ASPECTS REGARDING 3D LASER SCANNING SURVEYS FOR ROAD DESIGN

This paper aims to present implementation of modern land survey using unconventional technologies namely 3D scanning technology and the advantages of its use in her area of terrestrial communication ways. 3D scanning provides a closer perspective to reality on the Earth's surface. Development of technologies for collecting and processing information currently allows achieving lifelike models as spectacular as it is useful. Currently 3D scanning technique is pervasive in most areas but especially in engineering for modeling of land surfaces, roads, urban space etc

LIS programs in pandemic: Challenges, resilience & opportunities

Panel overview: Library & information science programs and their parent schools and universities are no strangers to experiencing natural disasters. Many are situated in environments prone to hurricanes, flood, winter storms and wildfires and have experienced one or more of such events in the past. As a field that prides itself for supporting people’s informational needs, especially of those under-served populations, we as LIS educators have often stepped up to support our students and broader communities in a time of need. However, the experience of global COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to not only our organizations and profession but also to our personal lives. In this difficult and complex situation how are LIS programs coping and looking into the future? A panel of four LIS Program/School directors and program chairs will share their personal experiences in leading their organizations during the time of COVID-19. The panelists will reflect upon challenges that their programs experienced as the pandemic crisis emerged and evolved, the lessons we are learning about our preparedness and resilience to function during the time of crisis and the emerging opportunities for the future. Panel structure: The panel will be organized into three thematic units. Each unit will start with panelists’ sharing their reflections through illustrative examples and narrative stories reflecting their own experiences and experiences of their faculty, staff and students. Following introductory remarks on each of the themes, the audience will be invited to contribute their own experiences and observations. Panel Topics: - COVID-19 is here! This topic will focus on the first signs of pandemic and how the LIS programs were prepared, especially the emergency activation mechanisms, immediate challenges and first responses. From the perspectives of their different geographical locations and settings (large urban, small urban, rural) and program modalities, the panelists will share how they experienced “pivot” to functioning under conditions of COVID-19. - It’s a marathon, not a sprint! In this topic the panelists will discuss the issues and creative solutions for organizing continuity and success of educational processes in their programs under the conditions of pandemic. The panelists will discuss actions taken to ensure physical safety and mental health of both faculty and students; academic accommodations that were provided and monitoring mechanisms for ensuring engagement and feedback from LIS communities in their programs. - Challenges are new opportunities! The final topics will explore challenges that still need to be addressed (such as the impact of pandemic on faculty productivity; concerns about student enrollment) and new ideas that are emerging about providing LIS education (e.g., flexibility of instructional formats; online collaboration; unique LIS research contributions). The panelists will identify lessons learned and changes that are being evaluated and planned in their programs. Prior to the panel the panelists will create a collaborative digital whiteboard (Google Jamboard - https://jamboard.google.com/) that will include the three main themes of the panel. During the presentation, audience participants will have an opportunity to contribute personal comments and artifacts related to the panel topic. Following the panel, this digital white board will be preserved to commemorate our collective experience with pandemic. Panelists: Sanda Erdelez, Professor and Director at Simmons University School of Library and Information Science. She is a human information behavior researcher and educator with more than 25 years of experience in the LIS field, including teaching at University of Texas and Austin and University of Missouri- Columbia. Dr. Erdelez’ contribution to the panel will focus on the importance of effective and participatory communication processes during pandemic and on LIS programs/schools taking on a leadership role at their home institutions in the areas of specialized expertise, such as online learning and information needs and uses research. Jenny Bossaller, LIS Program Chair and Associate Professor at the iSchool at the University of Missouri – Columbia. Her teaching and research focus encompasses public libraries, information policy, and the history of libraries and information. She co-developed a public library leadership program, with Denice Adkins, that emphasizes community and professional immersion (PuLL). She is currently working on an interdisciplinary team to revitalize the iSchool's health librarianship program, which focuses on community engagement, which has proven to be especially difficult to manage during COVID. Dr. Bossaller will discuss problems and opportunities that arose during COVID regarding students’ community engagement and practicum options. Lisa O’Connor is Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Previously, she taught at the University of Kentucky and was an academic librarian, serving as both an information literacy education coordinator and business librarian. She has published in the areas of IL assessment and information behavior. Dr. O’Connor’s contributions to the panel will address the challenges of managing growth in the midst of the pandemic, including enrollment management and onboarding and mentoring new faculty. R. David Lankes, Professor and Director of the School of Information Science and Associate Dean, College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina. He has served on advisory boards and study teams in the fields of libraries, telecommunications, education, and transportation including at the National Academies. Lankes has been a visiting fellow at the National Library of Canada, The Harvard School of Education, France’s national library school Enssib, and was the first fellow of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy. Dr. Lankes will present how through active research and advocacy agendas with a focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion LIS programs are well situated to help our society in a time of need

