Search results for: sediment quality guidelines
7212 Prospective Study to Determine the Efficacy of Day Hospital Care to Improve Treatment Adherence for Hospitalized Schizophrenic Patients
Authors: Jin Hun Choi, So Hyun Ahn, Seong Keun Wang, Ik-Seung Chee, Jung Lan Kim, Sun Woo Lee
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Objectives: The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of day hospital care in hospitalized schizophrenic patients in terms of treatment adherence and treatment outcomes. Methods: Among schizophrenic patients hospitalized between 2011 and 2012, 23 day hospital care patient and 40 control subjects were included in the study. All candidates underwent Beck Cognitive Insight Scale, Drug Attitude Inventory, World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment and Psychological Well-Being Scale when their symptoms were stabilized during hospitalization, and after being discharged, 23 patients received day hospital care for two months and then changed to out-patient care while 40 patients received out-patient care immediately after discharge. At the point of two months of out-patient care, the treatment adherence of the two groups was evaluated; tracking observation was performed until February, 2013, and survival rates were compared between the two groups. Results: Treatment adherence was higher in the day hospital care group than in the control group. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed a higher survival rate for the day hospital care group compared to the control group. Levels of cognitive insight and quality of life were higher after day hospital care than before day hospital care in the day hospital care group. Conclusions: Through the study, it was confirmed that when hospitalized schizophrenic patients received continuous day hospital care after being discharged, they received further out-patient care more faithfully. The study is considered to aid in the understanding regarding schizophrenic patients’ treatment adherence issues and improvement of treatment outcomes.Keywords: schizophrenia, day hospital care, adherence, outcomes
Procedia PDF Downloads 3587211 Satellites and Drones: Integrating Two Systems for Monitoring Air Quality and the Stress of the Plants
Authors: Bernabeo R. Alberto
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Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) platforms or remotely piloted aircraft system (Rpas) - with dedicated sensors - are fundamental support to the planning, running, and control of the territory in which public safety is or may be at risk for post-disaster assessments such as flooding or landslides, for searching lost people, for crime and accident scene photography, for assisting traffic control at major events, for teaching geography, history, natural science and all those subjects that require a continuous cyclical process of observation, evaluation and interpretation. Through the use of proximal remote sensing information related to anthropic landscape and nature integration, there is an opportunity to improve knowledge and management decision-making for the safeguarding of the environment, for farming, wildlife management, land management, mapping, glacier monitoring, atmospheric monitoring, for the conservation of archeological, historical, artistic and architectural sites, allowing an exact delimitation of the site in the territory. This paper will go over many different mission types. Within each mission type, it will give a broad overview to familiarize the reader but not make them an expert. It will also give detailed information on the payloads and other testing parameters the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) use to complete a mission. The project's goal is to improve satellite maps about the stress of the plants, air quality monitoring, and related health issues.Keywords: proximal remote sensing, remotely piloted aircraft system, risk, safety, unmanned aerial vehicle
Procedia PDF Downloads 287210 Comparing Xbar Charts: Conventional versus Reweighted Robust Estimation Methods for Univariate Data Sets
Authors: Ece Cigdem Mutlu, Burak Alakent
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Maintaining the quality of manufactured products at a desired level depends on the stability of process dispersion and location parameters and detection of perturbations in these parameters as promptly as possible. Shewhart control chart is the most widely used technique in statistical process monitoring to monitor the quality of products and control process mean and variability. In the application of Xbar control charts, sample standard deviation and sample mean are known to be the most efficient conventional estimators in determining process dispersion and location parameters, respectively, based on the assumption of independent and normally distributed datasets. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that the real-world data would be normally distributed. In the cases of estimated process parameters from Phase I data clouded with outliers, efficiency of traditional estimators is significantly reduced, and performance of Xbar charts are undesirably low, e.g. occasional outliers in the rational subgroups in Phase I data set may considerably affect the sample mean and standard deviation, resulting a serious delay in detection of inferior products in Phase II. For more efficient application of control charts, it is required to use robust estimators against contaminations, which may exist in Phase I. In the current study, we present a simple approach to construct robust Xbar control charts using average distance to the median, Qn-estimator of scale, M-estimator of scale with logistic psi-function in the estimation of process dispersion parameter, and Harrell-Davis qth quantile estimator, Hodge-Lehmann estimator and M-estimator of location with Huber psi-function and logistic psi-function in the estimation of process location parameter. Phase I efficiency of proposed estimators and Phase II performance of Xbar charts constructed from these estimators are compared with the conventional mean and standard deviation statistics both under normality and against diffuse-localized and symmetric-asymmetric contaminations using 50,000 Monte Carlo simulations on MATLAB. Consequently, it is found that robust estimators yield parameter estimates with higher efficiency against all types of contaminations, and Xbar charts constructed using robust estimators have higher power in detecting disturbances, compared to conventional methods. Additionally, utilizing individuals charts to screen outlier subgroups and employing different combination of dispersion and location estimators on subgroups and individual observations are found to improve the performance of Xbar charts.Keywords: average run length, M-estimators, quality control, robust estimators
Procedia PDF Downloads 1947209 Understanding the Origins of Pesticides Metabolites in Natural Waters through the Land Use, Hydroclimatic Conditions and Water Quality
Authors: Alexis Grandcoin, Stephanie Piel, Estelle Baures
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Brittany (France) is an agricultural region, where emerging pollutants are highly at risk to reach water bodies. Among them, pesticides metabolites are frequently detected in surface waters. The Vilaine watershed (11 000 km²) is of great interest, as a large drinking water treatment plant (100 000 m³/day) is located at the extreme downstream of it. This study aims to provide an evaluation of the pesticides metabolites pollution in the Vilaine watershed, and an understanding of their availability, in order to protect the water resource. Hydroclimatic conditions, land use, and water quality parameters controlling metabolites availability are emphasized. Later this knowledge will be used to understand the favoring conditions resulting in metabolites export towards surface water. 19 sampling points have been strategically chosen along the 220 km of the Vilaine river and its 3 main influents. Furthermore, the intakes of two drinking water plants have been sampled, one is located at the extreme downstream of the Vilaine river and the other is the riparian groundwater under the Vilaine river. 5 sampling campaigns with various hydroclimatic conditions have been carried out. Water quality parameters and hydroclimatic conditions have been measured. 