Search results for: predict precipitation and (FUTA) standard device

Authors: Lionel Trovalet, Lisa Liu, Dimitri Bigot, Nadia Hammami, Jean-Pierre Habas, Bruno Malet-Damour

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The MCP-iBAT1 project is carried out to study the behavior of Phase Change Materials (PCM) integrated in building envelopes in a tropical environment. Through the phase transitions (melting and freezing) of the material, thermal energy can be absorbed or released. This process enables the regulation of indoor temperatures and the improvement of thermal comfort for the occupants. Most of the commercially available PCMs are more suitable to temperate climates than to tropical climates. The case of Reunion Island is noteworthy as there are multiple micro-climates. This leads to our key question: developing one or multiple bio-based PCMs that cover the thermal needs of the different locations of the island. The present paper focuses on the numerical approach to select the PCM properties relevant to tropical areas. Numerical simulations have been carried out with two softwares: EnergyPlusTM and Isolab. The latter has been developed in the laboratory, with the implicit Finite Difference Method, in order to evaluate different physical models. Both are Thermal Dynamic Simulation (TDS) softwares that predict the building’s thermal behavior with one-dimensional heat transfers. The parameters used in this study are the construction’s characteristics (dimensions and materials) and the environment’s description (meteorological data and building surroundings). The building is modeled in accordance with the experimental setup. It is divided into two rooms, cells A and B, with same dimensions. Cell A is the reference, while in cell B, a layer of commercial PCM (Thermo Confort of MCI Technologies) has been applied to the inner surface of the North wall. Sensors are installed in each room to retrieve temperatures, heat flows, and humidity rates. The collected data are used for the comparison with the numerical results. Our strategy is to implement two similar buildings at different altitudes (Saint-Pierre: 70m and Le Tampon: 520m) to measure different temperature ranges. Therefore, we are able to collect data for various seasons during a condensed time period. The following methodology is used to validate the numerical models: calibration of the thermal and PCM models in EnergyPlusTM and Isolab based on experimental measures, then numerical testing with a sensitivity analysis of the parameters to reach the targeted indoor temperatures. The calibration relies on the past ten months’ measures (from September 2020 to June 2021), with a focus on one-week study on November (beginning of summer) when the effect of PCM on inner surface temperatures is more visible. A first simulation with the PCM model of EnergyPlus gave results approaching the measurements with a mean error of 5%. The studied property in this paper is the melting temperature of the PCM. By determining the representative temperature of winter, summer and inter-seasons with past annual’s weather data, it is possible to build a numerical model of multi-layered PCM. Hence, the combined properties of the materials will provide an optimal scenario for the application on PCM in tropical areas. Future works will focus on the development of bio-based PCMs with the selected properties followed by experimental and numerical validation of the materials. 1Materiaux ´ a Changement de Phase, une innovation pour le B ` ati Tropical

Keywords: energyplus, multi-layer of PCM, phase changing materials, tropical area

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Authors: Comsun Thongchai, Vorapoj Promasatayaprot

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Background: Child development center is a day care center that gathers large numbers of children in the same areas. As a result, it provides high opportunity for infection, especially gastrointestinal and respiratory infections. Ubon Ratchathani has been a province with an increasing number of cases of Hand foot and mouth disease each year reported between 2014 and 2016. Accorded to a recent investigation reported, HFMD occurred in the Child Development Center and kindergartens, this was a place where HFMD spreads. This research was aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude and behavior about hand foot and mouth disease preventing of child caregivers in child development centers, Ubon Ratchathani Province. Method: Descriptive study was conducted between April and July, 2017. The study instruments used questionnaires and in-depth interviews on their practices of prevention and environment management of HFMD. The samples of survey questionnaires were caregivers who are working in 160 child development centers of the 160 parishes in Ubon Ratchathani province. The data was analyzed by percentages, means and standard deviations and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Result: The results showed that the majority were female (96.3%), average age 41 years (68.3%), marital status were couples (85.7%) and studied in undergraduate (75.2%). with a period of performance as teachers in child development centers range from 10 to 14 years were percentage 58.7 and 71.8 percent of them had been trained by health worker about the control HFMD. The knowledge for preventive in hand foot mouth disease on child caregivers was at high level. The mean score was 2.76 (S.D. = 0.114). The attitude of child caregivers was at a moderate level. Its mean score was 2.28 (S.D. = 0.247). On the other hand, the level of environmental management to prevent HFMD was low. The mean score was 1.34 (S.D. = 0.215). The factor of personal characteristics as gender, age, educational level, duration at work, knowledge and attitude of preventive HFMD was associated with Preventive of Behaviors to a statistically significant level (p<0.05 respectively). Conclusion: These results should be concerned to develop knowledge and improving practice for preventive hand foot mouth disease of child caregivers in child development centers by training. Preparation of media education, Surveillance of hand foot mouth disease and health behaviors promotion with community participation need to be supported continuously.

Keywords: preventive behavior, child development center, hand foot mouth disease, Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Sushil Kumar Singh, Kumar Rahul, Vivek Tewarson, Sarvesh Kumar, Shobhit Kumar

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Objective: Rheumatic mitral stenosis continues to be a major public health problem in developing countries. When the left atrium (LA) is unable to fill the left ventricle (LV) at normal LA pressures due to impaired relaxation and impaired compliance, diastolic dysfunction occurs. The assessment of left ventricular (LV) diastolic function and filling pressures is of clinical importance to identify underlying cardiac disease, its treatment, and to assess prognosis. 2D echocardiography can detect diastolic dysfunction with excellent sensitivity and minimal risk when compared to the gold standard of invasive pressure-volume measurements. Material and Method: This was a one-year study consisting of twenty-nine patients of isolated rheumatic severe mitral stenosis. Data was analyzed preoperative and post operative (at one month follow-up). Transthoracic 2D echocardiographic parameters of the diastolic function are transmitral flow, pulmonary venous flow, mitral annular tissue doppler, and color M-mode doppler. In our study, mitral valve orifice area, ejection fraction, deceleration time, E/A-wave, E/E’-wave, myocardial performance index of left ventricle (Tei index ), and Mitral inflow propagation velocity were included for echocardiographic evaluation. The statistical analysis was performed on SPSS Version 15.0 statistical analysis software. Result: Twenty-nine patients underwent successful closed mitral commissurotomy for isolated mitral stenosis. The outcome measures were observed pre-operatively and at one-month follow-up. The majority of patients were in NYHA grade III (69.0%) in the preoperative period, which improved to NYHA grade I (48.3%) after closed mitral commissurotomy. Post-surgery mitral valve area increased from 0.77 ± 0.13 to 2.32 ± 0.26 cm, ejection fraction increased from 61.38 ± 4.61 to 64.79 ± 3.22. There was a decrease in deceleration time from 231.55 ± 49.31 to 168.28 ± 14.30 ms, E/A ratio from 1.70 ± 0.54 from 0.89 ± 0.39, E/E’ ratio from 14.59 ± 3.34 to 8.86 ± 3.03. In addition, there was improvement in TIE index from 0.50 ± 0.03 to 0.39 ± 0.06 and mitral inflow propagation velocity from 47.28 ± 3.71 to 57.86 ± 3.19 cm/sec. In peri-operative and follow-up, there was no incidence of severe mitral regurgitation (MR). There was no thromboembolic incident and no mortality.

