTU). Une source potentielle de pollution au nickel et en matière organique est observée dans les eaux souterraines qui compromet l'exploitation durable de cette ressource en eau

Characterization of organic matter in spodosol amazonian by fluorescence spectroscopy.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-01T23:24:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PROCI17Characterizationoforganicmatter....pdf: 410306 bytes, checksum: f322a4c020812fc6c19f9e91b1efdcfe (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-30bitstream/item/165808/1/PROCI-17-Characterization-of-organic-matter....pd

Resource Allocation during an Influenza Pandemic

Resource Allocation during an Influenza Pandemi

BLOOD GLUCOSE LOWERING EFFECT OF AQUEOUS LEAF EXTRACTS OF AGERATUM CONYZOIDES IN RATS.

This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of aqueous extracts from leaves of Ageratum conyzoides (300mg/kg) on blood glucose in normoglycemic and streptozotocin-diabetic rats. The extract was administered orally and the blood glucose level was measured hourly for 4h. The hypoglycaemic activity was evaluated by comparing with the initial blood glucose level. In streptozotocin-diabetic rats, the aqueous extract from leaves of Ageratum conyzoides showed a significant reduction of blood glucose level of 9.5% after 1hour and 21.3% after 4 hour

Pandemic influenza preparedness and health systems challenges in Asia: results from rapid analyses in 6 Asian countries

BACKGROUND: Since 2003, Asia-Pacific, particularly Southeast Asia, has received substantial attention because of the anticipation that it could be the epicentre of the next pandemic. There has been active investment but earlier review of pandemic preparedness plans in the region reveals that the translation of these strategic plans into operational plans is still lacking in some countries particularly those with low resources. The objective of this study is to understand the pandemic preparedness programmes, the health systems context, and challenges and constraints specific to the six Asian countries namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Taiwan, Thailand, and Viet Nam in the prepandemic phase before the start of H1N1/2009. METHODS: The study relied on the Systemic Rapid Assessment (SYSRA) toolkit, which evaluates priority disease programmes by taking into account the programmes, the general health system, and the wider socio-cultural and political context. The components under review were: external context; stewardship and organisational arrangements; financing, resource generation and allocation; healthcare provision; and information systems. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected in the second half of 2008 based on a review of published data and interviews with key informants, exploring past and current patterns of health programme and pandemic response. RESULTS: The study shows that health systems in the six countries varied in regard to the epidemiological context, health care financing, and health service provision patterns. For pandemic preparation, all six countries have developed national governance on pandemic preparedness as well as national pandemic influenza preparedness plans and Avian and Human Influenza (AHI) response plans. However, the governance arrangements and the nature of the plans differed. In the five developing countries, the focus was on surveillance and rapid containment of poultry related transmission while preparation for later pandemic stages was limited. The interfaces and linkages between health system contexts and pandemic preparedness programmes in these countries were explored. CONCLUSION: Health system context influences how the six countries have been preparing themselves for a pandemic. At the same time, investment in pandemic preparation in the six Asian countries has contributed to improvement in health system surveillance, laboratory capacity, monitoring and evaluation and public communications. A number of suggestions for improvement were presented to strengthen the pandemic preparation and mitigation as well as to overcome some of the underlying health system constraints

Direct Observation of Propagating Gigahertz Coherent Guided Acoustic Phonons in Free Standing Single Copper Nanowires

We report on gigahertz acoustic phonon waveguiding in free-standing single copper nanowires studied by femtosecond transient reflectivity measurements. The results are discussed on the basis of the semianalytical resolution of the Pochhammer and Chree equation. The spreading of the generated Gaussian wave packet of two different modes is derived analytically and compared with the observed oscillations of the sample reflectivity. These experiments provide a unique way to independently obtain geometrical and material characterization. This direct observation of coherent guided acoustic phonons in a single nano-object is also the first step toward nanolateral size acoustic transducer and comprehensive studies of the thermal properties of nanowires

The Stem Species of Our Species: A Place for the Archaic Human Cranium from Ceprano, Italy

One of the present challenges in the study of human evolution is to recognize the hominin taxon that was ancestral to Homo sapiens. Some researchers regard H. heidelbergensis as the stem species involved in the evolutionary divergence leading to the emergence of H. sapiens in Africa, and to the evolution of the Neandertals in Europe. Nevertheless, the diagnosis and hypodigm of H. heidelbergensis still remain to be clarified. Here we evaluate the morphology of the incomplete cranium (calvarium) known as Ceprano whose age has been recently revised to the mid of the Middle Pleistocene, so as to test whether this specimen may be included in H. heidelbergensis. The analyses were performed according to a phenetic routine including geometric morphometrics and the evaluation of diagnostic discrete traits. The results strongly support the uniqueness of H. heidelbergensis on a wide geographical horizon, including both Eurasia and Africa. In this framework, the Ceprano calvarium – with its peculiar combination of archaic and derived traits – may represent, better than other penecontemporaneous specimens, an appropriate ancestral stock of this species, preceding the appearance of regional autapomorphic features