15 environmentally relevant pesticides and metabolites have been analyzed. Also, these compounds are recalcitrant to classic water treatment that is why they have been selected. An evaluation of the watershed contamination has been done in 2016-2017. First observations showed that aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) and metolachlor ethanesulfonic acid (MESA) are the most detected compounds in surface waters samples with 100 % and 98 % frequency of detection respectively. They are the main pollutants of the watershed regardless of the hydroclimatic conditions. AMPA concentration in the river strongly increases downstream of Rennes agglomeration (220k inhabitants) and reaches a maximum of 2.3 µg/l in low waters conditions. Groundwater contains mainly MESA, Diuron and metazachlor ESA at concentrations close to limits of quantification (LOQ) (0.02 µg/L). Metolachlor, metazachlor and alachlor due to their fast degradation in soils were found in small amounts (LOQ – 0.2 µg/L). Conversely glyphosate was regularly found during warm and sunny periods up to 0.6 µg/L. Soil uses (agricultural cultures types, urban areas, forests, wastewater treatment plants implementation), water quality parameters, and hydroclimatic conditions have been correlated to pesticides and metabolites concentration in waters. Statistical treatments showed that chloroacetamides metabolites and AMPA behave differently regardless of the hydroclimatic conditions. Chloroacetamides are correlated to each other, to agricultural areas and to typical agricultural tracers as nitrates. They are present in waters the whole year, especially during rainy periods, suggesting important stocks in soils. Also Chloroacetamides are negatively correlated with AMPA, the different forms of phosphorus, and organic matter. AMPA is ubiquitous but strongly correlated with urban areas despite the recent French regulation, restricting glyphosate to agricultural and private uses. This work helps to predict and understand metabolites present in the water resource used to craft drinking water. As the studied metabolites are difficult to remove, this project will be completed by a water treatment part.Keywords: agricultural watershed, AMPA, metolachlor-ESA, water resource
Procedia PDF Downloads 1647208 A Techno-Economic Simulation Model to Reveal the Relevance of Construction Process Impact Factors for External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS)
Authors: Virgo Sulakatko
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The reduction of energy consumption of the built environment has been one of the topics tackled by European Commission during the last decade. Increased energy efficiency requirements have increased the renovation rate of apartment buildings covered with External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS). Due to fast and optimized application process, a large extent of quality assurance is depending on the specific activities of artisans and are often not controlled. The on-site degradation factors (DF) have the technical influence to the façade and cause future costs to the owner. Besides the thermal conductivity, the building envelope needs to ensure the mechanical resistance and stability, fire-, noise-, corrosion and weather protection, and long-term durability. As the shortcomings of the construction phase become problematic after some years, the common value of the renovation is reduced. Previous work on the subject has identified and rated the relevance of DF to the technical requirements and developed a method to reveal the economic value of repair works. The future costs can be traded off to increased the quality assurance during the construction process. The proposed framework is describing the joint simulation of the technical importance and economic value of the on-site DFs of ETICS. The model is providing new knowledge to improve the resource allocation during the construction process by enabling to identify and diminish the most relevant degradation factors and increase economic value to the owner.Keywords: ETICS, construction technology, construction management, life cycle costing
Procedia PDF Downloads 4207207 Developing a Health Promotion Program to Prevent and Solve Problem of the Frailty Elderly in the Community
Authors: Kunthida Kulprateepunya, Napat Boontiam, Bunthita Phuasa, Chatsuda Kankayant, Bantoeng Polsawat, Sumran Poontong
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Frailty is the thin line between good health and illness. The syndrome is more common in the elderly who transition from strong to weak. (Vulnerability). Fragility can prevent and promote healthy recovery before it goes into disability. This research and development aim to analyze the situation analysis of frailty of the elderly, develop a program, and evaluate the effect of a health promotion program to prevent and solve the problem of frailty among the elderly. The research consisted of 3 phases: 1) analysis of the frailty situation, 2) development of a model, 3) evaluation of the effectiveness of the model. Samples were 328, 122 elderlies using the multi-stage random sampling method. The research instrument was a frailty questionnaire use of the five symptoms, the main characteristics were muscle weakness, slow walking, low physical activity. Fatigue and unintentional weight loss, criteria frailty use more than or equal to three or more symptoms are frailty. Data were analyzed by descriptive and t-test dependent test statistics. The findings showed three parts. First, frailty in the elderly was 23.05 percentage and 56.70% pre-frailty. Second, it was development of a health promotion program to prevent and solve the problem of frailty the elderly with a combination of Nine-Square Exercise, Elastic Band Exercise, Elastic Coconut Shell. Third, evaluation of the effectiveness of the model by comparison of the elderly's get up and go test, the average time before using the program was 14.42 and after using the program was 8.57. It was statistically significant at the .05 level. In conclusion, the findings can used to develop guidelines to promote the health of the frailty elderly.Keywords: elderly, fragile, nine-square exercise, elastic coconut shell
Procedia PDF Downloads 1087206 Rail Corridors between Minimal Use of Train and Unsystematic Tightening of Population: A Methodological Essay
Authors: A. Benaiche
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In the current situation, the automobile has become the main means of locomotion. It allows traveling long distances, encouraging urban sprawl. To counteract this trend, the train is often proposed as an alternative to the car. Simultaneously, the favoring of urban development around public transport nodes such as railway stations is one of the main issues of the coordination between urban planning and transportation and the keystone of the sustainable urban development implementation. In this context, this paper focuses on the study of the spatial structuring dynamics around the railway. Specifically, it is a question of studying the demographic dynamics in rail corridors of Nantes, Angers and Le Mans (Western France) basing on the radiation of railway stations. Consequently, the methodology is concentrated on the knowledge of demographic weight and gains of these corridors, the index of urban intensity and the mobility behaviors (workers’ travels, scholars' travels, modal practices of travels). The perimeter considered to define the rail corridors includes the communes of urban area which have a railway station and communes with an access time to the railway station is less than fifteen minutes by car (time specified by the Regional Transport Scheme of Travelers). The main tools used are the statistical data from the census of population, the basis of detailed tables and databases on mobility flows. The study reveals that the population is not tightened along rail corridors and train use is minimal despite the presence of a nearby railway station. These results lead to propose guidelines to make the train, a real vector of mobility across the rail corridors.Keywords: coordination between urban planning and transportation, rail corridors, railway stations, travels
Procedia PDF Downloads 2517205 Core Stability Index for Healthy Young Sri Lankan Population
Authors: V. M. B. K. T. Malwanage, S. Samita