Keywords: closed mitral valvotomy, mitral stenosis, open mitral commissurotomy, balloon mitral valvotomy

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Authors: In-Lee Choi, Min Jae Jeong, Jun Pill Baek, Ho-Min Kang

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As the consumption trends of vegetables become different from the past, it is increased using vegetable more convenience such as fresh-cut vegetables, sprouts, baby vegetables rather than an existing hole piece of vegetables. Selected baby vegetables have various functional materials but they have short shelf life. This study was conducted to improve storability by using suitable laser ablation OTR (oxygen transmission rate) films. Baby vegetable of endive (Cichorium endivia L.) and pak choi (Brassica rapa chinensis) for this research, around 10 cm height, cultivated in glass greenhouse during 3 weeks. Harvested endive and pak choi were stored at 8 ℃ for 5 days and were packed by PP (Polypropylene) container and covered different types of laser ablation OTR film (DaeRyung Co., Ltd.) such as 1,300 cc, 10,000 cc, 20,000 cc, 40,000 cc /m2•day•atm, and control (perforated film) with heat sealing machine (SC200-IP, Kumkang, Korea). All the samples conducted 5 times replication. Statistical analysis was carried out using a Microsoft Excel 2010 program and results were expressed as standard deviations. The fresh weight loss rate of both baby vegetables were less than 0.3 % in treated films as maximum weight loss rate. On the other hands, control in the final storage day had around 3.0 % weight loss rate and it followed decreasing quantity. Endive had less 2.0 % carbon dioxide contents as maximum contents in 20,000 cc and 40,000 cc. Oxygen contents was maintained between 17 and 20 % in endive, 19 and 20 % in pak choi. Ethylene concentration of both vegetables maintained little lower contents in 20,000 cc treatments than others at final storage day without statistical significance. In the case of hardness, 40,000 cc film was shown little higher value at both baby vegetables without statistical significance. Visual quality was good at 10,000 cc and 20,000 cc in endive and pak choi, and off-flavor was not appeard any off-flavor in both vegetables. Chlorophyll (SPAD-502, Minolta, Japan) value of endive was shown as similar result with initial in all treatments except 20,000 cc as little lower. And chlorophyll value of pak choi decreased in all treatments compared with initial value but was not shown significantly difference each other. Color of leaves (CR-400, Minolta, Japan) changed significantly in 40,000 cc at endive. In an event of pak choi, all the treatments started yellowing by increasing hunter b value, among them control increased substantially. As above the result, 10,000 cc film was most reasonable packaging film for storing at endive and 20,000 cc at pak choi with good quality.

Keywords: carbon dioxide, shelf-life, visual quality, pak choi

Procedia PDF Downloads 789

Authors: R. Rahmoun-Mrabet

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It is acknowledged that our style of speaking changes according to a wide range of variables such as gender, setting, the age of both the addresser and the addressee, the conversation topic, and the aim of the interaction. These differences in style are noticeable in monolingual and multilingual speech communities. Yet, they are more observable in speech communities where two or more codes coexist. The linguistic situation in Algeria reflects a state of bilingualism because of the coexistence of Arabic and French. Nevertheless, like all Arab countries, it is characterized by diglossia i.e. the concomitance of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Algerian Arabic (AA), the former standing for the ‘high variety’ and the latter for the ‘low variety’. The two varieties are derived from the same source but are used to fulfil distinct functions that is, MSA is used in the domains of religion, literature, education and formal settings. AA, on the other hand, is used in informal settings, in everyday speech. French has strongly affected the Algerian language and culture because of the historical background of Algeria, thus, what can easily be noticed in Algeria is that everyday speech is characterized by code-switching from dialectal Arabic and French or by the use of borrowings. Tamazight is also very present in many regions of Algeria and is the mother tongue of many Algerians. Yet, it is not used in the west of Algeria, where the study has been conducted. The present work, which was directed in the speech community of Tlemcen-Algeria, aims at depicting some of the outcomes of the contact of Arabic with French such as code-switching, borrowing and interference. The question that has been asked is whether Algerians are aware of their use of borrowings or not. Three steps are followed in this research; the first one is to depict the sociolinguistic situation in Algeria and to describe the linguistic characteristics of the dialect of Tlemcen, which are specific to this city. The second one is concerned with data collection. Data have been collected from 57 informants who were given questionnaires and who have then been classified according to their age, gender and level of education. Information has also been collected through observation, and note taking. The third step is devoted to analysis. The results obtained reveal that most Algerians are aware of their use of borrowings. The present work clarifies how words are borrowed from French, and then adapted to Arabic. It also illustrates the way in which singular words inflect into plural. The results expose the main characteristics of borrowing as opposed to code-switching. The study also clarifies how interference occurs at the level of nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Keywords: bilingualism, borrowing, code-switching, interference, language contact

Procedia PDF Downloads 276

Authors: M. Amanipour, J. Towfighi, E. Ganji Babakhani, M. Heidari

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Cylindrical alumina microfiltration membrane (GMITM Corporation, inside diameter=9 mm, outside diameter=13 mm, length= 50 mm) with an average pore size of 0.5 micrometer and porosity of about 0.35 was used as the support for membrane reactor. This support was soaked in boehmite sols, and the mean particle size was adjusted in the range of 50 to 500 nm by carefully controlling hydrolysis time, and calcined at 650 °C for two hours. This process was repeated with different boehmite solutions in order to achieve an intermediate layer with an average pore size of about 50 nm. The resulting substrate was then coated with a thin and dense layer of silica by counter current chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method. A boehmite sol with 10 wt.% of nickel which was prepared by a standard procedure was used to make the catalytic layer. BET, SEM, and XRD analysis were used to characterize this layer. The catalytic membrane reactor was placed in an experimental setup to evaluate the permeation and hydrogen separation performance for a steam reforming reaction. The setup consisted of a tubular module in which the membrane was fixed, and the reforming reaction occurred at the inner side of the membrane. Methane stream, diluted with nitrogen, and deionized water with a steam to carbon (S/C) ratio of 3.0 entered the reactor after the reactor was heated up to 500 °C with a specified rate of 2 °C/ min and the catalytic layer was reduced at presence of hydrogen for 2.5 hours. Nitrogen flow was used as sweep gas through the outer side of the reactor. Any liquid produced was trapped and separated at reactor exit by a cold trap, and the produced gases were analyzed by an on-line gas chromatograph (Agilent 7890A) to measure total CH₄ conversion and H₂ permeation. BET analysis indicated uniform size distribution for catalyst with average pore size of 280 nm and average surface area of 275 m².g^-1. Single-component permeation tests were carried out for hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide at temperature range of 500-800 °C, and the results showed almost the same permeance and hydrogen selectivity values for hydrogen as the composite membrane without catalytic layer. Performance of the catalytic membrane was evaluated by applying membranes as a membrane reactor for methane steam reforming reaction at gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 10,000 h⁻¹ and 2 bar. CH₄ conversion increased from 50% to 85% with increasing reaction temperature from 600 °C to 750 °C, which is sufficiently above equilibrium curve at reaction conditions, but slightly lower than membrane reactor with packed nickel catalytic bed because of its higher surface area compared to the catalytic layer.

Keywords: catalytic membrane, hydrogen, methane steam reforming, permeance

Procedia PDF Downloads 256

Authors: Armando Cartenì

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Within the design of sustainable transportation engineering, the problem of reducing particulate matter (PM) concentrations in railways metro system was not much discussed. It is well known that PM levels in railways metro system are mainly produced by mechanical friction at the rail-wheel-brake interactions and by the PM re-suspension caused by the turbulence generated by the train passage, which causes dangerous problems for passenger health. Starting from these considerations, the aim of this research was twofold: i) to investigate the particulate matter concentrations in a ‘traditional’ railways metro system; ii) to investigate the particulate matter concentrations of a ‘high quality’ metro system equipped with design devices useful for reducing PM concentrations: platform screen doors, rubber-tyred and an advanced ventilation system. Two measurement surveys were performed: one in the ‘traditional’ metro system of Naples (Italy) and onother in the ‘high quality’ rubber-tyred metro system of Turin (Italy). Experimental results regarding the ‘traditional’ metro system of Naples, show that the average PM10 concentrations measured in the underground station platforms are very high and range between 172 and 262 µg/m3 whilst the average PM2,5 concentrations range between 45 and 60 µg/m3, with dangerous problems for passenger health. By contrast the measurements results regarding the ‘high quality’ metro system of Turin show that: i) the average PM10 (PM2.5) concentrations measured in the underground station platform is 22.7 µg/m3 (16.0 µg/m3) with a standard deviation of 9.6 µg/m3 (7.6 µg/m3); ii) the indoor concentrations (both for PM10 and for PM2.5) are statistically lower from those measured in outdoors (with a ratio equal to 0.9-0.8), meaning that the indoor air quality is greater than those in urban ambient; iii) that PM concentrations in underground stations are correlated to the trains passage; iv) the inside trains concentrations (both for PM10 and for PM2.5) are statistically lower from those measured at station platform (with a ratio equal to 0.7-0.8), meaning that inside trains the use of air conditioning system could promote a greater circulation that clean the air. The comparison among the two case studies allow to conclude that the metro system designed with PM reduction devices allow to reduce PM concentration up to 11 times against a ‘traditional’ one. From these results, it is possible to conclude that PM concentrations measured in a ‘high quality’ metro system are significantly lower than the ones measured in a ‘traditional’ railway metro systems. This result allows possessing the bases for the design of useful devices for retrofitting metro systems all around the world.

