Abstract: Risperidone (RISP) is an antipsychotic agent and has
low water solubility and nontargeted delivery results in numerous
side effects. Hence, an attempt was made to develop SLNs hydrogel
for intranasal delivery of RISP to achieve maximum bioavailability
and reduction of side effects. RISP loaded SLNs composed of 1.65%
(w/v) lipid mass were produced by high shear homogenization (HSH)
coupled ultrasound (US) method using glycerylmonostearate (GMS)
or Imwitor 900K (solid lipid). The particles were loaded with 0.2%
(w/v) of the RISP & surface-tailored with a 2.02% (w/v) non-ionic
surfactant Tween® 80. Optimization was done using 32 factorial
design using Design Expert® software. The prepared SLNs
dispersion incorporated into Polycarbophil AA1 hydrogel (0.5%
w/v). The final gel formulation was evaluated for entrapment
efficiency, particle size, rheological properties, X ray diffraction, in
vitro diffusion, ex vivo permeation using sheep nasal mucosa and
histopathological studies for nasocilliary toxicity. The entrapment
efficiency of optimized SLNs was found to be 76 ± 2%,
polydispersity index
Abstract: The problem of psychologist training remains a key
priority in Armenia. During the Soviet period, the notion of a
psychologist was obscure not only in Armenia but also in other
Soviet republics. The breakup of the Soviet Union triggered a gradual
change in this area activating the cooperation with specialists from
other countries. The need for recovery from the psychological trauma
caused by the 1988 earthquake pushed forward the development of
practical psychology in Armenia. This phenomenon led to positive
changes in perception of and interest to a psychologist
profession.Armenian universities started designing special programs
for psychologists’ preparation. Armenian psychologists combined
their efforts in the field of training relevant specialists.
During the recent years, the Bologna educational system was
introduced in Armenia which led to implementation of education
quality improvement programs. Nevertheless, even today the issue of
psychologists’ training is not yet settled in Armenian universities. So
far graduate psychologists haven’t got a clear idea of personal and
professional qualities of a psychologist. Recently, as a result of
educational reforms, the psychology curricula underwent changes,
but so far they have not led to a desired outcome. Almost all curricula
in certain specialties are aimed to form professional competencies
and strengthen practical skills.
A survey conducted in Armenia aimed to identify what are the
ideas of young psychology specialists on the image of a psychologist.
The survey respondents were 45 specialists holding bachelor’s degree
as well as 30 master degree graduates, who have not been working
yet. The research reveals that we need to change the approach of
preparing psychology practitioners in the universities of Armenia.
Such an approach to psychologist training will make it possible to
train qualified specialists for enhancement of modern psychology
theory and practice.
Abstract: Compositions of different molar ratios of
polymethylmethacrylate-co-methacrylic acid (PMMA-co-MAA)
were synthesized via free-radical polymerization. Polymer coated
surfaces have been produced on silicon wafers. Coated samples were
analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results have shown
that the roughness of the surfaces have increased by increasing the
molar ratio of monomer methacrylic acid (MAA). This study reveals
that the gradual increase in surface roughness is due to the fact that
carboxylic functional groups have been generated by MAA segments.
Such surfaces can be desirable platforms for fabrication of the
biosensors for detection of the viruses and diseases.
Abstract: Shortfall of electrical energy in Pakistan is a challenge
adversely affecting its industrial output and social growth. As
elsewhere, Pakistan derives its electrical energy from a number of
conventional sources. The exhaustion of petroleum and conventional
resources, the rising costs coupled with extremely adverse climatic
effects are taking its toll especially on the under-developed countries
like Pakistan. As alternate, renewable energy sources like hydropower,
solar, wind, even bio-energy and a mix of some or all of them
could provide a credible alternative to the conventional energy
resources that would not only be cleaner but sustainable as well. As a
model, solar energy-based power grid for the near future has been
attempted to offset the energy shortfalls as a mix with our existing
sustainable natural energy resources. An assessment of solar energy
potential for electricity generation is being presented for fulfilling the
energy demands with higher level of reliability and sustainability.
This model is based on the premise that solar energy potential of
Pakistan is not only reliable but also sustainable. This research
estimates the present & future approaching renewable energy
resource specially the impact of solar energy based power grid for
mitigating energy shortage in Pakistan.
