Search results for: health care systems

Authors: Muzaffer Ali Yaygın, Mehmet Topçu

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This research aims to investigate morphological changes in urban patterns in urban renewal areas by using geographic information systems and to reveal pattern differences that occur before and after urban renewal processes by applying a morphological analysis. The concept of urban morphology is not involved in urban renewal and urban planning practices in Turkey. This situation destroys the structural characteristic of urban space which appears as a consequence of changes at city, street or plot level. Different approaches and renewal interventions to urban settlements, which are formed as a reflection of cultural issues, may have positive and negative results. A morphological analysis has been applied to an urban renewal area that covers 325 ha. in Konya, in which city urban renewal projects have gained speed with the increasing of economic investments in this study. The study mentions urban renewal and urban morphology relationship, varied academic approach on the urban morphology issue, urban morphology components, changes in lots pattern and numerical differences that occur on road, construction and green space ratios that are before and after the renewal project, and the results of the morphological analysis. It is seen that the built-up area has significant differences when compared to the previous situation. The amount of green areas decreased significantly in quantitative terms; the transportation systems has been changed completely; and the property ownership has been reconstructed without taking the previous situation into account. Findings show that urban renewal projects in Turkey are put into practice with a rent-oriented approach without making an in-depth analysis. The paper discusses the morphological dimension of urban renewal projects in Turkey through a case study from Konya city.

Keywords: Konya, pattern, urban morphology, urban renewal

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Authors: Siamak Samani, Nadereh Sohrabi

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Psychological nano-therapy is a new method based on systems theory. According to the theory, systems with severe dysfunctions are resistant to changes. Psychological nano-therapy helps the therapists to break this ice. Two key concepts in psychological nano-therapy are nano-functions and nano-behaviors. The most important step in psychological nano-therapy in family therapy is selecting the most effective nano-function and nano-behavior. The aim of this study was to check the effectiveness of psychological nano-therapy for family therapy. One group pre-test-post-test design (quasi-experimental Design) was applied for research. The sample consisted of ten families with severe marital conflict. The important character of these families was resistance for participating in family therapy. In this study, sending respectful (nano-function) text massages (nano-behavior) with cell phone were applied as a treatment. Cohesion/respect sub scale from self-report family processes scale and family readiness for therapy scale were used to assess all family members in pre-test and post-test. In this study, one of family members was asked to send a respectful text massage to other family members every day for a week. The content of the text massages were selected and checked by therapist. To compare the scores of families in pre-test and post-test paired sample t-test was used. The results of the test showed significant differences in both cohesion/respect score and family readiness for therapy between per-test and post-test. The results revealed that these families have found a better atmosphere for participation in a complete family therapy program. Indeed, this study showed that psychological nano-therapy is an effective method to make family readiness for therapy.

Keywords: family therapy, family conflicts, nano-therapy, family readiness

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Authors: Syed Afrozuddin Ahmed, Junaid Saghir Siddiqi, Sabah Quaiser

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Various studies have reported that global warming causes unstable climate and many serious impact to physical environment and public health. The increasing incidence of dengue incidence is now a priority health issue and become a health burden of Pakistan. In this study it has been investigated that spatial pattern of environment causes the emergence or increasing rate of dengue fever incidence that effects the population and its health. The climatic or environmental structure data and the Dengue Fever (DF) data was processed by coding, editing, tabulating, recoding, restructuring in terms of re-tabulating was carried out, and finally applying different statistical methods, techniques, and procedures for the evaluation. Five climatic variables which we have studied are precipitation (P), Maximum temperature (Mx), Minimum temperature (Mn), Humidity (H) and Wind speed (W) collected from 1980-2012. The dengue cases in Karachi from 2010 to 2012 are reported on weekly basis. Principal component analysis is applied to explore the climatic variables and/or the climatic (structure) which may influence in the increase or decrease in the number of dengue fever cases in Karachi. PC1 for all the period is General atmospheric condition. PC2 for dengue period is contrast between precipitation and wind speed. PC3 is the weighted difference between maximum temperature and wind speed. PC4 for dengue period contrast between maximum and wind speed. Negative binomial and Poisson regression model are used to correlate the dengue fever incidence to climatic variable and principal component score. Relative humidity is estimated to positively influence on the chances of dengue occurrence by 1.71% times. Maximum temperature positively influence on the chances dengue occurrence by 19.48% times. Minimum temperature affects positively on the chances of dengue occurrence by 11.51% times. Wind speed is effecting negatively on the weekly occurrence of dengue fever by 7.41% times.

Keywords: principal component analysis, dengue fever, negative binomial regression model, poisson regression model

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Authors: Esra Bora, Alper Omeroglu, Zeynep Pelin Polat, Oguzhan Kara, Fatih Akdogan, Sema Ucak Basat

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Hyponatremia is one of the most encountered electrolyte imbalance among all medical fields. It has a wide range of symptoms as well as complications from fatigue to loss of consciousness. Although a lot of factors can cause low sodium levels in serum, combining specific medications can lead to severe hyponatremia in a rapid onset which can cause high mortality and morbidity. The objective of this case report was to underline that prescribing specific medications disregarding their side effects can cause this common electrolyte imbalance but in a more severe manner. In this case report, we present a 46-year-old male patient with a serum sodium level of 104 mEq/L who consumed hydrochlorothiazide for hypertension and was under treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for major depression. The patient had tonic-clonic seizures at the second hour of the treatment and intubation was needed due to loss of consciousness and hypoxia. After proper replacement of sodium with hypertonic solutions in intensive care unit for nine days, extubation indicated. Even in healthy young males, hyponatremia due to two separately prescribed medications can lead life-threatening hyponatremia. Physicians should be aware of the side effects of diuretics, especially hydrochlorothiazides and SSRIs and their combinations.

