Acute Administration of Clozapine and Risperidone Altered Dopamine Metabolism More in Rat Caudate than in Nucleus Accumbens: A Dose-Response Relationship

The present study compares the extrapyramidal and neurochemical effects of clozapine and risperidone in rat caudate (corpus striatum) and nucleus accumbens (ventral striatum) dose-dependently. Animals injected with clozapine (2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 mg/kg IP) or risperidone (1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg IP) in acute were sacrificed 1 h later to collect brain samples. Extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) in terms of locomotor activity and catalepsy were monitored in each animal after the drug or vehicle administration. Maximum cataleptic potentials were found only at high doses of clozapine (10.0 mg/kg; 60%) and risperidone (5.0 mg/kg; 100%). Neurochemical estimations were carried out by HPLC-EC. Both drugs at all doses significantly (p<0.01) increased the concentration of homovanillic acid (HVA), a metabolite of DA, in the caudate nucleus and decreased in nucleus accumbens. Levels of Dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) significantly (p<0.01) increased in the caudate by clozapine administration and decreased in the nucleus accumbens by the administration of both drugs in a dose-dependent manner. 5-Hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), the predominant metabolite of serotonin significantly decreased in the caudate and nucleus accumbens in a similar fashion. Levels of tryptophan (TRP) were remained insignificant in caudate and nucleus accumbens by the injections of two drugs. In caudate, clozapine and risperidone administrations significantly (p<0.01) decreased HVA/DA ratio and increased DOPAC/DA ratio in nucleus accumbens at all doses. The findings suggest the evidence for DA/5-HT receptor interaction as an important link in the lower incidence of EPS. The possible role of serotonin1A receptors in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia is also discussed

Comprehensive Analytical Investigation Of The Safety Of Unsignalized Intersections

According to documented statistics, intersections are among the most hazardous locations on roadway systems. Many studies have extensively analyzed safety of signalized intersections, but did not put their major focus on the most frequent type of intersections, unsignalized intersections. Unsignalized intersections are those intersections with stop control, yield control and no traffic control. Unsignalized intersections can be differentiated from their signalized counterparts in that their operational functions take place without the presence of a traffic signal. In this dissertation, multiple approaches of analyzing safety at unsignalized intersections were conducted. This was investigated in this study by analyzing total crashes, the most frequent crash types at unsignalized intersections (rear-end as well as angle crashes) and crash injury severity. Additionally, an access management analysis was investigated with respect to the different median types identified in this study. Some of the developed methodological techniques in this study are considered recent, and have not been extensively applied. In this dissertation, the most extensive data collection effort for unsignalized intersections was conducted. There were 2500 unsignalized intersections collected from six counties in the state of Florida. These six counties were Orange, Seminole, Hillsborough, Brevard, Leon and Miami-Dade. These selected counties are major counties representing the central, western, eastern, northern and southern parts in Florida, respectively. Hence, a geographic representation of the state of Florida was achieved. Important intersections\u27 geometric and roadway features, minor approach traffic control, major approach traffic flow and crashes were obtained. The traditional negative binomial (NB) regression model was used for modeling total crash frequency for two years at unsignalized intersections. This was considered since the NB technique is well accepted for modeling crash count data suffering from over-dispersion. The NB models showed several important variables affecting safety at unsignalized intersections. These include the traffic volume on the major road and the existence of stop signs, and among the geometric characteristics, the configuration of the intersection, number of right and/or left turn lanes, median type on the major road, and left and right shoulder widths. Afterwards, a new approach of applying the Bayesian updating concept for better crash prediction was introduced. Different non-informative and informative prior structures using the NB and log-gamma distributions were attempted. The log-gamma distribution showed the best prediction capability. Crash injury severity at unsignalized intersections was analyzed using the ordered probit, binary probit and nested logit frameworks. The binary probit method was considered the best approach based on its goodness-of-fit statistics. The common factors found in the fitted probit models were the logarithm of AADT on the major road, and the speed limit on the major road. It was found that higher severity (and fatality) probability is always associated with a reduction in AADT, as well as an increase in speed limit. A recently developed data mining technique, the multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) technique, which is capable of yielding high prediction accuracy, was used to analyze rear-end as well as angle crashes. MARS yielded the best prediction performance while dealing with continuous responses. Additionally, screening the covariates using random forest before fitting MARS model was very encouraging. Finally, an access management analysis was performed with respect to six main median types associated with unsignalized intersections/access points. These six median types were open, closed, directional (allowing access from both sides), two-way left turn lane, undivided and mixed medians (e.g., directional median, but allowing access from one side only). Also, crash conflict patterns at each of these six medians were identified and applied to a dataset including median-related crashes. In this case, separating median-related and intersection-related crashes was deemed significant in the analysis. From the preliminary analysis, open medians were considered the most hazardous median type, and closed and undivided medians were the safest. The binomial logit and bivariate probit models showed significant median-related variables affecting median-related crashes, such as median width, speed limit on the major road, logarithm of AADT, logarithm of the upstream and downstream distances to the nearest signalized intersection and crash pattern. The results from the different methodological approaches introduced in this study could be applicable to diagnose safety deficiencies identified. For example, to reduce crash severity, prohibiting left turn maneuvers from minor intersection approaches is recommended. To reduce right-angle crashes, avoiding installing two-way left turn lanes at 4-legged intersections is essential. To reduce conflict points, closing median openings across from intersections is recommended. Since left-turn and angle crash patterns were the most dominant at undivided medians, it is recommended to avoid left turn maneuvers at unsignalized intersections having undivided medians at their approach. This could be enforced by installing a left-turn prohibition sign on both major and minor approaches