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Core stability is one of the major determinants that contribute to preventing injuries, enhance performance, and improve quality of life of the human. Endurance of the four major muscle groups of the central ‘core’ of the human body is identified as the most reliable determinant of core stability amongst the other numerous causes which contribute to readily make one’s core stability. This study aimed to develop a ‘Core Stability Index’ to confer a single value for an individual’s core stability based on the four endurance test scores. Since it is possible that at least some of the test scores are not independent, possibility of constructing a single index using the multivariate method exploratory factor analysis was investigated in the study. The study sample was consisted of 400 healthy young individuals with the mean age of 23.74 ± 1.51 years and mean BMI (Body Mass Index) of 21.1 ± 4.18. The correlation analysis revealed highly significant (P < 0.0001) correlations between test scores and thus construction an index using these highly inter related test scores using the technique factor analysis was justified. The mean values of all test scores were significantly different between males and females (P < 0.0001), and therefore two separate core stability indices were constructed for the two gender groups. Moreover, having eigen values 3.103 and 2.305 for males and females respectively, indicated one factor exists for all four test scores and thus a single factor based index was constructed. The 95% reference intervals constructed using the index scores were -1.64 to 2.00 and -1.56 to 2.29 for males and females respectively. These intervals can effectively be used to diagnose those who need improvement in core stability. The practitioners should find that with a single value measure, they could be more consistent among themselves.Keywords: construction of indices, endurance test scores, muscle endurance, quality of life
Procedia PDF Downloads 1677204 The Effect of Human Rights Violation in Modern Society
Authors: Hanania Nasan Shokry Abdelmasih
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The discipline of regulation is pretty complex and has its own terminology. other than written legal guidelines, there's also dwelling regulation, which refers to prison exercise. primary legal rules purpose at the happiness of individuals in social existence and feature different characteristics in unique branches including public or non-public regulation. on the other hand, law is a countrywide phenomenon. The law of 1 state and the legal device implemented at the territory of another state can be completely exceptional. individuals who are professionals in a specific discipline of regulation in a single united states may have inadequate know-how within the regulation of every other united states. today, similarly to the neighborhood nature of regulation, worldwide and even supranational regulation rules are implemented as a way to defend basic human values and make sure the protection of human rights around the sector. systems that offer algorithmic answers to prison problems using synthetic intelligence (AI) gear will perhaps serve to produce very meaningful consequences in phrases of human rights. but, algorithms to be used need to no longer be evolved with the aid of only pc professionals, however additionally want the contribution of folks who are familiar with law, values, judicial choices, and even the social and political culture of the society to which it'll provide answers. otherwise, even supposing the set of rules works perfectly, it may not be well suited with the values of the society in which it is applied. The present day traits involving using AI techniques in legal systems suggest that artificial law will come to be a brand new subject within the area of law.Keywords: sustainable development, human rights, the right to development, the human rights-based approach to development, environmental rights, economic development, social sustainability human rights protection, human rights violations, workers’ rights, justice, security
Procedia PDF Downloads 147203 Effect of Laser Ablation OTR Films and High Concentration Carbon Dioxide for Maintaining the Freshness of Strawberry ‘Maehyang’ for Export in Modified Atmosphere Condition
Authors: Hyuk Sung Yoon, In-Lee Choi, Min Jae Jeong, Jun Pill Baek, Ho-Min Kang
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This study was conducted to improve storability by using suitable laser ablation oxygen transmission rate (OTR) films and effectiveness of high carbon dioxide at strawberry 'Maehyang' for export. Strawberries were grown by hydroponic system in Gyeongsangnam-do province. These strawberries were packed by different laser ablation OTR films (Daeryung Co., Ltd.) such as 1,300 cc, 20,000 cc, 40,000 cc, 80,000 cc, and 100,000 cc•m-2•day•atm. And CO2 injection (30%) treatment was used 20,000 cc•m-2•day•atm OTR film and perforated film was as a control. Temperature conditions were applied simulated shipping and distribution conditions from Korea to Singapore, there were stored at 3 ℃ (13 days), 10 ℃ (an hour), and 8 ℃ (7 days) for 20 days. Fresh weight loss rate was under 1% as maximum permissible weight loss in treated OTR films except perforated film as a control during storage. Carbon dioxide concentration within a package for the storage period showed a lower value than the maximum CO2 concentration tolerated range (15 %) in treated OTR films and even the concentration of high OTR film treatment; from 20,000cc to 100,000cc were less than 3%. 1,300 cc had a suitable carbon dioxide range as over 5 % under 15 % at 5 days after storage until finished experiments and CO2 injection treatment was quickly drop the 15 % at storage after 1 day, but it kept around 15 % during storage. Oxygen concentration was maintained between 10 to 15 % in 1,300 cc and CO2 injection treatments, but other treatments were kept in 19 to 21 %. Ethylene concentration was showed very higher concentration at the CO2 injection treatment than OTR treatments. In the OTR treatments, 1,300 cc showed the highest concentration in ethylene and 20,000 cc film had lowest. Firmness was maintained highest in 1,300cc, but there was not shown any significant differences among other OTR treatments. Visual quality had shown the best result in 20,000 cc that showed marketable quality until 20 days after storage. 20,000 cc and perforated film had better than other treatments in off-odor and the 1,300 cc and CO2 injection treatments have occurred strong off-odor even after 10 minutes. As a result of the difference between Hunter ‘L’ and ‘a’ values of chroma meter, the 1,300cc and CO2 injection treatments were delayed color developments and other treatments did not shown any significant differences. The results indicate that effectiveness for maintaining the freshness was best achieved at 20,000 cc•m-2•day•atm. Although 1,300 cc and CO2 injection treatments were in appropriate MA condition, it showed darkening of strawberry calyx and excessive reduction of coloring due to high carbon dioxide concentration during storage. While 1,300cc and CO2 injection treatments were considered as appropriate treatments for exports to Singapore, but the result was shown different. These results are based on cultivar characteristics of strawberry 'Maehyang'.Keywords: carbon dioxide, firmness, shelf-life, visual quality
Procedia PDF Downloads 4007202 Effective Dose and Size Specific Dose Estimation with and without Tube Current Modulation for Thoracic Computed Tomography Examinations: A Phantom Study
Authors: S. Gharbi, S. Labidi, M. Mars, M. Chelli, F. Ladeb
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The purpose of this study is to reduce radiation dose for chest CT examination by including Tube Current Modulation (TCM) to a standard CT protocol. A scan of an anthropomorphic male Alderson phantom was performed on a 128-slice scanner. The estimation of effective dose (ED) in both scans with and without mAs modulation was done via multiplication of Dose Length Product (DLP) to a conversion factor. Results were compared to those measured with a CT-Expo software. The size specific dose estimation (SSDE) values were obtained by multiplication of the volume CT dose index (CTDIvol) with a conversion size factor related to the phantom’s effective diameter. Objective assessment of image quality was performed with Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) measurements in phantom. SPSS software was used for data analysis. Results showed including CARE Dose 4D; ED was lowered by 48.35% and 51.51% using DLP and CT-expo, respectively. In addition, ED ranges between 7.01 mSv and 6.6 mSv in case of standard protocol, while it ranges between 3.62 mSv and 3.2 mSv with TCM. Similar results are found for SSDE; dose was higher without TCM of 16.25 mGy and was lower by 48.8% including TCM. The SNR values calculated were significantly different (p=0.03<0.05). The highest one is measured on images acquired with TCM and reconstructed with Filtered back projection (FBP). In conclusion, this study proves the potential of TCM technique in SSDE and ED reduction and in conserving image quality with high diagnostic reference level for thoracic CT examinations.Keywords: anthropomorphic phantom, computed tomography, CT-expo, radiation dose
