Search results for: medical image processing

Authors: Badryah Alshehri, Kevin Gormley, Gillian Prue, Karen McCutcheon

Abstract:

In a disaster event, sharing patient information between the pre-hospitals Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Emergency Department (ED) hospitals is a complex process during which important information may be altered or lost due to poor communication. The aim of this study was to critically discuss the current evidence base in relation to communication between pre-EMS hospital and ED hospital professionals by the use of Information and Communication Systems (ICT). This study followed the systematic approach; six electronic databases were searched: CINAHL, Medline, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore Digital Library were comprehensively searched in January 2018 and a second search was completed in April 2020 to capture more recent publications. The study selection process was undertaken independently by the study authors. Both qualitative and quantitative studies were chosen that focused on factors which are positively or negatively associated with coordinated communication between pre-hospital EMS and ED teams in a disaster event. These studies were assessed for quality and the data were analysed according to the key screening themes which emerged from the literature search. Twenty-two studies were included. Eleven studies employed quantitative methods, seven studies used qualitative methods, and four studies used mixed methods. Four themes emerged on communication between EMTs (pre-hospital EMS and ED staff) in a disaster event using the ICT. (1) Disaster preparedness plans and coordination. This theme reported that disaster plans are in place in hospitals, and in some cases, there are interagency agreements with pre-hospital and relevant stakeholders. However, the findings showed that the disaster plans highlighted in these studies lacked information regarding coordinated communications within and between the pre-hospital and hospital. (2) Communication systems used in the disaster. This theme highlighted that although various communication systems are used between and within hospitals and pre-hospitals, technical issues have influenced communication between teams during disasters. (3) Integrated information management systems. This theme suggested the need for an integrated health information system which can help pre-hospital and hospital staff to record patient data and ensure the data is shared. (4) Disaster training and drills. While some studies analysed disaster drills and training, the majority of these studies were focused on hospital departments other than EMTs. These studies suggest the need for simulation disaster training and drills, including EMTs. This review demonstrates that considerable gaps remain in the understanding of the communication between the EMS and ED hospitals staff in relation to response in disasters. The review shows that although different types of ICTs are used, various issues remain which affect coordinated communication among the relevant professionals.

Keywords: communication, emergency communication services, emergency medical teams, emergency physicians, emergency nursing, paramedics, information and communication technology, communication systems

Procedia PDF Downloads 74

Authors: Monthana Weerawatanakorn, Hajime Tamaki, Yonathan Asikin, Koji Wada, Makoto Takahashi, Chi-Tang Ho, Min-Hsiung Pan

Abstract:

Rice bran and sugarcane are significant sources of wax containing policosanol (PC), the cholesterol-lowering nutraceutical available in the market. The processing of rice bran oil causes the loss of PC content into various waste products. Therefore, we hypothesise that defatted rice bran (DRB) as agricultural waste product and rice bran oil (RBO) retain a varying but significant amount of PC wax. Non-centrifugal cane sugar (NCS) or cane brown sugar has been consumed worldwide and possesses various health benefits. Since PC wax is mainly in the outer layer rinds of cane, PC contents of the granulated sugar are reduced due to the peeling step. The study aimed to increase PC contents of the granular brown sugar by adding wax extracted from DRB and RBO and to investigate the toxicity of the developed products. The results showed that the total PC contents including long chain aldehyde of products were increased to the maximum level of 147.97 mg/100 g and 40.14 mg/100 g for extracted wax and rice bran oil addition, respectively. PC content of RBO was found to be 96.93 mg/100 g. DRB is promising source of policosanol (6,044.7 mg/100 g). The 28-day toxicity evaluations of the developed sugar revealed no adverse effects on the liver, spleen or kidney.

Keywords: enrichment, sugarcane, policosanol, defatted rice bran, wax

Procedia PDF Downloads 340

Authors: Ju-Hong Lee, Yi-Lin Shieh

Abstract:

Two-dimensional (2-D) quadrature mirror filter (QMF) banks have been widely considered for high-quality coding of image and video data at low bit rates. Without implementing subband coding, a 2-D QMF bank is required to have an exactly linear-phase response without magnitude distortion, i.e., the perfect reconstruction (PR) characteristics. The design problem of 2-D QMF banks with the PR characteristics has been considered in the literature for many years. This paper presents a transformation approach for designing 2-D two-channel QMF banks. Under a suitable one-dimensional (1-D) to two-dimensional (2-D) transformation with a specified decimation/interpolation matrix, the analysis and synthesis filters of the QMF bank are composed of 1-D causal and stable digital allpass filters (DAFs) and possess the 2-D doubly complementary half-band (DC-HB) property. This facilitates the design problem of the two-channel QMF banks by finding the real coefficients of the 1-D recursive DAFs. The design problem is formulated based on the minimax phase approximation for the 1-D DAFs. A novel objective function is then derived to obtain an optimization for 1-D minimax phase approximation. As a result, the problem of minimizing the objective function can be simply solved by using the well-known weighted least-squares (WLS) algorithm in the minimax (L∞) optimal sense. The novelty of the proposed design method is that the design procedure is very simple and the designed 2-D QMF bank achieves perfect magnitude response and possesses satisfactory phase response. Simulation results show that the proposed design method provides much better design performance and much less design complexity as compared with the existing techniques.

