The local and the global: Gina Nahai and the taking up of serpents and stereotypes

Region, home and transnational migration are explored in terms of the transcultural complexities that reverberate through Iranian American Gina Nahai's Sunday's Silence. Nahai grapples with stereotypes that attach to the Holiness churches in the east Tennessee region of Appalachia. This essay argues that the novel's politics rest on the intersubjectivity of strangers as bound into a metaphysics of desire. It is through this paradigm that Nahai writes against the reductive association of “minority” literature with discrete “national” models and through which she explores the local and the regional in a culturally complex narrative about the crisis of alterity

Efficacy and the safety of endoscopic ultrasound guided radiofrequency ablation of pancreatic tumors : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is well-established therapy for the treatment of solid organ tumor. We aimed to determine the efficacy of endoscopic ultrasound guided RFA (EUS-RFA) in management of pancreatic tumors

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory's Radiation Environment and the AP-8/AE-8 Model

The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) was launched on July 23, 1999 and reached its final orbit on August 7, 1999. The CXO is in a highly elliptical orbit, approximately 140,000 km x 10,000 km, and has a period of approximately 63.5 hours (~ 2.65 days). It transits the Earth's Van Allen belts once per orbit during which no science observations can be performed due to the high radiation environment. The Chandra X-ray Observatory Center (CXC) currently uses the National Space Science Data Center's ``near Earth'' AP-8/AE-8 radiation belt model to predict the start and end times of passage through the radiation belts. However, our scheduling software uses only a simple dipole model of the Earth's magnetic field. The resulting B, L magnetic coordinates, do not always give sufficiently accurate predictions of the start and end times of transit of the Van Allen belts. We show this by comparing to the data from Chandra's on-board radiation monitor, the EPHIN (Electron, Proton, Helium Instrument particle detector) instrument. We present evidence that demonstrates this mis-timing of the outer electron radiation belt as well as data that also demonstrate the significant variablity of one radiation belt transit to the next as experienced by the CXO. We also present an explanation for why the dipole implementation of the AP-8/AE-8 model is not ideally suited for the CXO. Lastly, we provide a brief discussion of our on-going efforts to identify a model that accounts for radiation belt variability, geometry, and one that can be used for observation scheduling purposes.Comment: 12 pgs, 6 figs, for SPIE 4012 (Paper 76

EFFECTS OF HOUSING SYSTEMS ON PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF COMMERCIAL LAYERS FOLLOWING INDUCED MOLTING BY ALUMINIUM OXIDE SUPPLEMENTATION

The project was carried out to compare the performance of molted layers by aluminium oxide supplementation in cages and on litter floor system. Seventy two Single Comb White Leghorn commercial layers (60 weeks old) were divided into six experimental units of 12 layers each. These experimental units were randomly divided into two groups, each consisting of three experimental units, one group was reared on litter floor and the other in cages. The layers were provided with 35 gm feed containing 4 gm aluminium oxide/kg of feed for first 14 days of molting period (66-67 weeks of age). The layers showed significant reduction in body weight following induced molting by aluminium oxide under both housing systems. Body weight loss was higher, while feed consumption was lower, in the cages as compared to litter floor system. The layers molted by aluminium oxide showed significantly higher egg production in the cages (P≤0.05) than in litter floor system (P≤0.05). The layers in the subsequent production cycle showed improvement in egg weight, egg shell thickness and Haugh Unit Score. The egg weight and egg shell thickness were higher in the birds kept on litter floor system than those kept in cages (P≥0.05). However, Haugh unit score was higher in the cage system. It was concluded that aluminium oxide can be effectively supplemented for better production performance and improved egg quality in the second production cycle preferably in the cages

The dark side of phubbing in the workplace: Investigating the role of intrinsic motivation and the use of enterprise social media (ESM) in a cross-cultural setting

Despite the increasing phenomena of supervisor phubbing (a counterproductive workplace behaviour of managers), very few studies have explored its outcomes in organisations. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating the relationships between supervisor phubbing and key employee outcomes. We conducted two studies in cross-cultural settings. In Study 1, which was conducted in Pakistan (a collectivistic culture), we collected 370 useable responses through an online survey from the employees working in the service sector organisations. Study 2, which was conducted in the United States of America (an individualistic culture), utilised the Prolific data collection service to gather 352 responses. Our results from both studies reveal that supervisor phubbing is negatively related to employee job performance and work engagement via intrinsic motivation. Further, enterprise social media (ESM) usage in organisations moderates the relationships between supervisor phubbing and its outcomes such that these relationships are weaker for employees whose ESM usage is higher. Our work offers significant contributions to the literature on technology use at workplace as it discusses a counterproductive workplace behaviour of managers (phubbing) and that behaviour’s association with key employee outcomes in organisations while also considering the moderating role of ESM usage in organisations

