106 research outputs found

    Towards a greater dialogue on disability between Muslims and Christians

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    Attitudes to disability and disabled people by Muslims – focusing on attitudes in the Middle East and North Africa - and Christians – focusing on the West (here taken to mean Europe, North America and Australasia) - were examined through a grounded theory literature search, with the study being divided into three phases of reading and analysis. The aims of study were to develop a dialogue on disability between the two cultures, to inform an understanding of the attitudes to disability in the two cultures, and to inform cultural practice in promoting support and equality in both cultures. The study finds that Islam and Christianity have much in common and are a force for good in promoting and developing disability equality in both Muslim and Christian cultures

    Prospects of Nanotechnology in Clinical Immunodiagnostics

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    Nanostructured materials are promising compounds that offer new opportunities as sensing platforms for the detection of biomolecules. Having micrometer-scale length and nanometer-scale diameters, nanomaterials can be manipulated with current nanofabrication methods, as well as self-assembly techniques, to fabricate nanoscale bio-sensing devices. Nanostructured materials possess extraordinary physical, mechanical, electrical, thermal and multifunctional properties. Such unique properties advocate their use as biomimetic membranes to immobilize and modify biomolecules on the surface of nanoparticles. Alignment, uniform dispersion, selective growth and diameter control are general parameters which play critical roles in the successful integration of nanostructures for the fabrication of bioelectronic sensing devices. In this review, we focus on different types and aspects of nanomaterials, including their synthesis, properties, conjugation with biomolecules and their application in the construction of immunosensing devices. Some key results from each cited article are summarized by relating the concept and mechanism behind each sensor, experimental conditions and the behavior of the sensor under different conditions, etc. The variety of nanomaterial-based bioelectronic devices exhibiting novel functions proves the unique properties of nanomaterials in such sensing devices, which will surely continue to expand in the future. Such nanomaterial based devices are expected to have a major impact in clinical immunodiagnostics, environmental monitoring, security surveillance and for ensuring food safety

    1kHz 2D silicon retina motion sensor platform

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    This paper proposes an optical motion sensor aimed towards small robotic platforms. It incorporates a 20×20 pixel continuous-time CMOS silicon retina vision sensor with pixels that have local gain control and adapt to background lighting and a DSP microcontroller which computes the global optical flow from the sampled sensor output. The system allows the user to validate various motion algorithms suitable for the platform. Measurements are presented that show that the system can compute global 2D translational motion from complex natural scenes using the image interpolation algorithm at a sample rate of 1 kHz and for speeds up to ±1000 pixels/s using <;5k instruction cycles per frame
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