HIV/AIDS stigma at the workplace: Exploratory findings from Pakistan

People living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) are stigmatised socially. They are devalued and considered like outcasts by having lesser opportunities for education, treatment and housing, and in an organisational context they get reduced opportunities of selection, promotion and income. The phenomena have been extensively researched in developed countries but limited literature addresses the situation in underdeveloped countries like Pakistan, which is also facing spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. There are a number of groups who are carrying the disease but the problems being faced by PLHA employed in different organisations have rarely been analysed. Stigma at the workplace can generate a number of negative outcomes. The present study considers two such outcomes among stigmatised PLHA. These outcomes are organisational cynicism and breach of psychological contract. A questionnaire was used to collect data froma sample of 174 PLHA, having a work experience after identification of the epidemic, working in different organisations across Pakistan. These PLHA were identified and recruited through a scattered record available with some government/non-government organisations operating in Pakistan to control HIV/AIDS. Findings of the study extend the knowledge about HIV/AIDS stigma indicating that PLHA are subjected to stigma, which is significantly associated with a breach of psychological contract and organisational cynicism. There is a need at governmental and  organisational level as well to increase awareness about the disease and formulate policies to reduce stigma against PLHA working in different organisations

Chiral Symmetry Breaking and Confinement Beyond Rainbow-Ladder Truncation

A non-perturbative construction of the 3-point fermion-boson vertex which obeys its Ward-Takahashi or Slavnov-Taylor identity, ensures the massless fermion and boson propagators transform according to their local gauge covariance relations, reproduces perturbation theory in the weak coupling regime and provides a gauge independent description for dynamical chiral symmetry breaking (DCSB) and confinement has been a long-standing goal in physically relevant gauge theories such as quantum electrodynamics (QED) and quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In this paper, we demonstrate that the same simple and practical form of the vertex can achieve these objectives not only in 4-dimensional quenched QED (qQED4) but also in its 3-dimensional counterpart (qQED3). Employing this convenient form of the vertex \emph{ansatz} into the Schwinger-Dyson equation (SDE) for the fermion propagator, we observe that it renders the critical coupling in qQED4 markedly gauge independent in contrast with the bare vertex and improves on the well-known Curtis-Pennington construction. Furthermore, our proposal yields gauge independent order parameters for confinement and DCSB in qQED3.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Photovoltaic sample-and-hold circuit enabling MPPT indoors for low-power systems

Photovoltaic (PV) energy harvesting is commonly used to power autonomous devices, and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is often used to optimize its efficiency. This paper describes an ultra low-power MPPT circuit with a novel sample-and-hold and cold-start arrangement, enabling MPPT across the range of light intensities found indoors, which has not been reported before. The circuit has been validated in practice and found to cold-start and operate from 100 lux (typical of dim indoor lighting) up to 5000 lux with a 55cm2 amorphous silicon PV module. It is more efficient than non-MPPT circuits, which are the state-of-the-art for indoor PV systems. The proposed circuit maximizes the active time of the PV module by carrying out samples only once per minute. The MPPT control arrangement draws a quiescent current draw of only 8uA, and does not require an additional light sensor as has been required by previously-reported low-power MPPT circuits

Biological activities of aerial parts of Tylophora hirsuta Wall

No Abstrac

Organisational change from the perspectives of translation : a case study of transformation in the Libyan banking system