Procedia PDF Downloads 2257201 Developing an Instrument to Measure Teachers’ Self-Efficacy of Teaching Innovation Skills
Authors: Huda S. Al-Azmi
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There is a growing consensus that adoption of teachers’ self-efficacy measurement tools help to assess teachers’ abilities in specific areas in order to improve their skills. As a result, different instruments to assess teachers’ ability were developed by academics and practitioners. However, many of these instruments focused either on general teaching skills, or on the other hand, were very specific to one subject. As such, these instruments do not offer a tool to measure the ability of teachers in teaching 21st century skills such as innovation skills. Teaching innovation skills helps to prepare students for lives and careers in the 21st century. The purpose of this study is to develop an instrument measuring teachers’ self-efficacy of teaching innovation skills related to the classroom context and evaluating the teachers’ beliefs regarding their ability in teaching innovation skills. To reach this goal, the 16-item instrument measures four dimensions of innovation skills: creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. 211 secondary-school teachers filled out the survey to quantitatively analyze the quality of the instrument. The instrument’s reliability and item analysis were measured by using jMetrik. The results concluded that the mean of self-efficacy ranged from 3 to 3.6 without extreme high or low self-efficacy scores. The discrimination analysis revealed that one item recorded a negative correlation with the total, and three items recorded low correlation with the total. The reliabilities of items ranged from 0.64 to 0.69 and the instrument needed a couple of revisions before practical use. The study concluded the need to discard one item and revise five items to increase the quality of the instrument for future work.Keywords: critical thinking, collaboration, innovation skills, self-efficacy
Procedia PDF Downloads 2197200 Outcomes of Educating Care Giver in Tracheostomy Wound Care for Discharge Planning of Tracheostomy Patients at the Ear, Nose, Throat, and Eye Ward of Songkhla Hospital Thailand
Authors: Kingkan Chumjamras
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There are permanent and temporary tracheostomies, and in a permanent tracheostomy, care giver are important persons to know and be able to care for the tracheostomy patient. The objective of this quasi-experimental study was to evaluate outcomes of educating care giver in tracheostomy wound care for discharge planning of tracheostomy patients. The subjects of the study were relatives who directly cared for tracheostomy patients. Thirty subjects were selected according to specified criteria. The research instruments consisted of practice guidelines, manual for relatives in caring for the tracheostomy wound, an assisted model with a tracheostomy wound, a test, an observation form, and a patient’s relative satisfaction questionnaire. The instrument validity was tested by three experts, and the questionnaire reliability was tested with Cronbach’s alpha, and the reliability coefficient was 0.83; the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and paired t-test. The results of the study on educating relatives in tracheostomy wound care for discharge planning of tracheostomy patients revealed that the score for knowledge and ability in caring for the tracheostomy wound before receiving the education was at a low level (M= 19.23, SD= 1.57) compared with the very high score (M= 36.40, SD= 19.23) after receiving the education. The difference was statistically significant (p < .05), and relatives’ satisfaction was at a high level (80 percent). Knowledge and ability in caring for tracheostomy patients among patients’ relatives could cause tracheostomy wound complications for tracheostomy patients. One way to control such complications and returns to hospital from infection, in addition to care by the health care team, is educating relatives in tracheostomy wound care for discharge planning of tracheostomy patients.Keywords: outcomes, educating, care giver, Tracheostomy Wound Care, discharge planning
Procedia PDF Downloads 4367199 Analysis of the Level of Production Failures by Implementing New Assembly Line
Authors: Joanna Kochanska, Dagmara Gornicka, Anna Burduk
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The article examines the process of implementing a new assembly line in a manufacturing enterprise of the household appliances industry area. At the initial stages of the project, a decision was made that one of its foundations should be the concept of lean management. Because of that, eliminating as many errors as possible in the first phases of its functioning was emphasized. During the start-up of the line, there were identified and documented all production losses (from serious machine failures, through any unplanned downtime, to micro-stops and quality defects). During 6 weeks (line start-up period), all errors resulting from problems in various areas were analyzed. These areas were, among the others, production, logistics, quality, and organization. The aim of the work was to analyze the occurrence of production failures during the initial phase of starting up the line and to propose a method for determining their critical level during its full functionality. There was examined the repeatability of the production losses in various areas and at different levels at such an early stage of implementation, by using the methods of statistical process control. Based on the Pareto analysis, there were identified the weakest points in order to focus improvement actions on them. The next step was to examine the effectiveness of the actions undertaken to reduce the level of recorded losses. Based on the obtained results, there was proposed a method for determining the critical failures level in the studied areas. The developed coefficient can be used as an alarm in case of imbalance of the production, which is caused by the increased failures level in production and production support processes in the period of the standardized functioning of the line.Keywords: production failures, level of production losses, new production line implementation, assembly line, statistical process control
Procedia PDF Downloads 1377198 From Responses of Macroinvertebrate Metrics to the Definition of Reference Thresholds
Authors: Hounyèmè Romuald, Mama Daouda, Argillier Christine
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The present study focused on the use of benthic macrofauna to define the reference state of an anthropized lagoon (Nokoué-Benin) from the responses of relevant metrics to proxies. The approach used is a combination of a joint species distribution model and Bayesian networks. The joint species distribution model was used to select the relevant metrics and generate posterior probabilities that were then converted into posterior response probabilities for each of the quality classes (pressure levels), which will constitute the conditional probability tables allowing the establishment of the probabilistic graph representing the different causal relationships between metrics and pressure proxies. For the definition of the reference thresholds, the predicted responses for low-pressure levels were read via probability density diagrams. Observations collected during high and low water periods spanning 03 consecutive years (2004-2006), sampling 33 macroinvertebrate taxa present at all seasons and sampling points, and measurements of 14 environmental parameters were used as application data. The study demonstrated reliable inferences, selection of 07 relevant metrics and definition of quality thresholds for each environmental parameter. The relevance of the metrics as well as the reference thresholds for ecological assessment despite the small sample size, suggests the potential for wider applicability of the approach for aquatic ecosystem monitoring and assessment programs in developing countries generally characterized by a lack of monitoring data.Keywords: pressure proxies, bayesian inference, bioindicators, acadjas, functional traits
Procedia PDF Downloads 877197 Investigating the Effectiveness of a 3D Printed Composite Mold
Authors: Peng Hao Wang, Garam Kim, Ronald Sterkenburg
