Information Center Research Articles

Neurological adverse effects of isoxazoline exposure in cats and dogs.

Isoxazolines are rarely reported to be associated with neurological adverse events in cats and dogs, but information about the onset and duration of neurological signs is lacking in the summary of product characteristics of these medicines. The Veterinary Poisons Information Service and the Dutch Poisons Information Center databases were searched using the Veterinary Dictionary for Drug-Related Affairs terms for ataxia, muscle tremor, convulsions or hyperesthesia in cats and dogs exposed to isoxazolines. There were 22 cases with and 57 cases without outcome information, mostly involving fluralaner or sarolaner. In both groups, muscle tremors and convulsions were the most common signs. In dogs, neurological signs occurred with oral therapeutic dose and overdosage. In cats, most fluralaner cases involved therapeutic topical exposure, and all sarolaner cases involved oral exposure. In all cases with outcome information, the animals recovered. Cases discussed with poison centres tend to involve more severe signs. The true incidence of neurological adverse effects from isoxazolines remains unclear.The delay between the administration and onset of signs can be long, and the association may be missed. A lack of timing information in the summary of product characteristics could also contribute to missed attribution of adverse effects.

Utilization of technology-enhance learning tools among vocational and technical education teachers in Nigerian tertiary institutions

The study determined training needs of teachers and issues in the utilization of Technology-enhanced Learning tools in Vocational and Technical Education in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Five research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. The sample for the study is 318 teachers from six tertiary institutions that offer majority of Vocational and Technical Education programmes in Nigeria. Instrument for data collection was developed by the researchers and was validated by five experts in Vocational and Technical Education. The overall reliability index of the instrument is 0.81. Results from collected data revealed that the teachers require training to enable them use Technology-enhanced Learning tools for instructional delivery; the current mode of instructional delivery in institutions is face-to-face approach; many institutions have Information and Communication Technology center and institution wide internet which are not effectively utilized for instructional delivery, among numerous other findings. Among the recommendations is that teachers should be given access to the available Technology-enhanced Learning facilities in their institutions to enable them learn how to use them at their own free times. It was concluded that most VTE teachers are eager to deploy Technology-enhanced Learning tools for instructional delivery but some institutional supports they need, especially trainings are inadequate.

Prospects for the development of the library network in Dagestan in 1950s: a gender approach

   In the modern society government authorities pay quite a lot of attention to the development of the socio-cultural sphere in the country. Despite the fact that at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, libraries began to take on the functions of abolished cultural centers due to a significant reduction in the network of socio-cultural institutions. The functions of information centers have been added to the traditional functions of an educational nature, preservation and enhancement of cultural heritage, providing access to national and global information networks and databases. Today, modern library science presents new analytical capabilities for the study and analysis of library communications. One of these is a gender perspective, which looks at the norms and cultural symbols that men and women bring to the library profession.   The purpose of the research is to study this aspect in the socio-cultural sphere at the regional level, which allows us to trace the uniqueness of general processes within individual national republics.   To achieve this goal, the task has been formulated to reflect the history of the development of the library network in 1950s in the region using a gender approach. In the research methods of comparative historical analysis were used, as well as the principles of objectivism and historicism, which provided the opportunity to analyze various episodes and phenomena from a historical point of view. When studying the questions posed, the author has come to the conclusion that Russian historiography today has almost no research devoted to the study of the development of librarianship through the prism of gender stereotypes. This study is an attempt to highlight the development of librarianship, with an emphasis on women's experiences in this profession.

