Harnessing the online resources: A case study of ScienceDirect in India

E-mail-alerting system of online databases is a new trend catching up fast with researchers. Results of auto-run set queries are informed through e-mails as ‘alerts’ to the registered user. Even though e-mail-alerting systems are quite popular amongst Internet users, their inherent advantages remain unexplored in the Indian scenario. An effort to explore all such features available in the ScienceDirect online database has been made in this paper. The process of registration for activating e-mail alerts, customizing a home page, selecting favorite journals, search alerts, journal issue alerts, citation alerts and search history are briefed with screen shot examples. The study emphasizes the fact that librarians and information Science professionals should take lead roles in unveiling all such possible features available in various online databases. They should also make efforts at informing the user community of the utility of such features in a bid to enhance the research output.     

武义麻阳港小水电梯级开发生态需水研究

小水电建设促进经济发展的同时,对当地生态环境也造成一定的破坏。开展水电梯级开发对河道生态需水影响对于水资源的合理开发与保护具有重要意义。针对武义麻阳港小流域水电开发现状,从河道内与河道外两方面对流域进行了生态需水量核算;并对流域梯级开发电站为满足减水河段生态环境需水要求的最小下泄流量进行了初步分析。     

Serology in COVID: Light the Lantern and Pave the Way to Unexplored…

International Guidelines have voted for PCR as the Gold Standard in COVID diagnosis. Nasoparyngeal swab is the preferred specimen for PCR. It has a high probability of diagnosing early infection. But the diagnostic sensitivity of nasopharyngeal PCR decreases with increase in lapse between the infection and presentation to hospital. This might lead to dire consequences of labelling these patients as false negative, though such patients have been proved to be potentially infective since viral shedding occurs through other body fluids (stools) for long. COVID infection reveals that the IgM antibodies start to appear as early as 5th day of infection and switches over to IgA within 2–3 days. The aim of the study was to see if COVID antibody testing be coupled with PCR for diagnosis especially in patients presenting late (more than 14 days) of onset of infection? And if the antibodies are giving values, hence can them be reported quantitatively rather than in qualitative fashion? The second objective was to see if the COVID antibody levels be used to monitor the disease severity? And if the antibody levels of SARS CoV 2 be used an indicator to monitor the recovery?     

Norming of Student Evaluations of Instruction: Impact of Noninstructional Factors

Student Evaluations of Instruction (SEIs) from about 6,000 sections over 4 years representing over 100,000 students at the college of business at a large public university are analyzed, to study the impact of noninstructional factors on student ratings. Administrative factors like semester, time of day, location, and instructor attributes like gender and rank are studied. The combined impact of all the noninstructional factors studied is statistically significant. Our study has practical implications for administrators who use SEIs to evaluate faculty performance. SEI scores reflect some inherent biases due to noninstructional factors. Appropriate norming procedures can compensate for such biases, ensuring fair evaluations.     

Implementing Comprehensive Teacher Training in Business Doctoral Programs

The advent of digital course offerings, the use of social media, the integration of the Khan Academy into curricula, the use of smart phones and tablets, and massive online courses place greater emphasis than ever on effective teaching. While business schools fund faculty development in teaching, too few doctoral programs offer systematic teacher training. We discuss the lack of, and the need for, comprehensive teacher‐training programs. We present the Robinson College of Business model and offer recommendations on how to get started. It is time for PhD programs to certify that their students are capable of teaching upon graduation.     

Analysis of SEVA TB ES-31 antigen specific immunoglobulins IgM, IgA and IgG in sera of sputum and culture positive pulmonary tuberculosis

Tuberculosis remains major health problem in India and developing countries Immunodiagnosis has important role in screening, diagnosis and management of tuberculosis. SEVA TB ES-31 antigen has shown potential in detecting tuberculous IgG antibody in earlier studies from our laboratory. In the present study we have analysedSEVA TB ES-31 antigen specific immunoglobulinsIgM, IgA and IgG in clinically and bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis cases to determine the usefulness of specific immunoglobulin class in the diagnosis of patients attending the hospital. Of the 30 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis 25 (83.3%) were positive for IgG, 19 (63.3%) for IgM and 16 (53.3%) for IgA. On combining IgG and IgM positivity, sensitivity was increased to 93.3%. While combining IgG and IgA positivity, sensitivity increased to 90%. However specificity was decreased to 66.6% and 70% for both of these combinations respectively. It could be envisaged from this study that IgG antibody detection against ES-31 antigen showed acceptable sensitivity (83.3%) and specificity (86.6%) compared to IgM or IgA alone or in combination. When immune responses were analysed according to degree of sputum positivity, IgG response was observed to be predominant in all grades, compared to IgM or IgA antibody. The addition of IgM or IgA as an adjunct test increases the sensitivity but at the cost of specificity. Hence the detection of IgG alone is more useful compared to IgM or IgA assay, in detecting tuberculosis disease cases coming to the hospital.     

一种基于快速数值技术的电磁场分析有限元算法

提出了一种用于三维电磁场有限元分析的数值技术,即与波阵法配合使用的目标区域定位(TRL)算子.首先对波阵法进行了分析,然后对TRL算子原理进行了详细论述,并讨论了TRL算子在非线性场合应用的可行性,指出其仍能够适用并保持原来的高效率.还介绍了TRL算子在采用矢量磁位函数有限元公式中的实现.最后给出了一个三维静磁场建模的算例,分别采用TRL算子和有限元软件FEMLAB.结果表明:与FEMLAB相比,TRL算子可以节省可观的计算机资源.     

Managing uncertainty in the real world

In Part 1 of this article we understood the idea of a fuzzy set. We also reviewed simple operations such as fuzzy set intersection, union, and complementation, and related these to geometry. In Part 2, we extend the idea of fuzzy sets to explain how we may develop systems that reason with fuzzy sets using fuzzy logic. The idea of extending fuzzy logic to fuzzy engineering and fuzzy function approximation is explored with a working example. It is hoped that readers will be provided with enough motivation to appreciate the use of fuzzy set theory for real world applications.     

Siblings exposed to intimate partner violence: Linking sibling relationship quality & child adjustment problems

Although the majority of families that experience intimate partner violence (IPV) have more than one child, most research to date has focused upon a single child within these families. A significant body of research has indicated siblings play an important role in children's adjustment and well-being. To address this gap, the three main goals of the present study were to compare the adjustment of older and younger siblings exposed to IPV, to describe and compare the quality of these sibling relationships from multiple perspectives, and to investigate how sibling adjustment and relationship quality influence children's adjustment. Forty-seven sibling pairs and their mothers were recruited from the community. Mothers self-reported on their violent experiences using the Conflict Tactics Scale, and also estimated the length of time their children were exposed to IPV. Mothers and children completed assessments of child adjustment and the quality of sibling relationships. Observers also assessed the quality of sibling interaction. Results indicated that adjustment between siblings was highly inter-related. On average, mothers reported sibling relationships as less positive but also as less hostile than did siblings themselves. Higher levels of sibling hostility, lower levels of sibling warmth and higher levels of disengagement each significantly predicted child adjustment; however, these effects were predicated upon the adjustment of the other sibling. The sibling relationships of children exposed to IPV made a difference in their individual adjustment, and their adjustment issues influenced how they feel about and interacted with their sibling. Sibling hostility played a stronger role in adjustment issues than sibling warmth. The nature of sibling influences and the direction of future research were discussed.