Waters of The Past & Present - The Revival of Water's Forgotten Stories, The Relationship of Water to Architectural Development For The Chiva Warin Center (River Life Center) By the Mae Ping River, Chiang Mai, Thailand

This Doctorate Project studies waterfront cities and proposes a new waterfront development in Chiang Mai, Thailand around an ancient river that is not used to its full potential. The Doctorate Project is divided into two components, one is the research component where precedent case cities are selected for their waterfront locations and the symbolism of water in Thai culture, and two the second component is the design project which is a New Chiang Mai Urban Waterfront Center master plan (The Chiva Warin Center By the Mae Ping River) to revive the urban linkage between a historical site which has been divided from lack of use and accessibility, growing disconnected from each other. The site location is on both sides of the Mae Ping River consisting of marketplace and institutional buildings on one side of the riverbank and an entertainment edge, heritage shop houses and residences on the other side. Objectives of Design Project: - Preserve culture and still show authenticity of heritage in context to time and site. Through analysis identify which areas of the site must be preserved and what is past regeneration so that it can be used as the design redevelopment areas. - Bring recognition to a river which has been part of the site's history. - Achieve this with a walkable and cultural corridor along the Mae Ping's edge. - Allow future floods through the new master plan with elevated boardwalks so that daily activities continues during the flood days

Probing extragalactic dust through gamma-ray burst afterglows

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on October 28, 2010).Thesis advisor: Dr. Aigen Li.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010.Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the universe and a very interesting phenomenon in themselves. The gamma-rays and the X-ray flashes (XRFs) are the manifestations of the most violent, cataclysmic explosions in the Universe. GRBs are followed by so-called afterglow emission detected in lower energy bands and on longer timescales, e.g. Xray, UV, optical, near-infrared, radio emissions from a few hundred seconds to a few months. The following thesis does not deal with the GRB phenomenon itself but it is studying their environment and host galaxies through optical spectroscopy and using them as light sources In the distant universe. This thesis is divided into six parts. The first chapter of the thesis discusses the importance of dust on exploring the host galaxies of GRBs. In the second chapter, we present a detailed study on the obscuration and reddening by dust in GRB host galaxies. We propose a novel approach - "Drude" model to derive the GRB host extinction law. We also present the general dust extinction models and explain why our "Drude" model is more favorable. With the template extinction laws all self-contained, and the capability of revealing extinction laws differing from the conventional ones, it is shown that this is a powerful approach in modeling the afterglow SEDs to derive GRB host extinction. In the third chapter, we select GRB070802 at z= 2.45 (which shows clear evidence for the 2175Å extinction bump) and GRB050904 at z= 6.29, the 3rd most distant GRB observed to date and fit their afterglow spectra to determine the extinction of their host galaxies, with an emphasis on the 2175Å extinction feature at high redshifts. We find that their extinction curves differ substantially from that of the Milky Way, the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, the 2175Å extinction feature appears to be also present in GRB050904 at z=6.29. In the fourth and fifth chapter, we present a study of the dust properties for a large sample (33 objects) of long-GRB host galaxies at z [less than] 2.0 and another large sample (27 objects) at z [greater than] 2.0, respectively. From the derived strength of the far-UV extinction rise, strength of the 2175Å extinction, the total-to selective extinction ratio RV , host galaxy visual extinction AV , dust composition and the mass weighted mean dust sizes of all 60 GRBs, we find no evidence of evolution of the dust properties (extinction, sizes and abundance) on redshifts. The thesis ends with summary, outlook and the references.Includes bibliographical reference

Operational Dust Prediction

Over the last few years, numerical prediction of dust aerosol concentration has become prominent at several research and operational weather centres due to growing interest from diverse stakeholders, such as solar energy plant managers, health professionals, aviation and military authorities and policymakers. Dust prediction in numerical weather prediction-type models faces a number of challenges owing to the complexity of the system. At the centre of the problem is the vast range of scales required to fully account for all of the physical processes related to dust. Another limiting factor is the paucity of suitable dust observations available for model, evaluation and assimilation. This chapter discusses in detail numerical prediction of dust with examples from systems that are currently providing dust forecasts in near real-time or are part of international efforts to establish daily provision of dust forecasts based on multi-model ensembles. The various models are introduced and described along with an overview on the importance of dust prediction activities and a historical perspective. Assimilation and evaluation aspects in dust prediction are also discussed

The effect of illustrations on patient comprehension of medication instruction labels