Incidence of the musculoskeletal system diseases in children and the organization of specialized care in Saint Petersburg

BACKGROUND: The high prevalence of musculoskeletal system and connective tissue diseases, effects on the quality of life of children, and disability level are among the main medical and social problems.
 AIM: To assess the morbidity rates and provision of medical care to St. Petersburg children with musculoskeletal diseases between 2017 and 2021.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data on the incidence of musculoskeletal diseases in children of St. Petersburg were analyzed based on the Federal statistical observation forms submitted by the St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution Medical Center for Information and Analysis, collections of N.N. Priorov National Medical Research Center for Traumatology and Orthopedics of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation “Trauma, orthopedic morbidity, the state of trauma and orthopedic care for the population,” edited by Acad. S.P. Mironov, RAS, and data from the Federal State Statistics Service.
 RESULTS: In Saint Petersburg, the morbidity rate of musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases from 2017 to 2021 was 13%, excluding 2020, which was most likely due to the introduction of measures aimed at counteracting the spread of COVID-19 and the suspension of planned outpatient specialized care. The number of orthopedic beds for children decreased by 58, whereas the availability of beds for children remained at the same level and amounted to 4.3 beds per 10,000 children, which exceeded the indicator for the Russian Federation (1.0). The number of children with these disabilities increased 1.4-fold. Deaths of children due to musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases were recorded in 2019 and 2020.
 CONCLUSIONS: The results of the 5-year observation period of musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases in children in St. Petersburg revealed increasing incidence because of the increase in the number of children newly diagnosed with these diseases.

AMBER Alert: An Ironic Antidote to “Missing White Girl Syndrome”?

“Missing White Girl Syndrome” (MWGS) has been coined in critique of news media coverage favoritism of victims fitting that description. The AMBER Alert child recovery system was in fact inspired by the abduction and murder of a missing white girl, and some have argued its issuance decisions reflect MWGS. We examine this question using secondary data, including the annual AMBER Alert reports provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART), and the National Crime Information Center (NCIS). We compared the demographics of victims from official AMBER Alert data (NCMEC) with cross-comparable demographics from the two official missing persons data sources to test for potential main-effect bias favoring whites or girls. A fourth dataset derived from media accounts of AMBER Alerts is used to test for any potential interaction effect of issuance preference for white girls. Overwhelmingly the findings suggest AMBER Alert issuance decisions do not reflect MWGS. Thus, we argue the system has the potential to function as an ironic “antidote” to MWGS by virtue of the identities of the children for whom it is routinely deployed. However, we qualify by acknowledging limitations with available data, and that the “black box” of AMBER Alert issuance decisions remains unstudied, leaving open the question of race and/or gender bias occurring at that point. Policy discourse and future research implications are discussed.

Promoting Faculty Diversity in U.S. Higher Education Institutions: The Case of Faculty of Color

The current landscape of higher education has seen efforts by universities and colleges to promote a sense of belonging and inclusion for students, faculty, and staff. In this study, I investigated faculty diversity in U.S. higher education institutions focusing on faculty of color. Critical Race Theory and Affirmative Action served as the conceptual frameworks for this study. For data collection, I utilized journal articles on Ohio University’s library website, Google Scholar, and the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC); and this lasted between March 2023 and June 2023. I analyzed the data using thematic analysis. The findings of the research revealed a lack of mentorship for faculty of color. Additionally, faculty from underrepresented groups had to navigate their educational institutions on their own without any assistance. Faculty of color also experienced feelings of isolation due to the absence of faculty who shared their background. At the end of the study, I recommended that diversity, equity, and inclusion should not be viewed as merely a checkbox for funding or accreditation purposes. The findings of this study can provide valuable insights for higher education institutions as they strive for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Phenibut—an Illegal Food Supplement With Psychotropic Effects and Health Risks.