Keywords: diuretics, hydrochlorothiazide, hyponatremia, SSRI

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Authors: Marissa C. Esperal

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This university-based research project attempted to determine the relevance and effectiveness of the technology-based psychological services extended to selected adults experiencing symptoms of mild anxiety and depression. Ninety-seven participants who voluntarily availed the free online psychological services advertised through a Facebook page (Techno-Psych Serv) signed up for the Informed Consent and Psychological Services Contract Agreement form. These clients availed a maximum of 5 online sessions devoted to online assessment, online counseling and brief therapy sessions using the Google Meet App. Participants who, upon evaluation, were found to still be needing extended psychological and other services were referred to other mental health services institutions. Post-evaluations were conducted using Google Forms upon termination. Findings showed that with a mean of 4.87 (n=97), it was noted that the services provided through the online platform were effective. However, it was noted that the majority of those who availed the services were professionals and skilled workers, thus defeating the objective of extending free psychological services to the marginalized group. It was concluded that offering free technology-based psychological services, though proven effective, is found to be less relevant if the intention is to reach out to the less fortunate and marginalized group. It was further concluded that there is still a need for psychoeducation and mental health promotion among the marginalized sectors. It was recommended that if mental health services are extended to the community of marginalized group, providing physical services are still a better option.

Keywords: technology-based psychological services, adults, mild anxiety, depression

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Authors: Madeline Foster

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Since the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth usage for the delivery of psychotherapy has surged. The evidence base evaluating the success of telehealth interventions continues to grow, with both benefits as well as potential risks identified. This study compared two recent randomized clinical trials (RCTs) from Sweden that looked at the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) delivered via telehealth (TH) versus face-to-face (FTF) for individuals with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The papers had mixed results. The first paper by Aspvall and colleagues compared the effect of a therapist-supported, internet-delivered stepped-care CBT program for children and adolescents aged 7 to 17 with face-to-face CBT (2021). In Aspvall’s study, the control scored a mean Y-BOCS of 10.57 and the TH intervention group scored a mean Y-BOCS of 11.57. The mean difference (0.91) met the criteria for noninferiority (p = 0.03). The second study by Lundström and colleagues also compared therapist-supported, internet-based CBT with FTF CBT for the treatment of those with DSM-5-diagnosed OCD. Conversely, while Lundström’s study reported improved symptoms across all groups, at follow up the difference in symptom severity between FTF and TH was clinically significant, with 77% of FTF participants responding to treatment compared to only 45% of TH participants. Due to the methodological limitations of Lundström’s study, it was concluded that Aspvall’s paper made a stronger scientific argument.

Keywords: telehealth, Sweden, RCT, cognitive-behavioral therapy, obsessive-compulsive disorder

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Authors: Vasundhara Arora, Anupam Jhobta, Suresh Thakur, Sanjiv Sharma

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Aims and Objectives: Intracranial tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most devastating manifestations of TB and a challenging public health issue of considerable importance and magnitude world over. This study elaborates on the imaging spectrum of neurotuberculosis on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 29 clinically suspected cases from a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: The prospective hospital based evaluation of MR imaging features of neuro-tuberculosis in 29 clinically suspected cases was carried out in Department of Radio-diagnosis, Indira Gandhi Medical Hospital from July 2017 to August 2018. MR Images were obtained on a 1.5 T Magnetom Avanto machine and were analyzed to identify any abnormal meningeal enhancement or parenchymal lesions. Microbiological and Biochemical CSF analysis was performed in radio-logically suspected cases and the results were compared with the imaging data. Clinical follow up of the patients started on anti-tuberculous treatment was done to evaluate the response to treatment and clinical outcome. Results: Age range of patients in the study was between 1 year to 73 years. The mean age of presentation was 11.5 years. No significant difference in the distribution of cerebral tuberculosis was noted among the two genders. Imaging findings of neuro-tuberculosis obtained were varied and non specific ranging from lepto-meningeal enhancement, cerebritis to space occupying lesions such as tuberculomas and tubercular abscesses. Complications presenting as hydrocephalus (n= 7) and infarcts (n=9) was noted in few of these patients. 29 patients showed radiological suspicion of CNS tuberculosis with meningitis alone observed in 11 cases, tuberculomas alone were observed in 4 cases, meningitis with parenchymal tuberculomas in 11 cases. Tubercular abscess and cerebritis were observed in one case each. Tuberculous arachnoiditis was noted in one patient. Gene expert positivity was obtained in 11 out of 29 radiologically suspected patients; none of the patients showed culture positivity. Meningeal form of the disease alone showed higher positivity rate of gene Xpert (n=5) followed by combination of meningeal and parenchymal forms of disease (n=4). The parenchymal manifestation of disease alone showed least positivity rates (n= 3) with gene xpert testing. All 29 patients were started on anti tubercular treatment based on radiological suspicion of the disease with clinical improvement observed in 27 treated patients. Conclusions: In our study, higher incidence of neuro- tuberculosis was noted in paediatric population with predominance of the meningeal form of the disease. Gene Xpert positivity obtained was low due to paucibacillary nature of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with even lower positivity of CSF samples in parenchymal form of the manifestation. MRI showed high accuracy in detecting CNS lesions in neuro-tuberculosis. Hence, it can be concluded that MRI plays a crucial role in the diagnosis because of its inherent sensitivity and specificity and is an indispensible imaging modality. It caters to the need of early diagnosis owing to poor sensitivity of microbiological tests more so in the parenchymal manifestation of the disease.