Keywords: Quincunx QMF bank, doubly complementary filter, digital allpass filter, WLS algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: L. Petrosyan

Abstract:

The problem of psychologist training remains a key priority in Armenia. During the Soviet period, the notion of a psychologist was obscure not only in Armenia but also in other Soviet republics. The breakup of the Soviet Union triggered a gradual change in this area activating the cooperation with specialists from other countries. The need for recovery from the psychological trauma caused by the 1988 earthquake pushed forward the development of practical psychology in Armenia. This phenomenon led to positive changes in perception of and interest to a psychologist profession.Armenian universities started designing special programs for psychologists’ preparation. Armenian psychologists combined their efforts in the field of training relevant specialists. During the recent years, the Bologna educational system was introduced in Armenia which led to implementation of education quality improvement programs. Nevertheless, even today the issue of psychologists’ training is not yet settled in Armenian universities. So far graduate psychologists haven’t got a clear idea of personal and professional qualities of a psychologist. Recently, as a result of educational reforms, the psychology curricula underwent changes, but so far they have not led to a desired outcome. Almost all curricula in certain specialties are aimed to form professional competencies and strengthen practical skills. A survey conducted in Armenia aimed to identify what are the ideas of young psychology specialists on the image of a psychologist. The survey respondents were 45 specialists holding bachelor’s degree as well as 30 master degree graduates, who have not been working yet. The research reveals that we need to change the approach of preparing psychology practitioners in the universities of Armenia. Such an approach to psychologist training will make it possible to train qualified specialists for enhancement of modern psychology theory and practice.

Keywords: practitioners, psychology degree, study, professional competencies

Procedia PDF Downloads 440

Authors: David M. Lucas, Charles W. Jarrett

Abstract:

In the culture of Thailand, the Yak serve as a mediated icon representing strength, power, and mystical protection not only for the Buddha, but for population of worshipers. Originating from the forests of China, the Yak continue to stand guard at the gates of Buddhist temples. The Yak represents Thai culture in the hearts of Thai people. This paper presents a qualitative study regarding the curious mix of media, culture, and religion that projects the Yak of Thailand as a larger than life message throughout the political, cultural, and religious spheres. The gate guardians, or gods as they are sometimes called, appear throughout the religious temples of Asian cultures. However, the Asian cultures demonstrate differences in artistic renditions (or presentations) of such sentinels. Thailand gate guards (the Yak) stand in front of many Buddhist temples, and these iconic figures display unique features with varied symbolic significance. The temple (or wat), plays a vital role in every community; and, for many people, Thailand’s temples are the country’s most endearing sights. The authors applied folk-nography as a methodology to illustrate the importance of the Thai Yak in serving as meaningful icons that transcend not only time, but the culture, religion, and mass media. The Yak represent mythical, religious, artistic, cultural, and militaristic significance for the Thai people. Data collection included interviews, focus groups, and natural observations. This paper summarizes the perceptions of the Thai people concerning their gate sentries and the relationship, communication, connection, and the enduring respect that Thai people hold for their guardians of the gates.

Keywords: communication, culture, folknography, icon, image, media, protection, religion, yak

Procedia PDF Downloads 386

Authors: Qasim A. El Dwairi, Saleh M. Banihani, Ayat S. Banihani, Ziad M. Bataineh

Abstract:

Neurons in the spinal trigeminal nucleus of the camel were studied by Golgi impregnation. Neurons were classified based on differences in size and shape of their cell bodies, density of their dendritic trees, morphology and distribution of their appendages. In the spinal trigeminal nucleus of the camel, at least twelve types of neurons were identified. These neurons include, stalked, islets, octubus-like, lobulated, boat-like, pyramidal, multipolar, round, oval and elongated neurons. They have large number of different forms of appendages not only for their dendrites but also for their cell bodies. Neurons with unique large dilatations especially at their dendritic branching points were found. The morphological features of these neurons were described and compared with their counterparts in other species. Finding of large number of neuronal types with different size and shapes and large number of different forms of appendages for cell bodies and dendrites together with the presence of cells with unique features such as large dilated parts for dendrites may indicate to a very complex information processing for pain and temperature at the level of the spinal trigeminal nucleus in the camel that traditionally live in a very hard environment (the desert).

