Gender and sexuality, Self-Identity, and libraries: Readers’ advisory as a technique for creative (Dis)assembly

This article addresses the theme of gender, sexuality, and information by considering how libraries might offer readers’ advisory services to young readers in socially just ways. Readers’ advisory is a service found in public and school libraries. In readers’ advisory, librarians recommend materials to library visitors who are often young readers. Though libraries are commonly perceived as neutral, apolitical institutions, this article shows how readers’ advisory in libraries is a site of struggle and contestation for young readers in terms of their gender identity and sexuality. Drawing from the works of Nikolas Rose and Michel Foucault, the authors show how readers’ advisory is a technique of self-assembly where young readers negotiate their self-identities amid surrounding library discourses. The authors provide several reasons why readers’ advisory approaches, as they are presented in professional library literature, are problematic. As an alternative conceptualization of readers’ advisory, this article then proposes what is dubbed a disjunctional approach. The authors explain what this approach is, provide concrete examples of how it might be adopted, and suggest avenues for further study

Criminalising religious pluralism : the legal treatment of Shiites in Malaysia

Shia teachings and doctrine are currently being socially-constructed as a new threat to the survival of Sunni Islam, followed by the majority of Muslims in Malaysia. The Government has taken action by using legal mechanisms to control the influence of Shia teachings and to prevent its widespread proliferation. The Islamic legal provisions concerning aqidah (Islamic creed)-related offences and fatwas are potentially regarded as tools to monitor the lives of Shia individuals and communities in Malaysia. This article critically evaluates the formal consequences for Shia communities in Malaysia stemming from a legal framework, which is based on Sunni Islam. Furthermore, this article evaluates the extent to which Islamic law and fatwas in Malaysia can control the practice and promulgation of Shia teachings. The significance of this article is in its depiction of how Islamic law in a Sunni Islamic state may impact the religious practices of individuals and communities who make up a Muslim minority, with Shiites being the prime example. Keywords: Faith-related crime; Sharia law in Malaysia; Minority religious group right; Sunni-Shiite relationship; Islam in Malaysia

Aged leaves effect on essential components in green and oolong tea

Tea leaf encompasses essential components like caffeine, polyphenol, lipid etc. The study was conducted to find out the essential constituents in green and oolong tea from aged tea leaves during the year of 2012. Tea leaves with different plucked aged were collected from Lackatoorah Tea Estate at sylhet district in Bangladesh. Collected leaves were processesed to make desirable samples for biochemical analysis in the laboratory of Department of Food Enginnering and Tea Technology, SUST. Results revealed that the essential constituents like moisture, caffeine, polyphenol, lipid, protein, ash, ascorbic acid, acidity and pH value in green tea made from different aged leaves were found slightly higher than oolong tea, ranged from 6.38±1.06 to 3.49±0.59%; 4.91±0.82 to 1.49±0.24%; 30.88±5.15 to 18.23±3.04%; 7.50±1.25 to 9.58±1.59%; 13.15±2.19 to 17.33±2.88%; 3.87±1.65 to 7.86±1.31%; 48.4±8.05 to 21.3±3.55(mg); 2.13±0.68 to 1.18±0.19% and 5.52±0.11 to 5.97±0.18%, respectively. Similarly, the moisture, caffeine, polyphenol, lipid, protein, ash, ascorbic acid, acidity and pH value from different aged leaves were found in oolong tea from 6.19±1.04 to 2.98±0.49%; 4.68±0.78 to 1.11±0.19%; 20.89±3.48 to 8.23±1.37%; 6.40±1.07 to 9.13±1.52%; 13.03±2.17 to 17.19±2.86%; 3.44±0.58 to 7.57±1.27% 6.44±1.08 to 0.98±0.17 (mg); 2.02±0.34to 1.02±0.17% and 5.53±0.11 to 5.97±0.20%, respectively. Therefore, young tea leaves (i.e. 5 to 8 days tea leaves) should be plucked for considering useful constituents in processed green tea and oolong tea. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijarit.v3i2.17845 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 3 (2): 54-58, December, 201

Financing behavior of R&D investments in the emerging markets : the role of alliance and financial system

This paper examines the financing behaviour of R&D investments in emerging markets. Drawing on institutional theory and using panel data of generalized methods of moment (GMM) estimation for a sample of 302 firms from 20 countries during the period 2003-2015, we find that emerging market firms tend to use internal funds for financing R&D investments. Interesting results emerged when the sample was divided as alliance and non-alliance firms, and bank-based and market-based financial systems. The results show that R&D financing behaves differently for alliance and non-alliance firms. Alliance firms use both internal and external funds for R&D investments, while non-alliance firms do not use external funds. We also document that a country’s financial system influences the choice of available sources of finance. Firms from countries that follow a bank-based financial system tend to rely on external funds while firms from countries that follow a market-based financial system depend more on internal funds for financing R&D investments. This study is important as it provides new evidence on financing R&D investments in emerging countries taking into account the institutional arguments of financing choices, and so should guide stakeholders about appropriate sources of R&D financing

Arsenic-induced straighthead: An impending threat to sustainable rice production in South and South-East Asia!

