Cash-Flow and Savings Practices of Low-Income Households: Evidence From a Follow-Up Study of IDA Participants

This study uses a survey of participants from an Individual Development Account (IDA) matched savings intervention to examine self-reported financial practices (cash flow and savings) five years after the intervention terminated. Latent class analysis produced three groups of financial practices - high, medium, and low functioning. Results showed that some low-income households are carefully managing their finances. Psychological sense of mastery was positively related to high functioning cash-flow and savings. The IDA intervention had no association with latent class membership. Antipoverty interventions should assess the financial practices of participants at the time of service enrollment. Further, social service providers should not assume that households are not already carefully managing their finances

Medication wastage and its disposal amongst patients at Suri Seri Begawan Hospital in Brunei Darussalam

Medication wastage poses a financial burden on the nation’s economy, as well as, environmental implications associated with wastage disposal. This study was conducted in a public hospital in Brunei and aimed to measure the extent of medication wastage and its disposal. This cross-sectional study used a self-designed questionnaire for patients attending outpatient pharmacy at the Suri Seri Begawan (SSB) hospital in which 253 patients participated over a period of two weeks. Exclusion criteria were: i) patients below 18 yrs, ii) patients visiting the Accident and Emergency Department and iii) patients admitted to the hospital. Majority of the participants were reported to have unused medication at home (75.1%, n=189). Nearly half (54.2%) had unused medicines and this was due to improvements in their medical conditions. Most of the participants (70.8%) were not given necessary advice on how to dispose their medicines in a proper manner. Majority disposed their unused medicines in the household garbage (70%), despite 50.2% (n=189) knowing that disposing of medicines in the garbage can cause detrimental effects on the environment. It was found that 47.7% of the participants would return their unused medicines back to the pharmacy, but in practice, only 18.6% did such. There was no significant association between knowing detrimental effects of medicine on the environment and returning their medicines to the pharmacy (p=0.065). Results showed that medication wastage exists in SSB hospital and patients’ knowledge and practices on its proper disposal was relatively poor. Health policy makers should be informed to implement wastage reduction strategies

Effect of delayed icing on the quality of tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon Fab.)

Effect of delayed icing on the quality of Penaeus monodon iced after three hours of harvest was studied in plastic and bamboo baskets. After harvest of three hours at ambient temperature (28°-32°C), ice was added to the shrimp at a ratio of 1:1 (shrimp:ice) and stored for 21 hours in both the baskets. Quality evaluation was carried out through visual assessment, biochemical analysis and microbial analysis for 24 hours. The organoleptic evaluation and scoring was done from the time of harvest treated as 0 hour and the average score was 10. At 9th hour after iced condition quality of shrimp was found reduced to the next stage (acceptable) with a score ranged from 8.4-6.5 in both baskets. This acceptable stage was observed throughout the experiment for bamboo basket whereas in the plastic basket the quality was reduced to a small extent with a score of 6.4 (moderately acceptable). Till the end point of the experiment the quality of shrimp was acceptable in respect to biochemical analysis. The microbial load was found log sub(10) 3.99±0.12 cfu/g to log sub(10) 4.33±0.21 cfu/g and log sub(10) 4.01 ±0.12 cfu/g to log sub(10) 4.83±0.19 cfu/g in the bamboo and plastic basket respectively. The importers or buyers suggests for immediate icing to maintain good quality but results of the present experiment suggest that the quality does not vary drastically for first three hours

A comprehensive set of UV and x-ray radiative transition rates for Fe XVI

Sodium-like Fe XVI is observed in collisionally ionized plasmas such as stellar coronae and coronal line regions of active galactic nuclei including black hole-accretion disc environments. Given its recombination edge from neon-like Fe XVII at ~25 Å, the Fe XVI bound-bound transitions lie in the soft x-ray and EUV (extreme ultraviolet) range. We present a comprehensive set of theoretical transition rates for radiative dipole allowed E1 transitions including fine structure for levels with nℓ(SLJ) ≤ 10, ℓ ≤ 9 using the relativistic Breit-Pauli R-matrix (BPRM) method. In addition, forbidden transitions of electric quadrupole (E2), electric octupole (E3), magnetic dipole (M1) and magnetic quadrupole (M2) type are presented for levels up to 5g(SLJ) from relativistic atomic structure calculations in the Breit-Pauli approximation using code SUPERSTRUCTURE. Some of the computed levels are autoionizing, and oscillator strengths among those are also provided. BPRM results have been benchmarked with the relativistic coupled cluster method and the atomic structure Dirac-Fock code GRASP. Levels computed with the electron collision BPRM codes in bound state mode were identified with a procedure based on the analysis of quantum defects and asymptotic wavefunctions. The total number of Fe XVI levels considered is 96, with 822 E1 transitions. Tabulated values are presented for the oscillator strengths f, line strengths S and Einstein radiative decay rates A. This extensive dataset should enable spectral modelings up to highly excited levels, including recombination-cascade matrices.This work was partially supported by the NASA Astronomy and Physics Research Program and the Astrophysical Theory Program. The computational work was carried out at the Ohio Supercomputer Center in Columbus, Ohio. CS acknowledges discussions with Professor B P Das, Professor D Mukherjee and Professor R K Chaudhuri

