Search results for: transdermal drug delivery system
Commenced in January 2007
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Paper Count: 19822

Search results for: transdermal drug delivery system

11632 Some Issues of Measurement of Impairment of Non-Financial Assets in the Public Sector

Authors: Mariam Vardiashvili

Abstract:

The economic value of the asset impairment process is quite large. Impairment reflects the reduction of future economic benefits or service potentials itemized in the asset. The assets owned by public sector entities bring economic benefits or are used for delivery of the free-of-charge services. Consequently, they are classified as cash-generating and non-cash-generating assets. IPSAS 21 - Impairment of non-cash-generating assets, and IPSAS 26 - Impairment of cash-generating assets, have been designed considering this specificity.  When measuring impairment of assets, it is important to select the relevant methods. For measurement of the impaired Non-Cash-Generating Assets, IPSAS 21 recommends three methods: Depreciated Replacement Cost Approach, Restoration Cost Approach, and  Service Units Approach. Impairment of Value in Use of Cash-Generating Assets (according to IPSAS 26) is measured by discounted value of the money sources to be received in future. Value in use of the cash-generating asserts (as per IPSAS 26) is measured by the discounted value of the money sources to be received in the future. The article provides classification of the assets in the public sector  as non-cash-generating assets and cash-generating assets and, deals also with the factors which should be considered when evaluating  impairment of assets. An essence of impairment of the non-financial assets and the methods of measurement thereof evaluation are formulated according to IPSAS 21 and IPSAS 26. The main emphasis is put on different methods of measurement of the value in use of the impaired Cash-Generating Assets and Non-Cash-Generation Assets and the methods of their selection. The traditional and the expected cash flow approaches for calculation of the discounted value are reviewed. The article also discusses the issues of recognition of impairment loss and its reflection in the financial reporting. The article concludes that despite a functional purpose of the impaired asset, whichever method is used for measuring the asset, presentation of realistic information regarding the value of the assets should be ensured in the financial reporting. In the theoretical development of the issue, the methods of scientific abstraction, analysis and synthesis were used. The research was carried out with a systemic approach. The research process uses international standards of accounting, theoretical researches and publications of Georgian and foreign scientists.

Keywords: cash-generating assets, non-cash-generating assets, recoverable (usable restorative) value, value of use

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11631 Planning the Journey of Unifying Medical Record Numbers in Five Facilities and the Expected Challenges: Case Study in Saudi Arabia

Authors: N. Al Khashan, H. Al Shammari, W. Al Bahli

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Patients who are eligible to receive treatment at the National Guard Health Affairs (NGHA), Saudi Arabia will typically have four medical record numbers (MRN), one in each of the geographical areas. More hospitals and primary healthcare facilities in other geographical areas will launch soon which means more MRNs. When patients own four MRNs, this will cause major drawbacks in patients’ quality of care such as creating new medical files in different regions for relocated patients and using referral system among regions. Consequently, the access to a patient’s medical record from other regions and the interoperability of health information between the four hospitals’ information system would be challenging. Thus, there is a need to unify medical records among these five facilities. As part of the effort to increase the quality of care, a new Hospital Information Systems (HIS) was implemented in all NGHA facilities by the end of 2016. NGHA’s plan is put to be aligned with the Saudi Arabian national transformation program 2020; whereby 70% citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia would have a unified medical record number that enables transactions between multiple Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) vendors. The aim of the study is to explore the plan, the challenges and barriers of unifying the 4 MRNs into one Enterprise Patient Identifier (EPI) in NGHA hospitals by December 2018. A descriptive study methodology was used. A journey map and a project plan are created to be followed by the project team to ensure a smooth implementation of the EPI. It includes the following: 1) Approved project charter, 2) Project management plan, 3) Change management plan, 4) Project milestone dates. Currently, the HIS is using the regional MRN. Therefore, the HIS and all integrated health care systems in all regions will need modification to move from MRN to EPI without interfering with patient care. For now, the NGHA have successfully implemented an EPI connected with the 4 MRNs that work in the back end in the systems’ database.

Keywords: consumer health, health informatics, hospital information system, universal medical record number

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11630 Early Detection of Breast Cancer in Digital Mammograms Based on Image Processing and Artificial Intelligence

Authors: Sehreen Moorat, Mussarat Lakho

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A method of artificial intelligence using digital mammograms data has been proposed in this paper for detection of breast cancer. Many researchers have developed techniques for the early detection of breast cancer; the early diagnosis helps to save many lives. The detection of breast cancer through mammography is effective method which detects the cancer before it is felt and increases the survival rate. In this paper, we have purposed image processing technique for enhancing the image to detect the graphical table data and markings. Texture features based on Gray-Level Co-Occurrence Matrix and intensity based features are extracted from the selected region. For classification purpose, neural network based supervised classifier system has been used which can discriminate between benign and malignant. Hence, 68 digital mammograms have been used to train the classifier. The obtained result proved that automated detection of breast cancer is beneficial for early diagnosis and increases the survival rates of breast cancer patients. The proposed system will help radiologist in the better interpretation of breast cancer.

Keywords: medical imaging, cancer, processing, neural network

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11629 Audit Examining Maternity Assessment Suite Triage Compliance with Birmingham Symptom Specific Obstetric Triage System in a London Teaching Hospital

Authors: Sarah Atalla, Shubham Gupta, Kim Alipio, Tanya Maric

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Background: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital have introduced the Birmingham Symptom Specific Obstetric Triage System (BSOTS) for patients who present acutely to the Maternity Assessment Suite (MAS) to prioritise care by urgency. The primary objective was to evaluate whether BSOTS was used appropriately to assess patients (defined as a 90% threshold). The secondary objective was to assess whether patients were seen within their designated triaged timeframe (defined as a 90% threshold). Methodology: MAS records were retrospectively reviewed for a randomly selected one-week period of data from 2020 (21/09/2020 - 27/09/2020). 189 patients presented to MAS during this time. Data were collected on the presenting complaint, time of attendance (divided into four time categories), and triage colour code for the urgency of a review by a doctor (red: immediately, orange: within 15 minutes, yellow: within 1 hour, green: within 4 hours). The number of triage waiting times that were breached and the outcome of the attendance was noted. Results: 49% of patients presenting to MAS during this time period were triaged, which therefore did not meet the 90% target. 67% of patients who were triaged were seen within their allocated timeframe as designated by their triage colour code, which therefore did not meet the 90% target. The most frequent reason for patient attendance was reduced fetal movements (30.5% of attendances). The busiest time of day (when most patients presented) was between 06:01-12:00, and this was also when the highest number of patients were not triaged (26 patients or 54% of patients presenting in this time category). The most used triage category (59%) was the green colour code (to be seen by a doctor within 4 hours), followed by orange (24%), yellow (14%), and red (3%). 45% of triaged patients were admitted, whilst 55% were discharged. 62% of patients allocated to the green triage category were discharged, as compared to 56% of yellow category patients, 27% of orange category patients, and 50% of red category patients. The time of patient presentation to the hospital was also associated with the level of urgency and outcome. Patients presenting from 12:01 to 18:00 were more likely to be discharged (72% discharged) compared to 00:01-06:00 where only 12.5% of patients were discharged. Conclusion: The triage system for assessing the urgency of acutely presenting obstetric patients is only being effectively utilised for 49% of patients. There is potential for enhancing the employment of the triage system to enable further efficiency and boost the promotion of patient safety. It is noted that MAS was busiest at 06:01 - 12:00 when there was also the highest number of non-triaged patients – this highlights some areas where we can improve, including higher levels of staffing, better use of BSOTS to triage patients, and patient education.