Phenibut (β-phenyl-γ-aminobutyric acid) is an analog of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Like gabapentin and pregabalin, it inhibits α2-δ-subunits of voltage-dependent presynaptic calcium channels. The potential harm resulting from the use of these gabapentinoids is currently a matter of debate. This review is based on pertinent publications retrieved by a selective literature search and on cases reported to the Giftinformationszentrum-Nord (GIZ-Nord), a poison information center at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Phenibut is a prescription drug in Russia but its production, possession, use, trafficking, or administration is illegal in Germany. The phenibut toxicity syndrome resembles that of gabapentinoids and GABA mimetics: benzodiazepine-like withdrawal symptoms including epileptic seizures, delirium and paradoxical activation have been described, as have cases of abuse and dependence. A few cases of use in the setting of multidrug abuse, and of phenibut-related death, have been described to date in the USA. The GIZ-Nord received 17 inquiries about phenibut, 55 about gabapentin, and 126 about pregabalin over the period 2008-2022. Over the same period, the GIZ-Nord was informed of 1207 cases involving Z substances and 4324 involving benzodiazepines. In the majority of the registered intoxications, including those with phenibut, the symptoms were mild. Overdoses of phenibut (2-100 g) were reported in 15 of the 17 cases; 8 of the persons who had taken an overdose were somnolent. In such cases, observation in intensive care was recommended. Respiratory depression or coma was not encountered in any case, not even in the patient who had taken 100 g of phenibut. Phenibut causes symptoms resembling those of gabapentinoid and benzodiazepine use. There have been reports of phenibut use in combination with other psychotropic drugs; in particular, its use together with opiates could increase the risk of coma and respiratory depression. No deaths due to phenibut intoxication have been published in Germany or elsewhere in Western Europe, although such cases may have been overlooked, as this drug is still largely unknown to Western medicine.

The network of sci-tech libraries as the foundation of the national system of sci-tech information: The history, status, and prospects

The authors discuss the sci-tech libraries in historical aspect; these libraries make the key element of the national system of sci-tech information and information services and support national science and technology. They follow the dynamics of building the network of research institutions and special sci-tech libraries that replaced technical, factory and company libraries. The role of the USSR State Public Library for Science and Technology (USSR SPLS&T) is highlighted: during the Soviet era it was the country’s head sci-tech library, the main methodological center for technological libraries, interdepartmental coordinator of user services, collection development, interlibrary loan, and translation of scitech literature. The authors emphasize the importance of the national regulation of sci-tech library and information services, and their development through building the state system of sci-tech information. The authors also examine the goals of t he S PLS&T U SSR a s a research institution in the area of library and bibliographic studies; SPLS&T supported the unity of efforts within the system. The authors analyze the implementation of the national sci-tech program; within the framework of the program, the RNPLS&T acts as the head agency of the Automated System of the Russian Union Catalog in science and technology and provides for interaction of sci-tech library network and sci-tech information institutions in using the databases by associated members. The authors substantiate the need for the new national system of sci-tech information based on the laws and regulations adopted in the recent decades. They analyze the results of 2023 All-Russian monitoring of sci-tech libraries and sci-tech information centers; evaluate the capacities of sci-tech libraries for supporting corporate projects, scitech professionals and researchers.

