Szilard-Chalmers recoil studies in synthetic faujasite

Imperial Users onl

Chronic Hepatitis E Infection: Risks and Controls

Very recently, an unusual clinical presentation with an altered natural history associated with hepatitis E virus (HEV)infection has emerged in high-income industrialized nations.Although HEV infection does not develop into chronicity in general, viremia can persist for long periods of time in immunocompromised solid organ, bone marrow and stem cell transplant patients. Conceivably, the atypical clinical and virological outcomes in these cases could be related to immunosuppressive chemotherapy, resulting in suboptimal HEV-specific immune responses. In the absence of travel to endemic regions, foodborne autochthonous HEV infection due to viral genotypes 3 and 4 has been implicated in the chronic cases. Presently, pegIFN-α-2a and ribavirin, the commonly used drugs to treat chronic viral hepatitis, are proving very promising in hepatitis E patients. Nevertheless,the most-awaited HEV vaccine could be protective in naive travelers or high-risk group populations. The mechanisms of establishing chronic HEV infection and the disease severity have hitherto not been clearly understood. Therefore, a comprehensive clinical, virological and molecular study is needed to understand and control the disease

Living Here with Lessons From There: Cosmopolitan Conversations After an International Service-Learning Trip

This research looks at four participants’ identity formation 3 years after their international service-learning (ISL) trip to Kenya. It focuses on life after ISL and the challenges of translating lessons learned abroad into meaningful action upon return. In the process, it speaks to participants’ struggles in resisting social conformity, conflicts with opinions of friends and family, consequences of challenging the status quo, ambivalent and contradictory commitments, and cosmopolitan identity formation attaching them to multiple global locations beyond the local. Findings are threefold: 1) ISL trips provided experiences, stories, relationships, challenges, and opportunities that contribute to various identity narratives; 2) struggles and conflicts experienced upon return destabilized participants’ sense of identity leading to, 3) an embodied cosmopolitan identity. Implications of these findings suggest educators recognize both the challenges and opportunities students may face when confronting hegemonic norms post-ISL

Spatial vulnerability analysis and thematic mapping of urban floods: A case study of 100-year floodplain areas of Birmingham, Alabama

The social and economic impact of urban flooding is becoming more severe in the United States over time. Urban areas are mostly vulnerable to flash floods because of the impervious surface, which increases the surface runoff. More than 80 percent of people live in urban areas in the United States, and they are at higher risk of urban flooding. Although many urban areas have a higher risk of urban flooding, there is still a significant knowledge gap of understanding between the minority\u27s and nonminority\u27s vulnerability to urban floods. Therefore, using Birmingham, Alabama, as a study area, this research designs a quantitative thematic mapping method to assess the flood risks of urban population and buildings. In this research, census data was used to assess urban residents\u27 vulnerability to flooding using thematic mapping method – location quotient (LQ) and compare it with the widely used social vulnerability index. The findings suggest that the aggregation of White populations is much higher compared to minorities. This research also developed a flood risk model using integrated GIS and cartographic approach considering different environmental factors that influence the urban floods. This study found that the Valley Creek area is the highest flood risk zone in Birmingham, and has the highest percentage of residential (i.e., 56.14 %) and commercial (i.e., 75.34 %) buildings located in very high flood risk areas. The decennial census data from 1990 to 2015 was used to examine whether vulnerable population groups aggregated more in the flooding areas or moved away from Birmingham\u27s flooding areas in the past thirty years. The findings of this research indicate that most minorities are aggregating more in the floodplain areas, whereas the non-minorities are moving away from the flooding regions

Acute transfusion reactions encountered in patients at a tertiary care center

Objective: To determine the frequency and type of Acute Transfusion Reactions (ATRs) occurring in inpatients, reported to the transfusion service at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: This was a three years and seven months (from January 2005 till July 2008) retrospective review of all the transfusion reactions that were reported to the transfusion service at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. All the reactions were clinically evaluated by the blood bank physician. Transfusion reactions occurring during or within four hours after transfusion were evaluated and classified by standard and recognized definitions defined by American Association of Blood Banks. Results: The acute transfusion reactions (ATRs) reported during the study period were 212. However, out of these 212 ATRs, 182 ATRs were confirmed by blood bank physician, and included febrile non haemolytic reactions [89 (41.9%)], allergic reaction [73 (34.4%)], isolated hypotension [3 (1.4%)], haemolytic reaction [4 (1.8%)] and bacterial contamination [2 (0.9%)]. Eleven (5.1%) ATRs were unclassifiable and were thus labeled as non specific reaction.Conclusion: The frequency of transfusion reactions in our patients was found to be 0.082%. Febrile non haemolytic reaction was the most frequent transfusion reaction followed by allergic reaction. This may be an under reported figure. There is a need for establishing a haemovigilance system for critical analysis of blood transfusion event

Presentation of a patient with palpable purpuric rash

Henoch Shonlein purpura (HSP) is a form of systemic vasculitis characterized by deposition of IgA dominant immune complexes in the small vessels. The triad of palpable purpuric rash on lower extremities, abdominal or renal involvement and arthritis is the typical presentation in this condition. The disease primarily affects children and is less common in adults. We report a case of a young female who presented with palpable purpura on legs, classical symptoms of HSP i.e. arthritis and off and on abdominal pain

An Investigation into Dynamic Web Service Composition Using a Simulation Framework

