Information Seeking Behavior and User Pattern in Library by Faculties of Engineering Colleges in South Tamil Nadu- A Study

Engineers who are faculty members in engineering colleges now-a-days require not only adequate technological ability and problem solving skills, but also the necessary skills live active co-operation, effective communication and presentation, along with business ethics and inter-personal relationship. At present, engineering colleges have in common an additional responsibility properly provide excellent opportunities to every engineering student to properly utilize the technological knowledge. The study was conducted with the help of a well structured, close-ended questionnaire. The respondents were selected on the basis of stratified random sampling method form the four southern districts of Tamil Nadu at the rate of 140 per district totaling 560 sampling respondents. All the respondents are faculty members from selected engineering colleges in these four districts. The study concluded that university libraries have adopted all the new information and communication technologies (ICT) and electronic resources and they are efficiently used by the academic faculties. Most of the engineering colleges are provided with the advanced technologies in the departments so as to make effective teaching and research usage. The government has now, taken initiative to undergo several steps to improve the digital library infrastructure

NEW CLASSIFICATION AND COLOUR CODE DEVELOPMENT FOR AN EFFICIENT MEDICAL WASTE SEGREGATION

Medical waste poses serious threat to the environmental health without comprehensive guidelines and efficient management as it contains highly toxic chemicals, pathogenic viruses and bacteria. Therefore, proper handling of medical waste with specialised treatment from its source to final disposal has been a primary concern among medical institute, public and private agencies. The existing medical waste classification in many countries does not contain clear and appropriate segregation, which has created confusion among the medical staff in handling medical waste.  It is pertinent to mention that, World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance recommends different countries to conduct assessments prior to any decision-making process and improve their own guidelines incorporated with recent technologies. Therefore, the objectives of this research are: 1) to develop a new classification of medical wastes by identifying the gaps in the current classes and 2) to suggest colour code for the medical waste segregation that is adopted from the WHO's colour code with few amendments as per the recent technological development. Due to the challenge in managing medical waste, there is an urgent need in developing and adopting comprehensive medical waste segregation classification to separate the medical waste at the source itself. The methodology of classification is aimed at applying a source separation practiced by the medical personnel on the spot and given them awareness on the segregation process. The proposed new classification of medical waste is based on Malaysia's Scheduled Waste Regulations together with European Waste Code. By extracting the best classification from these two regulations and by overcoming the lacuna in them, a new classification is developed for current use. The developed medical waste classification and its colour codes must provide a better segregation and achieve cost saving at waste disposal. The current methods of classification could be extended to research on application of such classification to other parts of the world

Influence of elevated carbon dioxide concentrations on methane emission and its associated soil microflora in rice ecosystem

The dynamics of methane emission and its associated soil microflora in rice ecosystem as a response to elevated CO2 concentrations were studied in open top chamber (OTC) conditions. The treatments consisted of three levels of CO2 (396, 550 and 750 µmol mol-1) and three levels of nitrogen (0, 150 and 200 kg ha-1) and replicated five times in a completely randomized design. The data showed that elevated [CO2] significantly (P ? 0.01) increased the DOC throughout the cropping period with the values ranging from 533 to 722 mg L-1 and 368 to 501 mg L-1 in C750 and Camb, respectively. Methane emission rates were monitored regularly during the experiment period and it was revealed that elevated [CO2] had increased the methane emissions regardless of stages of crop growth.  It was observed that methane emissions were significantly higher under [CO2] of 750 µmol mol-1 by 33 to 54 per cent over the ambient [CO2] of 396 µmol mol-1. Consistent with the observed increases in methane flux, the enumeration of methanogens showed a significant (P ? 0.01) increase under elevated [CO2] with the population ranging from 5.7 to 20.1 x 104 CFU g-1 of dry soil and 5.1 to 16.9 x 104 CFU g-1 of dry soil under C750 and Camb concentrations, respectively. Interestingly, even though higher methanotrophs population was recorded under elevated [CO2], it could not circumvent the methane emission. Overall, the results of OTC studies suggest that methane mitigation strategies need to be explored for the future high CO2 environments.

Structural basis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus ADP-ribose-1''-phosphate dephosphorylation by a conserved domain of nsP3.

The crystal structure of a conserved domain of nonstructural protein 3 (nsP3) from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) has been solved by single-wavelength anomalous dispersion to 1.4 A resolution. The structure of this "X" domain, seen in many single-stranded RNA viruses, reveals a three-layered alpha/beta/alpha core with a macro-H2A-like fold. The putative active site is a solvent-exposed cleft that is conserved in its three structural homologs, yeast Ymx7, Archeoglobus fulgidus AF1521, and Er58 from E. coli. Its sequence is similar to yeast YBR022W (also known as Poa1P), a known phosphatase that acts on ADP-ribose-1''-phosphate (Appr-1''-p). The SARS nsP3 domain readily removes the 1'' phosphate group from Appr-1''-p in in vitro assays, confirming its phosphatase activity. Sequence and structure comparison of all known macro-H2A domains combined with available functional data suggests that proteins of this superfamily form an emerging group of nucleotide phosphatases that dephosphorylate Appr-1''-p

Hospital Differences in Cesarean Deliveries in Massachusetts (US) 2004–2006: The Case against Case-Mix Artifact