Keywords: birmingham, BSOTS, maternal, obstetric, pregnancy, specific, symptom, triage

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11628 Wireless Sensor Network to Help Low Incomes Farmers to Face Drought Impacts

Authors: Fantazi Walid, Ezzedine Tahar, Bargaoui Zoubeida

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This research presents the main ideas to implement an intelligent system composed by communicating wireless sensors measuring environmental data linked to drought indicators (such as air temperature, soil moisture , etc...). On the other hand, the setting up of a spatio temporal database communicating with a Web mapping application for a monitoring in real time in activity 24:00 /day, 7 days/week is proposed to allow the screening of the drought parameters time evolution and their extraction. Thus this system helps detecting surfaces touched by the phenomenon of drought. Spatio-temporal conceptual models seek to answer the users who need to manage soil water content for irrigating or fertilizing or other activities pursuing crop yield augmentation. Effectively, spatio-temporal conceptual models enable users to obtain a diagram of readable and easy data to apprehend. Based on socio-economic information, it helps identifying people impacted by the phenomena with the corresponding severity especially that this information is accessible by farmers and stakeholders themselves. The study will be applied in Siliana watershed Northern Tunisia.

Keywords: WSN, database spatio-temporal, GIS, web mapping, indicator of drought

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11627 Enhanced Disk-Based Databases towards Improved Hybrid in-Memory Systems

Authors: Samuel Kaspi, Sitalakshmi Venkatraman

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In-memory database systems are becoming popular due to the availability and affordability of sufficiently large RAM and processors in modern high-end servers with the capacity to manage large in-memory database transactions. While fast and reliable in-memory systems are still being developed to overcome cache misses, CPU/IO bottlenecks and distributed transaction costs, disk-based data stores still serve as the primary persistence. In addition, with the recent growth in multi-tenancy cloud applications and associated security concerns, many organisations consider the trade-offs and continue to require fast and reliable transaction processing of disk-based database systems as an available choice. For these organizations, the only way of increasing throughput is by improving the performance of disk-based concurrency control. This warrants a hybrid database system with the ability to selectively apply an enhanced disk-based data management within the context of in-memory systems that would help improve overall throughput. The general view is that in-memory systems substantially outperform disk-based systems. We question this assumption and examine how a modified variation of access invariance that we call enhanced memory access, (EMA) can be used to allow very high levels of concurrency in the pre-fetching of data in disk-based systems. We demonstrate how this prefetching in disk-based systems can yield close to in-memory performance, which paves the way for improved hybrid database systems. This paper proposes a novel EMA technique and presents a comparative study between disk-based EMA systems and in-memory systems running on hardware configurations of equivalent power in terms of the number of processors and their speeds. The results of the experiments conducted clearly substantiate that when used in conjunction with all concurrency control mechanisms, EMA can increase the throughput of disk-based systems to levels quite close to those achieved by in-memory system. The promising results of this work show that enhanced disk-based systems facilitate in improving hybrid data management within the broader context of in-memory systems.

Keywords: in-memory database, disk-based system, hybrid database, concurrency control

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11626 Neurofeedback for Anorexia-RelaxNeuron-Aimed in Dissolving the Root Neuronal Cause

Authors: Kana Matsuyanagi

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Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a relentless pursuit of thinness and strict restriction of food. The current therapeutic approaches for AN predominantly revolve around outpatient psychotherapies, which create significant financial barriers for the majority of affected patients, hindering their access to treatment. Nonetheless, AN exhibit one of the highest mortality and relapse rates among psychological disorders, underscoring the urgent need to provide patients with an affordable self-treatment tool, enabling those unable to access conventional medical intervention to address their condition autonomously. To this end, a neurofeedback software, termed RelaxNeuron, was developed with the objective of providing an economical and portable means to aid individuals in self-managing AN. Electroencephalography (EEG) was chosen as the preferred modality for RelaxNeuron, as it aligns with the study's goal of supplying a cost-effective and convenient solution for addressing AN. The primary aim of the software is to ameliorate the negative emotional responses towards food stimuli and the accompanying aberrant eye-tracking patterns observed in AN patient, ultimately alleviating the profound fear towards food an elemental symptom and, conceivably, the fundamental etiology of AN. The core functionality of RelaxNeuron hinges on the acquisition and analysis of EEG signals, alongside an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal, to infer the user's emotional state while viewing dynamic food-related imagery on the screen. Moreover, the software quantifies the user's performance in accurately tracking the moving food image. Subsequently, these two parameters undergo further processing in the subsequent algorithm, informing the delivery of either negative or positive feedback to the user. Preliminary test results have exhibited promising outcomes, suggesting the potential advantages of employing RelaxNeuron in the treatment of AN, as evidenced by its capacity to enhance emotional regulation and attentional processing through repetitive and persistent therapeutic interventions.

Keywords: Anorexia Nervosa, fear conditioning, neurofeedback, BCI

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11625 Fusion of Finger Inner Knuckle Print and Hand Geometry Features to Enhance the Performance of Biometric Verification System

Authors: M. L. Anitha, K. A. Radhakrishna Rao

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With the advent of modern computing technology, there is an increased demand for developing recognition systems that have the capability of verifying the identity of individuals. Recognition systems are required by several civilian and commercial applications for providing access to secured resources. Traditional recognition systems which are based on physical identities are not sufficiently reliable to satisfy the security requirements due to the use of several advances of forgery and identity impersonation methods. Recognizing individuals based on his/her unique physiological characteristics known as biometric traits is a reliable technique, since these traits are not transferable and they cannot be stolen or lost. Since the performance of biometric based recognition system depends on the particular trait that is utilized, the present work proposes a fusion approach which combines Inner knuckle print (IKP) trait of the middle, ring and index fingers with the geometrical features of hand. The hand image captured from a digital camera is preprocessed to find finger IKP as region of interest (ROI) and hand geometry features. Geometrical features are represented as the distances between different key points and IKP features are extracted by applying local binary pattern descriptor on the IKP ROI. The decision level AND fusion was adopted, which has shown improvement in performance of the combined scheme. The proposed approach is tested on the database collected at our institute. Proposed approach is of significance since both hand geometry and IKP features can be extracted from the palm region of the hand. The fusion of these features yields a false acceptance rate of 0.75%, false rejection rate of 0.86% for verification tests conducted, which is less when compared to the results obtained using individual traits. The results obtained confirm the usefulness of proposed approach and suitability of the selected features for developing biometric based recognition system based on features from palmar region of hand.