Keywords: camel, golgi, neurons , spinal trigeminal nucleus

Procedia PDF Downloads 324

Authors: Cristina S. Decano, Vitaliana U. Malamug, Melissa E. Agulto, Helen F. Gavino

Abstract:

This study aimed to introduce new natural fiber to be used in the production of geotextile net for mitigation of soil erosion. Fiber extraction from the stalks was the main challenge faced during the processing of stalks to ropes. Thus, an investigation on the extraction procedures of corn (Zea mays L.) stalk under biological and chemical retting was undertaken. Results indicated significant differences among percent fiber yield as affected by the retting methods used with values of 15.07%, 12.97%, 11.60%, and 9.01%, for dew, water, chemical (1 day after harvest and15 days after harvest), respectively, with the corresponding average extracting duration of 70, 82, 89, and 94 minutes. Physical characterization of the developed corn stalk geotextile net resulted to average mass per unit area of 806.25 g/m² and 241% water absorbing capacity. The effect of corn stalk geotextile net in mitigating soil erosion was evaluated in a laboratory experiment for 30^o and 60^o inclinations with three treatments: bare soil (A₁), corn stalk geotextile net (A₂) and combined cornstalk geotextile net and vegetation cover (A₃). Results revealed that treatment A₂ and A₃ significantly decreased sediment yield and an increase in terms of soil loss reduction efficiency. The cost of corn stalk geotextile net is Php 62.41 per square meter.

Keywords: corn stalk, natural geotextile, retting, soil erosion

Procedia PDF Downloads 279

Authors: Mostafa Gamal, Hoda K. Mohamed, Islam El-Maddah, Ali Hamdi

Abstract:

In recent years, many digital documents on the web have been created due to the rapid growth of ’social applications’ communities or ’Data-intensive applications’. The evolution of online-based multimedia data poses new challenges in storing and querying large amounts of data for online recommender systems. Graph data models have been shown to be more efficient than relational data models for processing complex data. This paper will explain the key differences between graph and relational databases, their strengths and weaknesses, and why using graph databases is the best technology for building a realtime recommendation system. Also, The paper will discuss several similarity metrics algorithms that can be used to compute a similarity score of pairs of nodes based on their neighbourhoods or their properties. Finally, the paper will discover how NLP strategies offer the premise to improve the accuracy and coverage of realtime recommendations by extracting the information from the stored unstructured knowledge, which makes up the bulk of the world’s data to enrich the graph database with this information. As the size and number of data items are increasing rapidly, the proposed system should meet current and future needs.

Keywords: graph databases, NLP, recommendation systems, similarity metrics

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Elena Krutskikh, Elena Khvatova

Abstract:

In tertiary settings expanding students’ vocabulary and teaching discursive competence is seen as one of the chief goals of a professional development course. However, such a focus often is detrimental to students’ cognitive competences, such as analysis, synthesis, and creative processing of information, and deprives students of motivation for self-improvement and self-development of language skills. The presentation is going to argue that in an ESP course special attention should be paid to reading/listening which can promote understanding and using the language as a tool for solving significant real world problems, including professional ones. It is claimed that in the learning process it is necessary to maintain a balance between the content and the linguistic aspect of the educational process as language acquisition is inextricably linked with mental activity and the need to express oneself is a primary stimulus for using a language. A study conducted among undergraduates indicates that they place a premium on quality materials that motivate them and stimulate their further linguistic and professional development. Thus, more demands are placed on study materials that should contain new information for students and serve not only as a source of new vocabulary but also prepare them for real tasks related to professional activities.

Keywords: critical reading, english for professional development, english for specific purposes, high order thinking skills, lexical approach, vocabulary acquisition

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Shuji Fujimoto, Fumiko Kojima, Mika Shigematsu

Abstract:

Biorisk management (Biosafety/Biosecurity) is required for anyone working in a clinical laboratory (including medical/clinical research laboratories) where infectious agents and potentially hazardous biological materials are examined/stored. Proper education and training based on international standards of biorisk management should be provided not only as a part of laboratory safety program in work place but also as a part of introductory training at educational institutions for continuity and to elevate overall baseline of the biorisk management. We reported results of the pilot study of biorisk management education for graduate students majored in laboratory diagnostics previously. However, postgraduate education is still late in their profession and the participants’ interview also revealed importance and demands of earlier biorisk management education for undergraduates. The aim of this study is to identify the need for biosafety/biosecurity education and training program which is designed for undergraduate students who are entering the profession in clinical microbiology. We modified the previous program to include more basic topics and explanations (risk management, principles of safe clinical lab practices, personal protective equipment, disinfection, disposal of biological substances) and provided incorporating in the routine educational system for faculty of medical sciences in Kyushu University. The results of the pre and post examinations showed that the knowledge of the students on biorisk control had developed effectively as a proof of effectiveness of the program even in the undergraduate students. Our study indicates that administrating the basic biorisk management program in the earlier stage of learning will add positive impact to the understanding of biosafety to the health professional education.