The effect of information system resources and information system capability of organization in post war Sri Lankan context

In recent years, the role of information system has grown in importance. Thus, Information System(IS) is evolving into key part of a company's performance and this paper provides an analysis on the relationship between Information system resources and Information system capability in Sri Lankan Context; the basic idea is that a firm's IS capability can be explained by how effective the firm is in using IS resources to exchange Capability . Therefore, this concept developed "effect of IS Resources and IS Capability of organization. This study is empirically tested using data collected from IT managers or executives from IT department or IT unit from 46 firms in Colombo metropolitan area in Sri Lanka. Information technology infrastructure capabilities have been noted in prior research as having a significant impact on firm performance. However, it is not clear how these infrastructures meant and impact on IS capability and past study have implicitly assumed that IS assets could have direct influence on firm performance. This paper examines how effective the relationship is being between IS Resources and IS Capability. IS Resources include Information System Human Capital (ISHC) and Information Technology Infrastructure (ITI) and IS capability includes IS Planning, System Development Capability, IS Support System, and IS Operations Capability. Structured questionnaire was included in the questionnaire with S points likert scale. Data analysis was done using correlation. Person's correlation coefficient was used to measure the linear relationship between variables. This results provide evidence that IS Human Capital has positive significant effect on IS capability than IT Infrastructure has positive significant effect on capability. These results have significant implication for future research and practice on how IS Resources and ARE capability contributed development of business and enhancement of firm performance

Modeling Dividend Behavior in Pakistan

This study examines the determinants of dividend policy by Lintner (1956) and Braittan (1966) and their extended versions to examine their relative significance in the Pakistani context. The sample consists of thirty-five firms in the overall manufacturing sector and three sub-sectors: textile, energy and chemicals the period 2007 to 2009. The analysis reveals that Lintner model is better than other models examined in the study and net profit and lag dividends are important determinants of dividend policy in Pakistani manufacturing sector. The depreciation and liquidity has significant impact on the dividend policy when included in the Lintner model while investment demand, interest rate, share price behavior and debt turn out to be insignificant. The results imply that for dividend decisions, past dividends, profits and depreciation matters and Lintner model fits the data well in case of manufacturing sector of Pakistan

Covernance: Feminist Theory, the Islamic Veil, and the Strasbourg Court\u27s Jurisprudence on Religious Dress-Appearance Restrictions

This paper explores how the human right of religious freedom has been conceptually and pragmatically developed under international law within the European Court of Human Rights as applied to veiled Muslim women. This paper analyzes the application of human rights guarantees as established in the European Convention on Human Rights and case law established by the European Court that has interpreted international documents to determine the religious freedoms of veiled Muslim women in the public sphere. The analytical framework identifies the divergence between liberal and third wave feminist approaches to the Islamic veil, and identifies the feminist approaches to international human rights. The European Court has staunchly upheld governmental restrictions on Islamic veiling across Europe under Article 9 of the European Convention. This has disparately impacted religious freedom of Muslim women and their ability to manifest religion through their dress- appearance. Challenging the Court’s normative application, and discriminatory outcomes, of Article 9 jurisprudence through postmodern and postcolonial feminist interpretations of religious freedom may provide an opportunity to strengthen and elevate diverse female voices, like those of veiled Muslim women, in the review of dress appearance restrictions. Challenging Article 9 jurisprudence will help break the institutionalization of a harmful stereotype of the Islamic veil that relegates religious women to the darkest corners of European society. Women who have made a conscious choice to wear the Islamic veil need governmental and judicial protection of their religious freedom and of the ability to embrace the dynamic aspects of their gender, religion, identity, and autonomy in a secular Western society. Without this protection, veiled women will continue to live under a restrictive form of covernance - a discriminatory system of governance that restricts the way they manifest their religious belief by covering their bodies in the public sphere

Estimation of Export Supply Function for Citrus Fruit in Pakistan

There is strong evidence in the literature that export and economic growth have a positive relationship. In Pakistan, with an agrarian economy, earnings from primary agricultural exports are vital for the overall growth process. Fruits are the traditional export commodities, which contribute more than half of total export earnings from primary agricultural commodities. The persistent instability in world market prices for primary commodities has depressed the export earnings from these commodities over time. This poses great challenges to a country like Pakistan. The present study aims at examining changes in the volume of export of citrus fruit from Pakistan caused by such factors as changes in domestic and export prices, national product, foreign exchange rate, etc. The study uses time series data for the period 1975–2004 for citrus exports and related domestic price, export price, GDP, and foreign exchange rate, employing the co-integration and error correction techniques for analysis purposes.

Green construction in India: gaining a deeper understanding

A workshop on green construction was organized in New Delhi in July 2008 by Jamia Millia University, India and University of Salford, U.K., aiming to increase &#039;green&#039; practices that are environmentally friendly and energy efficient. The workshop included participants from regulatory bodies, public and private construction companies and researchers. The object of the workshop was to provide an opportunity to capture issues, challenges and research issues in green practices throughout the supply chain in the construction sector in India. The methodology constituted a survey that was provided to all participants, where eight questions were composed by the facilitators. The participants were asked about their views on voluntary and compulsory ways of assessment and audit of green implementation in India. The findings of the workshop featured major challenges, drivers, initiatives, and the ways of effective implementation as well as enforcement on the discussed topic