Gene Networks Activated by Specific Patterns of Action Potentials in Dorsal Root Ganglia Neurons

Gene regulatory networks underlie the long-term changes in cell specification, growth of synaptic connections, and adaptation that occur throughout neonatal and postnatal life. Here we show that the transcriptional response in neurons is exquisitely sensitive to the temporal nature of action potential firing patterns. Neurons were electrically stimulated with the same number of action potentials, but with different inter-burst intervals. We found that these subtle alterations in the timing of action potential firing differentially regulates hundreds of genes, across many functional categories, through the activation or repression of distinct transcriptional networks. Our results demonstrate that the transcriptional response in neurons to environmental stimuli, coded in the pattern of action potential firing, can be very sensitive to the temporal nature of action potential delivery rather than the intensity of stimulation or the total number of action potentials delivered. These data identify temporal kinetics of action potential firing as critical components regulating intracellular signalling pathways and gene expression in neurons to extracellular cues during early development and throughout life

Identifying barriers to accessing information and treatment for obstetric fistula in Niamey, Niger

Objective: To identify barriers to accessing information and treatment regarding obstetric fistula (OF) unique to Niger encountered by women referred to the National Referral Fistula Center. Method: A questionnaire was administered at the National Referral Fistula Center to 29 women with OF. Qualitative and quantitative statistics were computed. Results: The average individual was 30.4 years old, illiterate and from a rural area. 76.0% had antenatal care, the average labor time was 3.04 days, and 88.0% had a physician-assisted delivery. Barriers to information included rural dwelling, lack of education, lack of understanding of cause despite contact with health care workers, lack of knowledgeable resources to seek advice from or lack of ability/interest, not given specific information about availability of treatment, and not utilizing available resources to disseminate information. Barriers to treatment included lack of information regarding condition and treatment, traditional healer utilization, inability to access adequate care for condition, delay for childbirth recovery, permission needed to seek treatment, cost, timely treatment unavailable, and lack of social support. Conclusion: Improving efficiency of getting women to the hospital at time of delivery, prompt referrals for OF, and using cell phones for disseminating information or accessing transport may benefit women with OF in Niger

Strong and Weak Phases from Time-Dependent Measurements of B→ππB \to \pi \pi

Time-dependence in $B^0(t) \to \pi^+ \pi^-$ and \ob(t) \to \pi^+ \pi^- is utilized to obtain a maximal set of information on strong and weak phases. One can thereby check theoretical predictions of a small strong phase $\delta$ between penguin and tree amplitudes. A discrete ambiguity between $\delta \simeq 0$ and $\delta \simeq \pi$ may be resolved by comparing the observed charge-averaged branching ratio predicted for the tree amplitude alone, using measurements of $B \to \pi l \nu$ and factorization, or by direct comparison of parameters of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix with those determined by other means. It is found that with 150 fb$^{-1}$ from BaBar and Belle, this ambiguity will be resolvable if no direct CP violation is found. In the presence of direct CP violation, the discrete ambiguity between $\delta$ and $\pi - \delta$ becomes less important, vanishing altogether as $|\delta| \to \pi/2$. The role of measurements involving the lifetime difference between neutral $B$ eigenstates is mentioned briefly.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. D. Updated version with one reference change

Constraining the CKM Parameters using CP Violation in semi-leptonic B Decays

We discuss the usefulness of the CP violating semi-leptonic asymmetry a_{SL} not only as a signal of new physics, but also as a tool in constraining the CKM parameters. We show that this technique could yield useful results in the first years of running at the B factories. We present the analysis graphically in terms of M_{12}, the dispersive part of the B-Bbar mixing amplitude. This is complementary to the usual unitarity triangle representation and often allows a cleaner interpretation of the data.Comment: 15 pages REVTEX, 7 figure