Keywords: biorisk management, biosafety, biosecurity, clinical microbiology, education for undergraduates

Procedia PDF Downloads 203

Authors: Jinen Daghrir, Anis Kricha, Karim Kalti

Abstract:

The amount of incoming administrative documents is massive and manually processing these documents is a costly task especially on the timescale. In fact, this problem has led an important amount of research and development in the context of automatically extracting fields from administrative documents, in order to reduce the charges and to increase the citizen satisfaction in administrations. In this matter, we introduce an administrative document understanding system. Given a document in which a user has to select fields that have to be retrieved from a document class, a document model is automatically built. A document model is represented by an attributed relational graph (ARG) where nodes represent fields to extract, and edges represent the relation between them. Both of vertices and edges are attached with some feature vectors. When another document arrives to the system, the layout objects are extracted and an ARG is generated. The fields extraction is translated into a problem of matching two ARGs which relies mainly on the comparison of the spatial relationships between layout objects. Experimental results yield accuracy rates from 75% to 100% tested on eight document classes. Our proposed method has a good performance knowing that the document model is constructed using only one single document.

Keywords: administrative document understanding, logical labelling, logical layout analysis, fields extraction from administrative documents

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Ryan Houser

Abstract:

Introduction: Previous studies have found that public health systems within the United States are inadequately prepared for an act of biological terrorism. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, few studies have evaluated bioterrorism preparedness of Emergency Medical Services, even in the accelerating environment of biothreats. Methods: This study utilized an Internet-based survey to assess the level of preparedness and willingness to respond to a bioterrorism attack and identify factors that predict preparedness and willingness among Nebraska EMS (Emergency Medical Services ) providers. The survey was available for one month in 2021, during which 190 EMS providers responded to the survey. Results: Only 56.8% of providers were able to recognize an illness or injury as potentially resulting from exposure to a CBRN agent. The provider Clinical Competency levels range from a low of 13.6% (ability to initiate patient care within his/her professional scope of practice and arrange for prompt referral appropriate to the identified condition(s)) to a high of 74% (the ability to respond to an emergency within the emergency management system of his/her practice, institution and community). Only 10% of the respondents are both willing and able to effectively function in a bioterror environment. Discussion: In order to effectively prepare for and respond to a bioterrorist attack, all levels of the healthcare system need to have the clinical skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary to treat patients exposed. Policy changes and increased focus on training and drills are needed to ensure a prepared EMS system which is crucial to a resilient state. EMS entities need to be aware of the extent of their available workforce so that the country can be prepared for the increasing threat of bioterrorism or other novel emerging infectious disease outbreaks. A resilient nation relies on a prepared set of EMS providers who are willing to respond to biological terrorism events.

Keywords: bioterrorism, prehospital, EMS, disaster, emergency, medicine, preparedness, policy

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Bo Wang

Abstract:

As the first high-resolution civil optical satellite, ZY-3 satellite is able to obtain high-resolution multi-view images with three linear array sensors. The images can be used to generate Digital Elevation Models (DEM) through dense matching of stereo images. However, due to the clouds, forest, water and buildings covered on the images, there are some problems in the dense matching results such as outliers and areas failed to be matched (matching holes). This paper introduced an algorithm to verify the accuracy of DEM that generated by ZY-3 satellite with Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Since the accuracy of SRTM (Internal accuracy: 5 m; External accuracy: 15 m) is relatively uniform in the worldwide, it may be used to improve the accuracy of ZY-3 DEM. Based on the analysis of mass DEM and SRTM data, the processing can be divided into two aspects. The registration of ZY-3 DEM and SRTM can be firstly performed using the conjugate line features and area features matched between these two datasets. Then the ZY-3 DEM can be refined by eliminating the matching outliers and filling the matching holes. The matching outliers can be eliminated based on the statistics on Local Vector Binning (LVB). The matching holes can be filled by the elevation interpolated from SRTM. Some works are also conducted for the accuracy statistics of the ZY-3 DEM.

Keywords: ZY-3 satellite imagery, DEM, SRTM, refinement

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: M. A. Askari, M. A. Nazari, P. Perrier, Y. Payan

Abstract:

Growth and remodeling of biological structures have gained lots of attention over the past decades. Determining the response of the living tissues to the mechanical loads is necessary for a wide range of developing fields such as, designing of prosthetics and optimized surgery operations. It is a well-known fact that biological structures are never stress-free, even when externally unloaded. The exact origin of these residual stresses is not clear, but theoretically growth and remodeling is one of the main sources. Extracting body organs from medical imaging, does not produce any information regarding the existing residual stresses in that organ. The simplest cause of such stresses is the gravity since an organ grows under its influence from its birth. Ignoring such residual stresses might cause erroneous results in numerical simulations. Accounting for residual stresses due to tissue growth can improve the accuracy of mechanical analysis results. In this paper, we have implemented a computational framework based on fixed-point iteration to determine the residual stresses due to growth. Using nonlinear continuum mechanics and the concept of fictitious configuration we find the unknown stress-free reference configuration which is necessary for mechanical analysis. To illustrate the method, we apply it to a finite element model of healthy human face whose geometry has been extracted from medical images. We have computed the distribution of residual stress in facial tissues, which can overcome the effect of gravity and cause that tissues remain firm. Tissue wrinkles caused by aging could be a consequence of decreasing residual stress and not counteracting the gravity. Considering these stresses has important application in maxillofacial surgery. It helps the surgeons to predict the changes after surgical operations and their consequences.