Keywords: biometrics, hand geometry features, inner knuckle print, recognition

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11624 Research on the Impact on Building Temperature and Ventilation by Outdoor Shading Devices in Hot-Humid Area: Through Measurement and Simulation on an Office Building in Guangzhou

Authors: Hankun Lin, Yiqiang Xiao, Qiaosheng Zhan

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Shading devices (SDs) are widely used in buildings in the hot-humid climate areas for reducing cooling energy consumption for interior temperature, as the result of reducing the solar radiation directly. Contrasting the surface temperature of materials of SDs to the glass on the building façade could give more analysis for the shading effect. On the other side, SDs are much more used as the independence system on building façade in hot-humid area. This typical construction could have some impacts on building ventilation as well. This paper discusses the outdoor SDs’ effects on the building thermal environment and ventilation, through a set of measurements on a 2-floors office building in Guangzhou, China, which install a dynamic aluminum SD-system around the façade on 2nd-floor. The measurements recorded the in/outdoor temperature, relative humidity, velocity, and the surface temperature of the aluminum panel and the glaze. After that, a CFD simulation was conducted for deeper discussion of ventilation. In conclusion, this paper reveals the temperature differences on the different material of the façade, and finds that the velocity of indoor environment could be reduced by the outdoor SDs.

Keywords: outdoor shading devices, hot-humid area, temperature, ventilation, measurement, CFD

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11623 Understanding Water Governance in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia: Zooming into Transparency, Accountability, and Participation

Authors: Endalew Jibat, Feyera Senbeta, Tesfaye Zeleke, Fitsum Hagos

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Water governance considers multi-sector participation beyond the state; and for sustainable use of water resources, appropriate laws, policies, regulations, and institutions needs to be developed and put in place. Water policy, a critical and integral instrument of water governance, guided water use schemes and ensures equitable water distribution among users. The Ethiopian Central Rift Valley (CRV) is wealthy of water resources, but these water resources are currently under severe strain owing to an imbalance in human-water interactions. The main aim of the study was to examine the state of water resources governance in the CRV of Ethiopia, and the impact of the Ethiopian Water Resources Management Policy on water governance. Key informant interviews (KII), focused group discussions, and document reviews were used to gather data for the study. The NVivo 11 program was used to organize, code, and analyze the data. The results revealed that water resources governance practices such as water allocation and apportionment, comprehensive and integrated water management plans, water resources protection, and conservation activities were rarely implemented. Water resources management policy mechanisms were not fully put in place. Lack of coherence in water policy implementation, absence of clear roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, absence of transparency and accountability in irrigation water service delivery, and lack of meaningful participation of key actors in water governance decision-making were the primary shortcomings observed. Factors such as over-abstraction, deterioration of buffer zone, and chemical erosion from surrounding farming have contributed to the reduction in water volume and quality in the CRV. These challenges have influenced aquatic ecosystem services and threaten the livelihoods of the surrounding communities. Hence, reforms relating to policy coherence and enforcement, stakeholder involvement, water distribution strategies, and the application of water governance principles must be given more emphasis.

Keywords: water resources, irrigation, governance, water allocation, governance principles, stakeholders engagement, central rift valley

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11622 Using Machine-Learning Methods for Allergen Amino Acid Sequence's Permutations

Authors: Kuei-Ling Sun, Emily Chia-Yu Su

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Allergy is a hypersensitive overreaction of the immune system to environmental stimuli, and a major health problem. These overreactions include rashes, sneezing, fever, food allergies, anaphylaxis, asthmatic, shock, or other abnormal conditions. Allergies can be caused by food, insect stings, pollen, animal wool, and other allergens. Their development of allergies is due to both genetic and environmental factors. Allergies involve immunoglobulin E antibodies, a part of the body’s immune system. Immunoglobulin E antibodies will bind to an allergen and then transfer to a receptor on mast cells or basophils triggering the release of inflammatory chemicals such as histamine. Based on the increasingly serious problem of environmental change, changes in lifestyle, air pollution problem, and other factors, in this study, we both collect allergens and non-allergens from several databases and use several machine learning methods for classification, including logistic regression (LR), stepwise regression, decision tree (DT) and neural networks (NN) to do the model comparison and determine the permutations of allergen amino acid’s sequence.

Keywords: allergy, classification, decision tree, logistic regression, machine learning

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11621 WSN System Warns Atta Cephalotes Climbing in Mango Fruit Trees

Authors: Federico Hahn Schlam, Fermín Martínez Solís

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Leaf-cutting ants (Atta cephalotes) forage from mango tree leaves and flowers to feed their colony. Farmers find it difficult to control ants due to the great quantity of trees grown in commercial orchards. In this article, IoT can support farmers for ant detection in real time, as production losses can be considered of 324 US per tree.A wireless sensor network, WSN, was developed to warn the farmer from ant presence in trees during a night. Mango trees were gathered into groups of 9 trees, where the central tree holds the master microcontroller, and the other eight trees presented slave microcontrollers (nodes). At each node, anemitter diode-photodiode unitdetects ants climbing up. A capacitor is chargedand discharged after being sampled every ten minutes. The system usesBLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to communicate between the master microcontroller by BLE.When ants were detected the number of the tree was transmitted via LoRa from the masterto the producer smartphone to warn him. In this paper, BLE, LoRa, and energy consumption were studied under variable vegetation in the orchard. During 2018, 19 trees were attacked by ants, and ants fed 26.3% of flowers and 73.7% of leaves.

