I thank Dean Martin for his very flattering introduction. I thank the College for bestowing a chair to me and the Mathematics Department for providing a wonderful atmosphere for my work. I thank Don Lewis and my current and former colleagues for their support. I take this opportunity to also thank my family, friends, and collaborators. My mathematical horizon has widened considerably after join...

We derive diierent representations of compact QED xed to Lan-dau gauge by the lattice Faddeev-Popov procedure. Our analysis nds that (A)Nielsen-Olesen vortices arising from the compactness of the gauge-xing action are quenched , that is, the Faddeev-Popov determinant cancels them out and they do not innuence correlation functions such as the photon propagator; (B)Dirac strings are responsible f...

background: oral contraceptive pills effectiveness is lower in actual use than in clinical trials. the views of a group of married iranian women were sought as a step toward improving the enhanced use of contraceptive pills. methods: two focus groups of current pill users (n=13) and two focus groups of women not currently taking the pills (n=14) were held. leaders trained facilitators; themes w...

Upon release, Pokemon Go, an augmented reality technology based game garnered tremendous interest in the public, with an average of 20 million daily active users. The game combines geo-spatial elements along with gamification practices to incentivize it’s users movement in the physical world. Such incentives can have potential externalities to businesses associated with them. Using online revie...

The burgeoning of slums in the developing world poses an urgent environmental threat due to insanitary conditions and rampant disposal of wastewater. To assess the potential environmental impacts, domestic wastewater from Ghana's biggest urban slum Old Fadama was characterised throughout the dry and wet seasons. The study drew on a comprehensive assessment of the general sanitary conditions in ...

background: despite the availability of an effective vaccine for more than three decades, hbv (hepatitis b virus) continues to infect many people worldwide, particularly in developing countries of asia. in older people at higher risk of infection, high prevalence of hbv may exist, particularly among intravenous drug users (idus). this group is among groups at higher risk of infection as they sh...