Keywords: air quality, pollutant emission, quality in public transport, underground railway, external cost reduction, transportation planning

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Authors: Helene Jacobson Pettersson, Linda Lill

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Demographic changes and globalization in society provide new opportunities for social work and social work education in Sweden. There has been an ambition to include these aspects into the Swedish social work education. However, the Swedish welfare state standard continued to be as affectionate as invisible starting point in discussions about people’s way of life and social problems. The aim of this study is to explore content given to ethnic relations in social work in the social work education in Sweden. Our standpoint is that the subject can be understood both from individual and structural levels, it changes over time, varies in different steering documents and differs from the perspectives of teachers and students. Our question is what content is given to ethnic relations in social work by the teachers in their strategies and teaching material. The study brings together research in the interface between education science, social work and research of international migration and ethnic relations. The presented narratives are from longer interviews with a total of 17 university teachers who teach in social work program at four different universities in Sweden. The universities have in different ways a curriculum that involves the theme of ethnic relations in social work, and the interviewed teachers are teaching and grading social workers on specific courses related to ethnic relations at undergraduate and graduate levels. Overall assesses these 17 teachers a large number of students during a semester. The questions were concerned on how the teachers handle ethnic relations in education in social work. The particular focus during the interviews has been the teacher's understanding of the documented learning objectives and content of literature and how this has implications for their teaching. What emerges is the teachers' own stories about the educational work and how they relate to the content of teaching, as well as the teaching strategies they use to promote the theme of ethnic relations in social work education. The analysis of this kind of pedagogy is that the teaching ends up at an individual level with a particular focus on the professional encounter with individuals. We can see the shortage of a critical analysis of the construction of social problems. The conclusion is that individual circumstance precedes theoretical perspective on social problems related to migration, transnational relations, globalization and social. This result has problematic implications from the perspective of sustainability in terms of ethnic diversity and integration in society. Thus these aspects have most relevance for social workers’ professional acting in social support and empowerment related activities, in supporting the social status and human rights and equality for immigrants.

Keywords: ethnic relations in Swedish social work education, teaching content, teaching strategies, educating for change, human rights and equality

Procedia PDF Downloads 248

Authors: Devon Simpson

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Recycled Manure Solids (RMS), attained via centrifugation from Canadian dairy farms, were synthesized into a non-polluting fertilizer by bonding micronutrients (Fe, Zn, and Mn) to cellulose fibers and then assessed for the effectiveness of nutrient recovery in tomatoes. Manure management technology is critical for improving the sustainability of agroecosystems and has the capacity to offer a truly circular economy. The ability to add value to manure byproducts offers an opportunity for economic benefits while generating tenable solutions to livestock waste. The dairy industry is under increasing pressure from new environmental protections such as government restrictions on manure applications, limitations on herd size as well as increased product demand from a growing population. Current systems use RMS as bedding, so there is a lack of data pertaining to RMS use as a fertilizer. This is because of nutrient distribution, where most nutrients are retained in the liquid effluent of the solid-liquid separation. A literature review on the physical and chemical properties of dairy manure further revealed more data for raw manure than centrifuged solids. This research offers an innovative perspective and a new avenue of exploration in the use of RMS. Manure solids in this study were obtained directly from dairy farms in Salmon Arm and Abbotsford, British Columbia, and underwent physical, chemical, and biological characterizations pre- and post-synthesis processing. Samples were sent to A&L labs Canada for analysis. Once characterized and bonded to micronutrients, the effect of synthesized RMS on nutrient recovery in tomatoes was studied in a greenhouse environment. The agricultural research package ‘agricolae’ for R was used for experimental design and data analysis. The growth trials consisted of a randomized complete block design (RCBD) that allowed for analysis of variance (ANOVA). The primary outcome was to measure nutrient uptake, and this was done using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (IC-PMS) to analyze the micronutrient content of both the tissue and fruit of the tomatoes. It was found that treatments containing bonded dairy manure solids had an increased micronutrient concentration. Treatments with bonded dairy manure solids also saw an increase in yield, and a brix analysis showed higher sugar content than the untreated control and a grower standard.

Keywords: aoecosystems, dairy manure, micronutrient fertilizer, manure management, nutrient recovery, nutrient recycling, recycled manure solids, regenerative agricugrlture, sustainable farming

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Zarini Ismail, Mas Ayu Arina Mohd Anuwar, Ling Chai Ying, Tengku Zetty Maztura Tengku Jamaluddin, Nurul Azmawati Mohamed, Nadeeya Ayn Umaisara Mohamad Nor

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The transmission of infectious diseases can occur anywhere, including in the swimming pools. A large number of swimmers turnover and poor hygienic behaviours will increase the occurrence of direct and indirect water contamination. A wide variety of infections such as the gastrointestinal illnesses, skin rash, eye infections, ear infections and respiratory illnesses had been reported following the exposure to the contaminated water. Understanding the importance of pool hygiene with a healthy practice will reduce the risk of infection. The aims of the study are to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practices on pool hygiene among swimming pool users and to determine the microbial contaminants in swimming pools. A cross-sectional study was conducted using self-administered questionnaires to 600 swimming pool users from four swimming pools belong to the three educational institutions in Selangor. Data was analyzed using SPSS Statistics version 22.0 for Windows. The knowledge, attitude and practice of the study participants were analyzed using the sum score based on Bloom’s cut-off point (80%). Having a score above the cut-off point was classified as having high levels of knowledge, positive attitude and good practice. The association between socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge and attitude with practice on pool hygiene was determined by Chi-Square test. The physicochemical parameters and the microbial contamination were determined using a standard method for examination of waste and wastewater. Of the 600 respondents, 465 (77.5%) were females with the mean age of 21 years old. Most of the respondents are the students (98.8%) which belong to the three educational institutions in Selangor. Overall, the majority of the respondents (89.2%) had low knowledge on pool hygiene, but had positive attitudes (91.3%). Whereas only half of the respondents (50%) practice good hygiene while using the swimming pools. There was a significant association between practice level on pool hygiene with knowledge (p < 0.001) and also the attitude (p < 0.001). The measurements of the physicochemical parameters showed that all 4 swimming pools had low levels of pH and two had low levels of free chlorine. However, all the water samples tested were negative for Escherichia coli. The findings of this study suggested that high knowledge and positive attitude towards pool hygiene ensure a good practice among swimming pool users. Thus, it is recommended that educational interventions should be given to the swimming pool users to increase their knowledge regarding the pool hygiene and this will prevent the unnecessary outbreak of infectious diseases related to swimming pool.

Keywords: attitude, knowledge, pool hygiene, practice

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Authors: Ankush Raina, Ankush Anand

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Plyometric training is a form of specialised strength training that uses fast muscular contractions to improve power and speed in sports conditioning by coaches and athletes. Despite its useful role in sports conditioning programme, the information about plyometric training on the athletes cardiovascular health especially Electrocardiogram (ECG) has not been established in the literature. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of lower and upper body plyometric training on ECG of athletes. The study was guided by three null hypotheses. Quasi–experimental research design was adopted for the study. Seventy-two university male athletes constituted the population of the study. Thirty male athletes aged 18 to 24 years volunteered to participate in the study, but only twenty-three completed the study. The volunteered athletes were apparently healthy, physically active and free of any lower and upper extremity bone injuries for past one year and they had no medical or orthopedic injuries that may affect their participation in the study. Ten subjects were purposively assigned to one of the three groups: lower body plyometric training (LBPT), upper body plyometric training (UBPT), and control (C). Training consisted of six plyometric exercises: lower (ankle hops, squat jumps, tuck jumps) and upper body plyometric training (push-ups, medicine ball-chest throws and side throws) with moderate intensity. The general data were collated and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS version 22.0). The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while paired samples t-test was also used to test for the hypotheses. The results revealed that athletes who were trained using LBPT had reduced ECG parameters better than those in the control group. The results also revealed that athletes who were trained using both LBPT and UBPT indicated lack of significant differences following ten weeks plyometric training than those in the control group in the ECG parameters except in Q wave, R wave and S wave (QRS) complex. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that coaches should include both LBPT and UBPT as part of athletes’ overall training programme from primary to tertiary institution to optimise performance as well as reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and promotes good healthy lifestyle.