Keywords: BLE, atta cephalotes, LoRa, WSN-smartphone, energy consumption

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11620 3D Design of Orthotic Braces and Casts in Medical Applications Using Microsoft Kinect Sensor

Authors: Sanjana S. Mallya, Roshan Arvind Sivakumar

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Orthotics is the branch of medicine that deals with the provision and use of artificial casts or braces to alter the biomechanical structure of the limb and provide support for the limb. Custom-made orthoses provide more comfort and can correct issues better than those available over-the-counter. However, they are expensive and require intricate modelling of the limb. Traditional methods of modelling involve creating a plaster of Paris mould of the limb. Lately, CAD/CAM and 3D printing processes have improved the accuracy and reduced the production time. Ordinarily, digital cameras are used to capture the features of the limb from different views to create a 3D model. We propose a system to model the limb using Microsoft Kinect2 sensor. The Kinect can capture RGB and depth frames simultaneously up to 30 fps with sufficient accuracy. The region of interest is captured from three views, each shifted by 90 degrees. The RGB and depth data are fused into a single RGB-D frame. The resolution of the RGB frame is 1920px x 1080px while the resolution of the Depth frame is 512px x 424px. As the resolution of the frames is not equal, RGB pixels are mapped onto the Depth pixels to make sure data is not lost even if the resolution is lower. The resulting RGB-D frames are collected and using the depth coordinates, a three dimensional point cloud is generated for each view of the Kinect sensor. A common reference system was developed to merge the individual point clouds from the Kinect sensors. The reference system consisted of 8 coloured cubes, connected by rods to form a skeleton-cube with the coloured cubes at the corners. For each Kinect, the region of interest is the square formed by the centres of the four cubes facing the Kinect. The point clouds are merged by considering one of the cubes as the origin of a reference system. Depending on the relative distance from each cube, the three dimensional coordinate points from each point cloud is aligned to the reference frame to give a complete point cloud. The RGB data is used to correct for any errors in depth data for the point cloud. A triangular mesh is generated from the point cloud by applying Delaunay triangulation which generates the rough surface of the limb. This technique forms an approximation of the surface of the limb. The mesh is smoothened to obtain a smooth outer layer to give an accurate model of the limb. The model of the limb is used as a base for designing the custom orthotic brace or cast. It is transferred to a CAD/CAM design file to design of the brace above the surface of the limb. The proposed system would be more cost effective than current systems that use MRI or CT scans for generating 3D models and would be quicker than using traditional plaster of Paris cast modelling and the overall setup time is also low. Preliminary results indicate that the accuracy of the Kinect2 is satisfactory to perform modelling.

Keywords: 3d scanning, mesh generation, Microsoft kinect, orthotics, registration

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11619 Use of Radiation Chemistry Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) for the Elemental Analysis Medicinal Plants from India Used in the Treatment of Heart Diseases

Authors: B. M. Pardeshi

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Introduction: Minerals and trace elements are chemical elements required by our bodies for numerous biological and physiological processes that are necessary for the maintenance of health. Medicinal plants are highly beneficial for the maintenance of good health and prevention of diseases. They are known as potential sources of minerals and vitamins. 30 to 40% of today’s conventional drugs used in the medicinal and curative properties of various plants are employed in herbal supplement botanicals, nutraceuticals and drug. Aim: The authors explored the mineral element content of some herbs, because mineral elements may have significant role in the development and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, and a close connection between the presence or absence of mineral elements and inflammatory mediators was noted. Methods: Present study deals with the elemental analysis of medicinal plants by Instrumental Neutron activation Analysis and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Medicinal herbals prescribed for skin diseases were purchased from markets and were analyzed by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) using 252Cf Californium spontaneous fission neutron source (flux * 109 n s-1) and the induced activities were counted by γ-ray spectrometry and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) techniques (Perkin Elmer 3100 Model) available at Department of Chemistry University of Pune, INDIA, was used for the measurement of major, minor and trace elements. Results: 15 elements viz. Al, K, Cl, Na, Mn by INAA and Cu, Co, Pb, Ni, Cr, Ca, Fe, Zn, Hg and Cd by AAS were analyzed from different medicinal plants from India. A critical examination of the data shows that the elements Ca , K, Cl, Al, and Fe are found to be present at major levels in most of the samples while the other elements Na, Mn, Cu, Co, Pb, Ni, Cr, Ca, Zn, Hg and Cd are present in minor or trace levels. Conclusion: The beneficial therapeutic effect of the studied herbs may be related to their mineral element content. The elemental concentration in different medicinal plants is discussed.

Keywords: instrumental neutron activation analysis, atomic absorption spectroscopy, medicinal plants, trace elemental analysis, mineral contents

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11618 Meeting the Health Needs of Adolescents and Young Adults: Developing and Evaluating an Electronic Questionnaire and Health Report Form, for the Health Assessment at Youth Health Clinics – A Mixed Methods Project

Authors: P.V. Lostelius, M.Mattebo, E. Thors Adolfsson, A. Söderlund, Å. Revenäs

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Adolescents are vulnerable in healthcare settings. Early detection of poor health in young people is important to support a good quality of life and adult social functioning. Youth Health Clinics (YHCs) in Sweden provide healthcare for young people ages 13-25 years old. Using an overall mixed methods approach, the project’s main objective was to develop and evaluate an electronic health system, including a health questionnaire, a case report form, and an evaluation questionnaire to assess young people’s health risks in early stages, increase health, and quality of life. In total, 72 young people, 16-23 years old, eleven healthcare professionals and eight researchers participated in the three project studies. Results from interviews with fifteen young people gave that an electronic health questionnaire should include questions about physical-, mental-, sexual health and social support. It should specifically include questions about self-harm and suicide risk. The young people said that the questionnaire should be appealing, based on young people’s needs and be user-friendly. It was important that young people felt safe when responding to the questions, both physically and electronically. Also, they found that it had the potential to support the face-to face-meeting between young people and healthcare professionals. The electronic health report system was developed by the researchers, performing a structured development of the electronic health questionnaire, construction of a case report form to present the results from the health questions, along with an electronic evaluation questionnaire. An Information Technology company finalized the development by digitalizing the electronic health system. Four young people, three healthcare professionals and seven researchers evaluated the usability using interviews and a usability questionnaire. The electronic health questionnaire was found usable for YHCs but needed some clarifications. Essentially, the system succeeded in capturing the overall health of young people; it should be able to keep the interest of young people and have the potential to contribute to health assessment planning and young people’s self-reflection, sharing vulnerable feelings with healthcare professionals. In advance of effect studies, a feasibility study was performed by collecting electronic questionnaire data from 54 young people and interview data from eight healthcare professionals to assess the feasibility of the use of the electronic evaluation questionnaire, the case report form, and the planned recruitment method. When merging the results, the research group found that the evaluation questionnaire and the health report were feasible for future research. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, commitment challenges and drop-outs affected the recruitment of young people. Also, some healthcare professionals felt insecure about using computers and electronic devices and worried that their workload would increase. This project contributes knowledge about the development and use of electronic health tools for young people. Before implementation, clinical routines need for using the health report system need to be considered.