Count-free Weisfeiler–Leman and group isomorphism

We investigate the power of counting in Group Isomorphism. We first leverage the count-free variant of the Weisfeiler–Leman Version I algorithm for groups [J. Brachter and P. Schweitzer, On the Weisfeiler–Leman dimension of finite groups, in 35th Annual ACM/IEEE Symp. Logic in Computer Science, eds. H. Hermanns, L. Zhang, N. Kobayashi and D. Miller, Saarbrucken, Germany, July 8–11, 2020 (ACM, 2020), pp. 287–300, doi:10.1145/3373718.3394786] in tandem with bounded non-determinism and limited counting to improve the parallel complexity of isomorphism testing for several families of groups. These families include: Direct products of non-Abelian simple groups. Coprime extensions, where the normal Hall subgroup is Abelian and the complement is an [Formula: see text]-generated solvable group with solvability class poly log log [Formula: see text]. This notably includes instances where the complement is an [Formula: see text]-generated nilpotent group. This problem was previously known to be in [Formula: see text] [Y. Qiao, J. M. N. Sarma and B. Tang, On isomorphism testing of groups with normal Hall subgroups, in Proc. 28th Symp. Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, Dagstuhl Castle, Leibniz Center for Informatics, 2011), pp. 567–578, doi:10.4230/LIPIcs. STACS.2011.567], and the complexity was recently improved to [Formula: see text] [J. A. Grochow and M. Levet, On the parallel complexity of group isomorphism via Weisfeiler–Leman, in 24th Int. Symp. Fundamentals of Computation Theory, eds. H. Fernau and K. Jansen, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 14292, September 18–21, 2023, Trier, Germany (Springer, 2023), pp. 234–247]. Graphical groups of class [Formula: see text] and exponent [Formula: see text] [A. H. Mekler, Stability of nilpotent groups of class 2 and prime exponent, J. Symb. Logic 46(4) (1981) 781–788] arising from the CFI and twisted CFI graphs [J. -Y. Cai, M. Fürer and N. Immerman, An optimal lower bound on the number of variables for graph identification, Combinatorica 12(4) (1992) 389–410], respectively. In particular, our work improves upon previous results of Brachter and Schweitzer [On the Weisfeiler–Leman dimension of finite groups, in 35th Annual ACM/IEEE Symp. Logic in Computer Science, eds. H. Hermanns, L. Zhang, N. Kobayashi and D. Miller, Saarbrucken, Germany, July 8–11, 2020 (ACM, 2020), pp. 287–300, doi:10.1145/3373718.3394786]. Notably, each of these families was previously known to be identified by the counting variant of the more powerful Weisfeiler–Leman Version II algorithm. We finally show that the [Formula: see text]-ary count-free pebble game is unable to even distinguish Abelian groups. This extends the result of Grochow and Levet (ibid), who established the result in the case of [Formula: see text]. The general theme is that some counting appears necessary to place Group Isomorphism into [Formula: see text].

Engagement in Online Postgraduate Nursing Programs: An Integrative Review

Demand for online education has increased in recent decades. Uptake of postgraduate nursing education in this mode is on the rise, yet many students do not achieve completion. Student engagement is vital to success in online postgraduate nursing programs. Technology enables a more efficient means of monitoring engagement, yet limited literature is available on how the design of online postgraduate nursing programs impacts student engagement. This integrative review aims to identify barriers and facilitators to engaging in online postgraduate nursing programs. Four databases, including Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Education Resources Information Center, Scopus, and Medline, were systematically searched to identify relevant literature published over the period 1990 to 2022. Fifteen papers met the inclusion criteria. Thematic analysis generated three themes: design and delivery, support and connectivity, and student factors and success. The findings of this review uncover the range of indiscriminate variables and experiences that students have with online learning, making engaging instructional design a complex process. Nursing faculty require time and resources to develop skills specific to delivering “distance” education without being distant to the students. This review concludes that online postgraduate nursing programs are not a panacea, with ethical issues identified for higher education providers.

Risk effects of meteorological factors on human brucellosis in Jilin province, China, 2005-2019

BackgroundThe impact of climate on zoonotic infectious diseases (or can be referred to as climate-sensitive zoonotic diseases) is confirmed. Yet, research on the association between brucellosis and climate is limited. We aim to understand the impact of meteorological factors on the risk of brucellosis, especially in northeastern China. MethodsMonthly incidence data for brucellosis from 2005 to 2019 in Jilin province was obtained from the China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Monthly meteorological data (average temperature (°C), wind velocity (m/s), relative humidity (%), sunshine hours (h), air pressure (hPa), and rainfall (mm)) in Jilin province, China, from 2005-2019 were collected from the China Meteorological Information Center (http://data.cma.cn/). The Spearman’s correlation was used to choose among the several meteorological variables. A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was used to estimate the lag and non-linearity effect of meteorological factors on the risk of brucellosis. ResultsA total of 24,921 cases of human brucellosis were reported in Jilin province from 2005-2019, with the peak epidemic period from April to June. Low temperature and low sunshine hours were protective factors for the brucellosis, where the minimum RR values were 0.50 (95% CI = 0.31-0.82) for -13.7°C with 1 month lag and 0.61 (95% CI = 0.41-0.91) for 110.5h with 2 months lag, respectively. High temperature, high sunshine hours, and low wind velocity were risk factors for brucellosis. The maximum RR values were 2.91 (95% CI = 1.43-5.92, lag = 1, 25.7°C), 1.85 (95% CI = 1.23-2.80, lag = 2, 332.6h), and 1.68 (95% CI = 1.25-2.26, lag = 2, 1.4m/s). The trends in the impact of extreme temperature and extreme sunshine hours on the transmission of brucellosis were generally consistent. ConclusionHigh temperature, high sunshine hours, and low wind velocity are more conducive to the transmission of brucellosis with an obvious lag effect. The results will deepen the understanding of the relationship between climate and brucellosis and provide a reference for formulating relevant public health policies.