Abstract: The research was conducted to empirically validate
the proposed maturity model of e-Government implementation,
composed of four dimensions, further specified by 54 success factors
as attributes. To do so, there are two steps were performed. First,
expert’s judgment was conducted to test its content validity. The
second, reliability study was performed to evaluate inter-rater
agreement by using Fleiss Kappa approach. The kappa statistic
(kappa coefficient) is the most commonly used method for testing the
consistency among raters. Fleiss Kappa was a generalization of
Kappa in extensions to the case of more than two raters (multiple
raters) with multi-categorical ratings. Our findings show that most
attributes of the proposed model were related to their corresponding
dimensions. According to our results, The percentage of agree
answers given by the experts was 73.69% in dimension A, 89.76% in
B, 81.5% in C and 60.37% in D. This means that more than half of
the attributes of each dimensions were appropriate or relevant to the
dimensions they were supposed to measure, while 85% of attributes
were relevant enough to their corresponding dimensions. Inter-rater
reliability coefficient also showed satisfactory result and interpreted
as substantial agreement among raters. Therefore, the proposed
model in this paper was valid and reliable to measure the maturity of
e-Government implementation.
Abstract: Mahasweta Devi and Toni Morrison are the two
stalwarts of the Indian English and the Afro-American literature
respectively. The writings of these two novelists are authentic and
powerful records of the lives of the people because much of their
personal experiences have gone into the making of their works. Devi,
a representative force of the Indian English literature, is also a social
activist working with the tribals of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West
Bengal. Most of her works echo the lives and struggles of the
subalterns as is evident in her “best beloved book” Chotti Munda and
His Arrow. The novelist focuses on the struggle of the tribals against
the colonial and the feudal powers to create their own identity,
thereby, embarking on the ideological project of ‘setting the record
straight’. The Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, on the other hand,
brings to the fore the crucial issues of gender, race and class in many
of her significant works. In one of her representative works Sula, the
protagonist emerges as a non- conformist and directly confronts the
notion of a ‘good woman’ nurtured by the community of the Blacks.
In addition to this, the struggle of the Blacks against the White
domination, also become an important theme of the text. The thrust
of the paper lies in making a critical analysis of the portrayal of the
heroic attempts of the subaltern protagonist and the artistic endeavor
of the novelists in challenging the stereotypes.
Abstract: As the current status and growth of Indian automobile
industry is remarkable, transportation sectors are the main concern in
terms of energy security and climate change. Due to rising demand of
fuel and its dependency on foreign countries that affects the GDP of
nation, suggests that penetration of electrical vehicle will increase in
near future. So in this context analysis is done if the 10 percent of
conventional vehicles including cars, three wheelers and two
wheelers becomes electrical vehicles in near future which is also a
part of Nations Electric Mobility Mission Plan then the saving which
improves the nation’s economy is analyzed in detail. Whether the
Indian electricity grid is capable of taking this load with current
generation and demand all over the country is also analyzed in detail.
Current situation of Indian grid is analyzed and how the gap between
generation and demand can be reduced is discussed in terms of
increasing generation capacity and energy conservation measures.
Electrical energy conservation measures in Industry and especially in
rural areas have been analyzed to improve performance of Indian
electricity grid in context of electrical vehicle penetration in near
future. Author was a part of Vishvakarma yojna in which energy
losses were measured in 255 villages of Gujarat and solutions were
suggested to mitigate them and corresponding reports was submitted
to the authorities of Gujarat government.
Abstract: This paper will examine the need for more aggressive
public policies around bodily, reproductive and sexual health
education for young people with disabilities in the United States.
This paper will consider the policies around sexuality education
for students in the United States and the recommendation for national
standards around sexuality education. We will investigate the
intersection of these policies and recommendations for students with
disabilities and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA): what this means for students with disabilities’ access to
comprehensive sexuality education and how it affects their behaviors
and outcomes.
Abstract: Burnishing is increasingly used as a finishing operation to improve surface roughness and surface hardness. This can be achieved by applying a hard ball or roller onto metallic surfaces under pressure, in order to achieve many advantages in the metallic surface. In the present work, the feed rate, speed and force have been considered as the basic burnishing parameters to study the surface roughness and surface hardness of metallic matrix composites. The considered metal matrix composites were made from Aluminum-Magnesium-Graphite with five different weight percentage of graphite. Both effects of burnishing parameters mentioned above and the graphite percentage on the surface hardness and surface roughness of the metallic matrix composites were studied. The results of this investigation showed that the surface hardness of the metallic composites increases with the increase of the burnishing force and decreases with the increase in the burnishing feed rate and burnishing speed. The surface roughness of the metallic composites decreases with the increasing of the burnishing force, feed rate, and speed to certain values, then it starts to increase. On the other hand, the increase in the weight percentage of the graphite in the considered composites causes a decrease in the surface hardness and an increase in the surface roughness.