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In composite manufacturing, the fabrication of tooling and tooling maintenance contributes to a large portion of the total cost. However, as the applications of composite materials continue to increase, there is also a growing demand for more tooling. The demand for more tooling places heavy emphasis on the industry’s ability to fabricate high quality tools while maintaining the tool’s cost effectiveness. One of the popular techniques of tool fabrication currently being developed utilizes additive manufacturing technology known as 3D printing. The popularity of 3D printing is due to 3D printing’s ability to maintain low material waste, low cost, and quick fabrication time. In this study, a team of Purdue University School of Aviation and Transportation Technology (SATT) faculty and students investigated the effectiveness of a 3D printed composite mold. A steel valve cover from an aircraft reciprocating engine was modeled utilizing 3D scanning and computer-aided design (CAD) to create a 3D printed composite mold. The mold was used to fabricate carbon fiber versions of the aircraft reciprocating engine valve cover. The carbon fiber valve covers were evaluated for dimensional accuracy and quality while the 3D printed composite mold was evaluated for durability and dimensional stability. The data collected from this study provided valuable information in the understanding of 3D printed composite molds, potential improvements for the molds, and considerations for future tooling design.Keywords: additive manufacturing, carbon fiber, composite tooling, molds
Procedia PDF Downloads 1177196 Influence of Sulphur and Boron on Growth, Quality Parameters and Productivity of Soybean (Glycine Max (L.) Merrill)
Authors: Shital Bangar, G. B. Khandagale
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The experimentation was carried out to study the influence of sulphur and boron on growth parameters and productivity of soybean in kharif season of 2009-2010 at Experimental Farm, Department of Agricultural Botany, Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani (M.S.). The object was to evaluate the impact of sulphur and boron on growth, development, grain yield and physiological aspects of soybean variety MAUS-81. Nine treatments consisted of three levels of sulphur i.e. 20, 30 and 40 Kg/ha as well as three levels boron i.e.10, 15 and 20 kg boron/ha and the combinations of these two mineral elements i.e. Sulphur @30 kg/ha + Borax @15 kg/ha and Sulphur @40 kg/ha + Borax @ 20 kg/ha with one control treatment in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications. The effect of sulphur and boron on various growth parameters of soybean like relative growth rate (RGR) and net assimilation rate (NAR) were remained statistically on par with each other. However, the application of higher dose of Sulphur @40 kg/ha + Borax @ 20 kg/ha enhanced significantly all the growth parameters. Application of the nutrients increased the dry matter accumulation of the crop plant and hence, other growth indices like RGR and NAR also increased significantly. RGR and NAR values were recorded highest at the initial crop growth stages and decline thereafter. The application of sulphur @40 kg/ha + Borax @ 20 kg/ha recorded significantly higher content of chlorophyll ‘a’ than rest of the treatments and chlorophyll ‘b’ observed higher in boron @15 kg/ha as well as boron@20 kg/ha, whereas total chlorophyll content was maximum in sulphur @40 kg/ha. Oil content was not influenced significantly due to above fertilization. The highest seed yield and total biological yield were obtained with combination of Sulphur @40 kg/ha + Borax @ 20 kg/ha, single sulphur and boron application also showed a significant effect on seed and biological yield.Keywords: boron, growth, productivity, quality, soybean and sulphur
Procedia PDF Downloads 4097195 Policy Brief/Note of Philippine Health Issues: Human Rights Violations Committed on Healthcare Workers
Authors: Trina Isabel Santiago, Daniel Chua, Jumee Tayaban, Joseph Daniel Timbol, Joshua Yanes
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Numerous instances of human rights violations on healthcare workers have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. This brief aims to explore these civil and political rights violations and propose recommendations to address these. Our review shows that a wide range of civic and political human rights violations have been committed by individual citizens and government agencies on individual healthcare workers and health worker groups. These violations include discrimination, red-tagging, evictions, illegal arrests, and acts of violence ranging from chemical attacks to homicide. If left unchecked, these issues, compounded by the pandemic, may lead to the exacerbations of the pre-existing problems of the Philippine healthcare system. Despite all pre-existing reports by human rights groups and public media articles, there still seems to be a lack of government action to condemn and prevent these violations. The existence of government agencies which directly contribute to these violations with the lack of condemnation from other agencies further propagate the problem. Given these issues, this policy brief recommends the establishment of an interagency task force for the protection of human rights of healthcare workers as well as the expedited passing of current legislative bills towards the same goal. For more immediate action, we call for the establishment of a dedicated hotline for these incidents with adequate appointment and training of point persons, construction of clear guidelines, and closer collaboration between government agencies in being united against these issues.Keywords: human rights violations, healthcare workers, COVID-19 pandemic, Philippines
Procedia PDF Downloads 6367194 Correlations between Pushing Skills and Pushing Perceptions, Second-Stage Labor Duration, Postpartum Fatigue, and Birth Satisfaction
Authors: Yu-Ching Huang
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Background: Delivery bridges the antepartum and postpartum period. Subsequent fatigue can affect indices, including postpartum recovery and life quality. Milk secretion, breastfeeding quality, and newborn participation may be compromised. Correspondingly, using proper pushing skills during the second stage of labor has the potential to effectively reduce postpartum fatigue and enhance birth satisfaction in new mothers. Purpose: To compare the effects of using different pushing skills on maternal pushing perception, postpartum fatigue, and birth satisfaction. Methodology: The present study used a descriptive research approach and recruited 382 participants from a medical center in northern Taiwan. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, which included a demographic and obstetrics information datasheet, the Labor Pushing Experience Scale, a fatigue scale, and a birth satisfaction scale. Research Results: Using pushing skills (including upright position [t= 2.28, p < .05] and delayed pushing [t= -1.98, p < .05] during the second stage of labor was shown to enhance birth satisfaction in participants. Additionally, open glottis pushing ( t = 5.46, p < .001) resulted in a mean duration of second-stage labor that was 17.67 minutes less than that achieved using Valsalva pushing. Moreover, a better perceived pushing experience was associated with lower perceived postpartum fatigue (r = .46, p < .05) and higher birth satisfaction (r = -.16, p < .05). Finally, postpartum fatigue perception was negatively associated with birth satisfaction (r = -.16, p < .05). Conclusion and Clinical Application: The findings suggest that midwives should advocate that women adopt upright positions, delayed pushing, and open glottis pushing during the second stage of labor in order to enhance their birth satisfaction.Keywords: second stage labor duration of pushing skill, pushing experience perception, postpartum fatigue, birth satisfaction
Procedia PDF Downloads 2687193 Addressing Ophthalmic and Vascular Diabetic Complications in South Asians
Authors: Haaris Khan, Farhad Udwadia