Keywords: boundary lubrication, copper oxide, friction, nano diamond

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Zhiwu Zheng, Prakhar Kumar, Sigurd Wagner, Naveen Verma, James C. Sturm

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Soft robots have drawn great interest recently due to a rich range of possible shapes and motions they can take on to address new applications, compared to traditional rigid robots. Large-area electronics (LAE) provides a unique platform for creating soft robots by leveraging thin-film technology to enable the integration of a large number of actuators, sensors, and control circuits on flexible sheets. However, the rich shapes and motions possible, especially when interacting with complex environments, pose significant challenges to forming well-generalized and robust models necessary for robot design and control. In this work, we describe an analytical model for predicting the shape and locomotion of a flexible (steel-foil-based) piezoelectric-actuated 2D robot based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. It is nominally (unpowered) lying flat on the ground, and when powered, its shape is controlled by an array of piezoelectric thin-film actuators. Key features of the models are its ability to incorporate the significant effects of gravity on the shape and to precisely predict the spatial distribution of friction against the contacting surfaces, necessary for determining inchworm-type motion. We verified the model by developing a distributed discrete element representation of a continuous piezoelectric actuator and by comparing its analytical predictions to discrete-element robot simulations using PyBullet. Without gravity, predicting the shape of a sheet with a linear array of piezoelectric actuators at arbitrary voltages is straightforward. However, gravity significantly distorts the shape of the sheet, causing some segments to flatten against the ground. Our work includes the following contributions: (i) A self-consistent approach was developed to exactly determine which parts of the soft robot are lifted off the ground, and the exact shape of these sections, for an arbitrary array of piezoelectric voltages and configurations. (ii) Inchworm-type motion relies on controlling the relative friction with the ground surface in different sections of the robot. By adding torque-balance to our model and analyzing shear forces, the model can then determine the exact spatial distribution of the vertical force that the ground is exerting on the soft robot. Through this, the spatial distribution of friction forces between ground and robot can be determined. (iii) By combining this spatial friction distribution with the shape of the soft robot, in the function of time as piezoelectric actuator voltages are changed, the inchworm-type locomotion of the robot can be determined. As a practical example, we calculated the performance of a 5-actuator system on a 50-µm thick steel foil. Piezoelectric properties of commercially available thin-film piezoelectric actuators were assumed. The model predicted inchworm motion of up to 200 µm per step. For independent verification, we also modelled the system using PyBullet, a discrete-element robot simulator. To model a continuous thin-film piezoelectric actuator, we broke each actuator into multiple segments, each of which consisted of two rigid arms with appropriate mass connected with a 'motor' whose torque was set by the applied actuator voltage. Excellent agreement between our analytical model and the discrete-element simulator was shown for both for the full deformation shape and motion of the robot.

Keywords: analytical modeling, piezoelectric actuators, soft robot locomotion, thin-film technology

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Authors: Muzaffer Topgul, Hasan Atac

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In case of explaining the migration concept, although it is not a new phenomenon, it is easy to understand that communities have migrated for variety of reasons such as natural disasters, famine, wars, economic problems, and several theories have been put forth to define and find solution for migration within its changing nature. Examining of migration theories denotes that the circumstances under which they appear reflect political, social, and economic conditions of the age they appear. In this day and time, security is considered not only from military perspective but also from economic, political, sociological dimensions. Based on the changing security environment new impacts of migration has occurred; the migration is proceed to be conferred as a type of war, qualified as a transnational crime because of its outcomes and interpreted in a different dimension owing to its effects on the health and education areas. Social security dimension in the context of expanding concept of security; when dealing with the safety of people and social groups with the assumption that national unity and identity are threatened, it sees immigrants as a source of threat. The human security assesses the safety of individuals in terms of survival and quality of life. Changes in the standard of living under the influence of immigrants and possible terrorist acts can be seen as a threat source in this type of security. Economic security of the individuals and the regional changes at the micro level created by the immigrants are covered issues of economic security. Due to the factors such as terrorism and civil war, the increasing numbers of displaced people who have taken refugee status affect the countries, whether it is near or far to the crisis areas, in the new and different dimensions of security day by day. In this study, the term of immigration through the eyes of national and international law will be evaluated, the place of the irregular and illegal immigration in the changing security sphere will be revealed and the effects of the irregular migration to short-term, mid-term and long-term security issues will be assessed through human and social security aspects. In order to analyze the threats for the human security; the parameters such as living conditions of the immigrants, the ratio of the genders, birth rate occasions, the education circumstances of the immigrant children and the effects of the illegal passing on the public order will be evaluated. The outcomes of the problem areas for the human security and the demographic alteration resulting from the human flow of displaced people will be discussed thorough social security extent. The fizzling economic diversity, which has shown up by irregular migration, will be presented within the scope of economic dimension of security.

Keywords: irregular migration, the changing dimensions of security, human security, social security

Procedia PDF Downloads 336

Authors: Pin Yu Chen, Puay Chuan Lee, Yu Jen Loo, Ju Xia Zhang, Deborah Teo, Jack Wei Chieh Tan, Biauw Chi Ong

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Background: Synchronous communication, such as telephone calls, remains the standard communication method between nurses and other healthcare professionals in Singapore public hospitals despite advances in asynchronous technological platforms, such as instant messaging. Although miscommunication is one of the most common causes of lapses in patient care, there is a scarcity of research characterizing baseline inter-professional healthcare communications in a hospital setting due to logistic difficulties. Objective: This study aims to characterize the frequency and patterns of communication behaviours among healthcare professionals. Methods: The one-week observational study was conducted on Monday through Sunday at the nursing station of a cardiovascular medicine and cardiothoracic surgery inpatient ward at the National Heart Centre Singapore. Subjects were shadowed by two physicians for sixteen hours or consecutive morning and afternoon nursing shifts. Communications were logged and characterized by type, duration, caller, and recipient. Results: A total of 1,023 communication events involving the attempted use of the common telephones at the nursing station were logged over a period of one week, corresponding to a frequency of one event every 5.45 minutes (SD 6.98, range 0-56 minutes). Nurses initiated the highest proportion of outbound calls (38.7%) via the nursing station common phone. A total of 179 face-to-face communications (17.5%), 362 inbound calls (35.39%), 481 outbound calls (47.02%), and 1 emergency alert (0.10%) were captured. Average response time for task-oriented communications was 159 minutes (SD 387.6, range 86-231). Approximately 1 in 3 communications captured aimed to clarify patient-related information. The total duration of time spent on synchronous communication events over one week, calculated from total inbound and outbound calls, was estimated to be a total of 7 hours. Conclusion: The results of our study showed that there is a significant amount of time spent on inter-professional healthcare communications via synchronous channels. Integration of patient-related information and use of asynchronous communication channels may help to reduce the redundancy of communications and clarifications. Future studies should explore the use of asynchronous mobile platforms to address the inefficiencies observed in healthcare communications.

Keywords: healthcare communication, healthcare management, nursing, qualitative observational study

Procedia PDF Downloads 210

Authors: Palak Patel

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Mumbai is one of the largest cities of the country with a population of 12.44 million over 437 Sq.km, and it is known as financial hub of India. In early 20th century, with the expansion of industrialization and growth of port, a huge demand for housing was created. In response to this, government enacted rent controls. Over a period of time, due to rent controls, the existing rental housing stock has deteriorated. Therefore, in last 25 years, government has been focusing on redevelopment of these rental buildings, also called ‘Cessed buildings’, in order to provide better standard of living to the tenants and also, to supply new housing units in the market. In India, developers are the main players in the housing market as they are the supplier of maximum dwelling units in the market. Hence, government attempts are inclined toward facilitating developers for the cessed building redevelopment projects by incentivizing them through making special provisions in the development control regulations. This research focuses on the entire process of redevelopment by the developers and issues faced by the related stakeholders in the same to reduce the stress on housing. It also highlights the loopholes in the current system and inefficient functioning of the process. The research was carried out by interviewing various developers, tenants and landlords in the island city who have already gone through redevelopment. From the case studies, it is very evident that redevelopment is undoubtedly a huge profit making business. In some cases, developers make profit of almost double the amount of the investment. But yet, satisfactory results are not seen on ground. It clearly indicates that there are some issues faced by developers which have not been addressed. Some of these issues include cumbersome legal procedures, negotiations with landlords and tenants, congestion and narrow roads, small size of the plots, informal practicing of ‘Pagdi system’ and financial viability of the project. This research recommends the up gradation of the existing cessed buildings by sharing the repairing and maintenance cost between landlords and tenants and also, income levels of tenants can be traced and housing vouchers or incentives can be provided to those who actual need it so that landlord does not have to subsidize the tenants. For redevelopment, the current interventions are generalized in nature as it does not take on ground issues into the consideration. There is need to identify local issues and give area specific solutions. And also, government should play a role of mediator to ensure all the stakeholders are satisfied and project gets completed on time.