Performance analysis of real-time PSO tuned PI controller for regulating voltage and frequency in an AC microgrid

In this study, a control strategy based on the self-tuning method and synchronous reference frame (SRF) with PI regulator is proposed to achieve optimum quality of power in an autonomous micro grid (MG). The MGS is based on multiple distributed generation (DG) connected with 120 kV power grid. The proposed system is first simulated with fixed gain values for PI controller which are not optimal for sudden changes in the system i.e. transition of MG to islanding mode, load variations. So, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been utilized for tuning of PI controller parameters which ensure flexible performance and superior quality of power. The principal parameters considered in this study are, regulation of voltage and frequency, steady-state and dynamic response and harmonic distortion, mainly when microgrid is islanded. The performance of PI and PI-PSO is compared in this study by simulating AC microgrid in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. Summarized results of the system are provided to authenticate viability of proposed arrangement. The proposed controller performs intelligently while regulating voltage and frequency of the MGS and utility system.

Relativistic photoionization cross sections for C II

High resolution measurements of photoionization cross sections for atomic ions are now being made on synchrotron radiation sources. The recent measurements by Kjeldsen etal. (1999) showed good agreement between the observed resonance features and the the theoretical calculations in the close coupling approximation (Nahar 1995). However, there were several observed resonances that were missing in the theoretical predictions. The earlier theoretical calculation was carried out in LS coupling where the relativistic effects were not included. Present work reports photoionization cross sections including the relativistic effects in Breit-Pauli R-matrix (BPRM) approximation. The configuration interaction eigenfunction expansion for the core ion C III consists of 20 fine structure levels dominated by the configurations from 1s^22s^2 to 1s^22s3d. Detailed features in the calculated cross sections exhibit the missing resonances due to fine structure. The results benchmark the accuracy of BPRM photoionization cross sections as needed for recent and ongoing experiments.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Double Carbon−Hydrogen Activation of 2-Vinylpyridine: Synthesis of Tri- and Pentanuclear Clusters Containing the μ-NC\u3csub\u3e5\u3c/sub\u3eH\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3eCH═C Ligand

Reactions of 2-vinylpyridine with the triruthenium complexes [Ru3(CO)12] and [Ru3(CO)10(μ-dppm)] leads to a previously unknown double carbon−hydrogen bond activation of the β-carbon of the vinyl group to afford the pentaruthenium and triruthenium complexes [Ru5(CO)14(μ4-C5H4CH═C)(μ-H)2] (1) and [Ru3Cl(CO)5(μ-CO)(μ-dppm)(μ3-NC5H4CH═C)(μ-H)] (2), respectively. Crystal structures reveal two different forms of bridging of the dimetalated 2-vinylpyridyl ligand, capping a square face in 1 and a triangular face in 2

Large-scale Breit-Pauli R-matrix calculations for transition probabilities of Fe V

Ab initio theoretical calculations are reported for the electric (E1) dipole allowed and intercombination fine structure transitions in Fe V using the Breit-Pauli R-matrix (BPRM) method. We obtain 3865 bound fine structure levels of Fe V and $1.46 x 10^6$ oscillator strengths, Einstein A-coefficients and line strengths. In addition to the relativistic effects, the intermediate coupling calculations include extensive electron correlation effects that represent the complex configuration interaction (CI). Fe V bound levels are obtained with angular and spin symmetries $SL\pi$ and $J\pi$ of the (e + Fe VI) system such that $2S+1$ = 5,3,1, $L \leq$ 10, $J \leq 8$. The bound levels are obtained as solutions of the Breit-Pauli (e + ion) Hamiltonian for each $J\pi$, and are designated according to the `collision' channel quantum numbers. A major task has been the identification of these large number of bound fine structure levels in terms of standard spectroscopic designations. A new scheme, based on the analysis of quantum defects and channel wavefunctions, has been developed. The identification scheme aims particularly to determine the completeness of the results in terms of all possible bound levels for applications to analysis of experimental measurements and plasma modeling. An uncertainty of 10-20% for most transitions is estimated.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure, Physica Scripta (in press