1,128 research outputs found
The Evolution of a Spacecraft-Generated Lunar Exosphere
No full textSimulated spacecraft trajectory parameters, and data required to reproduce Figures 1–5 from Prem et al. (2020), The Evolution of a Spacecraft-Generated Lunar Exosphere, J. Geophys. Res. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33959468).
The file spacecraft_trajectory.dat contains a descriptive header, and the simulated descent profile in Cartesian coordinates. The .dat ASCII files contain the data shown in Figures 1–5, and the .lay files are Tecplot Focus layouts that were used to visualize the data. Please feel free to contact lead author Dr. Parvathy Prem ([email protected]) with any questions
Modeling Thermal Emission Under Lunar Surface Environmental Conditions
No full textCodes and data required to reproduce results from Prem et al. (2022), Modeling Thermal Emission Under Lunar Surface Environmental Conditions, Planetary Science Journal (https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ac7ced).
The file flowchart.pdf contains an overview of the workflow to model ambient and anisothermal thermal emission spectra using the codes contained in codes.zip. The file lab_spectra.xlsx contains the laboratory spectra used in the publication, together with citation information. Please feel free to contact lead author Dr. Parvathy Prem ([email protected]) with any questions
Assessing the Regional and District Capacity for Operationalizing Emergency Obstetric Care through First Referral Units in Gujarat
No full textMaternal mortality remains to be one of the very important public health problems in India. The maternal mortality estimates, is about (300-400/100,000 live births). There are diverse management issues, policy barriers to be overcome for improving maternal health. Especially, the operationalization of Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) and access to skilled care attendance during delivery. This study focuses on understanding the regional and district level capacity of the state government to operationalize First Referral Units for providing Emergency Obstetric care. This study is a part of a larger project for strengthening midwifery and Emergency Obstetric Care in India. The study apart from giving an in-depth insight into the functioning of various health facilities highlights the results from the basic to the more comprehensive level of EmOC services. It gives recommendation on various measures to rectify shortcomings noticed and make EmOC a more effective at different levels in the State of Gujarat. The study uses both primary and secondary data collection. The study was conducted in six regions of Gujarat -one district from each of these regions was selected. Out of these districts 27 health facilities were examined, which consists of seven district hospitals, eight designated as first referral units (FRU), four community health centers (CHC) and eight 24/7 primary health centers (PHC). Detailed field notes for individual facilities were prepared and analyzed subsequently for all facilities together. A common feature among all health centres were issues related to general infrastructure. Many times infrastructure planning (location, layout and maintenance) is left to engineers, who have limited knowledge about proper EmOC services. Poor infrastructure leads to poor quality of health services and wastage of resources. Through National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and Rogi Kalyan Samiti funds major and minor repair/renovations are taking place to improve hospital buildings. In some health facilities from poor resource setting with high demand from patients were still able to deliver services. Human resources analysis suggests that there is shortage of specialists at FRUs, and committed nursing staff in labor room. As result of the Chiranjeevi initiative, the Below Poverty Line (BPL) population who earlier used to public health facilities are now accessing private facilities for delivery, and this has affected and decreased the workload of the public health facilities. Furthermore, there is lack of managerial skills at senior level hospital staff. Registers like birth, drug, Medical Termination of Pregnancy are maintained but not in standard format. Since complicated cases are not registered properly, maternal deaths are not reported. Even though the system of monitoring is well established at the state and district level, they are not properly followed. The funds for operationalization of First Referral Units come from department of family welfare. However, the administrative control is in the hands of department of medical services. Due to this factor monitoring system has become weak. The weak link between these two departments is the Regional Deputy Director who has only one administrative staff to take care of the issues in their region. The problem of monitoring the Primary Health Centres has become smooth with the appointment of new District Project Coordinators. Some facilities especially in district hospital reported that internal meetings and monitoring are happening because of the special interest of facility managers and newly appointed assistant hospitals administrators. In lower facilities this type of internal monitoring exists in a weak form. Underutilization of government facilities is a result of poor quality of services provided. In spite of reasonably developed health system, several problems of infrastructure, staffing, accountability and management capacity contribute to the poor functioning of facilities to act as an EmOC service delivery center. Some of the major bottlenecks in improving EmOC services are limited management capacity, lack of availability of blood in rural areas and poor registration of births and deaths and no monitoring of EmOC. District hospitals, FRUs, CHCs and Sub district hospitals come under the administrative control of the department of medical services. The clinical monitoring of these facilities lies with the department of health and family welfare. At the district level monitoring of these facilities are not properly done, therefore it effects directly the operationalization of the facilities. In the absence of adequate management capacity, the operationalization of EmOC is not well planned, executed or monitored, which results in delays in implementation and poor quality of care.
