142 research outputs found
Tarikh e Rusul wal Muluk. By Abu Ja\u27far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari: Karachi: Nafees Academy, 2004. Seven Volumes, 4967 pages, Urdu Translation by Muhammad Siddiq Hashmi
No full textIntroduction to research ethics and integrity
No full textEthics deals with moral principles. The ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice applies to biomedical research as much as it applies to other human activities. This chapter gives an overview of the ethics of planning, conducting, and reporting of research. It discusses the basic principles of collection, use and interpretation of research data. It touches upon areas pertaining to the protection of research subjects and ethical principles governing the use of human and animal in research. The concept of research misconduct and importance of responsible conduct in research is also discussed. Education in research ethics is essential for all scientists and researchers as it equips them to assess, interpret and apply ethical principles in different situations
Response to “Risk of All-Cause and Prostate Cancer–Specific Mortality After Brachytherapy in Men With Small Prostate Size” (Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2011;79:1318–1322)
No full textA Study of Reduced Order 4D-VAR with a Finite Element Shallow Water Model
No full textForecast models often depend on unknown parameters, such as model initial and boundary conditions, or other tunable parameters not necessarily having any physical meaning. Calibration of these parameters to minimize errors between forecasted and observed states is called data assimilation. A common approach in this context are variational methods, of which four dimensional data variation (4D-VAR) is studied in this thesis. In 4D-VAR, a cost function is defined that penalizes misfits between observations and the corresponding numerical model results, obtained by running the model with the chosen configuration. Performing optimization with regard to this cost function yields an improved initial parameter set. Associated with this type of methods, however, are difficulties in connection with programming the adjoint model, which is needed to compute the exact gradient of the cost function. Additionally, having to integrate the adjoint model backwards in time adds significantly to the computational cost of the data assimilation process. To avoid manual implementation of adjoint code and to reduce computational complexity, approximation of the gradient calculation is considered through the use of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), a flexible data-driven order reduction method. To facilitate this, a finite element model of the shallow water equations is tested with both the full adjoint 4D-VAR method and two different POD-reduced approaches. Twin experiments are performed and comparisons are made in terms of accuracy, computational complexity and sensitivity to perturbation and number of observation points.Applied mathematicsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Pre- and Post-Radiotherapy Predictors of Functional Outcome and Survival in Metastatic Spinal Cord Compression
No full textWaste Auditing in Pesticide Sector: Towards Cleaner Production
No full textThe need for cleaner production emerges in pesticide industry due to various environmental problems associated with pesticide formulation, refilling and packaging processes. Variety of active pesticides ingredients, solvents, and other chemicals are generated as wastes during the pesticides production. Developing countries, due to their economic, social and cultural limitations are slow to adapt to new ideas. Three pesticide industrial units were audited. The study focuses on the environmental problems caused by pesticide industries and recommends measure to abate them. The major objectives of the study undertaken are summarized as; (i)to conduct an waste audit of the pesticide industries to find out the extent of pollution problems (ii)to investigate the possibilities for stream segregation to conserve water and to minimize pollution load generation (iii)to set up an demonstration case study on the “Cleaner Production” in a medium scale pesticide industry to visualize the possibilities of pollution reduction and waste minimization. While investing little on the process, it is possible to save a lot of money in the disposal of waste and operation of the process. As a result of waste auditing, methods were proposed to save water and to segregate the waste, and to modify the existing wastewater treatment system. It is hoped that the present audit would serve as a step ahead in the implementation of the concept of cleaner production in a small, medium and large sized industries to visualize the possibilities of pollution reduction and waste minimization.
Based on the three environmental surveys undertaken, following cleaner production / end-of-pipe recommendations have been developed. As mentioned earlier some of the pesticide industries have already implemented some of these recommendations. Therefore these recommendations are for those units only who have yet to implement them. The costs calculated in this report are very preliminary, based on limited survey and mainly on foreign technologies. Civil works’ cost would be far less than those quoted in different sections. The purpose of preliminary costing is to work out a broader range of possible environmental investment in future. The above problems do not exist in all pesticide industries simultaneously. However, this summary is valid for the entire pesticide sector of Pakistan
Model reduced variational data assimilation for shallow water flow models
No full textIdentifying uncertain parameters in large-scale numerical flow models can be done using the variational method. However, for implementing the variational method the adjoint model have to be available, which requires highly complex computer code and maintenance and thus hampers its applications. To ease this problem, this thesis has explored several methods for efficiently identifying uncertain parameters in a large-scale tidal model of the entire European continental shelf which does not require the implementation of these complex adjoint code. In this study, as a first step an estimation method based on model reduction is developed and investigated for the estimation of diffusion coefficient in a simple 2D-advection diffusion model. Two projection based model reduction methods were considered, namely proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and Balanced proper orthogonal decomposition (BPOD). In the POD based estimation method an ensemble of forward model simulations is used to determine an approximation of the covariance matrix of the model variability and a small number of the leading eigenvectors of this matrix is used to define a model subspace. By projecting the original model onto this subspace an approximate linear reduced model is obtained. Once the reduced model is available its adjoint can be implemented easily and the minimization problem is solved completely in reduced space with very low computational cost. BPOD is also a model reduction method which considers both inputs and outputs of the system while determining the reduce subspace. The estimation method has been extended by including BPOD procedure into the estimation procedure. Numerical results from a simple pollution model demonstrate that the POD based