Keywords: cessed buildings, developers, government’s interventions, redevelopment, rent controls, tenants

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Wararut Buncharoen, Kanokporn Saenphet, Supap Saenphet

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Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a reproductive problem, affecting elderly men worldwide. Several factors particularly free radical reaction and oxidative damage have been contributed to be key factors leading to the development of BPH. A number of medicinal plants with high antioxidant properties are extensively constituted in Thai herbal pharmacopoeia for treating BPH. These plants may prevent or delay the progression of BPH through an antioxidant mechanism. Thus, this study was to prove the antioxidant and anti-lipid peroxidation potential of medicinal plants traditionally used for the treatment of BPH such as Artabotrys harmandii Finet & Gagnep. Miq., Uvaria rufa Blume, Anomianthus dulcis (Dunal) J. Sinclair and Caesalpinia sappan Linn. Antioxidant parameters including free radical (2, 2-azino-bis-(3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS•+), 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH•) and superoxide) scavenging, ferric reducing power and anti-lipid peroxidation activity were determined in different crude extracts from the stem of these four plants. Total phenolic and ascorbic contents were also investigated. The highest total phenolic content was shown in ethyl acetate crude extract of A. dulcis (510 ± 26.927 µg GAE/g extract) while the highest ascorbic content was found in ethanolic extract of U. rufa (234.727 ± 30.356 µg AAE/g extract). The strongest scavenging activity of ABTS•+ and DPPH• was found in ethyl acetate extract of C. sappan with the IC50 values of 0.469 and 0.255 mg/ml, respectively. The petroleum ether extracts of C. sappan and U. rufa at concentration of 1 mg/ml exhibited high scavenging activity toward superoxide radicals with the inhibition of 37.264 ± 8.672 and 34.434 ± 6.377 %, respectively. Ethyl acetate crude extract of C. sappan displayed the greatest reducing power. The IC50 value of water extract of A. dulcis was 1.326 mg/ml which indicated the strongest activity in the inhibition of lipid-peroxidation among all plant extracts whereas the IC50 value of the standard, butyl hydroxyl toluene was 1.472 µg/ml. Regarding all the obtained results, it can be concluded that the stem of A. dulcis, U. rufa and C. sappan are the potential natural antioxidants and could have an importance as therapeutic agents in the preventing free radicals and oxidative damage related diseases including BPH.

Keywords: anti-lipid peroxidation, antioxidant, benign prostatic hyperplasia, Thai medicinal plants

Procedia PDF Downloads 481

Authors: Vicki Cameron

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Background: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) typically effects the feet and about 20% of patients present initially with foot and ankle symptoms. Custom moulded foot orthoses (FO) in the management of foot and ankle problems in RA is well documented in the literature. Off-the-shelf FO are thought to provide an effective alternative to custom moulded FO in patients with RA, however they are not evidence based. Objectives: To determine the effects of off-the-shelf FO on; 1. quality of life (QOL) 2. walking speed 4. peak plantar pressure in the forefoot (PPPft) Methods: Thirty-five patients (six male and 29 female) participated in the study from 11/2006 to 07/2008. The age of the patients ranged from 26 to 80 years (mean 52.4 years; standard deviation [SD] 13.3 years). A repeated measures design was used, with patients presenting at baseline, three months and six months. Patients were tested walking barefoot, shod and shod with FO. The type of orthoses used was the Slimflex Plastic ® (Algeos). The Leeds Foot Impact Scale (LFIS) was used to investigate QOL. The Vicon 612 motion analysis system was used to determine the effect of FO on walking speed. The F-scan walkway and in-shoe systems provided information of the effect on PPPft. Ethical approval was obtained on 07/2006. Data was analysed using SPSS version 15.0. Results/Discussion: The LFIS data was analysed with a repeated measures ANOVA. There was a significant improvement in the LFIS score with the use of the FO over the six months (p<0.01). A significant increase in walking speed with the orthoses was observed (p<0.01). Peak plantar pressure in the forefoot was reduced with the FO, as shown by a non-parametric Friedman’s test (chi-square = 55.314, df=2, p<0.05). Conclusion: The results show that off-the-shelf FO are effective in managing foot problems in patients with RA. Patients reported an improved QOL with the orthoses, and further objective measurements were quantified to provide a rationale for this change. Patients demonstrated an increased walking speed, which has been shown to be associated with reduced pain. The FO decreased PPPft which have been reported as a site of pain and ulceration in patients with RA. Salient Clinical Points: Off-the-shelf FO offer an effective alternative to custom moulded FO, and can be dispensed at the chair side. This is crucial in the management of foot problems associated with RA as early intervention is advocated due to the chronic and progressive nature of the disease.

Keywords: podiatry, rheumatoid arthritis, foot orthoses, gait analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 260

Authors: Kyungsuk Cho, H. Y. Kim, S. U. Chae, J. H. Choi

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Technological development has led to the construction of super-tall buildings and insulators are increasingly used as exterior finishing materials to save energy. However, insulators are usually combustible and vulnerable to fire. Fires like that at Wooshin Golden Suite Building in Busan, Korea in 2010 and that at CCTV Building in Beijing, China are the major examples of fire spread accelerated by combustible insulators. The exterior finishing materials of a high-rise building are not made of insulators only, but they are integrated with the building’s external cladding system. There is a limit in evaluating the fire safety of a cladding system with a single small-unit material such as a cone calorimeter. Therefore, countries provide codes to evaluate the fire safety of exterior finishing materials using full-scale tests. This study compares and to examine the applicability of the methods to Korea. Standard analysis showed differences in the type and size of fire sources and duration and exterior finishing materials also differed in size. In order to confirm the differences, fire tests were conducted on identical external cladding systems to compare fire safety. Although the exterior finishing materials were identical, varying degrees of fire spread were observed, which could be considered as differences in the type and size of the fire sources and duration. Therefore, it is deduced that extended studies should be conducted before the evaluation methods and standards are employed in Korea. The two standards for evaluating fire safety provided different results. Peak heat release rate was 5.5MW in ISO method and 3.0±0.5MW in BS method. Peak heat release rate in ISO method continued for 15 minutes. Fire ignition, growth, full development and decay evolved for 30 minutes in BS method where wood cribs were used as fire sources. Therefore, follow-up studies should be conducted to determine which of the two standards provides fire sources that approximate the size of flames coming out from the openings or those spreading to the outside when a fire occurs at a high-rise building.

Keywords: external cladding systems, fire safety evaluation, ISO 13785-2, BS 8414

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Authors: Nishant Shrivastava, D. K. Sehgal

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In Finite Element Technique nodal stresses are calculated through displacement as nodes. In this process, the displacement calculated at nodes is sufficiently good enough but stresses calculated at nodes are not sufficiently accurate. Therefore, the accuracy in the stress computation in FEM models based on the displacement technique is obviously matter of concern for computational time in shape optimization of engineering problems. In the present work same is focused to find out unique points within the element as well as the boundary of the element so, that good accuracy in stress computation can be achieved. Generally, major optimal stress points are located in domain of the element some points have been also located at boundary of the element where stresses are fairly accurate as compared to nodal values. Then, it is subsequently concluded that there is an existence of unique points within the element, where stresses have higher accuracy than other points in the elements. Therefore, it is main aim is to evolve a generalized procedure for the determination of the optimal stress location inside the element as well as at the boundaries of the element and verify the same with results from numerical experimentation. The results of quadratic 9 noded serendipity elements are presented and the location of distinct optimal stress points is determined inside the element, as well as at the boundaries. The theoretical results indicate various optimal stress locations are in local coordinates at origin and at a distance of 0.577 in both directions from origin. Also, at the boundaries optimal stress locations are at the midpoints of the element boundary and the locations are at a distance of 0.577 from the origin in both directions. The above findings were verified through experimentation and findings were authenticated. For numerical experimentation five engineering problems were identified and the numerical results of 9-noded element were compared to those obtained by using the same order of 25-noded quadratic Lagrangian elements, which are considered as standard. Then root mean square errors are plotted with respect to various locations within the elements as well as the boundaries and conclusions were drawn. After numerical verification it is noted that in a 9-noded element, origin and locations at a distance of 0.577 from origin in both directions are the best sampling points for the stresses. It was also noted that stresses calculated within line at boundary enclosed by 0.577 midpoints are also very good and the error found is very less. When sampling points move away from these points, then it causes line zone error to increase rapidly. Thus, it is established that there are unique points at boundary of element where stresses are accurate, which can be utilized in solving various engineering problems and are also useful in shape optimizations.