Abstract: Reverse Logistics (RL) Network is considered as
complex and dynamic network that involves many stakeholders such
as: suppliers, manufactures, warehouse, retails and costumers, this
complexity is inherent in such process due to lack of perfect
knowledge or conflicting information. Ontologies on the other hand
can be considered as an approach to overcome the problem of sharing
knowledge and communication among the various reverse logistics
partners. In this paper we propose a semantic representation based on
hybrid architecture for building the Ontologies in ascendant way, this
method facilitates the semantic reconciliation between the
heterogeneous information systems that support reverse logistics
processes and product data.
Abstract: The aim of this work was to apply extractive
distillation for acetonitrile removal from water solutions, to validate
thermodynamic criterion based on excess Gibbs energy to entrainer
selection process for acetonitrile – water mixture separation and show
its potential efficiency at isothermal conditions as well as at isobaric
(conditions of real distillation process), to simulate and analyze an
extractive distillation process with chosen entrainers: optimize
amount of trays and feeds, entrainer/original mixture and reflux
ratios. Equimolar composition of the feed stream was chosen for the
process, comparison of the energy consumptions was carried out.
Glycerol was suggested as the most energetically and ecologically
suitable entrainer.
Abstract: Pipe failure and leakage is a problematic issue and the
traditional solution of replacing the pipes is costly and time
consuming. Rehabilitation by relining materials based on polymer
composites is an alternative solution towards the degradation problem
of the old piping. This paper provides a brief summary of advances in
technology, methods and materials for relining as well as a summary
of the degradation analyses of the two main composite materials used
for relining, rubber filled epoxy and reinforced polyester baltoflake
when they are exposed in deionized water and elevated temperature
up to 80°C for a duration of 2-14 months in the laboratory.
Abstract: An existing RC building in Madinah is seismically
evaluated with and without infill wall. Four model systems have been
considered i.e. model I (no infill), model IIA (strut infill-update from
field test), model IIB (strut infill- ASCE/SEI 41) and model IIC (strut
infill-Soft storey- ASCE/SEI 41). Three dimensional pushover
analyses have been carried out using SAP2000 software
incorporating inelastic material behavior for concrete, steel and infill
walls. Infill wall has been modeled as equivalent strut according to
suggested equation matching field test measurements and to the
ASCE/SEI 41 equation. The effect of building modeling on the
performance point as well as capacity and demand spectra due to EQ
design spectrum function in Madinah area has been investigated. The
response modification factor (R) for the 5 story RC building is
evaluated from capacity and demand spectra (ATC-40) for the
studied models. The results are summarized and discussed.
Abstract: Early pre-code reinforced concrete structures present
undetermined resistance to earthquakes. This situation is particularly
unacceptable in the case of essential structures, such as healthcare
structures and pilgrims' houses. Amongst these, an existing old RC
building in Madinah city (KSA) is seismically evaluated with and
without infill wall and their dynamic characteristics are compared
with measured values in the field using ambient vibration
measurements (AVM). After updating the mathematical models for
this building with the experimental results, three dimensional
pushover analysis (Nonlinear static analysis) was carried out using
commercial structural analysis software incorporating inelastic
material properties for concrete, infill and steel. The purpose of this
analysis is to evaluate the expected performance of structural systems
by estimating, strength and deformation demands in design, and
comparing these demands to available capacities at the performance
levels of interest. The results summarized and discussed.
Abstract: The contact resistance between source/drain electrodes
and semiconductor layer is an important parameter affecting electron
transporting performance in the thin film transistor (TFT). In this
work, we introduced a transparent and the solution prossable
single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)/Al-doped ZnO nano particle
(AZO NP) bilayer electrodes showing low contact resistance with
indium-oxide (In2O3) sol gel thin film. By inserting low work function
AZO NPs into the interface between the SWCNTs and the In2O3 which
has a high energy barrier, we could obtain an electrical Ohmic contact
between them. Finally, with the SWCNT-AZO NP bilayer electrodes,
we successfully fabricated a TFT showing a field effect mobility of
5.38 cm2/V·s at 250°C.
Abstract: The idea of the asynchronous transmission in
wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) ring MANs is studied in
this paper. Especially, we present an efficient access technique to
coordinate the collisions-free transmission of the variable sizes of IP
traffic in WDM ring core networks. Each node is equipped with a
tunable transmitter and a tunable receiver. In this way, all the
wavelengths are exploited for both transmission and reception. In
order to evaluate the performance measures of average throughput,
queuing delay and packet dropping probability at the buffers, a
simulation model that assumes symmetric access rights among the
nodes is developed based on Poisson statistics. Extensive numerical
results show that the proposed protocol achieves apart from high
bandwidth exploitation for a wide range of offered load, fairness of
queuing delay and dropping events among the different packets size
categories.