Keywords: neurotuberculosis, tubercular abscess, tuberculoma, tuberculous meningitis

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Authors: Arup Dutta, Badrul Alam, Sayed M. Wazed, Taslima Newaz, Srobonti Dutta

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Background: In today's world, with modern science and contemporary technology, a lot of diseases may be quickly identified and ruled out, but children's fever of unknown origin (FUO) still presents diagnostic difficulties in clinical settings. Any fever that reaches 38 °C and lasts for more than seven days without a known cause is now classified as a fever of unknown origin (FUO). Despite tremendous progress in the medical sector, fever of unknown origin, or FOU, persists as a major health issue and a major contributor to morbidity and mortality, particularly in children, and its spectrum is sometimes unpredictable. The etiology is influenced by geographic location, age, socioeconomic level, frequency of antibiotic resistance, and genetic vulnerability. Since there are currently no known diagnostic algorithms, doctors are forced to evaluate each patient one at a time with extreme caution. A persistent fever poses difficulties for both the patient and the doctor. This prospective, observational study was carried out in a Bangladeshi tertiary care hospital from June 2018 to May 2019 with the goal of identifying the epidemiological patterns of fever of unknown origin in pediatric patients. Methods: It was a hospital-based prospective observational study carried out on 106 children (between 2 months and 12 years) with prolonged fever of >38.0 °C lasting for more than 7 days without a clear source. Children with additional chronic diseases or known immunodeficiency problems were not allowed. Clinical practices that helped determine the definitive etiology were assessed. Initial testing included a complete blood count, a routine urine examination, PBF, a chest X-ray, CRP measurement, blood cultures, serology and additional pertinent investigations. The analysis focused mostly on the etiological results. The standard program SPSS 21 was used to analyze all of the study data. Findings: A total of 106 patients identified as having FUO were assessed, with over half (57.5%) being female and the majority (40.6%) falling within the 1 to 3-year age range. The study categorized the etiological outcomes into five groups: infections, malignancies, connective tissue conditions, miscellaneous, and undiagnosed. In the group that was being studied, infections were found to be the main cause in 44.3% of cases. Undiagnosed cases came in at 31.1%, cancers at 10.4%, other causes at 8.5%, and connective tissue disorders at 4.7%. Hepato-splenomegaly was seen in people with enteric fever, malaria, acute lymphoid leukemia, lymphoma, and hepatic abscesses, either by itself or in combination with other conditions. About 53% of people who were not diagnosed also had hepato-splenomegaly at the same time. Conclusion: Infections are the primary cause of PUO (pyrexia of unknown origin) in children, with undiagnosed cases being the second most common cause. An incremental approach is beneficial in the process of diagnosing a condition. Non-invasive examinations are used to diagnose infections and connective tissue disorders, while invasive investigations are used to diagnose cancer and other ailments. According to this study, the prevalence of undiagnosed diseases is still remarkable, so extensive historical analysis and physical examinations are necessary in order to provide a precise diagnosis.

Keywords: children, diagnostic challenges, fever of unknown origin, pediatric fever, undiagnosed diseases

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Authors: A. Kamel Abd Elaziz Mohamed, B. Sameh Kamal el Maraghi

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Introduction: Adaptive support ventilation (ASV) is an improved closed-loop ventilation mode that provides both pressure-controlled ventilation and PSV according to the patient’s needs. Aim of the work: To compare the short-term effects of Adaptive support ventilation (ASV), with conventional Pressure support ventilation (PSV) in weaning of intubated COPD patients. Patients and methods: Fifty patients admitted in the intensive care with acute exacerbation of COPD and needing intubation were included in the study. All patients were initially ventilated with control/assist control mode, in a stepwise manner and were receiving standard medical therapy. Patients were randomized into two groups to receive either ASV or PSV. Results: Out of fifty patients included in the study forty one patients in both studied groups were weaned successfully according to their ABG data and weaning indices. APACHE II score showed no significant difference in both groups. There were statistically significant differences between the groups in term of, duration of mechanical ventilation, weaning hours and length of ICU stay being shorter in (group 1) weaned by ASV. Re-intubation and mortality rate were higher in (group 11) weaned by conventional PSV, however the differences were not significant. Conclusion: ASV can provide automated weaning and achieve shorter weaning time for COPD patients hence leading to reduction in the total duration of MV, length of stay, and hospital costs.

Keywords: COPD patients, ASV, PSV, mechanical ventilation (MV)

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Authors: Isabel Brás, Artur Figueirinha, Bruno Esteves, Luísa P. Cruz-Lopes

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The agriculture lignocellulosic by-products are receiving increased attention, namely in the search for filter materials that retain contaminants from water. These by-products, specifically almond and hazelnut shells are abundant in Portugal once almond and hazelnuts production is a local important activity. Hazelnut and almond shells have as main constituents lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses, water soluble extractives and tannins. Along the adsorption of heavy metals from contaminated waters, water soluble compounds can leach from shells and have a negative impact in the environment. Usually, the chemical characterization of treated water by itself may not show environmental impact caused by the discharges when parameters obey to legal quality standards for water. Only biological systems can detect the toxic effects of the water constituents. Therefore, the evaluation of toxicity by biological tests is very important when deciding the suitability for safe water discharge or for irrigation applications. The main purpose of the present work was to assess the potential impacts of waters after been treated for heavy metal removal by hazelnut and almond shells adsorption systems, with short term acute toxicity tests. To conduct the study, water at pH 6 with 25 mg.L-1 of lead, was treated with 10 g of shell per litre of wastewater, for 24 hours. This procedure was followed for each bark. Afterwards the water was collected for toxicological assays; namely bacterial resistance, seed germination, Lemna minor L. test and plant grow. The effect in isolated bacteria strains was determined by disc diffusion method and the germination index of seed was evaluated using lettuce, with temperature and humidity germination control for 7 days. For aquatic higher organism, Lemnas were used with 4 days contact time with shell solutions, in controlled light and temperature. For terrestrial higher plants, biomass production was evaluated after 14 days of tomato germination had occurred in soil, with controlled humidity, light and temperature. Toxicity tests of water treated with shells revealed in some extent effects in the tested organisms, with the test assays showing a close behaviour as the control, leading to the conclusion that its further utilization may not be considered to create a serious risk to the environment.