Keywords: finite elements, Lagrangian, optimal stress location, serendipity

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Tshegofatso Galekgathege

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Poor water quality is of great concern to human health as it can cause disease outbreaks. A standard practice today, in developed countries, is that people should be provided with safe-reliable drinking water, as safe drinking water is recognized as a basic human right and a cost effective measure of reducing diseases. Over 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to a safe water supply and as a result, the majority are forced to use polluted surface or groundwater. It is widely accepted that our water supply systems are susceptible to the intentional or accidental contamination .Water quality degradation may occur anywhere in the path that water takes from the water source to the consumer. Chlorine is believed to be an effective tool in disinfecting water, but its concentration may decrease with time due to consumption by chemical reactions. This shows that we are at the risk of being infected by waterborne diseases if chlorine in water falls below the required level of 0.2-1mg/liter which should be maintained in water and some contaminants enter into the water distribution system. It is believed that the lack of adequate sanitation also contributes to the contamination of water globally. This study therefore, assesses drinking water contamination from the source to the consumer by identifying the point vulnerable to contamination from the source to the consumer in the study area .To identify the point vulnerable to contamination, water was sampled monthly from boreholes, water treatment plant, water distribution system (WDS), service reservoirs and consumer taps from all the twenty (20) villages of Palapye region. Sampled water was then taken to the laboratory for testing and analysis of microbiological and chemical parameters. Water quality analysis were then compared with Botswana drinking water quality standards (BOS32:2009) to see if they comply. Major sources of water contamination identified during site visits were the livestock which were found drinking stagnant water from leaking pipes in 90 percent of the villages. Soils structure around the area was negatively affected because of livestock movement even vegetation in the area. In conclusion microbiological parameters of water in the study area do not comply with drinking water standards, some microbiological parameters in water indicated that livestock do not only affect land degradation but also the quality of water. Chlorine has been applied to water over some years but it is not effective enough thus preventative measures have to be developed, to prevent contaminants from reaching water. Remember: Prevention is better than cure.

Keywords: land degradation, leaking systems, livestock, water contamination

Procedia PDF Downloads 352

Authors: Komala Arsi, Ann M. Donoghue, Dan J. Donoghue

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Methionine is an essential dietary amino acid necessary to promote growth and health of poultry. Synthetic methionine is commonly used as a supplement in conventional poultry diets and is temporarily allowed in organic poultry feed for lack of natural and organically approved sources of methionine. It has been a challenge to find a natural, sustainable and cost-effective source for methionine which reiterates the pressing need to explore potential alternatives of methionine for organic poultry production. Fish have high concentrations of methionine, but wild-caught fish are expensive and adversely impact wild fish populations. Asian carp (AC) is an invasive species and its utilization has the potential to be used as a natural methionine source. However, to our best knowledge, there is no proven technology to utilize this fish as a methionine source. In this study, we co-extruded Asian carp and soybean meal to form a dry-extruded, methionine-rich AC meal. In order to formulate rations with the novel extruded carp meal, the product was tested on cecectomized roosters for its amino acid digestibility and total metabolizable energy (TMEn). Excreta was collected and the gross energy, protein content of the feces was determined to calculate Total Metabolizable Energy (TME). The methionine content, digestibility and TME values were greater for the extruded AC meal than control diets. Carp meal was subsequently tested as a methionine source in feeds formulated for broilers, and production performance (body weight gain and feed conversion ratio) was assessed in comparison with broilers fed standard commercial diets supplemented with synthetic methionine. In this study, broiler chickens were fed either a control diet with synthetic methionine or a treatment diet with extruded AC meal (8 replicates/treatment; n=30 birds/replicate) from day 1 to 42 days of age. At the end of the trial, data for body weights, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) was analyzed using one-way ANOVA with Fisher LSD test for multiple comparisons. Results revealed that birds on AC diet had body weight gains and feed intake comparable to diets containing synthetic methionine (P > 0.05). Results from the study suggest that invasive AC-derived fish meal could potentially be an effective and inexpensive source of sustainable natural methionine for organic poultry farmers.

Keywords: Asian carp, methionine, organic, poultry

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Lakdar Sadi-Haddad

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The past few years study of very high speed electrical drives have seen a resurgence of interest. An inventory of the number of scientific papers and patents dealing with the subject makes it relevant. In fact democratization of magnetic bearing technology is at the origin of recent developments in high speed applications. These machines have as main advantage a much higher power density than the state of the art. Nevertheless particular attention should be paid to the design of the inverter as well as control and command. Surface mounted permanent magnet synchronous machine is the most appropriate technology to address high speed issues. However, it has the drawback of using a carbon sleeve to contain magnets that could tear because of the centrifugal forces generated in rotor periphery. Carbon fiber is well known for its mechanical properties but it has poor heat conduction. It results in a very bad evacuation of eddy current losses induce in the magnets by time and space stator harmonics. The three-phase inverter is the main harmonic source causing eddy currents in the magnets. In high speed applications such harmonics are harmful because on the one hand the characteristic impedance is very low and on the other hand the ratio between the switching frequency and that of the fundamental is much lower than that of the state of the art. To minimize the impact of these harmonics a first lever is to use strategy of modulation producing low harmonic distortion while the second is to introduce a sinus filter between the inverter and the machine to smooth voltage and current waveforms applied to the machine. Nevertheless, in very high speed machine the interaction of the processes mentioned above may introduce particular harmonics that can irreversibly damage the system: harmonics at the resonant frequency, harmonics at the shaft mode frequency, subharmonics etc. Some studies address these issues but treat these phenomena with separate solutions (specific strategy of modulation, active damping methods ...). The purpose of this paper is to present a complete new active harmonic compensation algorithm based on an improvement of the standard vector control as a global solution to all these issues. This presentation will be based on a complete theoretical analysis of the processes leading to the generation of such undesired harmonics. Then a state of the art of available solutions will be provided before developing the content of a new active harmonic compensation algorithm. The study will be completed by a validation study using simulations and practical case on a high speed machine.

Keywords: active harmonic compensation, eddy current losses, high speed machine

Procedia PDF Downloads 395

Authors: Omer Zvi Shaked

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Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a widespread social problem. Since the 1970's, and due to political changes resulting from the feminist movement, western society has been changing its attitude towards the phenomenon and has been taking an active approach to reduce its magnitude. Enterprises in the form of legislation, awareness and prevention campaigns, women's shelters, and community intervention programs became more prevalent as years progressed. Although many initiatives were found to be productive, the effectiveness of one, however, remained questionable throughout the years: intervention programs for men's intimate violence. Surveys outline two main intervention models for men's intimate violence. The first is the Duluth model, which argued that men are socialized to be dominant - while women are socialized to be subordinate - and men are therefore required by social imperative to enforce, physically if necessary, their dominance. The Duluth model became the chief authorized intervention program, and some states in the US even regulated it as the standard criminal justice program for men's intimate violence. However, meta-analysis findings demonstrated that based on a partner's reports, Duluth treatment completers have 44% recidivism rate, and between 40% and 85% dropout range. The second model is the Cognitive-Behavioral Model (CBT), which is a highly accepted intervention worldwide. The model argues that cognitive misrepresentations of intimate situations precede violent behaviors frequently when anger predisposition exists. Since anger dysregulation mediates between one's cognitive schemes and violent response, anger regulation became the chief purpose of the intervention. Yet, a meta-analysis found only a 56% risk reduction for CBT interventions. It is, therefore, crucial to understand the background behind the domination of both the Duluth model and CBT interventions. This presentation will discuss the ways in which theoretical conceptualizations of men's intimate violence, as well as ideologies, had contributed to the above-mentioned interventions' wide acceptance, despite known lack of scientific and evidential support. First, the presentation will review the prominent interventions for male intimate violence, the Duluth model, and CBT. Second, the presentation will review the prominent theoretical models explaining men's intimate violence: The Patriarchal model, the Abusive Personality model, and the Post-Traumatic Stress model. Third, the presentation will discuss the interrelation between theory and practice, and the nature of affinity between research and practice regarding men's intimate violence. Finally, the presentation will set new directions for further research, aiming to improve intervention's efficiency with men's intimate violence and advance social work practice in the field.