Objective: We examined the extent to which differences in hospital-level cesarean delivery rates in Massachusetts were attributable to hospital-level, rather than maternal, characteristics. Methods: Birth certificate and maternal in-patient hospital discharge records for 2004–06 in Massachusetts were linked. The study population was nulliparous, term, singleton, and vertex births (NTSV) (n = 80,371) in 49 hospitals. Covariates included mother's age, race/ethnicity, education, infant birth weight, gestational age, labor induction (yes/no), hospital shift at time of birth, and preexisting health conditions. We estimated multilevel logistic regression models to assess the likelihood of a cesarean delivery. Results: Overall, among women with NTSV births, 26.5% births were cesarean, with a range of 14% to 38.3% across hospitals. In unadjusted models, the between-hospital variance was 0.103 (SE 0.022); adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic and preexisting medical conditions did not reduce any hospital-level variation 0.108 (SE 0.023). Conclusion: Even after adjusting for both socio-demographic and clinical factors, the chance of a cesarean delivery for NTSV pregnancies varied according to hospital, suggesting the importance of hospital practices and culture in determining a hospital's cesarean rate

The Impact of Brand Quality on Shareholder Wealth

This study examines the impact of brand quality on three components of shareholder wealth: stock returns, systematic risk, and idiosyncratic risk. The study finds that brand quality enhances shareholder wealth insofar as unanticipated changes in brand quality are positively associated with stock returns and negatively related to changes in idiosyncratic risk. However, unanticipated changes in brand quality can also erode shareholder wealth because they have a positive association with changes in systematic risk. The study introduces a contingency theory view to the marketing-finance interface by analyzing the moderating role of two factors that are widely followed by investors. The results show an unanticipated increase (decrease) in current-period earnings enhances (depletes) the positive impact of unanticipated changes in brand quality on stock returns and mitigates (enhances) their deleterious effects on changes in systematic risk. Similarly, brand quality is more valuable for firms facing increasing competition (i.e., unanticipated decreases in industry concentration). The results are robust to endogeneity concerns and across alternative models. The authors conclude by discussing the nuanced implications of their findings for shareholder wealth, reporting brand quality to investors, and its use in employee evaluation

Information Seeking Behavior and User Pattern in Library by Faculties of Engineering Colleges in South Tamil Nadu- A Study

Engineers who are faculty members in engineering colleges now-a-days require not only adequate technological ability and problem solving skills, but also the necessary skills live active co-operation, effective communication and presentation, along with business ethics and inter-personal relationship. At present, engineering colleges have in common an additional responsibility properly provide excellent opportunities to every engineering student to properly utilize the technological knowledge. The study was conducted with the help of a well structured, close-ended questionnaire. The respondents were selected on the basis of stratified random sampling method form the four southern districts of Tamil Nadu at the rate of 140 per district totaling 560 sampling respondents. All the respondents are faculty members from selected engineering colleges in these four districts. The study concluded that university libraries have adopted all the new information and communication technologies (ICT) and electronic resources and they are efficiently used by the academic faculties. Most of the engineering colleges are provided with the advanced technologies in the departments so as to make effective teaching and research usage. The government has now, taken initiative to undergo several steps to improve the digital library infrastructure

The Anticancer Role of Capsaicin in Experimentallyinduced Lung Carcinogenesis

Objectives: Capsaicin (CAP) is the chief pungent principle found in the hot red peppers and the chili peppers that have long been used as spices, food additives and drugs. This study investigated the anticancer potential of CAP through its ability to modify extracellular matrix components and proteases during mice lung carcinogenesis. Methods: Swiss albino mice were treated with benzo(a) pyrene (50 mg/kg body weight dissolved in olive oil) orally twice a week for four successive weeks to induce lung cancer at the end of 14th week. CAP was administrated (10 mg/kg body weight dissolved in olive oil) intraperitoneally. Extracellular matrix components were assayed; Masson’s trichome staining of lung tissues was performed. Western blot analyses of matrix metalloproteases 2 and 9 were also carried out. Results: In comparison with the control animals, animals in which benzo(a)pyrene had induced lung cancer showed significant increases in extracellular matrix components such as collagen (hydroxy proline), elastin, uronic acid and hexosamine and in glycosaminoglycans such as hyaluronate, chondroitin sulfate, keratan sulfate and dermatan sulfate. The above alterations in extracellular matrix components were effectively counteracted in benzo(a)pyrene along with CAP supplemented animals when compared to benzo(a) pyrene alone supplemented animals. The results of Masson’s trichome staining for collagen and of, immunoblotting analyses of matrix metalloproteases 2 and 9 further supported the biochemical findings. Conclusion: The apparent potential of CAP in modulating extracellular matrix components and proteases suggests that CAP plays a chemomodulatory and anti- cancer role working against experimentally induced lung carcinogenesis

Structural basis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus ADP-ribose-1''-phosphate dephosphorylation by a conserved domain of nsP3.

The crystal structure of a conserved domain of nonstructural protein 3 (nsP3) from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) has been solved by single-wavelength anomalous dispersion to 1.4 A resolution. The structure of this "X" domain, seen in many single-stranded RNA viruses, reveals a three-layered alpha/beta/alpha core with a macro-H2A-like fold. The putative active site is a solvent-exposed cleft that is conserved in its three structural homologs, yeast Ymx7, Archeoglobus fulgidus AF1521, and Er58 from E. coli. Its sequence is similar to yeast YBR022W (also known as Poa1P), a known phosphatase that acts on ADP-ribose-1''-phosphate (Appr-1''-p). The SARS nsP3 domain readily removes the 1'' phosphate group from Appr-1''-p in in vitro assays, confirming its phosphatase activity. Sequence and structure comparison of all known macro-H2A domains combined with available functional data suggests that proteins of this superfamily form an emerging group of nucleotide phosphatases that dephosphorylate Appr-1''-p