[Motivation] Web Services technology has emerged as a promising solution for creat- ing distributed systems with the potential to overcome the limitation of former distrib- uted system technologies. Web services provide a platform-independent framework that enables companies to run their business services over the internet. Therefore, many techniques and tools are being developed to create business to business/business to customer applications. In particular, researchers are exploring ways to build new services from existing services by dynamically composing services from a range of resources. [Aim] This thesis aims to identify the technologies and strategies cur- rently being explored for organising the dynamic composition of Web services, and to determine how extensively each of these has been demonstrated and assessed. In addition, the thesis will study the matchmaking and selection processes which are essential processes for Web service composition. [Research Method] We under- took a mapping study of empirical papers that had been published over the period 2000 to 2009. The aim of the mapping study was to identify the technologies and strategies currently being explored for organising the composition of Web services, and to determine how extensively each of these has been demonstrated and assessed. We then built a simulation framework to carry out some experiments on composition strategies. The rst experiment compared the results of a close replication of an ex- isting study with the original results in order to evaluate our close replication study. The simulation framework was then used to investigate the use of a QoS model for supporting the selection process, comparing this with the ranking technique in terms of their performance. [Results] The mapping study found 1172 papers that matched our search terms, from which 94 were classied as providing practical demonstration of ideas related to dynamic composition. We have analysed 68 of these in more detail. Only 29 provided a `formal' empirical evaluation. From these, we selected a `baseline' study to test our simulation model. Running the experiments using simulated data- sets have shown that in the rst experiment the results of the close replication study and the original study were similar in terms of their prole. In the second experiment, the results demonstrated that the QoS model was better than the ranking mechanism in terms of selecting a composite plan that has highest quality score. [Conclusions] No one approach to service composition seemed to meet all needs, but a number has been investigated more. The similarity between the results of the close replication and the original study showed the validity of our simulation framework and a proof that the results of the original study can be replicated. Using the simulation it was demonstrated that the performance of the QoS model was better than the ranking mechanism in terms of the overall quality for a selected plan. The overall objectives of this research are to develop a generic life-cycle model for Web service composition from a mapping study of the literature. This was then used to run simulations to replicate studies on matchmaking and compare selection methods

Applicability of a Picosecond Laser for Micro-Polishing of Metallic Surfaces

An increasing number of recent technological advancements is linked to the adoptions of ultra-short pulsed picosecond (ps) lasers in various material processing applications. The superior capability of this laser is associated with precise control of laser-material interaction resulted from extremely short interaction time. In this context, the present study explored the applicability of a ps laser in laser micro-polishing (LµP) of Inconel 718 (IN718) and AISI H13 tool steel. The melting regime ‒ a mandatory phase for LµP ‒ was determined experimentally by the variation of focal offset to attain desired laser fluence. The finite element formulation of heat transfer equation and its solution were also estimated in order to develop a theoretical foundation for the heat transfer mechanism in ps laser-material interaction. The initial one dimensional (1D) line polishing experiments were performed on ground IN718 and H13 tool steel samples with the parameters related to the melting regime of corresponding material. The knowledge of this initial experimental investigation was later utilized to prepare the surface topography by micromilling with a specific step-over and scallop height, followed by LµP experiments with the same set of aforementioned parameters. The performance of LµP was evaluated by average surface roughness (Ra) spectrum at different spatial wavelength intervals along the laser path trajectory. Additionally, statistical measures, such as power spectral density (PSD) function, transfer function (TF) and material ratio (MR) curve were analyzed in order to establish the process parameters resulting the best possible surface quality. From the analysis of this experimental investigation, surface quality improvement up to 78.5% and 75.7% were reported for the spatial wavelength interval of 50‒100 µm for IN718 and H13 tool steel respectively. As a next step, two dimensional (2D) areal polishing of micromilled IN718 and H13 tool steel were performed, where surface quality improvement up to 69.32% and 77.28% were observed for the spatial wavelength interval of 50‒100 µm for IN718 and H13 tool steel, respectively. Overall, ps LµP was found to be an effective way of enhancing desired surface quality as demonstrated by the reduction of surface asperities as well as their volumetric uniform redistributions

Framework for Adoption of Customer Relationship Management System in Hospital

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems enable hospitals to provide better quality of services, to improve customers' satisfaction, and to increase their profitability and competitiveness. However, there is little attention and lack of adoption of the CRM systems in private hospitals in Malaysia. Moreover, few studies have investigated the factors influencing the adoption of the CRM systems in private hospitals in Malaysia. The main objective of this study is therefore to develop an adoption framework of the CRM system for hospitals.Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the data from the top management employees in private hospitals in Malaysia. A total of 148 questionnaires distributed in which 79 questionnaires (53%) were returned. The data of 72 valid questionnaires were analysed using Correlation and Multiple Regression techniques to validate the framework. The framework, adapted from the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and the Model of Information System (IS) Innovation, was built to relate innovation, organizational, and environmental factors to the perception of the CRM system's benefits and implementation plans. Findings indicate that innovation, organizational, and environmental factors have positive significant relationships (p > 0.05). The results of the study such as the constructed framework, provide a set of adoption guidelines that contributes to a successful adoption and implementation of the CRM systems. The framework also contributes to the body of knowledge in the DOI theory, the Model of IS Innovation, and the CRM domain. In practical, the results have many implications such as emphasizing on the roles of the CRM systems on solving major problems in hospitals and encouraging the vendors of the CRM systems to improve their marketing strategies and to provide the CRM systems at reasonable prices