This study examines an organisational change process in its real-time. Two theoretical approaches have inspired a search for explanations to the process of change occurring as part of large transforming the Libyan banking sector to become compliant with the Islamic Banking and Finance (IBF) model. The first is change as fluxing reality (Tsoukas & Chia, 2002). The second theoretical approach reflects insights mainly from new translation embodied in process philosophy and neo-institutionalist perspectives as articulated by Czarniawska and Joerges (1996). The two theoretical views are seen as complementary to empirical investigations that seek to capture the dynamic unfolding nature of organisational change. The study draws upon a cross sectional case-study approach in the banking sector in Libya and qualitative abductive reasoning.The methodology of this study incorporates qualitative thematic analysis situated within the theoretical framework underpinning this study. This study is an exploratory in nature, consequently, the unit of analysis revolves around the idea of IBF and its associated processes which designed to transform the idea into organisational practice. This includes, the change process subsequent process associated with this change and the unintended consequences of such complicated large scale program. The study combines different research method and data sources, including interviews, IBF literature and literature on the Libyan banking system.The outcome of the research can be considered as a contribution to the knowledge of change and translation as well as the field of IBF. The current study, through adopting a processual analytical mind-set has described for the first time the organisational change process in the context of Islamic banking. Thereby, opening up a field which is in need of further and extensive research. The key findings of this study were in fluctuation with the translation model. This fluctuation due partly to the different nature of the change process in the Libyan banking context. In this regard, it can be argued that the translation model depicts change as utterly an open-ended process. However, this research has revealed that change process is constructed and translated within various historical social and institutional limitations

Impact of Tandem Repeats on the Scaling of Nucleotide Sequences

Techniques such as detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and its extensions have been widely used to determine the nature of scaling in nucleotide sequences. In this brief communication we show that tandem repeats which are ubiquitous in nucleotide sequences can prevent reliable estimation of possible long-range correlations. Therefore, it is important to investigate the presence of tandem repeats prior to scaling exponent estimation.Comment: 14 Pages, 3 Figure