Abstract: Contracting authorities in the public sector are
obligated to apply the principles provided for in the Polish law for the
evaluation and selection of contractors. In order to analyse the
methods of contractors selecting applied in practice by public clients,
the notices of contract award results for construction works were
analysed. The analysis shows that the procedure selected more and
more often is open competitive bidding, where the assessment of the
competence of contractors is not very precise, as well as noncompetitive
bidding, i.e. single source procurement. The share of
procurement procedures, where the only criterion is price, is
increasing. The solution to the problems existing here might be the
introduction of one of the forms of pre-selection of contractors. The
article also briefly discusses verification systems for companies
applying for public contracts used in EU countries.
Abstract: Complexation of anthocyanins to mimic natural
copigmentation process was investigated. Cyanidin-rich extracts from
Zea mays L. ceritina Kulesh. and delphinidin-rich extracts from
Clitoria ternatea L. were used to form 4 anthocyanin complexes,
AC1, AC2, AC3 and AC4, in the presence of several polyphenols and
a trace metal. Characterizations of the ACs were conducted by UV,
FTIR, DSC/TGA and morphological observations. Bathochromic
shifts of the UV spectra of 4 formulas of ACs were observed at peak
wavelengths of about 510-620 nm by 10 nm suggesting complex
formation. FTIR spectra of the ACs indicate shifts of peaks from
1,733 cm-1 to 1,696 cm-1 indicating interactions and a decrease in the
peak areas within the wavenumber of 3,400-3,500 cm-1 indicating
changes in hydrogen bonding. Thermal analysis of all of the ACs
suggests increases in melting temperature after complexation. AC
with the highest melting temperature was morphologically observed
by SEM and TEM to be crystal-like particles within a range of 50 to
200 nm. Particle size analysis of the AC by laser diffraction gave a
range of 50-600 nm, indicating aggregation. This AC was shown to
have no cytotoxic effect on cultured HGEPp0.5 and HGF (all p>
0.05) by MTT. Therefore, complexation of anthocyanins was simple
and self-assembly process, potentially resulting in nanosized particles
of anthocyanin complex.
Abstract: Anthocyanins are natural pigments with effective UV
protection but their topical use could be limited due to their
physicochemical characteristics. An attempt to overcome such
limitations by complexation of 2 major anthocyanin-rich sources, C.
ternatea and Z. mays, has potentiated its use as topical antiinflammatory.
Cell studies indicate no cytotoxicity of the
anthocyanin complex (AC) up to 1 mg/ml tested in HaCaT and
human fore head fibroblasts by MTT. Croton oil-induced ear edema
in Wistar rats suggests an effective dose of 5 mg/cm2 of AC as a
topical anti-inflammatory in comparison to 0.5 mg/cm2 of
fluocinolone acetonide. Niosomal encapsulation of the AC
significantly prolonged the anti-inflammatory activity particularly at
8 h after topical application (p = 0.0001). The AC was not cytotoxic
and its anti-inflammatory and activity was dose-dependent and
prolonged by niosomal encapsulation. It has also shown to promote
collagen type 1 production in cell culture. Thus, AC could be a
potential candidate for topical anti-inflammatory agent from natural
resources.
Abstract: Food is widely packaged with plastic materials to
prevent microbial contamination and spoilage. Ionizing radiation is
widely used to sterilize the food-packaging materials. Sterilization by
γ-radiation causes degradation such as embrittlement, stiffening,
softening, discoloration, odour generation, and decrease in molecular
weight. Many antioxidants can prevent γ-degradation but most of
them are toxic. The migration of antioxidants to its environment
gives rise to major concerns in case of food packaging plastics. In
this attempt, we have aimed to utilize synergistic mixtures of
stabilizers which are approved for food-contact applications.
Ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer has been melt-mixed with
hindered amine stabilizers (HAS), phenolic antioxidants and organophosphites
(hydroperoxide decomposer). Results were discussed by
comparing the stabilizing efficiency of mixtures with and without
phenol system. Among phenol containing systems where we mostly
observed discoloration due to the oxidation of hindered phenol, the
combination of secondary HAS, tertiary HAS, organo-phosphite and
hindered phenol exhibited improved stabilization efficiency than
single or binary additive systems. The mixture of secondary HAS and
tertiary HAS, has shown antagonistic effect of stabilization.
However, the combination of organo-phosphite with secondary HAS,
tertiary HAS and phenol antioxidants have been found to give
synergistic even at higher doses of Gamma-irradiation. The effects
have been explained through the interaction between the stabilizers.
After γ-irradiation, the consumption of oligomeric stabilizer
significantly depends on the components of stabilization mixture. The
effect of the organo-phosphite antioxidant on the overall stability has
been discussed.