With the aim of increasing information about risk factors for crashes in the area of Parma, North Italy, a total of 1489 road accidents occurred in the year 2008 was analyzed. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between drivers, accidents characteristics and accident outcomes (killed, severely, and mildly injured). Age classes much involved in road crash were 26-25 and 36-35 years. Men were much frequently responsible for accident than women. The hourly distribution of crash for working days, Saturday and Sunday showed that the prevalence was higher during the late night hours (0-3 on Sunday and 20-23 on Saturday, respectively). The youngest age class was involved in a greater number of accidents especially on 0-3 time of day class. About half of road crashes was directly attributed to violations. High-speed, alcohol and drug abuse affected only a small portion of cases. The highest combined risk of dying or being severely injured was found in males, driving a motorcycle. These results will influence transport and local safeties measures and policies, which will change inappropriate behaviors of drivers and protect the least experienced road users.
This study examined the validity and reliability of the Big Five personality traits scale in Malaysia. The sample of the study comprised 343 nurses in the health tourism hospitals. Administered on-site method was used for data collection. The respondents were required to rate their degree of agreement in the questionnaires with regard to their personality traits. Initial pilot test results showed an excellent internal reliability for each of the subscales. However, validity test extracted only four factors of the Big Five Inventory with factor loadings ranging from 0.573 to 0.803. The four factors were extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience. The reliability coefficients for all the extracted factors were above 0.7. Thus, the validated measures of the Big Five Inventory were deemed consistent and reliable throughout the study. Plausible reasons were stated in this study to explain the outcome of the factor analysis. Although many researchers recognized the Big Five Inventory as necessary and adequate to describe the structure of personality globally, this paper suggests that conducting validity and reliability test for Big Five Inventory is necessary when the study is conducted in countries with different cultural perspectives. In addition, it also offers suggestion to healthcare managers to identify their nurses' personality traits by using the validated measures. By knowing the nurses' personality traits, one can predict their work behaviors.
The objective of this study was to develop an effective bread formulation to achieve high loaf volume with good quality breads for Sudanese wheat cultivars. The response of Sudanese commercial wheat flour to different additives was studied. Alpha amylase, ascorbic acid (AA) and diacetyl tartaric esters of monoglyceride (DATEM) were tested in combination to produce bread with high loaf volume and good quality. Combination of AA (50 ppm) and DATEM (0.25%) with alpha amylase (0.05%) had a marked effect on the dough rheology. Dough development time, water absorption, and stability were reduced considerably. However the degree of softening, resistance to extension and energy were significantly increased. Incorporation of the combined improvers significantly increase the bread specific volume from 2.95 to 3.92 cm3/g for Argeen, 2.85 to 4.28 cm3/g for WadiElneel, 2.60 to 4.51 cm3/g for Nepta, and 3.40 to 5.07 cm3/g for Australian wheat (control). The high response of the Sudanese wheat flours to the improvers investigated indicated the possibility of producing high loaf volume with good quality breads from Sudanese wheat. However, the overall quality scores showed considerable improvement when these improvers were used in the formula in combination. Further research should be done to encourage using locally available ingredients as bread improvers.
The optimal conditions for determination of Pb, Cd and Cr in spices sample by FAAS after dry mineralization 1g spice samples for 5hr in a temperature of 500
The decrease of petroleum reserves and the global increase in energy demand has resulted in the focus of research toward exploration of alternate fuels using biological renewable sources. Biodiesel is one of these renewable energy forms. Microalgae are considered one of the most promising sources for biodiesel production. However, the potential use of microalgae in this field still needs to be explored since only about twenty species has been studied from the approximately 30.000 known species. Thereby, screening work on new potentially lipid overproducer strains is actually an active field. An overview of potential applications of multi-parameter flow cytometry in development of a biodiesel production strategy using microalgae is detailed in this review. Rapid and simultaneous measurements of different physiological parameters indicating diversity in marine and freshwater microalgal communities, biomass quality such as biochemical composition and viability of individual cells, isolation of targeted cells and obtention of axenic cultures are applications of flow cytometry that enable monitoring and optimisation of production of lipids from microalgae.
Ectomycorrhizal fungi has long been known as benefit microorganism for plants, because the fungi supply nutrients and water from soil to their hosts. But ectomycorrhizal fungi are very sensitive to environmental change of their habitat, thus can be used as bioindicator. One of the change that influence on their presence is forest fire that kill the trees as their hosts. Forest fire is almost occur every year in the dry season in Indonesia, not exception Kutai National Park (KNP), where the fire comes from the society gardens surrounding it. This study aimed to determine species diversity and dominance of ectomycorrhizal fungi on the after burned (Prevab) and unburned forests (Sangkimah). The results showed that the number of species of ectomycorrhizal fungi at Prevab were 12 species and 37 individuals, while at Sangkimah there were found 34 species of 87 individuals, this meant that the numbers of species and individuals of fungi at Sangkimah were more than at Prevab. However, based on biodiversity index, at both locations were low (H'<1), respectively was 0.51528 at Prevab and 0.50233 at Sangkimah. At Prevab, species of fungus with high levels of dominance was Clavulina sp., moderate level of dominance were Mycena pura, Coprinus atramentaria, C. comatus and Russula decolorans, whereas other species were in the level of low dominance. At Sangkimah, fungi with a high level of dominance was Clitocybe sp4, moderate level of dominance were Leucocoprinus flos-sulfuris and Cantharellus sp3, whereas other species were in the level of low dominance.
In industry, especially in the high technology sector such as aerospace, we produce and we use increasingly new materials for the construction of new structures that have good thermal and mechanical properties. The characterization of these materials requires knowledge of their thermo-physical properties. Thermal diffusivity is an important parameter in the materials characterization. Lock-in thermography is widely used in the materials thermal characterization. It involves applying on the front face sample a heater in the form of a sine wave and analyzing the phase difference or the amplitude difference between the incident thermal wave and the transmitted thermal wave. Indeed, the passage of the thermal wave through a material is influenced by its thermal diffusivity. We used the finite element method, in three dimensions, to calculate the instantaneous temperatures of the front and rear faces of the inspected sample, and deduct their phase shifts and therefore the sample thermal diffusivity. Our contribution in the lock-in thermography technique is the development of a new model for the thermal diffusivity evaluation with good precision. The results for polystyrene are very satisfactory. Indeed, the thermal diffusivity calculated by our new model is very close to the value reported in the literature. The proposed new model can be used in the characterization of new materials.
The importance of language learner strategies, metacognitive awareness of these strategies, and reading comprehension has been well documented in the first as well as second language research. By contrast, little investigations have been conducted to highlight the role of these components, especially language learners' metacognitive knowledge or awareness of strategies, in the foreign language learning contexts; most notably in "input-poor" environments. The study aimed at investigating the frequency of the use and types of reading strategies employed by Iranian EFL university students in an input-poor environment. In doing so, a questionnaire, namely the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) was administrated to 144 EFL students at Tonekabon Islamic Azad University, Iran. The analyses of the SORS through using descriptive statistics showed that these students were almost moderately aware of reading strategies. They most frequently used Problem-solving strategies (Mean= 2.67), followed by Global strategies (Mean= 2.54) and Support strategies (Mean= 2.40). Based on the results, several implications and suggestions for further research are offered for improving EFL learners' metacognitive awareness of reading strategies in an input-poor environment where conscious attention to learner strategies certainly merits closer consideration than unconscious acquisition caused by exposure to ample foreign language input outside the classroom.