Keywords: intimate partner violence, theory and practice relationship, Duluth, CBT, abusive personality, post-traumatic stress

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Maysoon Nasser Samhan, Somaya Alkiswani, Abdullah Alzibdeh

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Background: Routine lumbar MRIs for back pain may yield normal results despite persistent symptoms, which means the possibility of other causes for this pain, which was not shown on the routine images. Research suggests including coronal STIR imaging to detect additional pathologies like sacroiliitis. Objectives: This study aims to enhance diagnostic accuracy and aid in determining treatment processes for patients with persistent back pain who have normal routine lumbar MRI (T1 and T2 images) by incorporating coronal STIR into the examination. Methods: A prospectively conducted study involving 274 patients, 115 males and 159 females, with an age range of 6–92 years, reviewed their medical records and imaging data following a lumbar spine MRI. This study included patients with back pain and sciatica as their primary complaints, all of whom underwent lumbar spine MRIs at our hospital to identify potential pathologies. Using a GE Signa HD 1.5T MRI System, each patient received a standard MRI protocol that included T1 and T2 sagittal and axial sequences, as well as a coronal STIR sequence. We collected relevant MRI findings, including abnormalities and structural variations, from radiology reports. We classified these findings into tables and documented them as counts and percentages, using Fisher’s exact test to assess differences between categorical variables. We conducted a statistical analysis using Prism GraphPad software version 10.1.2. The study adhered to ethical guidelines, institutional review board approvals, and patient confidentiality regulations. Results: Exclusion of the coronal STIR sequence led to 83 subjects (30.29%) being classified as within normal limits on MRI examination. 36 patients without abnormalities on T1 and T2 sequences showed abnormalities on the coronal STIR sequence, with 26 cases attributed to spinal pathologies and 10 to non-spinal pathologies. In addition to that, Fisher's exact test demonstrated a significant association between sacroiliitis diagnosis and abnormalities identified solely through the coronal STIR sequence (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Implementing coronal STIR imaging as part of routine lumbar MRI protocols has the potential to improve patient care by facilitating a more comprehensive evaluation and management of persistent back pain.

Keywords: magnetic resonance imaging, lumber MRI, radiology, neurology

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Authors: Nahush Modak, Meena Pangarkar, Anand Pathak, Ankita Tamhane

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Background: Breast cancer is the prominent cause of cancer and mortality among women. This study was done to show the statistical analysis of a cohort of over 250 patients detected with breast cancer diagnosed by oncologists using Immunohistochemistry (IHC). IHC was performed by using ER; PR; HER2; Ki-67 antibodies. Materials and methods: Formalin fixed Paraffin embedded tissue samples were obtained by surgical manner and standard protocol was followed for fixation, grossing, tissue processing, embedding, cutting and IHC. The Ventana Benchmark XT machine was used for automated IHC of the samples. Antibodies used were supplied by F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS for windows. Statistical tests performed were chi-squared test and Correlation tests with p<.01. The raw data was collected and provided by National Cancer Insitute, Jamtha, India. Result: Luminal B was the most prevailing molecular subtype of Breast cancer at our institute. Chi squared test of homogeneity was performed to find equality in distribution and Luminal B was the most prevalent molecular subtype. The worse prognostic indicator for breast cancer depends upon expression of Ki-67 and her2 protein in cancerous cells. Our study was done at p <.01 and significant dependence was observed. There exists no dependence of age on molecular subtype of breast cancer. Similarly, age is an independent variable while considering Ki-67 expression. Chi square test performed on Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) statuses of patients and strong dependence was observed in percentage of Ki-67 expression and Her2 (+/-) character which shows that, value of Ki depends upon Her2 expression in cancerous cells (p<.01). Surprisingly, dependence was observed in case of Ki-67 and Pr, at p <.01. This shows that Progesterone receptor proteins (PR) are over-expressed when there is an elevation in expression of Ki-67 protein. Conclusion: We conclude from that Luminal B is the most prevalent molecular subtype at National Cancer Institute, Jamtha, India. There was found no significant correlation between age and Ki-67 expression in any molecular subtype. And no dependence or correlation exists between patients’ age and molecular subtype. We also found that, when the diagnosis is Luminal A, out of the cohort of 257 patients, no patient shows >14% Ki-67 value. Statistically, extremely significant values were observed for dependence of PR+Her2- and PR-Her2+ scores on Ki-67 expression. (p<.01). Her2 is an important prognostic factor in breast cancer. Chi squared test for Her2 and Ki-67 shows that the expression of Ki depends upon Her2 statuses. Moreover, Ki-67 cannot be used as a standalone prognostic factor for determining breast cancer.

Keywords: breast cancer molecular subtypes , correlation, immunohistochemistry, Ki-67 and HR, statistical analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Ainura Tursunalieva, Irene Hudson

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Continuous improvement of both the quality and safety of health care is an important goal in Australia and internationally. The intensive care unit (ICU) receives patients with a wide variety of and severity of illnesses. Accurately identifying patients at risk of developing complications or dying is crucial to increasing healthcare efficiency. Thus, it is essential for clinicians and researchers to have a robust framework capable of evaluating the risk profile of a patient. ICU scoring systems provide such a framework. The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation III and the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II are ICU scoring systems frequently used for assessing the severity of acute illness. These scoring systems collect multiple risk factors for each patient including physiological measurements then render the assessment outcomes of individual risk factors into a single numerical value. A higher score is related to a more severe patient condition. Furthermore, the Mortality Probability Model II uses logistic regression based on independent risk factors to predict a patient’s probability of mortality. An important overlooked limitation of SAPS II and MPM II is that they do not, to date, include interaction terms between a patient’s vital signs. This is a prominent oversight as it is likely there is an interplay among vital signs. The co-existence of certain conditions may pose a greater health risk than when these conditions exist independently. One barrier to including such interaction terms in predictive models is the dimensionality issue as it becomes difficult to use variable selection. We propose an innovative scoring system which takes into account a dependence structure among patient’s vital signs, such as systolic and diastolic blood pressures, heart rate, pulse interval, and peripheral oxygen saturation. Copulas will capture the dependence among normally distributed and skewed variables as some of the vital sign distributions are skewed. The estimated dependence parameter will then be incorporated into the traditional scoring systems to adjust the points allocated for the individual vital sign measurements. The same dependence parameter will also be used to create an alternative copula-based model for predicting a patient’s probability of mortality. The new copula-based approach will accommodate not only a patient’s trajectories of vital signs but also the joint dependence probabilities among the vital signs. We hypothesise that this approach will produce more stable assessments and lead to more time efficient and accurate predictions. We will use two data sets: (1) 250 ICU patients admitted once to the Chui Regional Hospital (Kyrgyzstan) and (2) 37 ICU patients’ agitation-sedation profiles collected by the Hunter Medical Research Institute (Australia). Both the traditional scoring approach and our copula-based approach will be evaluated using the Brier score to indicate overall model performance, the concordance (or c) statistic to indicate the discriminative ability (or area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve), and goodness-of-fit statistics for calibration. We will also report discrimination and calibration values and establish visualization of the copulas and high dimensional regions of risk interrelating two or three vital signs in so-called higher dimensional ROCs.

Keywords: copula, intensive unit scoring system, ROC curves, vital sign dependence

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: Ririh Rahma Ratinghayu, Jayu Pramudya, Nur Aini Masruroh, Shi-Woei Lin

