Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a current problem that health professionals, such as pharmacists, should be aware of. This poster was created as a group project by pre-pharmacy majors and exhibited to faculty and graduate pharmacy students. The primary purpose of the project was to learn about human trafficking as a public health concern, increase awareness, and search for ways to reduce the problem. The poster highlights the different forms of human trafficking and what determinants of health apply to this problem. It also seeks to show how human trafficking relates to the pharmacy profession.https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/public_health_posters/1023/thumbnail.jp

Diagnosing the Nature of Land-Atmosphere Coupling: A Case Study of Dry/Wet Extremes

Land-atmosphere (L-A) interactions play a critical role in determining the diurnal evolution of land surface and planetary boundary layer (PBL) temperature and moisture states and fluxes. In turn, these interactions regulate the strength of the connection between surface moisture and precipitation in a coupled system. To address deficiencies in numerical weather prediction and climate models due to improper treatment of L-A interactions, recent studies have focused on development of diagnostics to quantify the strength and accuracy of the land-PBL coupling at the process-level. In this study, a diagnosis of the nature and impacts oflocalland-atmosphere coupling (LoCo) during dry and wet extreme conditions is presented using a combination of models and observations during the summers of2006-7 in the U.S. Southern Great Plains. Specifically, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model has been coupled to NASA's Land Information System (LIS), which provides a flexible and high-resolution representation and initialization of land surface physics and states. A range of diagnostics exploring the links and feedbacks between soil moisture and precipitation are examined for the dry/wet regimes of this region, along with the behavior and accuracy of different land-PBL scheme couplings under these conditions. In addition, we examine the impact of improved specification ofland surface states, anomalies, and fluxes that are obtained through the use of a hew optimization and uncertainty module in LIS, on the L-A coupling in WRF forecasts. Results demonstrate how LoCo diagnostics can be applied to coupled model components in the context of their integrated impacts on the process-chain connecting the land surface to the PBL and support of hydrological anomalies

Synthesis of novel tetrahydroisoquinoline chiral ligands for application in asymmetric transfer hydrogenation.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.Several tetrahydroisoquinoline (TIQ) diamine derivatives were prepared for use as ligands in asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (ATH) of acetophenone of which 17 intermediates and the eight target ligands were novel compounds. The initial design followed that of Noyori, who presented the efficiency of his monotosylated diamine in ATH. A series of eight novel secondary amine derivatives (78a-g and 88) were prepared with substituents that influenced the electronics and the sterics of and around the nitrogen donor. Ligand 71 was shown to have no activity for the ATH of acetophenone. It was apparent from experimental observations that a balance between the electronic and steric characteristics of the substituent was necessary to facilitate activity. It was found that ligand 78d possessing a benzyl group, had the greatest activity (81 % conv.). The greatest selectivity was obtained with ligand 78f (77 % ee) having a chiral phenylmethyl substituent. It was discovered in the case of the active diamine ligands that an optimised 1500 equivalents of water was required in order to demonstrate any enantioselectivity. The exact role of the water has never been ascertained, although there are many publications in which the effect of water has been examined. The most active metal precursor was also investigated and [RhCl2(Cp*)]2 was found to be the best for these TIQ diamine ligands in the specified model reactions. This work has recently been accepted for publication and has established criteria for further rational design on this system

INTELLIGENT PLANT WATERING SYSTEM FOR RURAL FARMERS

This is an ongoing research study work. The objective of this study is to build an intelligent plant watering system for rural farmers. The study considered the availability of water supply in specific regions for five years. Also vital parameters statistics necessary for proper growth of each plant are stored in the system data base over the same period. Our study is primarily being guided by observations made in the rain fall pattern, different weather conditions, and environmental situation across the regions in the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria. The target farmers are very poor. Therefore, our task is to produce a system that is affordable and reliable to these farmers. The complexity and stability of the system notwithstanding, overall, this study “Intelligent Plant Watering System for Rural Farmers” is being carried out to provide the rural farmers with a cheap, durable, power efficient, affordable, reliable, flexible, efficient and high performance intelligent plant watering system. Although this study is divided into three major groups, however, in this paper we try to present a subgroup that deals with soil moisture and fertility. The system based on its available statistics sets the various limits for the soil moisture, temperature and fertility. These features in the system ensure that water for irrigation is effectively managed and allowed to flow during specified temperature range. Also the soil fertility is properly regulated. This paper discursion focuses on the soil moisture and temperatur