Keywords: adolescent health, developmental studies, electronic health questionnaire, mixed methods research

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11617 Implications for Counseling and Service Delivery on the Psychological Trajectories of Women Undergoing in Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Treatment in Hong Kong

Authors: Tong Mei Yan

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Introduction: The experience of infertility could be excruciating but has not received much attention in Hong Kong. The strong Confucian culture pressures couples to continue their family lineage resulting in women facing more stress than men in the social-cultural milieu. In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment is one of the common ways to deal with the problem. Abundant literature exists the psychological trajectories of people receiving IVF treatment in Europe, the USA and other east Asian societies but not in Hong Kong. Aim: This study aims to highlight the circumstances and needs of the women before, during and after IVF treatment through examining their lived experiences. It is hoped that the public, once informed of regarding their tribulations and needs , would support the adequate provision of the required psychological support . Methods: Qualitative analysis was adopted in this study. In-depth interviews were conducted with six women who have undergone at least one complete cycle of IVF treatment within the past five years. Data was analyzed through thematic analysis and narrative analysis. Results: 4 broad themes were found, including (i) emotional responses; (ii) experiences in medical consultation; (iii) impacts of the treatment; and (iv) their coping strategies. Additionally, specific events in three cases were chosen for narrative analysis to further examine their unresolved emotional distress and the ethical issues. Conclusion: IVF treatment distressed the interviewees immensely, both physically and psychologically, with the negative emotions outweighing their physical strains, a result unexpected by all of the interviewees. The pressure for lineage continuation, the demanding treatment process and the dearth of support from health professionals all contribute to their emotional pain which could linger for both successful and unsuccessful cases. Although a number of coping strategies were attempted, most of them completely failed to ease their psychological tension. The findings of this study therefore evidence the need for psychological support for this population. A service model to cater their needs of IVF treatment before, during and after treatment is therefore proposed.

Keywords: coping strategies, emotional experiences, impacts of IVF, infertility, IVF treatment, medical experiences

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11616 Waste Scavenging as a Waste-to-Wealth Strategy for Waste Reduction in Port Harcourt City Nigeria: A Mixed Method Study

Authors: Osungwu Emeka

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Until recently, Port Harcourt was known as the “Garden City of Nigeria” because of its neatness and the overwhelming presence of vegetation all over the metropolis. But today, the presence of piles of refuse dotting the entire city may have turned Port Harcourt into a “Garbage City”. Indiscriminate dumping of industrial, commercial and household wastes such as food waste, paper, polythene, textiles, scrap metals, glasses, wood, plastic, etc. at street corners and gutters, is still very common. The waste management problem in the state affects the citizens both directly and indirectly. The dumping of waste along the roadside obstructs traffic and, after mixing with rain water may sip underground with the possibility of the leachate contaminating the groundwater. The basic solid waste management processes of collection, transportation, segregation and final disposal appear to be very inefficient. This study was undertaken to assess waste utilization using metal waste scavengers. Highlighting their activities as a part of the informal sector of the solid waste management system with a view to identifying their challenges, prospects and possible contributions to the solid waste management system in the Port Harcourt metropolis. Therefore, the aim was to understand and assess scavenging as a system of solid waste management in Port Harcourt and to identify the main bottlenecks to its efficiency and the way forward. This study targeted people who engage in scavenging metal scraps across 5 major waste dump sites across Port Harcourt. To achieve this, a mixed method study was conducted to provide both experiential evidence on this waste utilization method using a qualitative study and a survey to collect numeric evidence on this subject. The findings from the qualitative string of this study provided insight on scavenging as a waste utilization activity and how their activities can reduce the gross waste generated and collected from the subject areas. It further showed the nature and characteristics of scavengers in the waste recycling system as a means of achieving the millennium development goals towards poverty alleviation, job creation and the development of a sustainable, cleaner environment. The study showed that in Port Harcourt, the waste management practice involves the collection, transportation and disposal of waste by refuse contractors using cart pushers and disposal vehicles at designated dumpsites where the scavengers salvage metal scraps for recycling and reuse. This study further indicates that there is a great demand for metal waste materials/products that are clearly identified as genuinely sustainable, even though they may be perceived as waste. The market for these waste materials shall promote entrepreneurship as a profitable venture for waste recovery and recycling in Port Harcourt. Therefore, the benefit of resource recovery and recycling as a means of the solid waste management system will enhance waste to wealth that will reduce pollution, create job opportunities thereby alleviate poverty.

Keywords: scavengers, metal waste, waste-to-wealth, recycle, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, waste reduction, garden city, waste

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11615 Neonatal Mortality, Infant Mortality, and Under-five Mortality Rates in the Provinces of Zimbabwe: A Geostatistical and Spatial Analysis of Public Health Policy Provisions

Authors: Jevonte Abioye, Dylan Savary

Abstract:

The aim of this research is to present a disaggregated geostatistical analysis of the subnational provincial trends of child mortality variation in Zimbabwe from a child health policy perspective. Soon after gaining independence in 1980, the government embarked on efforts towards promoting equitable health care, namely through the provision of primary health care. Government intervention programmes brought hope and promise, but achieving equity in primary health care coverage was hindered by previous existing disparities in maternal health care disproportionately concentrated in urban settings to the detriment of rural communities. The article highlights policies and programs adopted by the government during the millennium development goals period between 1990-2015 as a response to the inequities that characterised the country’s maternal health care. A longitudinal comparative method for a spatial variation on child mortality rates across provinces is developed based on geostatistical analysis. Cross-sectional and time-series data was extracted from the World Health Organisation (WHO) global health observatory data repository, demographic health survey reports, and previous academic and technical publications. Results suggest that although health care policy was uniform across provinces, not all provinces received the same antenatal and perinatal services. Accordingly, provincial rates of child mortality growth between 1994 and 2015 varied significantly. Evidence on the trends of child mortality rates and maternal health policies in Zimbabwe can be valuable for public child health policy planning and public service delivery design both in Zimbabwe and across developing countries pursuing the sustainable development agenda.

Keywords: antenatal care, perinatal care, infant mortality rate, neonatal mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, millennium development goals, sustainable development agenda

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11614 Performance of Partially Covered N Number of Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) - Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) Series Connected Water Heating System

Authors: Rohit Tripathi, Sumit Tiwari, G. N. Tiwari

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In present study, an approach is adopted where photovoltaic thermal flat plate collector is integrated with compound parabolic concentrator. Analytical expression of temperature dependent electrical efficiency of N number of partially covered Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) - Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) water collector connected in series has been derived with the help of basic thermal energy balance equations. Analysis has been carried for winter weather condition at Delhi location, India. Energy and exergy performance of N - partially covered Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) - Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) Water collector system has been compared for two cases: (i) 25% area of water collector covered by PV module, (ii) 75% area of water collector covered by PV module. It is observed that case (i) has been best suited for thermal performance and case (ii) for electrical energy as well as overall exergy.