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South Asians are the fastest-growing immigrant population in Canada and are 3-4 times more likely to develop diabetes. In a primary care setting, language barriers continue to persist as a prominent obstacle when delivering crucial health information. Given the abundance of languages in the South Asian community and the varying levels of English fluency, there is compelling evidence that these language barriers can adversely impact health outcomes. The microvascular and macrovascular complications of poor diabetic management are well established and universally recognized. However, these are often difficult concepts to grasp for even individuals fluent in English. In order to lessen the burden of language barriers, we developed a comprehensive guide in various languages that discuss the complications and screening guidelines for diabetic and prediabetic patients. The guide is presented in the form of a pamphlet, with an electronic version being constructed as well, that provides basic information on diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy as well as the screening recommendations. We also conducted a review of the literature around the topic and incorporated our findings into our project. Our goal is for primary care physicians to have this resource and to be able to provide the link or pamphlet to patients in need. Our presentation also provides a comprehensive overview of some of the other barriers that individuals in the South Asian community face when seeking care. Given the staggering number of individuals in the South Asian community with diabetes and the morbidity and mortality associated with diabetes and its complications, effective community-specific strategies are needed to mitigate the potential consequences of poor diabetes management.Keywords: diabetes, patient education, ophthalmology, vascular surgery
Procedia PDF Downloads 2107192 The Factors Affecting on Promoting Productivity from Nurses' View
Authors: Mahnaz Sanjari, Sedigheh Salemi, Mohammad Mirzabeigi
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Nowadays, the world is facing a crisis of workforce and one of the most striking examples is the shortage of nurses. Nursing workforce productivity is related by various factors such as absenteeism, professional effectiveness and quality care. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 700 nurses who work in government hospitals from 35 hospitals of 9 provinces in Iran. The study was approved by the Nursing Council and was carried out with the authorization of the Research Ethics Committee. The questionnaire included 33 questions and 4 sub categories such as human resource, education and management. The reliability was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha (α=0/85). Statistical analyzes were performed, using SPSS version 16. The result showed that nurses emphasized on "respect to nurse-to-bed ratio" and less importance item was "using less experienced nurse". In addition, another important factor in clinical productivity is "Proper physical structure and amenities","good communication with colleagues" and "having good facilities". Also, "human resources at all levels of standard", "promoting on merit" and "well defined relationship in health system" are another important factors in productivity from nurse` view. The main managerial factor is "justice between employees" and the main educational component of productivity is “updating nursing knowledge”. The results show that more than half of the participants emphasized on the management and educational factors. Productivity as one of the main part of the health care quality leads to appropriate use of human and organizational resources, reduce cost services, and organizational development.Keywords: productivity, nursing services, workforce, cost services
Procedia PDF Downloads 3457191 Rapid Building Detection in Population-Dense Regions with Overfitted Machine Learning Models
Authors: V. Mantey, N. Findlay, I. Maddox
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The quality and quantity of global satellite data have been increasing exponentially in recent years as spaceborne systems become more affordable and the sensors themselves become more sophisticated. This is a valuable resource for many applications, including disaster management and relief. However, while more information can be valuable, the volume of data available is impossible to manually examine. Therefore, the question becomes how to extract as much information as possible from the data with limited manpower. Buildings are a key feature of interest in satellite imagery with applications including telecommunications, population models, and disaster relief. Machine learning tools are fast becoming one of the key resources to solve this problem, and models have been developed to detect buildings in optical satellite imagery. However, by and large, most models focus on affluent regions where buildings are generally larger and constructed further apart. This work is focused on the more difficult problem of detection in populated regions. The primary challenge with detecting small buildings in densely populated regions is both the spatial and spectral resolution of the optical sensor. Densely packed buildings with similar construction materials will be difficult to separate due to a similarity in color and because the physical separation between structures is either non-existent or smaller than the spatial resolution. This study finds that training models until they are overfitting the input sample can perform better in these areas than a more robust, generalized model. An overfitted model takes less time to fine-tune from a generalized pre-trained model and requires fewer input data. The model developed for this study has also been fine-tuned using existing, open-source, building vector datasets. This is particularly valuable in the context of disaster relief, where information is required in a very short time span. Leveraging existing datasets means that little to no manpower or time is required to collect data in the region of interest. The training period itself is also shorter for smaller datasets. Requiring less data means that only a few quality areas are necessary, and so any weaknesses or underpopulated regions in the data can be skipped over in favor of areas with higher quality vectors. In this study, a landcover classification model was developed in conjunction with the building detection tool to provide a secondary source to quality check the detected buildings. This has greatly reduced the false positive rate. The proposed methodologies have been implemented and integrated into a configurable production environment and have been employed for a number of large-scale commercial projects, including continent-wide DEM production, where the extracted building footprints are being used to enhance digital elevation models. Overfitted machine learning models are often considered too specific to have any predictive capacity. However, this study demonstrates that, in cases where input data is scarce, overfitted models can be judiciously applied to solve time-sensitive problems.Keywords: building detection, disaster relief, mask-RCNN, satellite mapping
Procedia PDF Downloads 1747190 Inquiry on the Improvement Teaching Quality in the Classroom with Meta-Teaching Skills
Authors: Shahlan Surat, Saemah Rahman, Saadiah Kummin
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When teachers reflect and evaluate whether their teaching methods actually have an impact on students’ learning, they will adjust their practices accordingly. This inevitably improves their students’ learning and performance. The approach in meta-teaching can invigorate and create a passion for teaching. It thus helps to increase the commitment and love for the teaching profession. This study was conducted to determine the level of metacognitive thinking of teachers in the process of teaching and learning in the classroom. Metacognitive thinking teachers include the use of metacognitive knowledge which consists of different types of knowledge: declarative, procedural and conditional. The ability of the teachers to plan, monitor and evaluate the teaching process can also be determined. This study was conducted on 377 graduate teachers in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The stratified sampling method was selected for the purpose of this study. The metacognitive teaching inventory consisting of 24 items is called InKePMG (Teacher Indicators of Effectiveness Meta-Teaching). The results showed the level of mean is high for two components of metacognitive knowledge; declarative knowledge (mean = 4.16) and conditional (mean = 4.11) whereas, the mean of procedural knowledge is 4.00 (moderately high). Similarly, the level of knowledge in monitoring (mean = 4.11), evaluating (mean = 4.00) which indicate high score and planning (mean = 4.00) are moderately high score among teachers. In conclusion, this study shows that the planning and procedural knowledge is an important element in improving the quality of teachers teaching in the classroom. Thus, the researcher recommended that further studies should focus on training programs for teachers on metacognitive skills and also on developing creative thinking among teachers.Keywords: metacognitive thinking skills, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, meta-teaching and regulation of cognitive
