The display of electronic commerce within virtual environments

In today’s competitive business environment, the majority of companies are expected to be represented on the Internet in the form of an electronic commerce site. In an effort to keep up with current business trends, certain aspects of interface design such as those related to navigation and perception may be overlooked. For instance, the manner in which a visitor to the site might perceive the information displayed or the ease with which they navigate through the site may not be taken into consideration. This paper reports on the evaluation of the electronic commerce sites of three different companies, focusing specifically on the human factors issues such as perception and navigation. Heuristic evaluation, the most popular method for investigating user interface design, is the technique employed to assess each of these sites. In light of the results from the analysis of the evaluation data, virtual environments are suggested as a way of improving the navigation and perception display constraints

The use of IT to increase nutritional awareness in young children

It has been well documented that obesity amongst young children is on the increase. By the age of 5 the levels of obesity is alarming and is much greater than expected in comparison to the national standards. To address this problem an overall health programme is required encompassing healthy eating and physical activity. However, a radical change of this nature has not shown any long-term benefits and can result in a negative attitude from the child. Therefore, more subtle ways of increasing awareness in children about healthy eating were thought to be the key. Since children are spending an increasing amount of their free time playing computer games it was thought that this would be a good way of introducing them to healthy eating. Therefore, a prototype system is developed and tested to identify whether IT can be used to raise nutritional awareness in young children. The results show that the increase is marginal but the system did encourage discussion about the effects of food amongst a group of children aged between 4-5

Nodular Fasciitis of Neck in Childhood.

Nodular fasciitis, is a benign, pseudo sarcomatous proliferative lesion of the soft tissue, which is frequently misinterpreted as sarcoma, both clinically and microscopically. It is a reactive lesion composed of fibroblasts/myofibroblasts and most commonly found in extremities and trunk. NF has been described in the head and neck region in 10-20% of cases. Many pathologists do not consider NF in the differential diagnosis of soft tissue masses arising in the Head neck region. NF that occurs in otherwise healthy individuals usually presents with a history of rapid growth, and is commonly found in the upper extremities and on the chest and trunk. The importance of otolaryngologists being aware of the existence of this entity in this area of the body is stressed. It has a confirmed perfectly benign clinical course, and simple excision, as tissue-sparing as possible, is the treatment of choice. A case of NF over the neck in a 05-year-old female not associated with trauma who presented with a localized mass over her left neck is presented

Similarity theory and calculation of turbulent fluxes at the surface for the stably stratified atmospheric boundary layers

In this paper we revise the similarity theory for the stably stratified atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), formulate analytical approximations for the wind velocity and potential temperature profiles over the entire ABL, validate them against large-eddy simulation and observational data, and develop an improved surface flux calculation technique for use in operational models.Comment: The submission to a special issue of the Boundary-Layer Meteorology devoted to the NATO advanced research workshop Atmospheric Boundary Layers: Modelling and Applications for Environmental Securit

Malignant Melanoma of Nose and Paranasal Sinuses: 2 Case Reports

Malignant melanoma is one of the rare and highly aggressive diseases of the sinonasal cavity. High index of suspicion is required for diagnosis as the patient usually presents with non specific signs and symptoms. In the natural course of the disease, higher rate of loco regional recurrences and distant metastasis are seen making the overall prognosis of disease very poor. In reviewing the various treatment modalities used in the past, surgical resection of the tumour with postoperative radiotherapy is preferred one. Advances in surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy don’t have any impact on improved survival, which remains poor in this disease. We report two cases of malignant melanoma, which were treated at our institute

Aggressive Fibromatosis in Neck.

Aggressive fibromatosis (AF) is a locally aggressive infiltrative low-grade benign tumor that accounts for approximately less than 3% of all soft tissue tumors. In the head and neck region this tumor tends to be more aggressive and associated with significant morbidity. Aggressive surgery is a viable management option and may be successfully used as a single modality treatment, or in combination with radiotherapy. We report a rare case of AF in a 38 year old female, who presented with a painless mass over the left supraclavicular fossa, extending inferiorly into the thoracic inlet, which was excised successfully in toto with the help of cardiothoracic vascular surgeon (CTVS)

Genetic fingerprinting of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) germplasm using ISSR markers and their relationships

Genetic diversity analysis of chickpea germplasm can provide practical Information for selection of parental material and thus, assist in forecasting breeding strategies. Released cultivars and breedinglines of total twelve chickpea genotypes were subjected to ISSR analysis for assessment of genetic diversity. A total of 10 ISSR primers were used in the present investigation. Amplification of genomic DNA of the 12 genotypes using ISSR analysis yielded 492 fragments that could be scored. The total number of bands amplified by 3’ anchored primers varied from 36 to 96. The primers based on poly (ATG) and (GAA) motifs produced least number of fragments (36) whereas, primers (AC) T and (AC) TT, produced maximum number of fragments (96). The unique band as produced by the GGAGA primer in the BCP-15 genotype may be attributed to temperature tolerance phenotype

A fast and spectrally convergent algorithm for rational-order fractional integral and differential equations

A fast algorithm (linear in the degrees of freedom) for the solution of linear variable-coefficient rational-order fractional integral and differential equations is described. The approach is related to the ultraspherical method for ordinary differential equations [27], and involves constructing two different bases, one for the domain of the operator and one for the range of the operator. The bases are constructed from direct sums of suitably weighted ultraspherical or Jacobi polynomial expansions, for which explicit representations of fractional integrals and derivatives are known, and are carefully chosen so that the resulting operators are banded or almost-banded. Geometric convergence is demonstrated for numerous model problems when the variable coefficients and right-hand side are sufficiently smooth

Somatic embryogenesis in Mucuna pruriens

This study reports the induction of somatic embryos in Mucuna pruriens. Different explants cultured on MS medium supplemented with 11.31 ìM 2,4-D produced golden yellow embryogenic callus that induced synchronized embryo development on MS basal liquid medium. Organization of pre-embryonic mass was noticed 15 d after sub culturing the callus, which progressively developed to globular, heart, torpedo and cotyledonary shaped embryos. Attempts to germinate them did not succeed as the cotyledonary embryos turned characteristic red and subsequently brown before finally turning blackand unresponsive. The reaction was consistent across different media constituents, hormonal concentrations and pH ranges. Supplementation of anti-oxidants was also ineffective. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis of the brown and non-brown embryos revealed quantitative differences inprotein contents between the two. More detailed study is necessary to establish the precise cause for embryo browning and ways of its regulation

Failure to initiate medicine in newly diagnosed hypertensives despite sustained high blood pressure in Nepal: an under-discussed dimension of non-adherence

Hypertension is growing challenge in Nepalese community which is evident from the growing concern from all sectors. Non-adherence to hypertensive medication pose challenge as patients are reluctant to start drug despite receiving physician’s advice. Continuing drug life-long once started, is a fear factor that needs dealing urgently