Keywords: compound parabolic concentrator, energy, photovoltaic thermal, temperature dependent electrical efficiency

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11613 Data Integrity: Challenges in Health Information Systems in South Africa

Authors: T. Thulare, M. Herselman, A. Botha

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Poor system use, including inappropriate design of health information systems, causes difficulties in communication with patients and increased time spent by healthcare professionals in recording the necessary health information for medical records. System features like pop-up reminders, complex menus, and poor user interfaces can make medical records far more time consuming than paper cards as well as affect decision-making processes. Although errors associated with health information and their real and likely effect on the quality of care and patient safety have been documented for many years, more research is needed to measure the occurrence of these errors and determine the causes to implement solutions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify data integrity challenges in hospital information systems through a scoping review and based on the results provide recommendations on how to manage these. Only 34 papers were found to be most suitable out of 297 publications initially identified in the field. The results indicated that human and computerized systems are the most common challenges associated with data integrity and factors such as policy, environment, health workforce, and lack of awareness attribute to these challenges but if measures are taken the data integrity challenges can be managed.

Keywords: data integrity, data integrity challenges, hospital information systems, South Africa

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11612 A Case Report on Therapeutic Approach in Cases of Anasarca in Neonates Dogs

Authors: Maria L. G. Lourenço, Keylla H. N. P. Pereira, Viviane Y. Hibaru, Fabiana F. Souza, Joao C. P. Ferreira, Simone B. Chiacchio, Luiz H. A. Machado

Abstract:

Anasarca is generalized congenital edema that is often lethal. The condition is transmitted hereditarily and is autosomal dominant, with a racial predisposition in French Bulldogs and English Bulldogs. This study aims at reporting a case of anasarca treatment in neonates. The fetuses of a one year and six months old, primiparous English Bulldog mother were diagnosed with anasarca during an ultrasound examination performed at the 55th day of pregnancy and, therefore, an elective cesarean section was scheduled to prevent fetal dystocia. At birth, all puppies presented anasarca, and one of the six was stillborn. The newborns presented cyanosis, dyspnea, bradycardia, absent reflexes, low vitality scores (3/10), and hypothermia ( < 32ºC). The weight of the puppies at the time of birth varied between 347 and 373 grams, about 100 grams above the average weight estimated for the breed. Immediate neonatal care was applied with oxygen therapy via a mask, aminophylline (0.2 ml/100 g/PV/sublingual), and slow heating. After 10 minutes, there was a significant improvement in the neonatal parameters. The anasarca was treated with the drug furosemide, administered subcutaneously, at a dose of 0.2 mg per 100 grams of weight, every three hours. The stimulation for urination of newborns was performed every 30 minutes, and weight loss was monitored every 30 minutes. Five grams of potassium chloride were administered orally for every 30 grams of weight loss to counterbalance the loss of potassium caused by the diuretic medication. After 15 hours, the neonates reached the ideal weight for the breed, around 209 to 230 grams. In total, four neonates received five doses of furosemide, while one received six doses. The puppies are currently ten months old, healthy and neutered. Anasarca should not be ignored and is considered potentially lethal and an indication for euthanasia in all cases. Early intervention is of utmost importance for the survival of these patients.

Keywords: Walrus syndrome, congenital edema, water puppy syndrome, puppies

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11611 A TFETI Domain Decompositon Solver for von Mises Elastoplasticity Model with Combination of Linear Isotropic-Kinematic Hardening

Authors: Martin Cermak, Stanislav Sysala

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In this paper we present the efficient parallel implementation of elastoplastic problems based on the TFETI (Total Finite Element Tearing and Interconnecting) domain decomposition method. This approach allow us to use parallel solution and compute this nonlinear problem on the supercomputers and decrease the solution time and compute problems with millions of DOFs. In our approach we consider an associated elastoplastic model with the von Mises plastic criterion and the combination of linear isotropic-kinematic hardening law. This model is discretized by the implicit Euler method in time and by the finite element method in space. We consider the system of nonlinear equations with a strongly semismooth and strongly monotone operator. The semismooth Newton method is applied to solve this nonlinear system. Corresponding linearized problems arising in the Newton iterations are solved in parallel by the above mentioned TFETI. The implementation of this problem is realized in our in-house MatSol packages developed in MATLAB.

Keywords: isotropic-kinematic hardening, TFETI, domain decomposition, parallel solution

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11610 Multi-Criteria Nautical Ports Capacity and Services Planning

Authors: N. Perko, N. Kavran, M. Bukljas, I. Berbic

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This paper is a result of implemented research on proposed introduced methodology for nautical ports capacity planning by introducing a multi-criteria approach of defined criteria and impacts at the Adriatic Sea. The purpose was analysing the determinants -characteristics of infrastructure and services of nautical ports capacity allocated, especially nowadays due to COVID-19 pandemic, as crucial for the successful operation of nautical ports. Giving the importance of the defined priorities for short-term and long-term planning is essential not only in terms of the development of nautical tourism but also in terms of developing the maritime system, but unfortunately, this is not always carried out. Evaluation of the use of resources should follow from a detailed analysis of all aspects of resources bearing in mind that nautical tourism used resources in a sustainable manner and generate effects in the tourism and maritime sectors. Consequently, the identified multiplier effect of nautical tourism, which should be defined and quantified in detail, should be one of the major competitive products on the Croatian Adriatic and the Mediterranean. Research of nautical tourism is necessary to quantify the effects and required planning system development. In the future, the greatest threat to the long-term sustainable development of nautical tourism can be its further uncontrolled or unlimited and undirected development, especially under pressure markedly higher demand than supply for new moorings in the Mediterranean. Results of this implemented research are applicable to nautical ports management and decision-makers of maritime transport system development. This paper will present implemented research and obtained result-developed methodology for nautical port capacity planning -port capacity planning multi-criteria decision-making. A proposed methodological approach of multi-criteria capacity planning includes four criteria (spatial - transport, cost - infrastructure, ecological and organizational criteria, and additional services). The importance of the criteria and sub-criteria is evaluated and carried out as the basis for sensitivity analysis of the importance of the criteria and sub-criteria. Based on the analysis of the identified and quantified importance of certain criteria and sub-criteria, as well as sensitivity analysis and analysis of changes of the quantified importance, scientific and applicable results will be presented. These obtained results have practical applicability by management of nautical ports in the planning of increasing capacity and further development and for the adaptation of existing nautical ports. Obtained research is applicable and replicable in other seas, and results are especially important and useful in this COVID-19 pandemic challenging maritime development framework.