ARCH/GARCH Analysis: Estimating Beef Price Volatility in Indonesia

This study analyses the volatility of beef prices in Indonesia, a strategic commodity that significantly impacts the welfare of producers and consumers. The sustained and erratic price fluctuations pose an economic risk to producers and threaten farmers' economic stability. ARCH / GARCH models were used to analyze daily beef price data from 10 July 2017 to 31 December 2023, obtained from the National Strategic Food Price Information Centre of Bank Indonesia. The GARCH (2,2) model is the most suitable for estimating the volatility of beef prices in Indonesia, with low and sustainable volatility in the long run. Factors that affect this volatility include feeder cattle and beef imports, exchange rates, livestock diseases, the COVID-19 pandemic, and government policies such as PPKM and PSBB during the new normal era. Important events such as Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Christmas, and New Year also influence price volatility of beef. This research aims to assist the government to design more effective market stabilization policies in the short, medium, and long term period. Keywords: beef, ARCH/GARCH, price volatility, fluctuation

The main trends of 2023 in concrete construction

The analytical review of 2023 was prepared based on the analysis of materials and publications of the Beton GmbH information center (Germany).
 
 Concrete construction, concrete and reinforced concrete technologies, carbon neutrality, and resource efficiency are the central topics that the Beton GmbH (IZB) information center is working on today on behalf of German cement and concrete manufacturers. As an analytical platform for manufacturers and the driving force of the industry, the center promotes new applications of cementbonded building materials and introduces innovative products and processes. Given the critical importance of cement and concrete in construction, the industry also has a special responsibility to mitigate the effects of climate change. Therefore, the German cement industry has been actively working for many years to reduce carbon emissions and conserve natural resources. Using innovative technologies, Germany plans to produce cement and concrete with zero carbon emissions by 2045.
 
 An important element of the promotion and training of sustainable concrete construction is the provision of technical advice to builders, contractors, architects and engineers in the field of civil, road, high-rise and agricultural construction. The main focus is on concrete and processes that provide sustainable, reliable solutions, as well as contribute to the implementation of major planned ideas in accordance with the main global trends: climate efficiency, resource conservation, energy conservation.

The gender dimension of social mood in modern Russia: the experience of historical and sociological analysis

Social mood is the most developed phenomenon of sociological theory and practice, the consideration of which is important for assessment and expertise in times of crises and obvious social changes. Social mood is considered as a phenomenon and an integral characteristic of the perception of life in society, the state of the human spiritual world, an integral form of life perception, the dominant of a really functioning social consciousness and behavior. To identify the gender characteristics of social positions, a primary analysis of the data of the All-Russian sociological monitoring "How are you, Russia?" (1992-2022) during the crisis and turning points of three decades of the modern history of Russia was carried out– 1993, 2001, 2008, 2014, 2022, The data of the research institute "Precariat: a new phenomenon in the socio-economic structure of society" are involved (RNF No.18-18-00024). The empirical basis for the secondary analysis was the data of the All-Russian centers for sociological research, statistical information, and publications in the media in current periods. A comparison of respondents' responses to problems, their prioritization in the opinions of women and men allowed us to identify dominant events, emerging new combinations of crisis phenomena of economic, political, and spiritual orders in the development of Russian society at mega-, meso-, and microlevels. The conclusion is made about the presence of common constants in the social positions of 1993, 2001, 2008, 2014, 2022, the stable reaction of society with the designation of the main problems of high cost of living, crime, social stratification. The situation of gender communities in the periods under review is characterized by an insufficient "safety cushion", alienation from a power resource, differences in assessments of social expectations about a woman's happiness from the point of view of men and women themselves, and the presence of gender-sensitive problems for both women and men.