Keywords: growth, soft tissue, residual stress, finite element method

Procedia PDF Downloads 340

Authors: M. J. Shivaram, Shashi Bhushan Arya, Jagannath Nayak, Bharat Bhooshan Panigrahi

Abstract:

Titanium and its alloys have become more significant implant materials due to their mechanical properties, excellent biocompatibility and high corrosion resistance. Biomaterials can be produce by using the powder metallurgy (PM) methods and required properties can tailored by varying the processing parameters, such as ball milling time, space holder particles, and sintering temperature. The desired properties such as, structural and mechanical properties can be obtained by powder metallurgy method.  In the present study, deals with fabrication of solid and porous Ti-20Nb-5Ag alloy using high energy ball milling for different times (5 and 20 h). The resultant powder particles were used to fabricate solid and porous Ti-20Nb-5Ag alloy by adding space holder particles (NH₄HCO₃). The resultant powder particles, fabricated solid and porous samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The compressive strength, elastic modulus and microhardness properties were investigated. Solid and porous Ti-20Nb-5Ag alloy samples showed good mechanical properties for 20 h ball milling time as compare to 5 h ball milling.

Keywords: ball milling, compressive strengths, microstructure, porous titanium alloy

Procedia PDF Downloads 287

Authors: Harun Aydilek, Asiye Aydilek, Ali Allahverdi

Abstract:

Our objective is to minimize the total tardiness in an m-machine two-stage assembly flowshop scheduling problem. The objective is an important performance measure because of the fact that the fulfillment of due dates of customers has to be taken into account while making scheduling decisions. In the literature, the problem is considered with zero setup times which may not be realistic and appropriate for some scheduling environments. Considering separate setup times from processing times increases machine utilization by decreasing the idle time and reduces total tardiness. We propose two new algorithms and adapt four existing algorithms in the literature which are different versions of simulated annealing and genetic algorithms. Moreover, a dominance relation is developed based on the mathematical formulation of the problem. The developed dominance relation is incorporated in our proposed algorithms. Computational experiments are conducted to investigate the performance of the newly proposed algorithms. We find that one of the proposed algorithms performs significantly better than the others, i.e., the error of the best algorithm is less than those of the other algorithms by minimum 50%. The newly proposed algorithm is also efficient for the case of zero setup times and performs better than the best existing algorithm in the literature.

Keywords: algorithm, assembly flowshop, scheduling, simulation, total tardiness

Procedia PDF Downloads 313

Authors: A. Yawootti, P. Intra, P. Sardyoung, P. Phoosomma, R. Puttipattanasak, S. Leeragreephol, N. Tippayawong

Abstract:

The aim of this work is to design, develop and test the low-cost implementation of a particulate air pollution sensor system for continuous monitoring of outdoors and indoors particulate air pollution at a lower cost than existing instruments. In this study, measuring electrostatic charge of particles technique via high efficiency particulate-free air filter was carried out. The developed detector consists of a PM10 impactor, a particle charger, a Faraday cup electrometer, a flow meter and controller, a vacuum pump, a DC high voltage power supply and a data processing and control unit. It was reported that the developed detector was capable of measuring mass concentration of particulate ranging from 0 to 500 µg/m3 corresponding to number concentration of particulate ranging from 106 to 1012 particles/m3 with measurement time less than 1 sec. The measurement data of the sensor connects to the internet through a GSM connection to a public cellular network. In this development, the apparatus was applied the energy by a 12 V, 7 A internal battery for continuous measurement of about 20 hours. Finally, the developed apparatus was found to be close agreement with the import standard instrument, portable and benefit for air pollution and particulate matter measurements.

Keywords: particulate, air pollution, wireless communication, sensor

Procedia PDF Downloads 350

Authors: Hyunjung Lim, Jeonghun Nam, Hyuk Choi

Abstract:

High-throughput separation is an essential technique for cancer research and diagnosis. Here, we propose a viscoelastic microfluidic device for sheathless, high-throughput isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from white blood cells. Here, we demonstrate a viscoelastic method for separation and concentration of CTCs using closed-loop microfluidics. Our device is a rectangular straight channel with a low aspect ratio. Also, to achieve high-efficiency, high-throughput processing, we used a polymer solution with low viscosity. At the inlet, CTCs and white blood cells (WBCs) were randomly injected into the microchannel. Due to the viscoelasticity-induced lateral migration to the equilibrium positions, large CTCs could be collected from the side outlet while small WBCs were removed at the center outlet. By recirculating the collected CTCs from the side outlet back to the sample reservoir, continuous separation and concentration of CTCs could be achieved with high separation efficiency (~ 99%). We believe that our device has the potential to be applied in resource-limited clinical settings.