Keywords: Adriatic Sea, capacity, infrastructures, maritime system, methodology, nautical ports, nautical tourism, service

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11609 Exploring Help Seeking Attitude among Muslim Students in a School with a Dual Education System in Brunei Darussalam

Authors: Aziz Zulazmi Samsudin, Siti Norhedayah Abdul Latif

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The lack of normalization of mental health as a conversational topic is becoming increasingly evident in certain cultures. The fact that students underutilize mental health services in schools can be attributed to the presence of various barriers that impede their willingness to seek for help. Stigma surrounding mental health services continue to be the most prevalent barrier for help seeking behavior. Alternative barriers have emerged that are both personal and public in nature that can have a substantial impact on students’ preference to seek for help in schools. A sequential explanatory study was carried out among 256 Muslim students in a school with dual education system in exploring both their Self-Stigma of Seeking Help (SSOSH) and Mental Health Help-Seeking Attitude (MHSA). In addition, 12 students were interviewed in a focus group setting to explore further the phenomena of help seeking approach by students to understand the initial quantitative analysis. Preliminary findings indicated that the students’ level of self-stigma was only moderate, but they had a favorable attitude towards counselling help. There was no significant difference on gender for both variables; however, the lower the self-stigma, the higher the mental help-seeking attitude for this current study, which is a common trend of relationship between the two variables. The interview revealed that, apart from public stigma, the absence of a qualified counsellor, a lack of ethical principles of counselling, a confidentiality issue, and the emotional openness of the students were identified as other barriers to their help-seeking attitudes. This paper also discussed the recommendation made by students in addressing barriers to counselling and facilitating their counselling needs for the improvement of students' mental and academic well-being. Additionally, this research offers the most recent data about mental health in the context of schools with a dual education system in Brunei Darussalam. It is hoped to serve as a guide for policy makers to consider the provision of mental health services that is more appealing to the students’ mental and academic well-being.

Keywords: mental health help-seeking attitude (MHSA), public stigma, school counselling, self-stigma, self-stigma of seeking help (SSOSH), well-being.

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11608 Recovery of Iodide Ion from TFT-LCD Wastewater by Forward Osmosis

Authors: Yu-Ting Chen, Shiao-Shing Chen, Hung-Te Hsu, Saikat Sinha Ray

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Forward osmosis (FO) is a crucial technology with low operating pressure and cost for water reuse and reclamation. In Taiwan, with the advance of science and technology, thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) based industries are growing exponentially. In the optoelectronic industry wastewater, the iodide is one of the valuable element; it is also used in the medical industry. In this study, it was intended to concentrate iodide by utilizing FO system and can be reused for TFT-LCD production. Cellulose triacetate (CTA) membranes were used for all these FO experiments, and potassium iodide solution was used as the feed solution. It has been found that EDTA-2Na as draw solution at pH 8 produced high water flux and minimized salt leakage. The result also demonstrated that EDTA-2Na of concentration 0.6M could achieve the highest water flux (6.69L/m2 h). Additionally, from the recovered iodide ion from pH 3-8, the I- species was found to be more than 99%, whereas I2 was measured to be less than 1%. When potassium iodide solution was used from low to high concentration (1000 ppm to 10000 ppm), the iodide rejection was found to be than more 90%. Since, CTA membrane is negatively charged and I- is anionic in nature, so it will from electrostatic repulsion and hence there will be higher rejection. The overall performance demonstrates that recovery of concentrated iodide using FO system is a promising technology.

Keywords: draw solution, EDTA-2Na, forward osmosis, potassium iodide

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11607 Bio-Inspired Information Complexity Management: From Ant Colony to Construction Firm

Authors: Hamza Saeed, Khurram Iqbal Ahmad Khan

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Effective information management is crucial for any construction project and its success. Primary areas of information generation are either the construction site or the design office. There are different types of information required at different stages of construction involving various stakeholders creating complexity. There is a need for effective management of information flows to reduce uncertainty creating complexity. Nature provides a unique perspective in terms of dealing with complexity, in particular, information complexity. System dynamics methodology provides tools and techniques to address complexity. It involves modeling and simulation techniques that help address complexity. Nature has been dealing with complex systems since its creation 4.5 billion years ago. It has perfected its system by evolution, resilience towards sudden changes, and extinction of unadaptable and outdated species that are no longer fit for the environment. Nature has been accommodating the changing factors and handling complexity forever. Humans have started to look at their natural counterparts for inspiration and solutions for their problems. This brings forth the possibility of using a biomimetics approach to improve the management practices used in the construction sector. Ants inhabit different habitats. Cataglyphis and Pogonomyrmex live in deserts, Leafcutter ants reside in rainforests, and Pharaoh ants are native to urban developments of tropical areas. Detailed studies have been done on fifty species out of fourteen thousand discovered. They provide the opportunity to study the interactions in diverse environments to generate collective behavior. Animals evolve to better adapt to their environment. The collective behavior of ants emerges from feedback through interactions among individuals, based on a combination of three basic factors: The patchiness of resources in time and space, operating cost, environmental stability, and the threat of rupture. If resources appear in patches through time and space, the response is accelerating and non-linear, and if resources are scattered, the response follows a linear pattern. If the acquisition of energy through food is faster than energy spent to get it, the default is to continue with an activity unless it is halted for some reason. If the energy spent is rather higher than getting it, the default changes to stay put unless activated. Finally, if the environment is stable and the threat of rupture is low, the activation and amplification rate is slow but steady. Otherwise, it is fast and sporadic. To further study the effects and to eliminate the environmental bias, the behavior of four different ant species were studied, namely Red Harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex Barbatus), Argentine ants (Linepithema Humile), Turtle ants (Cephalotes Goniodontus), Leafcutter ants (Genus: Atta). This study aims to improve the information system in the construction sector by providing a guideline inspired by nature with a systems-thinking approach, using system dynamics as a tool. Identified factors and their interdependencies were analyzed in the form of a causal loop diagram (CLD), and construction industry professionals were interviewed based on the developed CLD, which was validated with significance response. These factors and interdependencies in the natural system corresponds with the man-made systems, providing a guideline for effective use and flow of information.