Evaluating Impact of Mobility on Wireless Routing Protocols

In this paper, we evaluate, analyze, and compare the impact of mobility on the behavior of three reactive protocols (AODV, DSR, DYMO) and three proactive protocols (DSDV, FSR, OLSR) in multi-hop wireless networks. We take into account throughput, end-to-end delay, and normalized routing load as performance parameters. Based upon the extensive simulation results in NS-2, we rank all of six protocols according to the performance parameters. Besides providing the interesting facts regarding the response of each protocol on varying mobilities and speeds, we also study the trade-offs, the routing protocols have to make. Such as, to achieve throughput, a protocol has to pay some cost in the form of increased end-to-end delay or routing overhead

Cholangiocarcinoma in a Resected Biliary Cyst: Importance of Follow-up

Biliary cysts are rare cystic dilatations of the biliary tree. Biliary cysts are positively associated with several significant complications, amongst them, cholangiocarcinoma befalls the most dreadful one. The elevated incidence is 20-30% in the unresected cyst and 0.7% in resected cysts. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) or a contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) is applied for the initial diagnostic study but the ultimate diagnosis ordinarily requires the tissue biopsy. Currently, the sole curative option involves the complete surgical resection of the lesion, with standard chemotherapy and active radiation applied as an alternative for the unresectable tumors. Despite the curative surgery the percentage of eternal recurrence of the tumor indefinitely persists, and effective post-surgical surveillance is reasonably demanded. We report a case of 29-year-old female with local recurrence of cholangiocarcinoma in a previously resected biliary cyst type I. The curative resection of the choledochal cyst only minimizes the considerable risk of the possible development of future cholangiocarcinoma but it does not completely prevent it. The appropriate follow-up for potential patients who have been typically treated for a biliary cyst is unclear. The lethal course of cholangiocarcinoma is believed due to its slow asymptomatic growing phase. Therefore, to adequately screen for malignancy, periodic imaging along with annual liver tests represents a reasonable approach to prevent the possible development of this appalling complication.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Jet-Induced Nucleosynthesis in Misaligned Microquasars

The jet axes and the orbital planes of microquasar systems are usually assumed to be approximately perpendicular, eventhough this is not currently an observational requirement. On the contrary, in one of the few systems where the relative orientations are well-constrained, V4641Sgr, the jet axis is known to lie not more than ~36 degrees from the binary plane. Such a jet, lying close to the binary plane, and traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light may periodically impact the secondary star initiating nuclear reactions on its surface. The integrated yield of such nuclear reactions over the age of the binary system (less the radiative mass loss) will detectably alter the elemental abundances of the companion star. This scenario may explain the anomalously high Li enhancements (roughly ~20-200 times the sun's photospheric value; or, equivalently, 0.1-1 times the average solar system value) seen in the companions of some black-hole X-ray binary systems. (Such enhancements are puzzling since Li nuclei are exceedingly fragile - being easily destroyed in the interiors of stars - and Li would be expected to be depleted rather than enhanced there.) Gamma-ray line signatures of the proposed process could include the 2.22 MeV neutron capture line as well as the 0.478 MeV 7Li* de-excitation line, both of which may be discernable with the INTEGRAL satellite if produced in an optically thin region during a large outburst. For very energetic jets, a relatively narrow neutral pion gamma-decay signature at 67.5 MeV could also be measurable with the GLAST satellite. We argue that about 10-20% of all microquasar systems ought to be sufficiently misaligned as to be undergoing the proposed jet-secondary impacts.Comment: ApJ, accepted. Includes referee's suggestions and some minor clarifications over previous versio

PREVALENCE AND ANTHELMINTIC EFFICACY OF ABAMECTIN AGAINST GASTROINTESTINAL PARASITES IN HORSES

The prevalence and anthelmintic efficacy of Abamectin against gastrointestinal parasites under field conditions in Faisalabad (Punjab, Pakistan) was studied in 100 horses. The overall prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites was 75%, including Strongylus spp. (50%), Oxyuris equi (12%), Parascaris equorum (8%) and mixed infection (5%). Among these naturally infected animals, 15 were selected. These horses were assigned to three groups on the basis of prevalent species of gastrointestinal parasites. Each group had five animals, comprising four treatment horses and a control horse. Abamectin was evaluated against these gastrointestinal parasites with a single shot at the dose rate of 0.2 mg/kg body weight administered through subcutaneous route which resulted in 98% reduction in faecal egg count after day 14 post-treatment. Non-treated horses remained positive for gastrointestinal parasites. No adverse reactions were observed during the experimental period. It was concluded that Abamectin is highly effective against gastrointestinal parasites in horses