Confronting the Violence Committed by Armed Opposition Groups

Human rights groups have limited their role to monitoring and protesting human rights violations committed by state actors.! With the emergence of armed opposition groups-such as the Sendero Luminoso in Peru2 and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka 3 -that murder, torture, and destroy civil society in their respective regions, human rights entities must question whether they should broaden their mandate to include abuses committed by such groups. Focusing on the context of India, this article: (1) develops arguments encouraging human rights groups to critique abuses perpetrated by armed opposition groups; (2) suggests potential problems that may be encountered in making such criticisms; and (3) raises some reasons for caution by human rights organizations that condemn the actions of armed opposition groups

Delay-insensitive ternary logic (DITL)

This thesis focuses on development of a Single Rail Ternary Voltage Delay-Insensitive paradigm called Delay-Insensitive Ternary Logic (DITL), which is based on NULL Convention Logic (NCL). Single rail asynchronous logic has potential advantages over Dual-Rail logic such as reduction of Power and Interconnect as well as Logic Area. The DITL concept is developed in steps of individual circuit components. These components are designed at the transistor level and are connected together to form a registered pipeline system. Some variations in pipeline design are also investigated --Abstract, page iii

Control Synthesis for an Underactuated Cable Suspended System Using Dynamic Decoupling

This article studies the dynamics and control of a novel underactuated system, wherein a plate suspended by cables and with a freely moving mass on top, whose other ends are attached to three quadrotors, is sought to be horizontally stabilized at a certain height, with the ball positioned at the center of mass of the plate. The freely moving mass introduces a 2-degree of underactuation into the system. The design proceeds through a decoupling of the quadrotors and the plate dynamics. Through a partial feedback linearization approach, the attitude of the plate and the translational height of the plate is initially controlled, while maintaining a bounded velocity along the $y$ and $x$ directions. These inputs are then synthesized through the quadrotors with a backstepping and timescale separation argument based on Tikhonov's theorem

Knowledge Creation Within the Automobile Industry

Research has identified the enabling factors and inhibitors for successfully implementing knowledge creation and accomplishing its strategic objectives. It is important to understand how these factors interact with each other to improve or inhibit performance. This empirical research presents a framework for finding the fundamental relations between these factors. It proposes strategies for implementing knowledge creation initiatives. The framework mainly focuses on the "what factor" with respect to people and identifies the vital characteristics for the knowledge creation process. It mainly illustrates the parameters of knowledge transfer, which supports knowledge creation, thereby improving organizational performance

Mechanism and kinetics of Aztreonam hydrolysis catalyzed by class-C β-lactamase : a temperature-accelerated sliced sampling study

Enhanced sampling of large number of collective variables (CVs) is inevitable in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of complex chemical processes such as enzymatic reactions. Because of the computational overhead of hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM)-based MD simulations, especially together with density functional theory, predictions of reaction mechanism, and estimation of free-energy barriers have to be carried out within few tens of picoseconds. We show here that the recently developed temperature-accelerated sliced sampling method allows one to sample large number of CVs, thereby enabling us to obtain rapid convergence in free-energy estimates in QM/MM MD simulation of enzymatic reactions. Moreover, the method is shown to be efficient in exploring flat and broad free-energy basins that commonly occur in enzymatic reactions. We demonstrate this by studying deacylation and reverse acylation reactions of aztreonam drug catalyzed by a class-C β lactamase (CBL) bacterial enzyme. Mechanistic details and nature of kinetics of aztreonam hydrolysis by CBL are elaborated here. The results of this study point to characteristics of the aztreonam drug that are responsible for its slow hydrolysis

Genetic characterization of Vibrio cholerae strains by inter simple sequence repeat-PCR

The utility of inter simple sequence repeat-PCR (ISSR-PCR) assay in the characterization and elucidation of the phylogenetic relationship between the pathogenic and nonpathogenic isolates of Vibrio cholerae is demonstrated. A total of 45 V. cholerae strains including 15 O1 El Tor, nine O139 and 21 non-O1/non-O139 strains were analyzed using eight ISSR primers. These primers, which are essentially simple sequence repeats (SSR) with additional nonrepeat bases at the 5' or 3' end, amplify genomic regions interspersed between closely spaced SSRs. Neighbor-joining analysis showed that the strains belonging to the same serogroup clustered together with the exception of one O1 and two O139 strains. The absence of pathogenicity islands in these strains, as confirmed by PCR, suggested their non-O1/non-O139 origin. Thus the ISSR-PCR-based phylogeny was consistent with the classification of V. cholerae based on serological methods. A finer resolution of the clustering of the toxinogenic O1 El Tor and toxinogenic O139 subtypes was obtained by ISSR-PCR analysis as compared with the Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus sequences-based PCR analysis for the same set of strains. Thus, it is proposed that ISSR-PCR is an efficient tool in phylogenetic classification of prokaryotic genomes in general and diagnostic genotyping of microbial pathogens in particular

Prevalence of oral soft tissue lesions in Vidisha

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of oral soft tissue lesions in patients and to assess their clinicopathological attributes. 3030 subjects belonging to a semi-urban district of Vidisha in Central India were screened. Patients were examined with an overhead examination light and those who were identified with a questionable lesion underwent further investigations. Statistical analysis was done using the SPSS software.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>8.4 percent of the population studied had one or more oral lesions, associated with prosthetic use, trauma and tobacco consumption. With reference to the habit of tobacco use, 635(21%) were smokers, 1272(42%) tobacco chewers, 341(11%) smokers and chewers, while 1464(48%) neither smoked nor chewed. 256 patients were found to have significant mucosal lesions. Of these, 216 cases agreed to undergo scalpel biopsy confirmation. 88 had leukoplakia, 21 had oral submucous fibrosis, 9 showed smoker's melanosis, 6 patients had lichen planus, 17 had dysplasia, 2 patients had squamous cell carcinoma while there was 1 patient each with lichenoid reaction, angina bullosa hemorrhagica, allergic stomatitis and nutritional stomatitis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings in this population reveal a high prevalence of oral soft tissue lesions and a rampant misuse of variety of addictive substances in the community. Close follow up and systematic evaluation is required in this population. There is an urgent need for awareness programs involving the community health workers, dentists and allied medical professionals.</p

Polymer electrolyte membranes and process for the production thereof

The process for the production of a polymer electrolyte membrane, comprises the successive steps of: preparing a mixed solution of a Room Temperature Ionic Liquid (RTIL), at least one alkaline metal salt and a photosensitive hydrogen abstracting component at a temperature in the range 20 to 70 °C, wherein the RTIL is a compound consisting of at least one organic cation and at least one organic or inorganic anion; adding to the solution a polymeric material at a temperature in the range of 20-70 °C; blending the solution added with the polymeric material at a temperature in the range of 70-140 °C to get a uniform mixture; pressing the mixture between two sheets at a temperature in the range of 60 - 150 °C and a pressure in the range of 20 - 80 bar, so that a film is formed; and exposing the film to UV light, so that the polymeric material of the film is cross-linked and the polymer electrolyte membrane is obtained