Keywords: lignocellulosic wastes, adsorption, acute toxicity tests, risk assessment

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Authors: Luiz Drude de Lacerda, Kevin Luiz Cordeiro Ferrer do Carmo, Victor Lacerda Moura, Rayone Wesley Santos de Oliveira, Moisés Fernandes Bezerra

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Fish is a food source well recognized for its health benefits. However, the consumption of fish, especially carnivorous species, is the main path of human exposure to Hg, a widely distributed pollutant on the planet and that accumulates along food chains. Studies on the impacts on public health by fish intake show existing toxic risks even when at low concentrations. This study quantifies, for the first time, the concentrations of Hg in muscle tissue of the nine most commercialized fish species in the fish market of São Luís (MA) in north Brazil and estimates the consequent human exposure through consumption. Concentrations varied according to trophic level, with the highest found in the larger carnivorous species; the Yellow hake (Cynoscion acoupa) (296.4 ± 241.2 ng/g w.w) and the Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) (262.8 ± 89.1 ng/g w.w.), whereas the lowest concentrations were recorded in iliophagous Mullets (Mugil curema) (20.5 ± 9.6 ng/g w.w.). Significant correlations were observed between Hg concentrations and individual length in only two species: the Flaming catfish (Bagre marinus) and the Atlantic bumper (Chloroscombrus crysurus). Given the relatively uniform size of individuals of the other species and/or the small number of samples, this relationship was not found for the other species. The estimated risk coefficients, despite the relatively low concentrations of Hg, suggest that yellow hake and Whitemouth croaker (Micropogonias furnieri), fish most consumed by the local population, present some risk to human health (> 1) HQ and THQ, depending on the frequency of their consumption.

Keywords: contamination, fish, human exposure, risk assessment

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Authors: Andreas Kunz, Ali Alavi

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In this paper, we present a simple active stylus for interactive IR-based tabletop systems. Such tables offer a set of tags for realizing tangible user interfaces, which can only be applied to objects having a relatively big contacting area with the interactive surface. The stylus has a unique address and thus can be clearly distinguished from other styli, objects or finger touches that might simultaneously occur on the interactive surface.

Keywords: interactive screens, pen, tangibles, user interfaces

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Authors: Nattapol Pourprasert, Siriwan Manowan

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This study aims to find out what budget problems Thailand is facing with and how the results from the comparison between the budgeting reform by Thailand and the reforms by OECD member countries can be used for carrying out budgeting reform of Thailand. The findings from the study on the budget problems that Thailand is facing with reveal that the budgeting system of Thailand lacks of the assessment for the cost-effectiveness of the expenditure of borrowed money and budgets in order to determine whether the expenses are worth the taxes collected from people or not. This is because most popularity policies have unlimited budgets which can lead to the financial risks. Also, these policies create great tax burdens for the descendants in the future and affect the fair distribution of incomes but the Parliament of Thailand never considers these facts. The findings from the comparison between Thai budgeting reform and those by OECD member countries manifest that the traditional budgeting system of Thailand is the department-based budgeting, which is still used without being changed or adjusted in order to fit the new administrative regimes. This traditional budgeting system suggests that a department is responsible for budgeting tasks. Meanwhile, in OECD member countries, budgeting reforms are carried out simultaneously with the reforms of civil service systems so that they are driven in the same directions. The budgeting reforms that rely only on the analyses on economic or technical dimension can hardly lead to success. The budgeting systems of OECD member countries are designed to deal with the unique problems that each of the member countries is facing with rather than adopting the modern system developed by other countries. The budgeting system that has a complicated concept and practice has to be implemented under a flexible strategy so that the departments that implement it can learn about and adjust itself to the system. Continuous and consistent development and training for staff members are also necessary.

Keywords: budgeting reforms, Thailand, OECD member countries, budget problems

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Authors: R. Malathy

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High performance concrete is not only characterized by its high strength, workability, and durability but also by its smartness in performance without human care since the first day. If the concrete can cure on its own without external curing without compromising its strength and durability, then it is said to be high performance self-curing concrete. In this paper, an attempt is made on the performance study of internally cured concrete using biomaterials, namely Spinacea pleracea and Calatropis gigantea as self-curing agents, and it is compared with the performance of concrete with existing self-cure chemical, namely polyethylene glycol. The present paper focuses on workability, strength, and durability study on M20, M30, and M40 grade concretes replacing 30% of fly ash for cement. The optimum dosage of Spinacea pleracea, Calatropis gigantea, and polyethylene glycol was taken as 0.6%, 0.24%, and 0.3% by weight of cement from the earlier research studies. From the slump tests performed, it was found that there is a minimum variation between conventional concrete and self-cured concrete. The strength activity index is determined by keeping compressive strength of conventionally cured concrete for 28 days as unity and observed that, for self-cured concrete, it is more than 1 after 28 days and more than 1.15 after 56 days because of secondary reaction of fly ash. The performance study of concretes in aggressive environment like acid attack, sea water attack, and chloride attack was made, and the results are positive and encouraging in bio-self-cured concretes which are ecofriendly, cost effective, and high performance materials.