estimation approach successfully estimate the diffusion coefficient for both advection dominated problems as for diffusion dominated problems. Another important message in this study, although lots of effort had been made in constructing a reduced order model by the BPOD method, the minimization results demonstrated that both the POD and the BPOD methods performed similarly. Preliminary results showed the validity of the POD based model reduction methods for parameter estimation. As a next step, the POD based estimation method is used to calibrate numerical tidal models. Results from (twin) numerical experiments showed that the POD based calibration method performed very efficiently to estimate depth values in the selected regions of the model domain. The computational costs of the POD based calibration method are dominated by the generation of an ensemble of forward model simulations where the simulation period of the ensemble is equivalent to the timescale of the original model. It has also been found in the study that it is not needed to use a full simulations of the original model for the generation of the ensemble. The POD based calibration method has also been implemented for the estimation of the water depth and space varying bottom friction coefficient values in a very large-scale DCSM model. The recently designed large-scale spherical grid based water level model for the northwest European continental shelf (around 1000000 computational grid points) has been used for this purpose. This has been the first application of the POD based calibration method to a very large-scale model and with real data. Results from numerical experiments showed that the calibration method performs very efficiently. An overall improvement of more than 50\% was observed after the calibration in comparison with the initial model. The results also demonstrated that the POD based calibration method offered a very efficient minimization technique compared to the classical adjoint method without the burden of implementation of the adjoint. As a concluding step, to estimate depth values in the model DCSM, a Simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) method has been used. The method uses stochastic simultaneous perturbation of all model parameters to generate a search at each iteration. SPSA is based on a highly efficient and easily implemented simultaneous perturbation approximation to the gradient. This gradient approximation for the central difference method uses only two objective function evaluations independent of the number of parameters being optimized. The results from experiments showed that SPSA has a lower convergence rate than POD based calibration method, however the computational cost in each iteration of the SPSA method is usually far less then the POD based calibration method. The results also demonstrated that the SPSA algorithm proved to be a promising optimization algorithm for model calibration for cases where adjoint code is not available for computing the gradient of the objective function.Applied mathematicsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Harpactus Shuckard 1837
No full textGenus Harpactus Shuckard, 1837 Arpactus Jurine, 1807: 192, junior homonym of Arpactus Panzer, 1805, and of Arpactus Panzer, 1806 (both junior synonyms of Gorytes Latreille, 1804). Type species: Arpactus formosus Jurine, 1807, designated by Shuckard 1837: 220. Harpactus Shuckard 1837: 221. Emendation of Arpactus Jurine, 107 on linguistic grounds, thus an available new name, with its own date and author (Articles 19 and 33.2). Since Harpactus is an emendation, it has the same type-species as Arpactus Jurine (Article 67.8). Harpactes Dahlbom 1843: 147, junior homonym of Harpactes Swainson, 1837 (Aves), and of Harpactes Templeton, 1834 (Arachnida). Emendation of Harpactus Shuckard. Dienoplus W.J. Fox 1894: 548. Type species: Dienoplus pictifrons Fox, 1894, by monotypy. Key to Harpactus species of India and adjacent territories 1. Head and mesosoma without distinct punctures............................................................. 2 - Head, mesosoma, [and T2] distinctly foveolate-punctate, with scattered foveae. [Kashmir].......... H. pulawskii sp. nov. 2. Propodeum with oblique and irregular striae................................................................ 3 - Propodeum with distinct coarse, longitudinal striae [Pakistan].................................. H. vividus (Turner) 3. Fore wing with fuscous patch in radial and cubital cells; propodeal enclosure red. [Northern India; Myanmar]................................................................................................. H. ornatus (Smith) - Fore wing usually without fuscous patch in radial and cubital cells; propodeal enclosure black. [Oriental India].............................................................................................. H. impudens (Nurse)Published as part of Binoy, C., Kumar, P. Girish, Monks, Joseph & Sheikh, Altaf Hussain, 2022, A review of digger wasp genus Harpactus Shuckard, 1837 (Hymenoptera Crabronidae) of the Indian subcontinent, with description of a new species and rediscovery of Harpactus impudens (Nurse, 1903), pp. 531-542 in Zootaxa 5190 (4) on page 532, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5190.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/713847
High-prevalence and high-estimated incidence of HIV infection among new injecting drug users in Estonia: need for large scale prevention programs.
No full textOBJECTIVE: To examine HIV risk behavior and HIV infection among new injectors in Tallinn, Estonia. Design and methods Data from two cross-sectional surveys of injecting drug users (IDUs) recruited from a syringe exchange program (N = 162, Study 1) or using respondent driven sampling (N = 350, Study 2). Behavioral surveys were administered; serum samples were collected for HIV testing. Subjects were categorized into new injectors (injecting 3 years). RESULTS: Twenty-eight of 161 (17%, Study 1) and 73/350 (21%, Study 2) of the study subjects were new injectors. HIV infection was substantial among the newer injectors: HIV prevalence was 50% (Study 1) and 34% (Study 2), and estimated HIV incidence 31/100 PY and 21/100 PY, respectively. In Study 2, new injectors were more likely to be female and ethnic Estonian and less likely to be injecting daily compared with long-term injectors. No significant difference was found among two groups on sharing injecting equipment or reported number of sexual partners. CONCLUSIONS: A continuing HIV epidemic among new injectors is of critical public health concern. Interventions to prevent initiation into injecting drug use and scaling up HIV prevention programs for IDUs in Estonia are of utmost importance
سرسیدکامقام:حالی وشبلی کی اردوشاعری کی روشنی میں
No full textSir Syed Ahmed Khan is known as a Muslim reformer of the 19th century. He played an important role in introducing modern Urdu verse and prose. He himself was a prominent author, editor and compiler. Altaf Husain Hali is a well known poet, prose writer and critic etc. Shibli Naumani is another great name of Urdu literature. Shibli was a distinguished scholar, writer and poet. Hali and Shibli were close companions of Sir Syed. They discussed the personality and achievements of Sir Syed in their verses. The article analyses the status of Sir Syed in the light of the verse of the said two great names of Urdu.
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