Willingness of employers to support disability management in the workplace from SOCSO’s perspective

In the current competitive edge, many healthy workers who become disable due to injuries, accidents, chronic illness or birth defect has been continued to be the poorest, less educated and least hired which was contributed by several barriers that stop them from participating in the labour market. The common barrier is the employer’s perception toward hiring the disable people in their workplace and this is the biggest constraint for the disable people to mingle in the workgroups in the society. This survey based research study was conducted basically to analyse the influence characteristics of employers in employing disable people in their workplace and for this purpose, the study was mainly targeted number of employers from Klang valley, Malaysia. Precisely, the connection between gender and total employees in an organization was identified by analysing the total number of employees in the organization, familiarity with disability workers and prior work experience with disability people together with elements of understanding and beliefs towards disability was explored. Results from this study indicate that employers’ attitudes are generally positive and the common barriers also have been identified. Overall familiarity with disability, size of organizations and gender can be predictable characters in determining the employer’s attitude in employing people with disabilities. This study also indicates that employers are willing to support disability management in the workplace. Furthermore, constraints in conducting this study together with future recommendations for other researchers are provided in this stud

Differences in TQM Performance of Small Enterprises

This research investigates how small enterprises differ from large enterprises in adopting and using TQM practices.  This comparison of performance in TQM practices is based on the items in the Baldrige criteria. The scores of 86 applicants to a state quality award were statistically analyzed to look for any significant differences in the scores based on the size of the applicant. The feedback reports provided by the examiners were used to explain the significant differences in scores.  The analysis indicates that the scores of small enterprises were significantly lower than medium and large enterprises.  The lower scores reflect a lack of sustained, formal quality strategy and a lower priority given to continuous improvement.  Information management in benchmarking and determination of employee and customer satisfaction also contribute to the lower scores.  This study alerts consultants and managers to the possible areas that small enterprises need to focus on to get the best out of their TQM implementation.  The study also indicates that the formality of the criteria in assessment tools such as the Baldrige award criteria may not be very suitable for small enterprises. Past research about the use of TQM in small and medium enterprises for the most part use self-reported data and rarely provide comparison to large enterprises.  The study compares the performance of small enterprises with large enterprises and provides objective data to confirm the differences in performance of small enterprises in TQM practices. &nbsp

Hybrid Techniques On Color And Multispectral Image For Compression

Image Compression is a technique to reduce the number of bits required to represent and store an image. This technique is also used to compress two dimensional color shapes without loss of data as well as quality of the Image. Even though Simple Principal Component Analysis can apply to make enough compression on multispectral image, it needs to extend another version called Enhanced PCA(E-PCA). The given multispectral image is converted into component image and transformed as Column Vector with help of E-PCA. Covariance matrix and eigen values are derived from vector. Multispectral images are reconstructed using only few principal component images with the largest variance of eigen value. Then the component image is divided into block. After finding block sum value, mean value, the number of bits required to represent an image can be reduced by E-BTC model. The features are extracted and constructed in Table form. The proposed algorithm is repeated for all multispectral images as well as color image in the database. Finally, compression ratio table is generated. This proposed algorithm is tested and implemented on various parameters such as MSE, PSNR. These experiments are initially carried out on the standard color image and are to be followed by multispectral imager using MATLAB

STUDY OF TRAPPING EFFECTS IN ALGAN/GAN MOSHEMTS

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

VASCULAR DYSFUNCTION IN THE Α-GALACTOSIDASE A-KNOCKOUT MOUSE IS AN ENDOTHELIAL CELL-, PLASMA MEMBRANE-BASED DEFECT

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75176/1/j.1440-1681.2008.04984.x.pd

Preserved arterial vasodilatation via endothelial protease-activated receptor-2 in obese type 2 diabetic mice

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In non-obese diabetic animals, protease-activated receptor-2 (PAR2) agonists are more effective vasodilators, which is attributed to increased COX-2 and endothelial NOS (eNOS) activities. Under conditions of diabetes and obesity, the effectiveness of PAR2 agonists is unknown. We compared the vasodilator responses of small calibre mesenteric arteries from obese diabetic B6.BKS(D)-Leprdb/J (db/db) induced by PAR2-activating agonists 2-furoyl-LIGRLO-amide (2fly) and trypsin to those obtained in controls [C57BL/6J (C57)], and assessed the contributions of COX, NOS and calcium-activated potassium channels (KCa) to these responses. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Arteries mounted in wire myographs under isometric tension conditions were contracted submaximally by U46619 then exposed to vasodilators. mRNA and protein expression of PAR2, eNOS and soluble GC (sGC) were determined by real-time PCR and Western blots. KEY RESULTS ACh- and nitroprusside-induced relaxations were attenuated in db/db compared with C57. In contrast, 2fly- and trypsin-induced relaxations were largely retained in db/db. A NOS inhibitor partly inhibited ACh- and 2fly-induced relaxations in C57, but not those in db/db. Inhibitors of the COX-cAMP pathway (FR122044, SC560, NS398, SC58125, SQ22536, CAY10441) did not affect these relaxation responses in either strain. Charybdotoxin (BKCa, SK3.1 blocker), but not iberiotoxin (BKCa blocker), inhibited responses to the PAR2 agonists in db/db. In db/db protein levels of eNOS were higher, whereas those of sGC were lower than in C57. PAR2 mRNA expression in db/db was higher than in C57. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS PAR2-mediated vasodilatation is protected against the negative effects of obesity and diabetes in mice. In diabetic vascular dysfunction, preserved PAR2 vasodilatation was linked to activation of SK3.1