Keywords: bio materials, Calatropis gigantea, self curing concrete, Spinacea oleracea

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Authors: Nicola D. Cannon

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A range of field experiments have been conducted since 1991 to 2017 on organic land at the Royal Agricultural University’s Harnhill Manor Farm near Cirencester, UK to explore the impact of different management practices on weed infestation in organic winter and spring wheat. The experiments were designed using randomised complete block and some with split plot arrangements. Sowing date, variety choice, crop height and crop establishment technique have all shown a significant impact on weed infestations. Other techniques have also been investigated but with less clear, but, still often significant effects on weed control including grazing with sheep, undersowing with different legumes and mechanical weeding techniques. Tillage treatments included traditional plough based systems, minimum tillage and direct drilling. Direct drilling had significantly higher weed dry matter than the other two techniques. Taller wheat varieties which do not contain Rht1 or Rht2 had higher weed populations than the wheat without dwarfing genes. Early sown winter wheat had greater weed dry matter than later sown wheat. Grazing with sheep interacted strongly with sowing date, with shorter varieties and also late sowing dates providing much less forage but, grazing did reduce weed biomass in June. Undersowing had mixed impacts which were related to the success of establishment of the undersown legume crop. Weeds are most successfully controlled when a range of techniques are implemented to give the wheat crop the greatest chance of competing with weeds.

Keywords: crop establishment, drilling date, grazing, undersowing, varieties, weeds

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Authors: Dyana Zainudin, Atta Ur-Rahman, Thaier Hamed

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This paper explains about human nature concept as to understand the significance of information security in employees’ mentality including leaders in an organisation. By studying on a theory concept of the latest Von Solms fourth waves, information security governance basically refers to the concept of a set of methods, techniques and tools that responsible for protecting resources of a computer system to ensure service availability, confidentiality and integrity of information. However, today’s information security dilemma relates to the acceptance of employees mentality. The major causes are a lack of communication and commitment. These types of management in an organisation are labelled as immoral/amoral management which effects on information security compliance. A recovery action is taken based on ‘learn a lesson from incident events’ rather than prevention. Therefore, the paper critically analysed the Von Solms fourth waves’ theory with current human events and its correlation by studying secondary data and also from qualitative analysis among employees in public sectors. ‘Three-dimensions to failure’ of information security dilemma are explained as deny, don’t know and don’t care. These three-dimensions are the most common vulnerable behaviour owned by employees. Therefore, by avoiding the three-dimensions to failure may improve the vulnerable behaviour of employees which is often related to immoral/amoral management.

Keywords: information security management system, information security behaviour, information security governance, information security culture

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Authors: P. K. Sarkar, Amit Kumar Jain

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The demand for Urban transportation is characterised by a large scale temporal and spatial variations which causes heavy congestion inside metro trains in peak hours near Centre Business District (CBD) of the city. The conventional approach to address peak hour congestion, metro trains has been to increase the supply by way of introduction of more trains, increasing the length of the trains, optimising the time table to increase the capacity of the system. However, there is a limitation of supply side measures determined by the design capacity of the systems beyond which any addition in the capacity requires huge capital investments. The demand side interventions are essentially required to actually spread the demand across the time and space. In this study, an attempt has been made to identify the potential Transport Demand Management tools applicable to Urban Rail Transportation systems with a special focus on differential pricing. A conceptual price elasticity model has been developed to analyse the effect of various combinations of peak and nonpeak hoursfares on demands. The elasticity values for peak hour, nonpeak hour and cross elasticity have been assumed from the relevant literature available in the field. The conceptual price elasticity model so developed is based on assumptions which need to be validated with actual values of elasticities for different segments of passengers. Once validated, the model can be used to determine the peak and nonpeak hour fares with an objective to increase overall ridership, revenue, demand levelling and optimal utilisation of assets.

Keywords: urban transport, differential fares, congestion, transport demand management, elasticity

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Authors: Efua Ehiaguina, Haruna Moda

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Interest in the development of appropriate safety culture in the oil and gas industry has taken centre stage among stakeholders in the industry. Human behaviour has been identified as a major contributor to occupational accidents, where abnormal activities associated with safety management are taken as normal behaviour. Poor safety culture is one of the major factors that influence employee’s safety behaviour at work, which may consequently result in injuries and accidents and strengthening such a culture can improve workers safety performance. Nigeria oil and gas industry has contributed to the growth and development of the country in diverse ways. However, in terms of safety and health of workers, this industry is a dangerous place to work as workers are often exposed to occupational safety and health hazard. To ascertain the impact of employees’ safety and how it impacts health and safety compliance within the local industry, online safety culture survey targeting frontline workers within the industry was administered covering major subjects that include; perception of management commitment and style of leadership; safety communication method and its resultant impact on employees’ behaviour; employee safety commitment and training needs. The preliminary result revealed that 54% of the participants feel that there is a lack of motivation from the management to work safely. In addition, 55% of participants revealed that employers place more emphasis on work delivery over employee’s safety on the installation. It is expected that the study outcome will provide measures aimed at strengthening and sustaining safety culture in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Keywords: oil and gas safety, safety behaviour, safety culture, safety compliance

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Authors: Filipa Vasconcelos

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The administration of endoplasmic reticulum amino peptidases (ERAP1 or ERAP2) inhibitors can be used for therapeutic approaches against cancer and auto-immune diseases. However, one of the main shortcomings of drug delivery systems (DDS) is associated with the drug off-target distribution, which can lead to an increase in its side effects on the patient’s body. To overcome such limitations, the encapsulation of four representative compounds of ERAP inhibitors into Polycaprolactone (PCL), Polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA), crosslinked PVA, and PVA with nanoparticles (liposomes) electrospun fibrous meshes is proposed as a safe and controlled drug release system. The use of electrospun fibrous meshes as a DDS allows efficient solvent evaporation giving limited time to the encapsulated drug to recrystallize, continuous delivery of the drug while the fibers degrade, prevention of initial burst release (sustained release), tunable dosages, and the encapsulation of other agents. This is possible due to the fibers' small diameters and resemblance to the extracellular matrix (confirmed by scanning electron microscopy results), high specific surface area, and good mechanical strength/stability. Furthermore, release studies conducted on PCL, PVA, crosslinked PVA, and PVA with nanoparticles (liposomes) electrospun fibrous meshes with each of the ERAP compounds encapsulated demonstrated that they were capable of releasing >60%, 50%, 40%, and 45% of the total ERAP concentration, respectively. Fibrous meshes with ERAP_E compound encapsulated achieved higher released concentrations (75.65%, 62.41%, 56.05%, and 65.39%, respectively). Toxicity studies of fibrous meshes with encapsulated compounds are currently being accessed in vitro, as well as pharmacokinetics and dynamics studies. The last step includes the implantation of the drug-loaded fibrous meshes in vivo.