Straighthead is a physiological disorder of rice (Oryza sativa L.) that results in sterile florets with distorted lemma and palea, and the panicles or heads may not form at all in extreme cases. Heads remain upright at maturity, hence the name 'straighthead'. The diseased panicles may not emerge from the flag leaf sheath when the disease is severe. Straighthead disease in rice results in poorly developed panicles and significant yield loss. Although other soil physicochemical factors involved, arsenic contamination in soil has also been reported to be closely associated with straighthead of rice. Monosodium methanearsonate has been a popular herbicide in cotton production in the USA, which has shown to cause injuries in rice that are similar to straighthead. Since toxicity of inorganic arsenic (iAs) is higher than other forms of arsenic, it may produce a more severe straighthead disorder in rice. The use of iAs-rich groundwater for irrigation, and the increase of iAs concentrations in agricultural soil in arsenic epidemic South and South-East Asia may cause a high incidence of straighthead in rice, resulting in a threat to sustainable rice production in this region. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

An evaluation of the Change Up programme

This report presents the findings of an evaluation of the Change Up programme

Using multiple classifiers for predicting the risk of endovascular aortic aneurysm repair re-intervention through hybrid feature selection.

Feature selection is essential in medical area; however, its process becomes complicated with the presence of censoring which is the unique character of survival analysis. Most survival feature selection methods are based on Cox's proportional hazard model, though machine learning classifiers are preferred. They are less employed in survival analysis due to censoring which prevents them from directly being used to survival data. Among the few work that employed machine learning classifiers, partial logistic artificial neural network with auto-relevance determination is a well-known method that deals with censoring and perform feature selection for survival data. However, it depends on data replication to handle censoring which leads to unbalanced and biased prediction results especially in highly censored data. Other methods cannot deal with high censoring. Therefore, in this article, a new hybrid feature selection method is proposed which presents a solution to high level censoring. It combines support vector machine, neural network, and K-nearest neighbor classifiers using simple majority voting and a new weighted majority voting method based on survival metric to construct a multiple classifier system. The new hybrid feature selection process uses multiple classifier system as a wrapper method and merges it with iterated feature ranking filter method to further reduce features. Two endovascular aortic repair datasets containing 91% censored patients collected from two centers were used to construct a multicenter study to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The results showed the proposed technique outperformed individual classifiers and variable selection methods based on Cox's model such as Akaike and Bayesian information criterions and least absolute shrinkage and selector operator in p values of the log-rank test, sensitivity, and concordance index. This indicates that the proposed classifier is more powerful in correctly predicting the risk of re-intervention enabling doctor in selecting patients' future follow-up plan

Effect of whole-body vibration on muscle strength, spasticity, and motor performance in spastic diplegic cerebral palsy children

Background and purpose: Spastic diplegia is a common form of cerebral palsy (CP) and is characterized by spasticity and muscle weakness of both lower limbs resulting in decreased walking ability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of whole body vibration (WBV) training on muscle strength, spasticity, and motor performance in spastic diplegic cerebral palsy children after 12-weeks treatment.Methods: Thirty spastic diplegic CP children (8–12 years) were randomized to two equal groups, control group and WBV group. The control group received a selected physical therapy treatment program for spastic diplegic CP and the WBV group received the same program in addition to WBV training. Measurements of isometric strength of knee extensors, spasticity, walking speed, walking balance and gross motor function were performed before and after 12 weeks of the treatment program.Results: Isometric strength of knee extensors, spasticity and the walking speed were significantly improved only in the WBV group (P < 0.05). Growth motor function measure-88 (GMFM-88) (D%) was significantly increased (P < 0.05) in both groups in favor of the WBV group and GMFM-88 (E%) was significantly increased (P < 0.05) only in the WBV group, while walking balance did not change significantly in either group.Conclusion: The obtained results suggest that 12-weeks’ intervention of whole-body vibration training can increase knee extensors strength and decrease spasticity with beneficial effects on walking speed and motor development in spastic diplegic CP childrenKeywords: Whole body vibration; Cerebral palsy; Spastic diplegia; Walking balance; Motor developmen

Parametric Study of CO₂ Methanation for Synthetic Natural Gas Production

The production of methane by carbon dioxide hydrogenation through optimization of the operating parameters to enhance methane yield and carbon dioxide conversion in a two‐stage fixed bed reactor is investigated. The influence of temperature, gas hourly space velocity (GHSV), and H2:CO2 ratio on the production of methane is studied. In addition, different methanation catalysts in terms of metal promoters and support materials are investigated to maximize methane production. The results show that the maximum methane yield and maximum carbon dioxide conversion are obtained at a catalyst temperature of 360 °C with a H2:CO2 ratio of 4:1 and total GHSV of 6000 mL h−1 g−1catalyst and reactant GHSV of 3000 mL h−1 g−1catalyst. The optimum metal‐alumina catalyst investigated for CO2 conversion and methane yield is the 10 wt%‐Ni‐Al2O3 catalyst. However, reduction in the methane yield is observed with the addition of Fe and Co promoters because of catalyst sintering and nonuniform dispersion of metals on the support. Among the different catalyst support materials studied, i.e., Al2O3, SiO2 and MCM‐41, the highest catalytic activity is shown by the Al2O3 catalyst with 83 mol% CO2 conversion, producing 81 mol% CH4 with 98% CH4 selectivity