A wideband radar for high-resolution mapping of near-surface internal layers in glacial ice

©2004 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.Snow accumulation rate is an important parameter in determining the mass balance of polar ice sheets. Accumulation rate is currently determined by analyzing ice cores and snow pits. Inadequate sampling of the spatial variations in the ice sheet accumulation has resulted in accumulation rate uncertainties as large as 24%. We designed and developed a 600-900-MHz airborne radar system for high-resolution mapping of the near-surface internal layers for estimating the accumulation rate of polar ice sheets. Our radar system can provide improved spatial and temporal coverage by mapping a continuous profile of the isochronous layers in the ice sheet. During the 2002 field season in Greenland, we successfully mapped the near-surface layers to a depth of 200 m in the dry-snow zone, 120 m in the percolation zone, and 20 m in the melt zone. We determined the water equivalent accumulation rate at the NASA-U_1 site to be 34.9 +/- 5.1 cm/year from 1964 to 1992. This is in close agreement with the ice-core derived accumulation rate of 34.6 cm/year for the same period

Applications of simulation within the healthcare context

This is a pre-print of an article published in Journal of the Operation Research Society. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Katsaliaki, K., Mustafee, N.,(2010). Applications of simulation within the healthcare context. Journal of the Operation Research Society. 62, 1431-1451 is available online at: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jors/journal/v62/n8/full/jors201020a.htmlA large number of studies have applied simulation to a multitude of issues related to healthcare. These studies have been published over a number of unrelated publishing outlets, and this may hamper the widespread reference and use of such resources. In this paper we analyse existing research in healthcare simulation in order to categorise and synthesise it in a meaningful manner. Hence, the aim of this paper is to conduct a review of the literature pertaining to simulation research within healthcare in order to ascertain its current development. A review of approximately 250 high quality journal papers published between 1970 and 2007 on healthcare-related simulation research was conducted. The results present: a classification of the healthcare publications according to the simulation techniques they employ; the impact of published literature in healthcare simulation; a report on demonstration and implementation of the studies’ results; the sources of funding; and the software used. Healthcare planners and researchers will benefit from this study by having ready access to an indicative article collection of simulation techniques applied in healthcare problems that are clustered under meaningful headings. This study facilitates the understanding of the potential of different simulation techniques for solving diverse healthcare problems

Coherent radar ice thickness measurements over the Greenland ice sheet

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2001JD900183.We developed two 150-MHz coherent radar depth sounders for ice thickness measurements over the Greenland ice sheet. We developed one of these using connectorized components and the other using radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). Both systems are designed to use pulse compression techniques and coherent integration to obtain the high sensitivity required to measure the thickness of more than 4 km of cold ice. We used these systems to collect radar data over the interior and margins of the ice sheet and several outlet glaciers. We operated both radar systems on the NASA P-3B aircraft equipped with GPS receivers. Radar data are tagged with GPS-derived location information and are collected in conjunction with laser altimeter measurements. We have reduced all data collected since 1993 and derived ice thickness along all flight lines flown in support of Program for Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA) investigations and the North Greenland Ice Core Project. Radar echograms and derived ice thickness data are placed on a server at the University of Kansas (http://tornado.rsl.ukans.edu/Greenlanddata.htm) for easy access by the scientific community. We obtained good ice thickness information with an accuracy of ±10 m over 90% of the flight lines flown as a part of the PARCA initiative. In this paper we provide a brief description of the system along with samples of data over the interior, along the 2000-m contour line in the south and from a few selected outlet glaciers

Neural network modelling for shear strength of concrete members reinforced with FRP bars

yesThis paper investigates the feasibility of using artificial neural networks (NNs) to predict the shear capacity of concrete members reinforced longitudinally with fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) bars, and without any shear reinforcement. An experimental database of 138 test specimens failed in shear is created and used to train and test NNs as well as to assess the accuracy of three existing shear design methods. The created NN predicted to a high level of accuracy the shear capacity of FRP reinforced concrete members. Garson index was employed to identify the relative importance of the influencing parameters on the shear capacity based on the trained NNs weightings. A parametric analysis was also conducted using the trained NN to establish the trend of the main influencing variables on the shear capacity. Many of the assumptions made by the shear design methods are predicted by the NN developed; however, few are inconsistent with the NN predictions