Procedia PDF Downloads 4137189 An Enhanced Approach in Validating Analytical Methods Using Tolerance-Based Design of Experiments (DoE)
Authors: Gule Teri
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The effective validation of analytical methods forms a crucial component of pharmaceutical manufacturing. However, traditional validation techniques can occasionally fail to fully account for inherent variations within datasets, which may result in inconsistent outcomes. This deficiency in validation accuracy is particularly noticeable when quantifying low concentrations of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), excipients, or impurities, introducing a risk to the reliability of the results and, subsequently, the safety and effectiveness of the pharmaceutical products. In response to this challenge, we introduce an enhanced, tolerance-based Design of Experiments (DoE) approach for the validation of analytical methods. This approach distinctly measures variability with reference to tolerance or design margins, enhancing the precision and trustworthiness of the results. This method provides a systematic, statistically grounded validation technique that improves the truthfulness of results. It offers an essential tool for industry professionals aiming to guarantee the accuracy of their measurements, particularly for low-concentration components. By incorporating this innovative method, pharmaceutical manufacturers can substantially advance their validation processes, subsequently improving the overall quality and safety of their products. This paper delves deeper into the development, application, and advantages of this tolerance-based DoE approach and demonstrates its effectiveness using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) data for verification. This paper also discusses the potential implications and future applications of this method in enhancing pharmaceutical manufacturing practices and outcomes.Keywords: tolerance-based design, design of experiments, analytical method validation, quality control, biopharmaceutical manufacturing
Procedia PDF Downloads 857188 Correlation between Physical Fitness and Performance and Grade of Table Tennis of Middle School Students
Authors: Yisong Cong, Mingming Guo, Xiaozan Wang, Yizhi Zhang, Qingqing Yuan
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This study is to test the correlation between the Physical Fitness (PF) of middle school students and their performance and sports grade of table tennis. Methods: 398 middle school students from Shanghai Tongji No.2 Middle School participated in the study, including 232 boys and 166 girls. Each participant participated in the Chinese Students’ Physical Fitness Test (CSPFT), including BMI, 50-meter running, vital capacity, sitting body flexion, standing long jump, 800-meter running, 1000-meter running, pull-ups, and sit-ups. Test scores were converted to a percentage score according to the CSPFT guidelines. In addition, each student participated in the Nation Junior Table Tennis grade test, and completed the table tennis sports grade assessment of 1-9. Results: There is a significant positive correlation between the scores of multiple PF tests and the total scores of table tennis, such as BMI (r = 0.15, p < 0.01), standing long jump (r = 0.15, p < 0.05), 800-meter run (r = 0.02, p <0.01); The scores of multiple PF are positively correlated with table tennis grade, such as vital capacity (r = 0.1, p < 0.01) and 50-meter running (r = 0.18, p < 0.05). At the same time, the sit-ups performance showed a significant negative correlation with the table tennis performance (r = -0.08, p < 0.01); There is no significant correlation between the other PF indicators and the performance and grade of table tennis. Conclusions: This study shows that there is a corresponding relationship between some PF indicators of middle school students and their table tennis performance and table tennis grade,but the specific form and reason of the relationship need to be further explored.Keywords: middle school students, physical fitness, table tennis grade, table tennis performance
Procedia PDF Downloads 1637187 Immobilized Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Stem Cell Reconstruction in Magnetic Particle Imaging
Authors: Kolja Them, Johannes Salamon, Harald Ittrich, Michael Kaul, Tobias Knopp
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Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) are nanoscale magnets which can be biologically functionalized for biomedical applications. Stem cell therapies to repair damaged tissue, magnetic fluid hyperthermia for cancer therapy and targeted drug delivery based on SPIONs are prominent examples where the visualization of a preferably low concentrated SPION distribution is essential. In 2005 a new method for tomographic SPION imaging has been introduced. The method named magnetic particle imaging (MPI) takes advantage of the nanoparticles magnetization change caused by an oscillating, external magnetic field and allows to directly image the time-dependent nanoparticle distribution. The SPION magnetization can be changed by the electron spin dynamics as well as by a mechanical rotation of the nanoparticle. In this work different calibration methods in MPI are investigated for image reconstruction of magnetically labeled stem cells. It is shown that a calibration using rotationally immobilized SPIONs provides a higher quality of stem cell images with fewer artifacts than a calibration using mobile SPIONs. The enhancement of the image quality and the reduction of artifacts enables the localization and identification of a smaller number of magnetically labeled stem cells. This is important for future medical applications where low concentrations of functionalized SPIONs interacting with biological matter have to be localized.Keywords: biomedical imaging, iron oxide nanoparticles, magnetic particle imaging, stem cell imaging
Procedia PDF Downloads 4687186 Quality of Care for the Maternal Complications at Selected Primary and Secondary Health Facilities of Bangladesh: Lessons Learned from a Formative Research
Authors: Mohiuddin Ahsanul Kabir Chowdhury, Nafisa Lira Huq, Afroza Khanom, Rafiqul Islam, Abdullah Nurus Salam Khan, Farhana Karim, Nabila Zaka, Shams El Arifeen, Sk. Masum Billah
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After having astounding achievements in reducing maternal mortality and achieving the target for Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, the Government of Bangladesh has set new target to reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) to 70 per 100,000 live births aligning with targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Aversion of deaths from maternal complication by ensuring quality health care could be an important path to accelerate the rate of reduction of MMR. This formative research was aimed at exploring the provision of quality maternal health services at different level of health facilities. The study was conducted in 1 district hospital (DH) and 4 Upazila health complexes (UHC) of Kurigram district of Bangladesh, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. We conducted 14 key informant interviews with facility managers and 20 in-depth interviews with health care providers and support staff. Besides, we observed 387 normal deliveries from which we found 17 cases of post partum haemorrhage (PPH) and 2 cases of eclampsia during the data collection period extended from July-September 2016. The quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, and the qualitative component underwent thematic analysis with the broad themes of facility readiness for maternal complication management, and management of complications. Inadequacy in human resources has been identified as the most important bottleneck to provide quality care to manage maternal complications. The DH had a particular paucity of human resources in medical officer cadre where about 61% posts were unfilled. On the other hand, in the UHCs the positions mostly empty were obstetricians (75%, paediatricians (75%), staff nurses (65%), and anaesthetists (100%). The workload on the existing staff is increased because of the persistence of vacant posts. Unavailability of anesthetists and consultants does not permit the health care providers (HCP) of lower cadres to perform emergency operative