Copyright and Open Source Software Licensing

The open source software movement has swept the software industry by storm in recent times, challenging many pre-conceptions about existing software development and licensing models. Copyright have protected software ownership and licensing of much of the closed source software in the market but how does copyright relate to open source software licensing? This dissertation describes the past and present of legal software protection and traces the history of the open source software movement from the Free Software Foundation and Open Source Initiative to the current state of the industry. The various open source licences are compared and explained. The discussion concludes with a discussion on the legal enforceability of open source licences

Identification of Elizabethkingia meningoseptica from American bullfrog (Rana catesbiana) farmed in Sabah, Malaysia using PCR method and future management of outbreak

Aims: High demand for frog meat in Malaysia especially the American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) has promoted intensive farming of the animal. However, the farming of American bullfrog is restricted by the occurrence of diseases. This study reports the first isolation of Elizabethkingia meningoseptica from specimens of American bullfrog that suffer from cataract and 'red-leg' syndrome. Methodology and Result: The pathogen was isolated from eyes and internal organs (liver, kidney and spleen) of the diseased bullfrog specimens. All the bacterial isolates were subjected to phenotypic characterization and antibiotic susceptibility assay, and further identified by using the 16S rDNA sequencing analysis. We designed two pair of specific PCR primers (22-25 mers) which are complimentary to the β-lactamase gene in the reference strain of E. meningoseptica ATCC49470. The result showed all the bacterial isolates shared similar phenotypic characters and antibiotic susceptibility. BLAST analysis of the 16S rDNA sequences indicated that the bacterial isolates had very high sequence homology (100%) with E. meningospetica ATCC49470 and E. meningoseptica isolates from mosquito. The two PCR primers were very specific to E. meningoseptica isolates of this study. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: This is the first isolation and characterization of bacterial pathogen, E. meningoseptica in cultured American bullfrog (Rana catesbeina) that suffered from eye cataract and 'red-leg' syndrome in Sabah, Malaysia. It is suspected that one of the possible transmission routes of the bacterial pathogen could be via mosquito bites. The findings suggest that there is urgent requirement for standard guideline of good farming practice to be adopted in frog farms throughout the country. Such a guideline can help in minimizing economic losses, preventing transmission of the zoonotic bacterial pathogen to farm workers, and sustaining the industry in Malaysia and upgrading frog meat quality for international market

EFFECT OF SALT (NACL) STRESS ON GERMINATION AND EARLY SEEDLING GROWTH OF FOUR VEGETABLES SPECIES

Due to increasing salinity problems, in this experiment four vegetables species were treated with different concentration of salt solution to study salt effect. Results indicated that salinity caused signifi cant reduction in germination percentage, germination rate, root and shoot lengths and fresh root and shoot weights. Liner relation was developed to fi nd relation between salt stress and plant growth and also between germination and rest of plant characters

Micro-layered-photolithography for Micro-Fabrication and Micro-Molding

A novel process based on the principle of layered photolithography has been proposed and tested for making real three-dimensional micro-structures. An experimental setup was designed and built for doing experiments on this micro-fabrication process. An ultraviolet (UV) excimer laser at the wavelength of 248 nm was used as the light source and a single piece of photo-mask carrying a series of two dimensional (2D) patterns sliced from a three dimensional (3D) micro-part was employed for the photolithography process. The experiments were conducted on the solidification of liquid photopolymer from single layer to multiple layers. The single-layer photolithography experiments showed that certain photopolymers could be applied for the 3D micro-fabrication, and solid layers with sharp shapes could be formed from the liquid polymer identified. By using a unique alignment technique, multiple layers of photolithography was successfully realized for a micro-gear with features at 60 microns. Electroforming was also conducted for converting the photopolymer master to a metal cavity of the micro-gear, which proved that the process is feasible for micro-molding.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Effect of soil salinity on the growth, amino acids and ion contents of rice transgenic lines

Rice seedling of different transgenic lines (T-99, T-112, T-115 and T-121) were grown in sand culture with salt concentration of 0, 50, 100 and 150 mM to determine the effect of salinity on growth, amino acid, and ion contents. It was observed that all the lines could tolerate concentration of up to 50 mM of salt solution. The lines (T-99, T-112 and T-115) were more salt tolerant even at a concentration of 100 mM of NaCl with their relative growth rate (RGR), and net assimilation rate (NAR) were unaffected as compared to the control. With the increase in salt concentrations, the proline contents increased for all the transgenic lines. On the other hand, a gradual decrease in the contents of glycine and arginine were observed with the increase in salinity treatments. A massive increase in the Na+ contents was measured in all the transgenic lines by application of the saline solutions. The K+ and Ca++ contents decreased with the increase in salt concentrations. The present study shows that although the plants accumulated Na, the lines T-99, T-112 and T-115 could tolerate concentrations of up to 100 mM.Key words: Salt stress, proline, glycine, Na, K, Ca, Oryza sativa