BACKGROUND: Labels with special instructions regarding how a prescription medication should be taken or its possible side effects are often applied to pill bottles. The goal of this study was to determine whether the addition of illustrations to these labels affects patient comprehension. METHODS: Study participants (N = 130) were enrolled by approaching patients at three family practice clinics in Toronto, Canada. Participants were asked to interpret two sets of medication instruction labels, the first with text only and the second with the same text accompanied by illustrations. Two investigators coded participants' responses as incorrect, partially correct, or completely correct. Health literacy levels of participants were measured using a validated instrument, the REALM test. RESULTS: All participants gave a completely correct interpretation for three out of five instruction labels, regardless of whether illustrations were present or not. For the two most complex labels, only 34–55% of interpretations of the text-only version were completely correct. The addition of illustrations was associated with improved performance in 5–7% of subjects and worsened performance in 7–9% of subjects. CONCLUSION: The commonly-used illustrations on the medication labels used in this study were of little or no use in improving patients' comprehension of the accompanying written instructions

Duplex Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering-Based Lateral Flow Immunosensor for the Low-Level Detection of Antibiotic Residues in Milk

A duplex surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based lateral flow immunosensor was established for the simultaneous detection of two common antibiotic residues including tetracycline and penicillin in milk. The newly synthesized Au@Ag nanoparticles were labeled with different Raman molecules including 5,5-dithiobis-2-nitrobenzoic acid (DTNB) or 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA), followed by the conjugation of anti-tetracycline monoclonal antibody or anti-penicillin receptor, forming two kinds of SERS nanoprobes. The two nanoprobes can recognize tetracycline-BSA and ampicillin-BSA, respectively, which facilitates the simultaneous detection of the two types of antibiotics on a single test line. After optimization, detection limits of tetracycline and penicillin as low as 0.015 ng/mL and 0.010 ng/mL, respectively, were achieved. These values were far below those of most of other documented bio-analytical approaches. Moreover, the spiking test demonstrates an excellent assay accuracy with recoveries of 88.8% to 111.3%, and satisfactory assay precision with relative standard deviation below 16%. Consequently, the results demonstrate that the SERS-based lateral flow immunosensor developed in this study has the advantages of excellent assay sensitivity and remarkable multiplexing capability, thus it will have great application potential in food safety monitoring

Immunoaffinity Cleanup and Isotope Dilution-Based Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry for the Determination of Six Major Mycotoxins in Feed and Feedstuff

In this study, a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for simultaneous determination of deoxynivalenol, aflatoxin B1, zearalenone, ochratoxin A, T-2 toxin and fumonisin B1 in feed and feedstuff was established. The sample was extracted with an acetonitrile–water mixture (60:40, v/v), purified by an immunoaffinity column, eluted with a methanol–acetic acid mixture (98:2, v/v), and reconstituted with a methanol–water mixture (50:50, v/v) after drying with nitrogen. Finally, the reconstituted solution was detected by LC-MS/MS and quantified by isotope internal standard method. The six mycotoxins had a good linear relationship in a certain concentration range, the correlation coefficients were all greater than 0.99, the limits of detection were between 0.075 and 1.5 µg·kg−1, and the limits of quantification were between 0.5 and 5 µg·kg−1. The average spike recoveries in the four feed matrices ranged from 84.2% to 117.1% with relative standard deviations less than 11.6%. Thirty-six actual feed samples were analyzed for mycotoxins, and at least one mycotoxin was detected in each sample. The proposed method is reliable and suitable for detecting common mycotoxins in feed samples

Antagonistic Effects of Enrofloxacin on Carbendazim-Induced Developmental Toxicity in Zebrafish Embryos

Carbendazim (CAR) and enrofloxacin (ENF) are frequently detected in fruits and meat products, respectively. Since most people consume fruits, vegetables, and meat products, combined exposure is possible, necessitating further evaluation of toxic interactions. In this study, the developmental toxicity of separate and combined exposure was examined in zebrafish embryos. Carbendazim exposure at 0.79 mg/L and above significantly affected developmental parameters, while enrofloxacin alone had no substantial effects on these developmental parameters within the selected concentration range (0.10–0.40 mg/L). Surprisingly, ENF antagonized the CAR-evoked reduction in the 48 hpf (hours post-fertilization) hatching rate and the increases in the 96 hpf malformation and lethality rates. The results revealed that the antagonism might be associated with reciprocal effects of these compounds on metabolism-related genes, such as cyp7a1 and apoa1a. These results reveal a complex interaction between ENF and CAR on metabolic regulation during development and highlight the importance of combined assessment for agents with the potential for simultaneous exposure