Keywords: biomimetics, complex systems, construction management, information management, system dynamics

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11606 Comparison of Formation Sensitivity Gap between Islamic Maybank Indonesia and Islamic Maybank Malaysia

Authors: Puji Sucia Sukmaningrum, Achsania Hendratmi, Noven Suprayogi, Muhammad Madyan

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Theoretically, Islamic banks in Indonesia and Malaysia not necessarily aware to the interest rate fluctuation, since they don’t use interest-based instruments. Both countries use dual banking system in which Islamic and conventional banking system are exist. This situation makes the profit-sharing level of the Islamic banks will be indirectly affected by the interest rate fluctuation from the conventional banks system. One of the risk management tools for anticipating the risk of interest rate fluctuation is gap management, which has purpose to narrow the difference between Rate Sensitive Asset (RSA) and Rate Sensitive Liability (RSL). This formed gap will give the information about the risk potential in Islamic banks which respect to the fluctuation on the interest rate. This study aims to determine the position of the gap formed at Islamic Maybank Indonesia and Islamic Maybank Malaysia, and analyze the difference in the formation of gap based on the period of sensitivity. This study is a quantitative research with comparative study using sensitivity gap analysis, independent sample t-test, and Mann-Whitney method. The data being used was secondary data from Maturity Profile contained in the Annual Financial Report of Islamic Maybank Indonesia and Islamic Maybank Malaysia from 2011 to 2015 period. The result shows that, cumulatively the formation of the gap was negative gap. From the results of independent sample t-test and Mann-Whitney, the formation of the gap in Islamic Maybank Indonesia and Islamic Maybank Malaysia for a period of sensitivity of ≤ 1 month and >1-3 months show a significant difference, while the period of sensitivity >3-12 months does not. The result shows, even though Indonesia and Malaysia using same dual banking systems, the gap values are different. The difference in debt policy between Indonesia and Malaysia also affecting the gap sensitivity in debt. In can be concluded that each country needs an appropriate gap management to support its Islamic banking performance specifically.

Keywords: assets and liability management, gap management, interest rate risk, Islamic bank

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11605 Reliability and Maintainability Optimization for Aircraft’s Repairable Components Based on Cost Modeling Approach

Authors: Adel A. Ghobbar

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The airline industry is continuously challenging how to safely increase the service life of the aircraft with limited maintenance budgets. Operators are looking for the most qualified maintenance providers of aircraft components, offering the finest customer service. Component owner and maintenance provider is offering an Abacus agreement (Aircraft Component Leasing) to increase the efficiency and productivity of the customer service. To increase the customer service, the current focus on No Fault Found (NFF) units must change into the focus on Early Failure (EF) units. Since the effect of EF units has a significant impact on customer satisfaction, this needs to increase the reliability of EF units at minimal cost, which leads to the goal of this paper. By identifying the reliability of early failure (EF) units with regards to No Fault Found (NFF) units, in particular, the root cause analysis with an integrated cost analysis of EF units with the use of a failure mode analysis tool and a cost model, there will be a set of EF maintenance improvements. The data used for the investigation of the EF units will be obtained from the Pentagon system, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system used by Fokker Services. The Pentagon system monitors components, which needs to be repaired from Fokker aircraft owners, Abacus exchange pool, and commercial customers. The data will be selected on several criteria’s: time span, failure rate, and cost driver. When the selected data has been acquired, the failure mode and root cause analysis of EF units are initiated. The failure analysis approach tool was implemented, resulting in the proposed failure solution of EF. This will lead to specific EF maintenance improvements, which can be set-up to decrease the EF units and, as a result of this, increasing the reliability. The investigated EFs, between the time period over ten years, showed to have a significant reliability impact of 32% on the total of 23339 unscheduled failures. Since the EFs encloses almost one-third of the entire population.

Keywords: supportability, no fault found, FMEA, early failure, availability, operational reliability, predictive model

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11604 Advanced Simulation and Enhancement for Distributed and Energy Efficient Scheduling for IEEE802.11s Wireless Enhanced Distributed Channel Access Networks

Authors: Fisayo G. Ojo, Shamala K. Subramaniam, Zuriati Ahmad Zukarnain

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As technology is advancing and wireless applications are becoming dependable sources, while the physical layer of the applications are been embedded into tiny layer, so the more the problem on energy efficiency and consumption. This paper reviews works done in recent years in wireless applications and distributed computing, we discovered that applications are becoming dependable, and resource allocation sharing with other applications in distributed computing. Applications embedded in distributed system are suffering from power stability and efficiency. In the reviews, we also prove that discrete event simulation has been left behind untouched and not been adapted into distributed system as a simulation technique in scheduling of each event that took place in the development of distributed computing applications. We shed more lights on some researcher proposed techniques and results in our reviews to prove the unsatisfactory results, and to show that more work still have to be done on issues of energy efficiency in wireless applications, and congestion in distributed computing.

Keywords: discrete event simulation (DES), distributed computing, energy efficiency (EE), internet of things (IOT), quality of service (QOS), user equipment (UE), wireless mesh network (WMN), wireless sensor network (wsn), worldwide interoperability for microwave access x (WiMAX)

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11603 Analytical, Numerical, and Experimental Research Approaches to Influence of Vibrations on Hydroelastic Processes in Centrifugal Pumps

Authors: Dinara F. Gaynutdinova, Vladimir Ya Modorsky, Nikolay A. Shevelev

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The problem under research is that of unpredictable modes occurring in two-stage centrifugal hydraulic pump as a result of hydraulic processes caused by vibrations of structural components. Numerical, analytical and experimental approaches are considered. A hypothesis was developed that the problem of unpredictable pressure decrease at the second stage of centrifugal pumps is caused by cavitation effects occurring upon vibration. The problem has been studied experimentally and theoretically as of today. The theoretical study was conducted numerically and analytically. Hydroelastic processes in dynamic “liquid – deformed structure” system were numerically modelled and analysed. Using ANSYS CFX program engineering analysis complex and computing capacity of a supercomputer the cavitation parameters were established to depend on vibration parameters. An influence domain of amplitudes and vibration frequencies on concentration of cavitation bubbles was formulated. The obtained numerical solution was verified using CFM program package developed in PNRPU. The package is based on a differential equation system in hyperbolic and elliptic partial derivatives. The system is solved by using one of finite-difference method options – the particle-in-cell method. The method defines the problem solution algorithm. The obtained numerical solution was verified analytically by model problem calculations with the use of known analytical solutions of in-pipe piston movement and cantilever rod end face impact. An infrastructure consisting of an experimental fast hydro-dynamic processes research installation and a supercomputer connected by a high-speed network, was created to verify the obtained numerical solutions. Physical experiments included measurement, record, processing and analysis of data for fast processes research by using National Instrument signals measurement system and Lab View software. The model chamber end face oscillated during physical experiments and, thus, loaded the hydraulic volume. The loading frequency varied from 0 to 5 kHz. The length of the operating chamber varied from 0.4 to 1.0 m. Additional loads weighed from 2 to 10 kg. The liquid column varied from 0.4 to 1 m high. Liquid pressure history was registered. The experiment showed dependence of forced system oscillation amplitude on loading frequency at various values: operating chamber geometrical dimensions, liquid column height and structure weight. Maximum pressure oscillation (in the basic variant) amplitudes were discovered at loading frequencies of approximately 1,5 kHz. These results match the analytical and numerical solutions in ANSYS and CFM.

Keywords: computing experiment, hydroelasticity, physical experiment, vibration

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