The influence of attachment styles on cyberbullying experiences among university students in Thailand, mediated by sense of Belonging: a path model
No full textThe widespread proliferation of technology-driven electronic interactions among humans in recent years has led to a new sense of connectedness. There is also an increasing number of reports of harmful online behavior against other people and negative consequences on users who are involved in such behaviors. Cyberbullyinghas become a frequently used term in current research of online aggression and victimization. This study attempted to investigate the prevalence of cyberbullying experiences among university students in Thailand. Based on a theoretical framework of attachment theory and the belongingness hypothesis, this study also explored whether or not cyberbullying experiences could be predicted by experiences from attachment and belongingness. 249 students at an international university in Bangkok, Thailand participated in the study by completing a survey questionnaire using the Cyberbullying and Online Aggression Instrument (COAI), the Sense of Belonging Instrument-Psychological (SOBI-P), and the Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ).Results revealed rates of cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration that exceeded rates found in similar studies from the United States. Tests of hypothesized relationships through a proposed path model showed a significant direct predictive relationship between secure attachment orientation and cyberbullying victimization and indirect predictive relationships between insecure attachment orientation and cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration mediated by sense of belonging. The study’s results, limitations, implications, and future recommendations were discussed
Interfacial residues in protein–protein complexes are in the eyes of the beholder
No full textInteractions between proteins are vital in almost all biological processes. The characterization of protein–protein interactions helps us understand the mechanistic basis of biological processes, thereby enabling the manipulation of proteins for biotechnological and clinical purposes. The interface residues of a protein–protein complex are assumed to have the following two properties: (a) they always interact with a residue of a partner protein, which forms the basis for distance-based interface residue identification methods, and (b) they are solvent-exposed in the isolated form of the protein and become buried in the complex form, which forms the basis for Accessible Surface Area (ASA)-based methods. The study interrogates this popular assumption by recognizing interface residues in protein–protein complexes through these two methods. The results show that a few residues are identified uniquely by each method, and the extent of conservation, propensities, and their contribution to the stability of protein–protein interaction varies substantially between these residues. The case study analyses showed that interface residues, unique to distance, participate in crucial interactions that hold the proteins together, whereas the interface residues unique to the ASA method have a potential role in the recognition, dynamics, and specificity of the complex and can also be a hotspot. Overall, the study recommends applying both distance and ASA methods so that some interface residues missed by either method but crucial to the stability, recognition, dynamics, and function of protein–protein complexes are identified in a complementary manner
Studies of optimal track-fitting techniques for the DarkLight experiment
No full textThesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (page 49).The DarkLight experiment is searching for a dark force carrier, the A' boson, and hopes to measure its mass with a resolution of approximately 1 MeV/c 2 . This mass calculation requires precise reconstruction to turn data, in the form of hits within the detector, into a particle track with known initial momentum. This thesis investigates the appropriateness of the Billoir optimal fit to reconstruct helical, low-energy lepton tracks while accounting for multiple scattering, using two separate track parameterizations. The first method approximates the track as a piecewise concatenation of parabolas in three-dimensions, and (wrongly) assumes that the y and z components of the track are independent. When tested using simulated data, this returns a track which geometrically fits the data. However, the momentum extracted from this geometrical representation is an order of magnitude higher than the true momentum of the track. The second method approximates the track as a piecewise concatenation of helical segments. This returns a track which geometrically fits the data even better than the parabolic parameterization, but which returns a momentum which depends on the seeds to the algorithm. Some further work must be done to modify this fitting method so that it will reliably reconstruct tracks.by Purnima Parvathy Balakrishnan.S.B
Utilization of free dental health care services provided to the perinatally infected human immunodeficiency virus children in Bangalore: Longitudinal study