Keywords: drug delivery, electrospinning, ERAP inhibitors, liposomes

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Authors: Riya Kartikee, Uday Shankar

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Background –.Happiness refers to a range of the balance of positive and pleasant emotions of joy, pride, contentment, gratitude, and living with ethics. Happiness is an experience combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worth a while, but in the context of orphans who have lost their birthgivers, their parents who play an important role in bringing necessities and comfort to them, but many terms of the above phases are missing in the life of orphan So, stress increases because of lack of love, attention, sympathy, care, they experience many kind of trauma and also in some cases their lives get worst as they face some physiological abuse, sexual abuse, they are forced to have stress at a not only mentally but physically also in the context of Patna, Bihar where many people are below poverty line, lack of resources is a normal condition for the Orphanages.AIM- The present study was intended to study the level of Happiness among the orphans of Patna District, also it was attempted to find the role of happiness in their lives as an individual.Method- The sample of 70 Orphans in the age group of 12 to 18 years were taken from the orphanages of Patna district-Apnaghar, Rainbow homes, etc. Purposive sampling was used in the study, There has been one research tool used in the study, which is Happiness scale by Dr.R.L Bhardwaj and Dr.Poonam R Das. Results- Results have revealed that Orphans have possessed a very low level of happiness and unhappiness was related due to their living conditions in the orphanage.Conclusion-It can be stated that the Level of happiness is an important missing determinant in the lives of orphans.

Keywords: happiness, orphans, patna, orphanage

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Authors: Franklin Nantui Mabe, Samuel A. Donkoh, Seidu Al-Hassan

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Rice yields among agro-ecological zones are heterogeneous. Farmers, researchers and policy makers are making frantic efforts to bridge rice yield gaps between agro-ecological zones through the promotion of improved agricultural technologies (IATs). Farmers are also modifying these IATs and blending them with indigenous farming practices (IFPs) to form farmer innovation systems (FISs). Also, different metafrontier models have been used in estimating productivity performances and their drivers. This study used the two-step stochastic metafrontier model to estimate the productivity performances of rice farmers and their determining factors in GSZ, FSTZ and CSZ. The study used both primary and secondary data. Farmers in CSZ are the most technically efficient. Technical inefficiencies of farmers are negatively influenced by age, sex, household size, education years, extension visits, contract farming, access to improved seeds, access to irrigation, high rainfall amount, less lodging of rice, and well-coordinated and synergized adoption of technologies. Albeit farmers in CSZ are doing well in terms of rice yield, they still have the highest potential of increasing rice yield since they had the lowest TGR. It is recommended that government through the ministry of food and agriculture, development partners and individual private companies promote the adoption of IATs as well as educate farmers on how to coordinate and synergize the adoption of the whole package. Contract farming concept and agricultural extension intensification should be vigorously pursued to the latter.

Keywords: efficiency, farmer innovation systems, improved agricultural technologies, two-step stochastic metafrontier approach

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Authors: Zhang Songning, Guan Zheng, Ci Yan, Ding Gangyi

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The application of physical simulation engines in collaborative editing systems has an important background and role. Firstly, physical simulation engines can provide real-world physical simulations, enabling users to interact and collaborate in real time in virtual environments. This provides a more intuitive and immersive experience for collaborative editing systems, allowing users to more accurately perceive and understand various elements and operations in collaborative editing. Secondly, through physical simulation engines, different users can share virtual space and perform real-time collaborative editing within it. This real-time sharing and collaborative editing method helps to synchronize information among team members and improve the efficiency of collaborative work. Through experiments, the average model transmission speed of a single person in the collaborative editing system has increased by 141.91%; the average model processing speed of a single person has increased by 134.2%; the average processing flow rate of a single person has increased by 175.19%; the overall efficiency improvement rate of a single person has increased by 150.43%. With the increase in the number of users, the overall efficiency remains stable, and the physical simulation engine running status collaborative editing system also has horizontal scalability. It is not difficult to see that the design and implementation of a collaborative editing system based on physical simulation engines not only enriches the user experience but also optimizes the effectiveness of team collaboration, providing new possibilities for collaborative work.

Keywords: physics engine, simulation technology, collaborative editing, system design, data transmission

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Authors: Francesco Ruscio, Paolo Paoletti, Jens Thomas, Paul Myers, Sebastiano Fichera

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This paper presents the development of a low-cost monitoring system for a hydroponic urban vertical farm, enabling its automation and a quantitative assessment of the farm performance. Urban farming has seen increasing interest in the last decade thanks to the development of energy efficient and affordable LED lights; however, the optimal configuration of such systems (i.e. amount of nutrients, light-on time, ambient temperature etc.) is mostly based on the farmers’ experience and empirical guidelines. Moreover, even if simple, the maintenance of such systems is labor intensive as it requires water to be topped-up periodically, mixing of the nutrients etc. To unlock the full potential of urban farming, a quantitative understanding of the role that each variable plays in the growth of the plants is needed, together with a higher degree of automation. The low-cost monitoring system proposed in this paper is a step toward filling this knowledge and technological gap, as it enables collection of sensor data related to water and air temperature, water level, humidity, pressure, light intensity, pH and electric conductivity without requiring any human intervention. More sensors and actuators can also easily be added thanks to the modular design of the proposed platform. Data can be accessed remotely via a simple web interface. The proposed platform can be used both for quantitatively optimizing the setup of the farms and for automating some of the most labor-intensive maintenance activities. Moreover, such monitoring system can also potentially be used for high-level decision making, once enough data are collected.