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This research studies pricing strategy in cooperative setting of hotel duopoly selling perishable product under fixed capacity constraint by using the perspective of managers. In hotel revenue management, competitor’s average room rate and occupancy rate should be taken into manager’s consideration in determining pricing strategy to generate optimum revenue. This information is not provided by business intelligence or available in competitor’s website. Thus, Information Sharing (IS) among players might result in improved performance of pricing strategy. IS is widely adopted in the logistics industry, but IS within hospitality industry has not been well-studied. This research put IS as one of cooperative game schemes, besides Mutual Price Setting (MPS) scheme. In off-peak season, hotel manager arranges pricing strategy to offer promotion package and various kinds of discounts up to 60% of full-price to attract customers. Competitor selling homogenous product will react the same, then triggers a price war. Price war which generates lower revenue may be avoided by creating collaboration in pricing strategy to optimize payoff for both players. In MPS cooperative game, players collaborate to set a room rate applied for both players. Cooperative game may avoid unfavorable players’ payoff caused by price war. Researches on horizontal cooperative game in logistics show better performance and payoff for the players, however, horizontal cooperative game in hotel revenue management has not been demonstrated. This paper aims to develop hotel revenue management models under duopoly cooperative schemes (IS & MPS), which are compared to models under non-cooperative scheme too. Each scheme has five models, Capacity Allocation Model; Demand Model; Revenue Model; Optimal Price Model; and Equilibrium Price Model. Capacity Allocation Model and Demand Model employs self-hotel and competitor’s full and discount price as predictors under non-linear relation. Optimal price is obtained by assuming revenue maximization motive. Equilibrium price is observed by interacting self-hotel’s and competitor’s optimal price under reaction equation. Equilibrium is analyzed using game theory approach. The sequence applies for three schemes. MPS Scheme differently aims to optimize total players’ payoff. The case study in which theoretical models are applied observes two hotels offering homogenous product in Indonesia during a year. The Capacity Allocation, Demand, and Revenue Models are built using multiple regression and statistically tested for validation. Case study data confirms that price behaves within demand model in a non-linear manner. IS Models can represent the actual demand and revenue data better than Non-IS Models. Furthermore, IS enables hotels to earn significantly higher revenue. Thus, duopoly hotel players in general, might have reasonable incentives to share information horizontally. During off-peak season, MPS Models are able to predict the optimal equal price for both hotels. However, Nash equilibrium may not always exist depending on actual payoff of adhering or betraying mutual agreement. To optimize performance, horizontal cooperative game may be chosen over non-cooperative game. Mathematical models can be used to detect collusion among business players. Empirical testing can be used as policy input for market regulator in preventing unethical business practices potentially harming society welfare.

Keywords: horizontal cooperative game theory, hotel revenue management, information sharing, mutual price setting

Procedia PDF Downloads 289

Authors: Abulbasit G. Abdulsayid, Zinab F. Abdulla, Asma A. Omer

Abstract:

On the ground that the orifice plate is relatively inexpensive, requires very little maintenance and only calibrated during the occasion of plant turnaround, the orifice plate has turned to be in a real prevalent use in gas industry. Inaccuracy of measurement in the fiscal metering stations may highly be accounted to be the most vital factor for mischarges in the natural gas industry in Libya. A very trivial error in measurement can add up a fast escalating financial burden to the custodian transactions. The unaccounted gas quantity transferred annually via orifice plates in Libya, could be estimated in an extent of multi-million dollars. As the oil and gas wealth is the solely source of income to Libya, every effort is now being exerted to improve the accuracy of existing orifice metering facilities. Discharge coefficient has become pivotal in current researches undertaken in this regard. Hence, increasing the knowledge of the flow field in a typical orifice meter is indispensable. Recently and in a drastic pace, the CFD has become the most time and cost efficient versatile tool for in-depth analysis of fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer of various industrial applications. Getting deeper into the physical phenomena lied beneath and predicting all relevant parameters and variables with high spatial and temporal resolution have been the greatest weighing pros counting for CFD. In this paper, flow phenomena for air passing through an orifice meter were numerically analyzed with CFD code based modeling, giving important information about the effect of orifice plate specifications on the discharge coefficient for three different tappings locations, i.e., flange tappings, D and D/2 tappings compared with vena contracta tappings. Discharge coefficients were paralleled with discharge coefficients estimated by ISO 5167. The influences of orifice plate bore thickness, orifice plate thickness, beveled angle, perpendicularity and buckling of the orifice plate, were all duly investigated. A case of an orifice meter whose pipe diameter of 2 in, beta ratio of 0.5 and Reynolds number of 91100, was taken as a model. The results highlighted that the discharge coefficients were highly responsive to the variation of plate specifications and under all cases, the discharge coefficients for D and D/2 tappings were very close to that of vena contracta tappings which were believed as an ideal arrangement. Also, in general sense, it was appreciated that the standard equation in ISO 5167, by which the discharge coefficient was calculated, cannot capture the variation of the plate specifications and thus further thorough considerations would be still needed.

Keywords: CFD, discharge coefficients, orifice meter, orifice plate specifications

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Authors: Begum Rokeya, Rahelee Zinnat, Fatema Jebunnesa, Israt Ara Hossain, A. Rahman

Abstract:

Background and Aims: Arsenic in drinking water is a global environmental health problem, and the exposure may increase dyslipidemia and cerebrovascular diseases mortalities, most likely through causing atherosclerosis. However, the mechanism of lipid metabolism, atherosclerosis formation, arsenic exposure and impact in pregnancy is still unclear. Recent epidemiological evidences indicate close association between inorganic arsenic exposure via drinking water and Dyslipidemia. However, the exact mechanism of this arsenic-mediated increase in atherosclerosis risk factors remains enigmatic. We explore the association of the effect of arsenic on serum lipid profile in pregnant subjects. Methods: A total 200 pregnant mother screened in this study from arsenic exposed area. Our study group included 100 exposed subjects were cases and 100 Non exposed healthy pregnant were controls requited by a cross-sectional study. Clinical and anthropometric measurements were done by standard techniques. Lipidemic status was assessed by enzymatic endpoint method. Urinary As was measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and adjusted with specific gravity and Arsenic exposure was assessed by the level of urinary arsenic level > 100 μg/L was categorized as arsenic exposed and < 100 μg/L were categorized as non-exposed. Multivariate logistic regression and Student’s t - test was used for statistical analysis. Results: Systolic and diastolic blood pressure both were significantly higher in the Arsenic exposed pregnant subjects compared to the Non-exposed group (p<0.001). Arsenic exposed subjects had 2 times higher chance of developing hypertensive pregnancy (Odds Ratio 2.2). In parallel to the findings in Ar exposed subjects showed significantly higher proportion of triglyceride and total cholesterol and low density of lipo protein when compare to non- arsenic exposed pregnant subjects. Significant correlation of urinary arsenic level was also found with SBP, DBP, TG, T chol and serum LDL-Cholesterol. On multivariate logistic regression showed urinary arsenic had a positive association with DBP, SBP, Triglyceride and LDL-c. Conclusion: In conclusion, arsenic exposure may induce dyslipidemia like atherosclerosis through modifying reverse cholesterol transport in cholesterol metabolism. For decreasing atherosclerosis related mortality associated with arsenic, preventing exposure from environmental sources in early life is an important element.

Keywords: Arsenic Exposure, Dyslipidemia, Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, Serum lipid profile

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Authors: Faozia A. S. Abuhtana, Yahia S. Abujnah, Said O. Gnann

Abstract:

Ultra High Temperature (UHT) processed milk is widely distributed and preferred in numerous countries all over the world due its relatively high quality and long shelf life. Because of the notable high consumption rate of UHT in Libya in addition to negligible studies related to such product on the local level, this study was designed to assess the shelf life of locally produced as well as imported reconstituted sterilized whole milk samples marketed in Tripoli, Libya . Four locally produced vs. three imported brands were used in this study. All samples were stored at room temperature (25± 2C ) for 8 month long period, and subjected to physical, chemical, microbiological and sensory tests. These tests included : measurement of pH, specific gravity, percent acidity, and determination of fat, protein and melamine content. Microbiological tests included total aerobic count, total psychotropic bacteria, total spore forming bacteria and total coliform counts. Results indicated no detection of microbial growth of any type during the study period, in addition to no detection of melamine in all samples. On the other hand, a gradual decline in pH accompanied with gradual increase in % acidity of both locally produced and imported samples was observed. Such changes in both pH and % acidity reached their lowest and highest values respectively during the 24th week of storage. For instance pH values were (6.40, 6.55, 6.55, 6.15) and (6.30, 6.50, 6.20) for local and imported brands respectively. On the other hand, % acidity reached (0.185, 0181, 0170, 0183) and (0180, 0.180, 0.171) at the 24th week for local and imported brands respectively. Similar pattern of decline was also observed in specific gravity, fat and protein content in some local and imported samples especially at later stages of the study. In both cases, some of the recorded pH values, % acidity, sp. gravity and fat content were in violation of the accepted limits set by Libyan standard no. 356 for sterilized milk. Such changes in pH, % acidity and other UHT sterilized milk constituents during storage were coincided with a gradual decrease in the degree of acceptance of the stored milk samples of both types as shown by sensory scores recorded by the panelists. In either case degree of acceptance was significantly low at late stages of storage and most milk samples became relatively unacceptable after the 18th and 20th week for both untrained and trained panelists respectively.

Keywords: UHT milk, shelf life, quality, gravity, bacteria

Procedia PDF Downloads 338