Keywords: circulating tumor cell, closed-loop microfluidics, concentration, separation, viscoelastic fluid

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Jipeng Yan, Xingchen Yang, Xiaowei Zhou, Mengxing Tang, Honghai Liu

Abstract:

Shear elastic modulus of skeletal muscles can be obtained by shear wave elastography (SWE) and has been linearly related to muscle force. However, SWE is currently implemented using array probes. Price and volumes of these probes and their driving equipment prevent SWE from being used in wearable human-machine interfaces (HMI). Moreover, beamforming processing for array probes reduces the real-time performance. To achieve SWE by wearable HMIs, a customized three-element probe is adopted in this work, with one element for acoustic radiation force generation and the others for shear wave tracking. In-phase quadrature demodulation and 2D autocorrelation are adopted to estimate velocities of tissues on the sound beams of the latter two elements. Shear wave speeds are calculated by phase shift between the tissue velocities. Three agar phantoms with different elasticities were made by changing the weights of agar. Values of the shear elastic modulus of the phantoms were measured as 8.98, 23.06 and 36.74 kPa at a depth of 7.5 mm respectively. This work verifies the feasibility of measuring shear elastic modulus by wearable devices.

Keywords: shear elastic modulus, skeletal muscle, ultrasound, wearable human-machine interface

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Silvia Elias

Abstract:

The 'Femme Fatale' figure has become synonymous with a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms captivate her lovers into bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them to compromise or downfall. Originally, a Femme Fatale typically uses her beauty to lead men to their destruction but in modern literature, she represents a direct attack on traditional womanhood and the nuclear family as she refuses to abide by the pillars of mainstream society creating an image of a strong independent woman who defies the control of men and rejects the institution of the family. This research aims at discussing the differences and similarities between the femme fatale and the New Woman and how they are perceived by the audience. There is often confusion between the characteristics that define a New Woman and a Femme Fatale since both women desire independence, challenge typical gender role casting, push against the limits of the patriarchal society and take control of their sexuality. The study of the femme fatale remains appealing in modern times because the fear of gender equality gives life to modern femme fatale versions and post-modern literary works introduce their readers to new versions of the deadly seductress. One that does not fully depend on her looks to destroy men. The idea behind writing this paper was born from reading David Mamet's two-character play Oleanna (1992) and tracing the main female protagonist/antagonist's transformation from a helpless inarticulate girl into a powerful controlling negotiator who knows how to lead a bargain and maintain the upper hand.

Keywords: Circe, David, Eve, evolution, feminist, femme fatale, gender, Mamet, new, Odysseus, Oleanna, power, Salome, schema, seduction, temptress, woman

Procedia PDF Downloads 436

Authors: Syed Nauman Bin Asghar Bukhari, Mohtashim Mansoor, Mohammad Nouman

Abstract:

Engine test-Bed system is a fundamental tool to measure dynamic parameters, economic performance, and reliability of an aircraft Engine, and its automation and accuracy directly influences the precision of acquired and analysed data. In this paper, we present the design of digital Data Acquisition (DAQ) system for a vintage aircraft engine test bed that lacks the capability of displaying all the analyzed parameters at one convenient location (one panel-one screen). Recording such measurements in the vintage test bed is not only time consuming but also prone to human errors. Digitizing such measurement system requires a Data Acquisition (DAQ) system capable of recording these parameters and displaying them on one screen-one panel monitor. The challenge in designing upgrade to the vintage systems arises with a need to build and integrate digital measurement system from scratch with a minimal budget and modifications to the existing vintage system. The proposed design not only displays all the key performance / maintenance parameters of the gas turbine engines for operator as well as quality inspector on separate screens but also records the data for further processing / archiving.

Keywords: Gas turbine engine, engine test cell, data acquisition, instrumentation

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Khawlh A. Alzubaidi, Khadijah B. Alziyadi, Amor M. Alsayari

Abstract:

The discovery of a dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS) in which ferromagnetism is carrier-mediated and persists above room temperature is a major step toward the implementation of spintronic devices for processing, transferring, and storing of information. Among the many types of DMS materials which have been investigated, Mn-doped GaAs has become one of the best candidates for technological application. However, despite major developments over the last few decades, the maximum Curie temperature (~200 K) remains well below room temperature. In this work, we have studied the effect of Mn content and strain on the GaMnAs effective masses of electron, heavy and light holes calculated in the different crystallographic direction. Also, the Curie temperature in the DMS GaMnAs alloy is determined. Compilation of GaMnAs band parameters have been carried out using the 8-band k.p model based on Lowdin perturbation theory where spin orbit, sp-d exchange interaction, and biaxial strain are taken into account. Our results show that effective masses, calculated along the different crystallographic directions, have a strong dependence on strain, ranging from -2% (tensile strain) to 2% (compressive strain), and Mn content increased from 1 to 5%. The Curie temperature is determined within the mean-field approach based on the Zener model.