Keywords: automation, hydroponics, internet of things, monitoring system, urban farming

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Authors: Semra Sirin Kiris

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Nonlinear dynamic analysis is permitted to be used for structures without any restrictions. The important issue is the selection of the design earthquake to conduct the analyses since quite different response may be obtained using ground motion records at the same general area even resulting from the same earthquake. In seismic design codes, the method requires scaling earthquake records based on site response spectrum to a specified hazard level. Many researches have indicated that this limitation about selection can cause a large scatter in response and other charecteristics of ground motion obtained in different manner may demonstrate better correlation with peak seismic response. For this reason influence of eleven different ground motion parameters on the peak displacement of reinforced concrete systems is examined in this paper. From conducting 7020 nonlinear time history analyses for single degree of freedom systems, the most effective earthquake parameters are given for the range of the initial periods and strength ratios of the structures. In this study, a hysteresis model for reinforced concrete called Q-hyst is used not taken into account strength and stiffness degradation. The post-yielding to elastic stiffness ratio is considered as 0.15. The range of initial period, T is from 0.1s to 0.9s with 0.1s time interval and three different strength ratios for structures are used. The magnitude of 260 earthquake records selected is higher than earthquake magnitude, M=6. The earthquake parameters related to the energy content, duration or peak values of ground motion records are PGA(Peak Ground Acceleration), PGV (Peak Ground Velocity), PGD (Peak Ground Displacement), MIV (Maximum Increamental Velocity), EPA(Effective Peak Acceleration), EPV (Effective Peak Velocity), teff (Effective Duration), A95 (Arias Intensity-based Parameter), SPGA (Significant Peak Ground Acceleration), ID (Damage Factor) and Sa (Spectral Response Spectrum).Observing the correlation coefficients between the ground motion parameters and the peak displacement of structures, different earthquake parameters play role in peak displacement demand related to the ranges formed by the different periods and the strength ratio of a reinforced concrete systems. The influence of the Sa tends to decrease for the high values of strength ratio and T=0.3s-0.6s. The ID and PGD is not evaluated as a measure of earthquake effect since high correlation with displacement demand is not observed. The influence of the A95 is high for T=0.1 but low related to the higher values of T and strength ratio. The correlation of PGA, EPA and SPGA shows the highest correlation for T=0.1s but their effectiveness decreases with high T. Considering all range of structural parameters, the MIV is the most effective parameter.

Keywords: earthquake parameters, earthquake resistant design, nonlinear analysis, reinforced concrete

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Authors: M. Bonello, D. Micallef, S. P. Borg

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Driven by increased comfort standards, but at the same time high energy consciousness, energy-efficient space cooling has become an essential aspect of building design. Its aims are simple, aiming at providing satisfactory thermal comfort for individuals in an interior space using low energy consumption cooling systems. In this context, evaporative cooling is both an energy-efficient and an eco-friendly cooling process. In the past two decades, several academic studies have been performed to determine the resulting thermal comfort produced by an evaporative cooling system, including studies on temperature profiles, air speed profiles, effect of clothing and personnel activity. To the best knowledge of the authors, no studies have yet considered the analysis of relative humidity (RH) profiles in a space cooled using evaporative cooling. Such a study will determine the effect of different humidity levels on a person's thermal comfort and aid in the consequent improvement designs of such future systems. Under this premise, the research objective is to characterise the resulting different RH profiles in a chamber micro-climate using the evaporative cooling system in which the inlet air speed, temperature and humidity content are varied. The chamber shall be modelled using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in ANSYS Fluent. Relative humidity shall be modelled using a species transport model while the k-ε RNG formulation is the proposed turbulence model that is to be used. The model shall be validated with measurements taken using an identical test chamber in which tests are to be conducted under the different inlet conditions mentioned above, followed by the verification of the model's mesh and time step. The verified and validated model will then be used to simulate other inlet conditions which would be impractical to conduct in the actual chamber. More details of the modelling and experimental approach will be provided in the full paper The main conclusions from this work are two-fold: the micro-climatic relative humidity spatial distribution within the room is important to consider in the context of investigating comfort at occupant level; and the investigation of a human being's thermal comfort (based on Predicted Mean Vote – Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied [PMV-PPD] values) and its variation with different locations of relative humidity values. The study provides the necessary groundwork for investigating the micro-climatic RH conditions of environments cooled using evaporative cooling. Future work may also target the analysis of ways in which evaporative cooling systems may be improved to better the thermal comfort of human beings, specifically relating to the humidity content around a sedentary person.

Keywords: chamber micro-climate, evaporative cooling, relative humidity, thermal comfort

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Authors: M. Ridwanul Hassan, Samuel George

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Aims: Steroid injections are commonly used as a diagnostic tool or an alternative to surgical management of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and are generally safe. Ischaemia is a rare complication with very few cases reported in the literature. Methods: We report a case of a 50-year-old female that presented with a necrotic wound to her left palm one month after a steroid injection into the carpal tunnel. She had a 2-year history of CTS in her left hand that was treated with six previous steroid injections in primary care during this period. The wound evolved from a blister to a necrotic ulcer which led to a painful, hollow defect in the centre of her palm. She did not report any history of trauma, nor did she have any co-morbidities. Clinical photographs were taken. Results: On examination, she had a 0.5 cmx1 cm defect in the palm of her left hand down to aponeurosis. There was purulent discharge in the wound with surrounding erythema but no spreading cellulitis. She had full function of her fingers but was very tender on movements and at rest. She was admitted for intravenous antibiotics and underwent a debridement, washout, and carpal tunnel release the next day. The defect was packed to heal by secondary intention and has now fully healed one month following her operation. Conclusions: This is an extremely rare complication of steroid injections to the carpal tunnel and may have been avoided by earlier referral for surgery rather than treatment using multiple steroid injections.