procedures and forces them to refer the patients although referral system is not well organized in rural Bangladesh. Insufficient bed capacity, inadequate training, shortage of emergency medicines etc. are other hindrance factors for facility readiness. Among the 387 observed delivery case, 17 (4.4%) were identified as PPH cases, and only 2 cases were found as eclampsia/pre-eclampsia. The majority of the patients were treated with uterine message (16 out of 17, 94.1%) and injectable Oxytocin (14 out of 17, 82.4%). The providers of DH mentioned that they can manage the PPH because of having provision for diagnostic and blood transfusion services, although not as 24/7 services. Regarding management of eclampsia/pre-eclampsia, HCPs provided Diazepam, MgSO4, and other anti-hypertensives. The UHCs did not have MgSO4 at stock even, and one facility manager admitted that they treat eclampsia with Diazepam only. The nurses of the UHCs were found to be afraid to handle eclampsia cases. The upcoming interventions must ensure refresher training of service providers, continuous availability of essential medicine and equipment needed for complication management, availability of skilled health workforce, availability of functioning blood transfusion unit and pairing of consultants and anaesthetists to reach the newly set targets altogether.Keywords: Bangladesh, health facilities, maternal complications, quality of care
Procedia PDF Downloads 2377185 Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Autism: Interaction Influences and Treatment
Authors: Elad Vashdi
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It is common to find speech deficit among children diagnosed with Autism. It can be found in the clinical field and recently in research. One of the DSM-V criteria suggests a speech delay (Delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language), but doesn't explain the cause of it. A common perception among professionals and families is that the inability to talk results from the autism. Autism is a name for a syndrome which just describes a phenomenon and is defined behaviorally. Since it is not based yet on a physiological gold standard, one can not conclude the nature of a deficit based on the name of the syndrome. A wide retrospective research (n=270) which included children with motor speech difficulties was conducted in Israel. The study analyzed entry evaluations in a private clinic during the years 2006-2013. The data was extracted from the reports. High percentage of children diagnosed with Autism (60%) was found. This result demonstrates the high relationship between Autism and motor speech problem. It also supports recent findings in research of Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) occurrence among children with ASD. Only small percentage of the participants in this research (10%) were diagnosed with CAS even though their verbal deficits well fitted the guidelines for CAS diagnosis set by ASHA in 2007. This fact raises questions regarding the diagnostic procedure in Israel. The understanding that CAS might highly exist within Autism and can have a remarkable influence on the course of early development should be a guiding tool within the diagnosis procedure. CAS can explain the nature of the speech problem among some of the autistic children and guide the treatment in a more accurate way. Calculating the prevalence of CAS which includes the comorbidity with ASD reveals new numbers and suggests treating differently the CAS population.Keywords: childhood apraxia of speech, Autism, treatment, speech
Procedia PDF Downloads 2777184 Scalable UI Test Automation for Large-scale Web Applications
Authors: Kuniaki Kudo, Raviraj Solanki, Kaushal Patel, Yash Virani
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This research mainly concerns optimizing UI test automation for large-scale web applications. The test target application is the HHAexchange homecare management WEB application that seamlessly connects providers, state Medicaid programs, managed care organizations (MCOs), and caregivers through one platform with large-scale functionalities. This study focuses on user interface automation testing for the WEB application. The quality assurance team must execute many manual users interface test cases in the development process to confirm no regression bugs. The team automated 346 test cases; the UI automation test execution time was over 17 hours. The business requirement was reducing the execution time to release high-quality products quickly, and the quality assurance automation team modernized the test automation framework to optimize the execution time. The base of the WEB UI automation test environment is Selenium, and the test code is written in Python. Adopting a compilation language to write test code leads to an inefficient flow when introducing scalability into a traditional test automation environment. In order to efficiently introduce scalability into Test Automation, a scripting language was adopted. The scalability implementation is mainly implemented with AWS's serverless technology, an elastic container service. The definition of scalability here is the ability to automatically set up computers to test automation and increase or decrease the number of computers running those tests. This means the scalable mechanism can help test cases run parallelly. Then test execution time is dramatically decreased. Also, introducing scalable test automation is for more than just reducing test execution time. There is a possibility that some challenging bugs are detected by introducing scalable test automation, such as race conditions, Etc. since test cases can be executed at same timing. If API and Unit tests are implemented, the test strategies can be adopted more efficiently for this scalability testing. However, in WEB applications, as a practical matter, API and Unit testing cannot cover 100% functional testing since they do not reach front-end codes. This study applied a scalable UI automation testing strategy to the large-scale homecare management system. It confirmed the optimization of the test case execution time and the detection of a challenging bug. This study first describes the detailed architecture of the scalable test automation environment, then describes the actual performance reduction time and an example of challenging issue detection.Keywords: aws, elastic container service, scalability, serverless, ui automation test
Procedia PDF Downloads 1117183 Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical or a Legal Framework?
Authors: Pouira Askary
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Indeed, in our globalized world which is facing with various international crises, the transnational corporations and other business enterprises have the capacity to foster economic well-being, development, technological improvement and wealth, as well as causing adverse impacts on human rights. The UN Human Rights Council declared that although the primary responsibility to protect human rights lie with the State but the transnational corporations and other business enterprises have also a responsibility to respect and protect human rights in the framework of corporate social responsibility. In 2011, the Human Rights Council endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a set of guidelines that define the key duties and responsibilities of States and business enterprises with regard to business-related human rights abuses. In UN’s view, the Guiding Principles do not create new legal obligations but constitute a clarification of the implications of existing standards, including under international human rights law. In 2014 the UN Human Rights Council decided to establish a working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises whose mandate shall be to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. Extremely difficult task for the working group to codify a legally binding document to regulate the behavior of corporations on the basis of the norms of international law! Concentration of this paper is on the origins of those human rights applicable on business enterprises. The research will discuss that the social and ethical roots of the CSR are much more institutionalized and elaborated than the legal roots. Therefore, the first step is to determine whether and to what extent corporations, do have an ethical responsibility to respect human rights and if so, by which means this ethical and social responsibility is convertible to legal commitments.Keywords: CSR, ethics, international law, human rights, development, sustainable business
Procedia PDF Downloads 390