Keywords: diluted magnetic semiconductors, k.p method, effective masses, curie temperature, strain

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Jean-François Caron

Abstract:

The current attempts to develop what we can call 'super soldiers' are problematic in many regards. This is what this text will try to explore by concentrating primarily on the repercussions of this technology and medical research on the physical and psychological integrity of soldiers. It argues that medicines or technologies may affect soldiers’ psychological and mental features and deprive them of their capacity to reflect upon their actions as autonomous subjects and that such a possibility entails serious moral as well as judicial consequences.

Keywords: military research, super soldiers, involuntary intoxication, criminal responsibility

Procedia PDF Downloads 335

Authors: Sadaf Ambreen, Ayesha Bibi, Sara Rafiq

Abstract:

Hypertension is a medical condition in which blood pressure in the arteries is elevated than the normal, having systolic blood pressure more than 120mmHg and diastolic blood pressure more than 80 mmHg. It leads to health complications and increase the risk of diseases such as stroke, heart failure, heart attack, and even death. The aim of the current study was to evaluate nutritional status and activity level among hypertensive early adults in District Mardan Data was collected from the subjects of Public Hospital, Mardan Medical Complex, through questionnaire. A complete information about individual sociodemographic, anthropometry and health status were collected, and physical activity was assessed by using IPAQ questionnaire. A total of 150 individuals were included in the study, in which 90% were females, and 10% were males. Data was analyzed through SPSS Version 22. Majority of the study subjects, 88%, were married, 70% having nuclear living system, 43% were having elementary education, and 43% were working as laborer. Body mass index and waist circumference in female counterpart were found to be positively associated with hypertension and was found statistically significant P=<0.01. Results showed that majority of females were fall in hypertension crisis category with mild activity, and males were having hypertension stage 1 with moderate activity. Our study concluded that non-optimal nutritional status and physical inactivity resulted in elevated blood pressure in females, therefore, lifestyle change such as optimal nutritional status and physical activity may play key role in reducing risk of hypertension.

Keywords: obesity/overwight, body mass index, waist circumference, early adulthood

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Malgorzata Sekulowicz, Krystyna Boron-Krupinska, Paulina Morga, Blazej Cieslik

Abstract:

Burnout is highly prevalent in health care employees, especially in physicians. It significantly reduces the efficiency of these employees, which can have negative consequences for both physicians and patients. Resilience and mindfulness enhancing positive emotions, leading to sustainable development and personal commitment, can have a significant impact on burnout. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between burnout symptoms and mindfulness and resilience among physicians. The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey study among seventy-four polish physicians. Participants filled out the following psychometric tools: the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Areas of Work-Life Survey (AWS), International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), the Resilience Assessment Scale (SPP-25) and the Mini-COPE Inventory. The relationship between burnout and resilience and mindfulness was assessed with path analysis. Analyzing the relationship between MBI-HSS components and mindfulness, a significant negative correlation of the FFMQ score with emotional exhaustion (-0.50, p < 0.05) and depersonalization (-0.43, p < 0.05) and a positive correlation with personal accomplishment (0.50, p < 0.05) was demonstrated. Analyzing resilience, a statistically significant relationship of SPP-25 with all tested components of MBI-HSS was demonstrated: emotional exhaustion (-0.54, p < 0.05), depersonalization (-0.31, p < 0.05) and personal accomplishment (0.35, p < 0.05). In the group of medical doctors, the higher the level of mindfulness and resilience, the lower the risk of burnout. Furthermore, the more frequently used active coping strategies (planning, acceptance), the lower the risk of burnout, while the use of passive, evasive strategies increases the risk of burnout. It may be worth considering implementing mindfulness intervention to effectively manage burnout symptoms in this group.

Keywords: burnout, medical doctors, mindfulness, physicians, resilience

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Abdellah Hanafi, G. M. Mostafa, Mohamed Mortada, Ahmed Hamed

Abstract:

The steam ejectors are the heart of most of the desalination systems that employ vacuum. The systems that employ low grade thermal energy sources like solar energy and geothermal energy use the ejector to drive the system instead of high grade electric energy. The jet-ejector is used to create vacuum employing the flow of steam or air and using the severe pressure drop at the outlet of the main nozzle. The present work involves developing a one dimensional mathematical model for designing jet-ejectors and transform it into computer code using Engineering Equation solver (EES) software. The model receives the required operating conditions at the inlets and outlet of the ejector as inputs and produces the corresponding dimensions required to reach these conditions. The one-dimensional model has been validated using an existed model working on Abu-Qir power station. A prototype has been designed according to the one-dimensional model and attached to a special test bench to be tested before using it in the solar desalination pilot plant. The tested ejector will be responsible for the startup evacuation of the system and adjusting the vacuum of the evaporating effects. The tested prototype has shown a good agreement with the results of the code. In addition a numerical analysis has been applied on one of the designed geometry to give an image of the pressure and velocity distribution inside the ejector from a side, and from other side, to show the difference in results between the two-dimensional ideal gas model and real prototype. The commercial edition of ANSYS Fluent v.14 software is used to solve the two-dimensional axisymmetric case.