Accuracy Analysis and Improvement for Direct Laser Sintering

The accuracy issue of a rapid prototyping-direct laser sintering system is studied in this paper. The sources of errors are analyzed for their contribution to the final accuracy of built parts. The error sources are related to the hardware and software of the machine, the materials and the process. Special measures were exploited to improve the accuracy of the direct laser sintering system and process. For the errors caused by hardware like laser scanner, compensation by software was developed to correct the errors resulting from galvano-mirrors and F-θ lens. A compensation function mode was added to the slicing software to compensate the errors caused by material shrinkage and laser beam offset. Based on the analysis and improvement, a desired accuracy of 0.2mm has been achieved for the direct laser sintering system, which was verified by experiments.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Association between basal stem rot disease and simple sequence repeat markers in oil palm, Elaeis guineensis Jacq.

The oil palm is badly affected by basal stem rot (BSR) disease in Southeast Asia. BSR disease is caused by the fungus Ganoderma boninense, which is a major threat to oil palm compared with other Ganoderma spp. Molecular markers associated with BSR disease will accelerate the identification process of resistant breeding materials in screening of plants for tolerance to the disease at the nursery stage. In this study, 58 simple sequence repeat markers were utilized with three progeny types, namely, KA4G1, KA4G8, and KA14G8, to perform a comparative molecular mapping for association with BSR. A total of 319 alleles were identified with an average of 5.51 alleles per locus. Five markers, mEgCIR0793:180, mEgCIR0894:200, mEgCIR03295:210, mEgCIR3737:146 and mEgCIR3785:299 were found to be associated with Ganoderma disease with P values of 0.018, 0.033, 0.037, 0.034 and 0.037, respectively, in single progeny analysis. However, in pooled data (KA4G1, KA4G8 and KA14G8), only two alleles, mEgCIR0804:213 (P value = 0.001) and mEgCIR3292:183 (P value = 0.001), were found to be associated with Ganoderma disease. These analyses confirmed that progeny type KA4G1 was tolerant, whereas the other two were susceptible progeny types. These markers and KA4 progeny will be useful in future works on BSR disease resistance in oil palm

Advanced Robotic Therapy Integrated Centers (ARTIC): an international collaboration facilitating the application of rehabilitation technologies

Background: The application of rehabilitation robots has grown during the last decade. While meta-analyses have shown beneficial effects of robotic interventions for some patient groups, the evidence is less in others. We established the Advanced Robotic Therapy Integrated Centers (ARTIC) network with the goal of advancing the science and clinical practice of rehabilitation robotics. The investigators hope to exploit variations in practice to learn about current clinical application and outcomes. The aim of this paper is to introduce the ARTIC network to the clinical and research community, present the initial data set and its characteristics and compare the outcome data collected so far with data from prior studies. Methods: ARTIC is a pragmatic observational study of clinical care. The database includes patients with various neurological and gait deficits who used the driven gait orthosis Lokomat® as part of their treatment. Patient characteristics, diagnosis-specific information, and indicators of impairment severity are collected. Core clinical assessments include the 10-Meter Walk Test and the Goal Attainment Scaling. Data from each Lokomat® training session are automatically collected. Results: At time of analysis, the database contained data collected from 595 patients (cerebral palsy: n = 208; stroke: n = 129; spinal cord injury: n = 93; traumatic brain injury: n = 39; and various other diagnoses: n = 126). At onset, average walking speeds were slow. The training intensity increased from the first to the final therapy session and most patients achieved their goals. Conclusions: The characteristics of the patients matched epidemiological data for the target populations. When patient characteristics differed from epidemiological data, this was mainly due to the selection criteria used to assess eligibility for Lokomat® training. While patients included in randomized controlled interventional trials have to fulfill many inclusion and exclusion criteria, the only selection criteria applying to patients in the ARTIC database are those required for use of the Lokomat®. We suggest that the ARTIC network offers an opportunity to investigate the clinical application and effectiveness of rehabilitation technologies for various diagnoses. Due to the standardization of assessments and the use of a common technology, this network could serve as a basis for researchers interested in specific interventional studies expanding beyond the Lokomat®