Micromechanical fracture analysis of high strength steel weldments

Industrijska primena celika povišene cvrstoce u elementima zavarenih konstrukcija cini neophodnim poznavanje ponašanja spojeva ovih materijala pri žilavom lomu. Stoga, procena integriteta zavarenih struktura je potrebna da bi se obezbedio potrebni nivo sigurnsti i pouzdanosti, imajuci u vidu uticaj ogranicenog deformisanja i heterogenosti na ponašanje pri lomu kriticnih zona spoja: zone uticaja toplote (ZUT) i metala šava (MŠ), koji cesto imaju nižu žilavost i višu prelaznu temperaturu. Takode, veoma je važno da procena integriteta bude uradena realno i da ne bude previše konzervativna, kako bi se sprecilo povecanje mase strukture i obezbedilo ekonomicno korišcenje materijala. U ovoj disertaciji, mikromehanicki pristup je korišcen za analizu uticaja mehanicke heterogenosti i ogranicenog deformisanja na žilav lom zavarenih spojeva celika povišene cvrstoce. Ovaj pristup je korišcen kao rešenje za problem prenosivosti parametara klasicne mehanike loma. Takode, motiv za njegovu primenu je i to što standardni parametri mehanike loma: faktor intenziteta napona, otvaranje prsline i konturni Jintegral, ne mogu na odgovarajuci nacin opisati odgovor materijala sa prslinom na dejstvo spoljnog opterecenja u svim uslovima, kao što su izraženo plasticno tecenje (large scale yielding), razliciti uticaji heterogenosti, obika i geometrije zavarenih konstrukcija u eksploataciji. Parametri mehanike loma, odredeni laboratorijskim ispitivanjem epruveta, nisu direktno prenosivi na komponente i stoga se moraju uzeti u obzir dodatni faktori (kao što je uticaj ogranicenog deformisanja). Takode, cilj ove disertacije je odredivanje mehanickih osobina zona zavarenog spoja korišcenjem kombinovanog eksperimentalnonumerickog postupka, što je narocito važno kod zona male širine u okviru ZUT koje su izložene opterecenju u transverzalnom pravcu. Rad na disertaciji je podrazumevao primenu metode konacnih elemenata i eksperimentalna ispitivanja. Eksperimentalna ispitivanja su uradena na zavarenim glatkim epruvetama (uz korišcenje ARAMIS stereometrijskog mernog sistema) za odredivanje mehanickih osobina, kao i epruvetama za savijanje u tri tacke i epruvetama za zatezanje sa pocetnom prslinom u metalu šava i zoni uticaja toplote za analizu ponašanja pri lomu. J-R krive i vrednosti parametra mehanike loma koje odgovaraju pocetku rasta prsline odredene su eksperimentalno i numericki na epruvetama sa pocetnom prslinom u ZUT i MŠ. Numericka analiza elasto-plasticnih modela konacnih elemenata (2D i 3D) je uradena u programskom paketu Abaqus, a mikromehanicki kompletni Gursonov model (CGM) je primenjen preko korisnickog potprograma UMAT (autor Z.L. Zhang). Ograniceno deformisanje oko vrha prsline i promena troosnosti u ligamentu su numericki analizirani na epruvetama za savijanje u tri tacke i onim za zatezanje, da bi se analizirala prenosivost mikromehanickih parametara oštecenja sa jedne epruvete na drugu. Takode, mikromehanickim pristupom je odreden uticaj geometrije i rezultati su uporedeni sa eksperimentalnim podacima. Najveci deo numerickih rezultata dobijenih korišcenjem CGM modela pokazuje dobro slaganje sa eksperimentalnim rezultatima...The industrial application of high strength steel in structural welded components has increased the demand for understanding the ductile failure behavior of this type of welded materials. Therefore, integrity assessment of those welded structures is required in order to ensure a certain level of safety and reliability, having in mind the effects of constraints and heterogeneity on fracture behavior of crucial regions such as: heat affected zone (HAZ) and weld metal (WM) which usually have low toughness and higher transition temperature. It is also essential that the assessment is done in a realistic and not too conservative way in order not to increase the mass of the structure or impair the economic efficiency too much. In this thesis, micromechanical approach has been used to study the effect of mechanical heterogeneity and constraints on ductile fracture of high strength steel weldments. This approach has been used as a solution for the transferability problem of conventional fracture mechanics parameters. It has also been used on basis of that fracture mechanics parameters recommended by standard, such as: stress intensity factor, crack opening displacement and contour J-integral, cannot reliably describe the reaction of a pre-cracked material to the effects of external loading under all conditions such as: large scale yielding, various effects of heterogeneity, shape and geometry of real welded structures. The fracture mechanics parameters, determined from laboratory scale experiments are not also directly transferable to components and hence additional considerations (like constraint effects etc.) need to be taken care of. In addition, the aim of the thesis was to estimate precise mechanical properties using a combined experimental and numerical procedure for various welded joint regions, especially for narrow HAZ regions, when they are subjected to transversally applied load. The study was carried out using finite element method and experiments. Experimental analysis was carried out on: welded smooth tensile specimen with ARAMIS measuring system for estimation mechanical properties, welded single-edge notched bend and flat tensile specimens with pre-cracks in weld metal (WM) and heat-affected zone (HAZ) for studying the ductile fracture behavior. J-R curves and crack growth initiation iii values of fracture mechanics parameter were experimentally and numerically obtained for specimens with a pre-crack in HAZ and WM. Numerical analysis of elastic-plastic finite element models (2D and 3D) was performed in software package Abaqus, with micromechanical complete Gurson model (CGM) applied through user subroutine, UMAT (author: Z.L. Zhang). The crack tip constraint and variation of stress triaxiality in ligament were numerically analyzed on single-edge notched bend and tensile specimens to analyze the transferability of micromechanical damage parameters from one specimen to another. In addition, the geometry effects were also studied by the micromechanical approach and the results were compared with those of the experiments. Most of numerical results obtained with CGM model are in good agreement with the experimental results..

A fresh look at the (non-)Abelian Landau-Khalatnikov-Fradkin transformations

The Landau-Khalatnikov-Fradkin transformations (LKFTs) allow to interpolate $n$-point functions between different gauges. We first offer an alternative derivation of these LKFTs for the gauge and fermions field in the Abelian (QED) case when working in the class of linear covariant gauges. Our derivation is based on the introduction of a gauge invariant transversal gauge field, which allows a natural generalization to the non-Abelian (QCD) case of the LKFTs. To our knowledge, within this rigorous formalism, this is the first construction of the LKFTs beyond QED. The renormalizability of our setup is guaranteed to all orders. We also offer a direct path integral derivation in the non-Abelian case, finding full consistency.Comment: 16 page