Keywords: solar energy, jet ejector, vacuum, evaporating effects

Procedia PDF Downloads 601

Authors: Nnadi Ezekiel Ejiofor

Abstract:

The construction industry plays a decisive role in the healthy development of any nation. Not only large but even small construction projects contribute to a country’s economic growth. There is a need for good management to ensure successful delivery and sustainability because of the plethora of risks that have resulted in low-profit margins for contractors, cost and schedule overruns, poor quality delivery, and abandoned projects. This research reviewed Capitalization on Sustainable Risk Management. Questionnaires and oral interviews conducted were utilized as means of data collection. One hundred and ninety-eight (198) large construction firms in Nigeria form the population of this study. 15 (fifteen) companies that emanated from merger and acquisition were used for the study. The instruments used for data collection were a researcher-developed structured questionnaire based on a five-point rating scale, interviews, focus group discussion, and secondary sources (bill of quantities and stock and exchange commission). The instrument was validated by two experts in the field. The reliability of the instrument was established by applying the split-half method. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance was used to test the data, and a degree of agreement was obtained. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics and analyzed using analysis of variance, t-test, and SPSS. The identified impacts of capitalization were an increase in turnover (24.5%), improvement in the image (24.5%), risk reduction (20%), business expansion (17.3%), and geographical spread (13.6%). The study strongly advocates the inclusion of risk management evaluation as part of the construction procurement process.

Keywords: capitalization, project delivery, risks, risk management, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 42

Authors: Mohamad Muqtada Ali Khan, Nor Ashikin Shaari, Donny Adriansyah bin Nazaruddin, Hafzan Eva Bt Mansoor

Abstract:

Floods play a key role in landform evolution of an area. This process is likely to alter the topography of the earth’s surface. The present study area, Kota Bharu is very prone to floods extends from upstream of Kelantan River near Kemubu to the downstream area near Kuala Besar. These flood events which occur every year in the study area exhibit a strong bearing on river morphological set-up. In the present study, three satellite imageries of different time periods have been used to manifest the post-flood landform changes. The pre-processing of the images such as subset, geometric corrections and atmospheric corrections were carried-out using ENVI 4.5 followed by the analysis processes. Twenty sets of cross sections were plotted using software Erdas 9.2, ERDAS and ArcGis 10 for the all three images. The results show a significant change in the length of the cross section which suggest that the geomorphological processes play a key role in carving and shaping the river banks during the floods.

Keywords: flood induced, geomorphic imprints, Kelantan river, Malaysia

Procedia PDF Downloads 530

Authors: Negar Riazifar, Nigel G. Stocks

Abstract:

This paper proposes strategies in level crossing (LC) sampling and reconstruction that provide high fidelity signal reconstruction for speech signals; these strategies circumvent the problem of exponentially increasing number of samples as the bit-depth is increased and hence are highly efficient. Specifically, the results indicate that the distribution of the intervals between samples is one of the key factors in the quality of signal reconstruction; including samples with short intervals do not improve the accuracy of the signal reconstruction, whilst samples with large intervals lead to numerical instability. The proposed sampling method, termed reduced conventional level crossing (RCLC) sampling, exploits redundancy between samples to improve the efficiency of the sampling without compromising performance. A reconstruction technique is also proposed that enhances the numerical stability through linear interpolation of samples separated by large intervals. Interpolation is demonstrated to improve the accuracy of the signal reconstruction in addition to the numerical stability. We further demonstrate that the RCLC and interpolation methods can give useful levels of signal recovery even if the average sampling rate is less than the Nyquist rate.

Keywords: level crossing sampling, numerical stability, speech processing, trigonometric polynomial

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Andrés Calvillo Téllez, Marianne Martínez Zanzarric, José Cruz Núñez Pérez

Abstract:

A modular system that performs basic monitoring of both water and air quality is presented. Monitoring is essential for environmental, aquaculture, and agricultural disciplines, where this type of instrumentation is necessary for data collection. The system uses low-cost components, which allows readings close to those with high-cost probes. The probe collects readings such as the coordinates of the geographical position, as well as the time it records the target parameters of the monitored. The modules or subsystems that make up the probe are the global positioning (GPS), which shows the altitude, latitude, and longitude data of the point where the reading will be recorded, a real-time clock stage, the date marking the time, the module SD memory continuously stores data, data acquisition system, central processing unit, and energy. The system acquires parameters to measure water quality, conductivity, pressure, and temperature, and for air, three types of ammonia, dioxide, and carbon monoxide gases were censored. The information obtained allowed us to identify the schedule of modification of the parameters and the identification of the ideal conditions for the growth of microorganisms in the water.

Keywords: calibration, conductivity, datalogger, monitoring, real time clock, water quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 88