Современные способы нарушения неприкосновенности частной жизни

Introduction. The article is devoted to the study of the methods of committing crimes provided for inArticle 137 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation. Special attention is paid to the influence of information technology on the formation of individual criminal behavior: the choice of ways to commit crimes that violate privacy (in 2020-2021, 87% of cases are accounted for by information technology). A significant factor in the analysis of crimes violating privacy is the change in the statistical accounting of the methods of committing crimes: since 2022, the forms of federal statistical observation reflect the methods of committing crimes in the field of information and telecommunications technologies provided for in Part 3 of Article 137 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation. Methods: The research methodology consists of general scientific methods of cognition of social processes, in particular, the socio-legal phenomenon of crime (analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, system-structural method, measurement, description, abstraction), as well as private scientific methods - document analysis, statistical methods. As an empirical base, separate forms of statistical observationof theFederal State Institution “Main Information and Analysis Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation”,information from the Internet resource “Judicial and Regulatory Acts of the Russian Federation”, as well as information from other online publications were used. Results: In this article, individual ways of violating privacy are selected as the subject of study due to their significant diversity. In particular, the following methods of committing crimes, confirmed by statistical data, were considered: the Internet, social networks, computer equipment, instant messaging tools, mobile communication tools, software tools.

Exogenous intoxication in patients treated at the Toxicological Information and Assistance Center during the COVID-19 pandemic

Poisoning is defined as an adverse event resulting from the action of chemical substances that induces a pathology in an individual. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported three million hospital admissions occurring annually due to toxic exposure worldwide. The growth of SARS-CoV-2 infection cases in 2020 also significantly increased calls to Poison Centers due to exposure to cleaning products, hand sanitizers, and disinfectants in early March 2020 in the United States. Based on this scenario, it was hypothesized that the pattern of exogenous intoxication has changed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the epidemiological profile of exogenous intoxications recorded by CIATOX-DF from March 2020 to February 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, there was an increase in accidental, environmental, venomous, and non-venomous animal cases, especially in babies, pre-adolescents, adolescents (11 to 15 years old), and women, due to the greater exposure of this age group and gender who have spent more time in rural environments. Most poisonings were accidental. It was observed that there was a decrease in suicide cases, but within these cases, there was a trend increase in poisoning in pre-adolescents and adolescents (11 to 15 years old) compared to other ages, which can be related to an increase in anxiety within this age group. The main toxic agents were venomous and non-venomous animals. The pattern of high frequency in cases involving medicines, pesticides, and household cleaning products was maintained, with a significant increase in cases involving 70% alcohol. It was found that patients living in towns further away from the Pilot Plan in Brasilia suffer accidents involving venomous animals. Accidental and attempted suicide cases occurred more frequently in cities closer to the Pilot Plan region. We concluded that these changes were explained by the new pattern of social behavior during the pandemic.

Has the rescheduling of modified-release paracetamol in Australia affected the frequency of overdoses?