Keywords: hand surgery, complication, rare, carpal tunnel syndrome

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Authors: Maria Do Carmo Baracho De Alencar

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Back pain is considered a worldwide public health problem and has led to numerous work-related absence from work and public spending on rehabilitation, as well as difficulties in the process of professional rehabilitation and return to work. Also, the rehabilitation of workers is one of the great challenges today and for the field of Workers' Health in Brazil. Aim: To investigate the procedures related to the professional rehabilitation of insured workers affected by chronic low back pain, based on the perceptions of professional counselors. Methods: A list of related professional counselors was obtained from the Professional Rehabilitation Coordination of the Baixada Santista (SP) region, and from the Social Security National Institute of Brazil, and in which cities they worked. Semistructured and individual interview was scheduled, based on a pre-elaborated script, containing questions about procedures, experiences at work and feelings. The interviews were recorded and transcribed in full for content analysis. Results: Ten (10) professional counselors of both genders and from nine (9) cities from the Baixada Santista region participated in the study. Aged between 31 and 64 years, and time in service between 4 and 38 years. Only one of the professionals was graduaded in Psychology. Among the testimonies emerged the high demand of work, the lack of interest of companies, medical authority, the social helplessness after rehabilitation process, difficulty in assessing invisible pain, and suffering, anguish, and frustration at work, between others. Conclusion: The study contributes to reflections about the importance of interdisciplinary actions and the Psychology in the processes of professional rehabilitation and readaptation in the process of return to work.

Keywords: low back pain, rehabilitation, work, occupational health

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Authors: Turan Yaman, Zabit Yener, Ismail Celik

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The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant properties and protective role of honey, considered a part of traditional medicine, against carcinogen chemical aflatoxin (AF) exposure in rats, which were evaluated by histopathological changes in liver and kidney, measuring level of serum marker enzymes [aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanin aminotransferase (ALT), gamma glutamil transpeptidase (GGT)], antioxidant defense systems [Reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione reductase (GR), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and catalase (CAT)], and lipid peroxidation content in liver, erythrocyte, brain, kidney, heart and lungs. For this purpose, a total of eighteen healthy Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly allocated into three experimental groups: A (Control), B (AF-treated) and C (AF+honey-treated). While rats in group A were fed with a diet without AF, B, and C groups received 25 µg of AF/rat/day, where C group additionally received 1 mL/kg of honey by gavage for 90 days. At the end of the 90-day experimental period, we found that the honey supplementation decreased the lipid peroxidation and the levels of enzyme associated with liver damage, increased enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants in the AF+honey-treated rats. Hepatoprotective and nephroprotective effects of honey is further substantiated by showing almost normal histological architecture in AF+honey-treated group, compared to degenerative changes in the liver and kidney of AF-treated rats. Additionally, honey supplementation ameliorated antioxidant defense systems and lipid peroxidation content in other tissues of AF+honey-treated rats. In conclusion, the present study indicates that honey has a hepatoprotective and nephroprotective effect in rats with experimental aflatoxicosis due to its antioxidant activity.

Keywords: aflatoxicosis, honey, histopathology, malondialdehyde, antioxidant, rat

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Authors: Yan Wang, Guowei Chen, Gang Wang

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Soil microbial diversity is one of the important parameters to assess the soil fertility and soil health, even stability of the ecosystem. In this paper, we aim to reveal the soil microbial difference in rhizosphere and root zone, even to pick the special biomarkers influenced by the long term tillage practices, which included four treatments of no-tillage, ridge tillage, continuous cropping with corn and crop rotation with corn and soybean. Here, high-throughput sequencing was performed to investigate the difference of bacteria in rhizosphere and root zone. The results showed a very significant difference of species richness between rhizosphere and root zone soil at the same crop rotation system (p < 0.01), and also significant difference of species richness was found between continuous cropping with corn and corn-soybean rotation treatment in the rhizosphere statement, no-tillage and ridge tillage in root zone soils. Implied by further beta diversity analysis, both tillage methods and crop rotation systems influence the soil microbial diversity and community structure in varying degree. The composition and community structure of microbes in rhizosphere and root zone soils were clustered distinctly by the beta diversity (p < 0.05). Linear discriminant analysis coupled with effect size (LEfSe) analysis of total taxa in rhizosphere picked more than 100 bacterial taxa, which were significantly more abundant than that in root zone soils, whereas the number of biomarkers was lower between the continuous cropping with corn and crop rotation treatment, the same pattern was found at no-tillage and ridge tillage treatment. Bacterial communities were greatly influenced by main environmental factors in large scale, which is the result of biological adaptation and acclimation, hence it is beneficial for optimizing agricultural practices.

Keywords: tillage methods, biomarker, biodiversity, rhizosphere

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Authors: Kamran Taghizadeh

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This study was aimed at evaluating the effect of IMS including occupational health system, environmental management system, and safety and health system on the social responsibility (case study of NISOC`s oil and gas production companies). This study`s objectives include evaluating the IMS situation and its effect on social responsibility in addition of providing appropriate solutions based on the study`s hypotheses as a basis for future. Data collection was carried out by library and field studies as well as a questionnaire. The stratified random method was the sampling method and a sample of 285 employees in addition to the collected data (from the questionnaire) were analyzed by inferential statistics methods using SPSS software. Finally, results of regression and fitted model at a significance level of 5% confirmed all hypotheses meaning that IMS and its items have a significant effect on social responsibility.

Keywords: social responsibility, integrated management, oil and gas production companies, regression

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