No full textBackground: Use of Highly active anti-retroviral therapy have increased the life expectancy of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients and hence it is imperative that all efforts have to be made by Pediatric dentists to provide a better oral health for these children. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the rate of utilization of free dental treatment provided to these perinatally infected HIV positive children who were previously screened as a part of oral health survey. Design: Purposive sampling was used. Inclusion criteria: Perinatally infected HIV children screened for oral health status. Exclusion criteria: Patients not screened during the oral health survey. Materials and Methods: Attendance records of 319 perinatally HIV infected children consisting of 178 males and 141 females attending a specialized pediatric outpatient clinic at Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health were examined to compare treatment compliance rates. Results: The number of patients in the severe category who completed treatment was significantly less compared with mild and advanced categories (P 0.05). Conclusion: The results show that children with HIV have significantly lower compliance. Even though all dental treatment provided to them was free of the cost it still had no impetus to encourage them to go through with the treatment
Understanding the Roles of Secondary Shell Hotspots in Protein–Protein Complexes
No full textABSTRACT Hotspots are interfacial residues in protein–protein complexes that contribute significantly to complex stability. Methods for identifying interfacial residues in protein–protein complexes are based on two approaches, namely, (a) distance‐based methods, which identify residues that form direct interactions with the partner protein and (b) Accessibility Surface Area (ASA)‐based methods, which identify those residues that are solvent‐exposed in the isolated form of the protein and become buried upon complex formation. In this study, we introduce the concept of secondary shell hotspots, which are hotspots uniquely identified by the distance‐based approach, staying buried in both the bound and isolated forms of the protein and yet forming direct interactions with the partner protein. From the analysis of the dataset curated from Docking Benchmark 5.5, comprising 94 protein–protein complexes, we find that secondary shell hotspots are more evolutionarily conserved and have distinct Chou‐Fasman propensities and interaction patterns compared to other hotspots. Finally, we present detailed case studies to show that the interaction network formed by the secondary shell hotspots is crucial for complex stability and activity. Further, they act as potentially allosteric propagators and bridge interfacial and non‐interfacial sites in the protein. Their in silico mutations to any other amino acid types cause significant destabilization. Overall, this study sheds light on the uniqueness and importance of secondary shell hotspots in protein–protein complexes.Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001407Ministry of Education, India https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004541Max-Planck-Gesellschaft https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004189Science and Engineering Research Board https://doi.org/10.13039/50110000184
DNA barcoding and morphological analyses reveal a cryptic species of Miniopterus from India and Sri Lanka
No full textKusuminda, Tharaka, Mannakkara, Amani, Ukuwela, Kanishka D. B., Kruskop, Sergei V., Amarasinghe, Chamara J., Saikia, Uttam, Venugopal, Parvathy, Karunarathna, Mathisha, Gamage, Rajika, Ruedi, Manuel, Csorba, Gábor, Yapa, Wipula B., Patterson, Bruce D. (2022): DNA barcoding and morphological analyses reveal a cryptic species of Miniopterus from India and Sri Lanka. Acta Chiropterologica 24 (1): 1-17, DOI: 10.3161/15081109ACC2022.24.1.001, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3161/15081109acc2022.24.1.00
A systematic approach to workplace-based assessment for international medical graduates
No full textOBJECTIVES: To test whether a summative workplace-based assessment (WBA) is feasible and acceptable for international medical graduates (IMGs). DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A 6-month trial with 27 IMGs from teaching hospitals in Newcastle, Australia. IMGs were assessed by 65 trained assessors from different disciplines, using blueprinted, preset criteria. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mini-clinical evaluation exercises, case-based discussions, in-training assessments and multisource feedback. At the end of the trial, assessors and candidates gave feedback. RESULTS: All IMGs were successful at the end of the assessment. The format was well received and acceptable to the candidates and assessors. CONCLUSIONS: WBA is feasible and acceptable to assessors and candidates for assessment of IMGs, but it is intensive in use of resources and time.Balakrishnan R Nair, Michael J Hensley, Mulavana S Parvathy, Deborah M Lloyd, Brooke Murphy, Kathy Ingham, Julie M Wein, Ian M Symond
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