In June 2020, modified-release paracetamol (paracetamol-MR) preparations were up-scheduled from schedule-2 (available in pharmacy) to schedule-3 (available by request to a pharmacist only). The present study aims to ascertain whether up-scheduling affected the frequency of paracetamol-MR overdoses. This is a retrospective cohort study of two data sets from 1 June 2017 to 31 May 2022. Monash Health data were extracted using the diagnosis of paracetamol overdose coding and electronic medical records data. Calls regarding paracetamol-MR overdoses to Victorian Poisons Information Centre (VPIC) were extracted from the Poisons centre call database. We used a quasi-experimental research design with interrupted time series analysis to evaluate the immediate impact and change in trend of poisoning-related calls and ED presentations before and after June 2020. The change in proportion of paracetamol-MR cases in both databases was analysed using the Χ2 test. The proportion of paracetamol-MR cases in both data sets did not change. From Monash Health, there was no level change in monthly paracetamol-MR overdose-related presentations following re-scheduling (rate ratio [RR] = 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.57-2.01). There was no change in monthly paracetamol-MR overdose-related calls to VPIC following re-scheduling (RR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.96-1.14). The proportion of paracetamol-MR overdoses did not decrease after the up-scheduling to S3. Similarly, the frequency of overdoses by month remained similar. Further limitations on access to paracetamol products may need to be considered.

Significant Challenges in Front of Indian Public Libraries in the Digital Era: an Overview

In this presented component, we are going to study about the challenges facing Indian public libraries and the strategies that can be helpful for address the challenges in the digital Era. A library is a place of collection of books, library is an ancient social institution with a long history parallel to human civilization. Books, readers, and librarians are the three main components of a library. Mahatma Jotirao Phule, the pioneer of women's education, said that lack of education is the main reason behind the backwardness of the society. In the digital Era, knowledge is said to be power, man's power increases with his knowledge. Therefore, man should convert every moment of his life to add knowledge and increase his strength. Since ancient times, such knowledge has been preserved in the form of books, books are considered very valuable. The best place to acquire knowledge is the library and information center, there are various types of knowledge tools for imparting knowledge to the general public. Education should reach every section of the society as the circle of knowledge widens every day. To make the society progressive, remove the ignorance in the society, increase the appetite for knowledge among the readers and overall development of the society, there is no alternative but public libraries.

Noise Constraints on Global Body-Wave Measurement Thresholds

ABSTRACT Intermediate sized earthquakes (≈M4–6.5) are often measured using the teleseismic body-wave magnitude (mb). mb measurements are especially critical at the lower end of this range when teleseismic waveform modeling techniques (i.e., moment tensor analysis) are difficult. The U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) determines the location and magnitude of all M 5 and greater earthquakes worldwide within 20 min of the rupture time, and therefore accurate mb magnitude estimates are essential to fulfill its mission. To better understand how network geometry and noise levels affect the global response capabilities, we developed a method to spatially estimate the minimum measurable mb. To do this, we compare expected mb amplitudes at every station to the station’s background noise level. We find that using NEIC’s current network geometry and these idealized thresholds, NEIC can potentially estimate mb magnitudes down to M 4.5 globally. Low-latitude regions in the Southern Hemisphere present the biggest opportunity to improve monitoring capabilities. However, logistically they also present the biggest hurdles for network operators. Finally, to test the resiliency of the network we removed the 20 most important stations and found the mb threshold remains mb 4.5. However, the region where only mb 4.5 and greater can be estimated increases and is again restricted to the Southern Hemisphere.

Price Model for Transit-Oriented Developments in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract The idea of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) was to foster urban development around railway networks and has been strategically built and applied since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Previous studies reported positive, negative, or irrelevant impact of TOD on prices of surrounding real estate. The study aims to evaluate the impact of TOD on property prices in Kuala Lumpur. It utilizes secondary data obtained from the National Property Information Centre (NAPIC), Malaysia, after data cleaning, Nine Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-Nine (9549) Housing Transactions between the periods 2009 and 2018 were used. The research design was quantitative, and the Hedonic Price Model (log-log model) was used for data analysis. The model revealed a multiple correlation coefficient (R) of 0.891 and an adjusted R2 value of 0.794, indicating that 79.4% of the house price variation is explained by the model. The F value of 996.921, which is statistically significant, indicates that the predictors significantly combine to predict the price of TOD areas in Kuala Lumpur. The coefficient for LnTrainsta is 0.056, indicating that there was a positive relationship between residential house prices and TOD in Kuala Lumpur; this explains that house prices increase by 5.6% for every 100 meter closer to the rail transit station.