Diagnosing the Nature of Land-Atmosphere Coupling During the 2006-7 Dry/Wet Extremes in the U. S. Southern Great Plains

The degree of coupling between the land surface and PBL in NWP models remains largely undiagnosed due to the complex interactions and feedbacks present across a range of scales. In this study, a framework for diagnosing local land-atmosphere coupling (LoCo) is presented using a coupled mesoscale model with observations during the summers of 2006/7 in the U.S. Southern Great Plains. Specifically, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model has been coupled to NASA's Land Information System (LIS), which enables a suite of PBL and land surface model (LSM) options along provides a flexible and high-resolution representation and initialization of land surface physics and states. This coupling is one component of a larger project to develop a NASA-Unified WRF (NU-WRF) system. A range of diagnostics exploring the feedbacks between soil moisture and precipitation are examined for the dry/wet extremes, along with the sensitivity of PBL-LSM coupling to perturbations in soil moisture

Analysis of turbulent flame propagation in equivalence ratio-stratified flow

Equivalence ratio-stratified combustion is an important technology for achieving stable low-emission operation in internal combustion engines and gas turbines. This study examines how equivalence ratio stratification affects the physics of turbulent flame propagation using Direct Numerical Simulation. Three-dimensional simulations of a turbulent slot-Bunsen flame configuration are performed with accurate multi-step kinetic modelling for methane-air combustion. We compare one perfectly-premixed and three equivalence ratio-stratified cases with the mean equivalence ratio gradient aligned with, tangential to or opposed to the mean flame brush. The simulation results are analysed in terms of flame surface area and the burning intensity. The local effects of stratification are then investigated further by examining statistics of the displacement speed conditioned on the flame-normal equivalence ratio gradient. The local burning intensity is found to depend on the orientation of the stratification with respect to the flame front, so that burning intensity is enhanced when the flame speed in the products is faster than in the reactants. This effect of alignment between equivalence ratio gradients and flame fronts has been observed previously in laminar flames and it is found here that it also affects the global behaviour of turbulent flames. The flame surface area is also influenced by equivalence ratio stratification and this may be explained by differences in the surface-averaged consumption speed and differential propagation effects due to flame speed variations associated with equivalence ratio fluctuations

P2X receptors (version 2019.4) in the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology Database

P2X receptors (nomenclature as agreed by the NC-IUPHAR Subcommittee on P2X Receptors [46, 134]) have a trimeric topology [118, 132, 177] with two putative TM domains, gating primarily Na+, K+ and Ca2+, exceptionally Cl-. The Nomenclature Subcommittee has recommended that for P2X receptors, structural criteria should be the initial criteria for nomenclature where possible. X-ray crystallography indicates that functional P2X receptors are trimeric and three agonist molecules are required to bind to a single receptor in order to activate it [132, 88, 96, 161]. Native receptors may occur as either homotrimers (e.g. P2X1 in smooth muscle) or heterotrimers (e.g. P2X2:P2X3 in the nodose ganglion [251], P2X1:P2X5 in mouse cortical astrocytes [146], and P2X2:P2X5 in mouse dorsal root ganglion, spinal cord and mid pons [50, 207]. P2X2, P2X4 and P2X7 receptors have been shown to form functional homopolymers which, in turn, activate pores permeable to low molecular weight solutes [229]. The hemi-channel pannexin-1 has been implicated in the pore formation induced by P2X7 [188], but not P2X2 [38], receptor activation