Search results for: energy consumption in hospitals

Authors: Doaa Nounou

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This research examines the public policy energy subsidies reform efforts in Egypt since 2014. Egypt’s widely used energy subsidies have been controversial since they were first introduced, as they inadequately target the poorest part of the population. Also, their effect on economic development and democratic transition became very challenging in recent years. This research argues that although subsidy reform is a highly politicalized issue in democratizing countries, there are still a number of pragmatic public policies that can be applied to make the subsidy system function more efficiently and at the same time decrease inequality which could facilitate a more orderly and peaceful transition to democracy. Therefore, this research attempts to study the role of the executive branch in reforming the subsidy programmes to support the poor and bring about structural changes to achieve social justice and economic growth. This research also attempts to analyze the role of the military and civil society in reforming the subsidy system. Moreover, it attempts to discuss the role of the state media in social mobilization to rationalize consumption and its contribution to subsidies reform.

Keywords: subsidies, public policy, political economy, democratization, equality

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Authors: Peiyin Hung, Katy Kozhimannil, Michelle Casey, Ira Moscovice

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Background/Objective: The loss of obstetric services has been a pressing concern in urban and rural areas nationwide. This study aims to determine factors that contribute to the loss of obstetric care through closures of a hospital or obstetric unit. Methods: Data from 2002-2013 American Hospital Association annual surveys were used to identify hospitals providing obstetric services. We linked these data to Medicare Healthcare Cost Report Information for hospital financial indicators, the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for zip-code level characteristics, and Area Health Resource files for county- level clinician supply measures. A discrete-time multinomial logit model was used to determine contributing factors to obstetric unit or hospital closures. Results: Of 3,551 hospitals providing obstetrics services during 2002-2013, 82% kept units open, 12% stopped providing obstetrics services, and 6% closed down completely. State-level variations existed. Factors that significantly increased hospitals’ probability of obstetric unit closures included lower than 250 annual birth volume (adjusted marginal effects [95% confidence interval]=34.1% [28%, 40%]), closer proximity to another hospital with obstetric services (per 10 miles: -1.5% [-2.4, -0.5%]), being in a county with lower family physician supply (-7.8% [-15.0%, -0.6%), being in a zip code with higher percentage of non-white females (per 10%: 10.2% [2.1%, 18.3%]), and with lower income (per $1,000 income: -0.14% [-0.28%, -0.01%]). Conclusions: Over the past 12 years, loss of obstetric services has disproportionately affected areas served by low-volume urban and rural hospitals, non-white and low-income communities, and counties with fewer family physicians, signaling a need to address maternity care access in these communities.

Keywords: access to care, obstetric care, service line discontinuation, hospital, obstetric unit closures

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Authors: Haiping Zhu

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The purpose of this work-in-progress paper is to explore how the Chinese philosophic-religious tradition of Taoism impacts on the consumption behaviour of contemporary Chinese consumers. Although much cultural research has been conducted on Chinese consumption behaviours, most studies have approached the subject from Western perspectives. Examination of the limited literature indicates a gap in the knowledge of the relationship of traditional Chinese Taoism philosophy and Chinese consumption behaviour. To bridge this gap, this study examines Chinese consumption behaviour at a Taoist-related Chinese religious festival - the DuanWu festival - in order to seek some understanding of how the Taoism philosophic-religious tradition influences Chinese consumption behaviour from the point of view of the individuals involved. It focuses attention on their expression of Taoism cultural values, purchasing experience and subsequent consumption behaviours. This study undertook multiple methods for Taoist case study data collection: accompanied shopping with Taoists before DuanWu Festival; participant observations during DuanWu Festival; and in-depth interviews in order to explore Taoists consumption behaviours at the end of the Festival. Specifically, the finding from the Taoist case study corroborates and details the influence of the Taoism doctrine: man–nature orientation, Fenshui, ecological effect, and ecological knowledge, on their attitudes toward green purchasing behaviour. Findings from this Taoist case study - one of a series of three Chinese philosophic religious tradition case studies - contribute to the deeper understanding of contemporary Chinese consumers from a non-Western viewpoint and offer initial insights for global marketers to differentiate consumer needs and develop effective marketing strategies.

Keywords: consumer behaviour, culture values, green purchase behaviour, Taoism

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Authors: Dina Magdy Abdo, Ayat N. El-Shazly, E. A. Abdel-Aal

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Forward osmosis (FO) is one of the important processes during the wastewater treatment system for environmental remediation and fresh water regeneration. Both Egypt and China are troubled by over millions of tons of wastewater every year, including domestic and industrial wastewater. However, the traditional FO process in wastewater treatment usually suffers low efficiency and high energy consumption because of the continuously diluted draw solution. An additional concentration process is necessary to keep running of FO separation, causing energy waste. Based on the previous study on photothermal membrane, a sun-driven evaporation process is integrated into the draw solution side of FO system. During the sun-driven evaporation, not only the draw solution can be concentrated to maintain a stable and sustainable FO system, but fresh water can be directly separated for regeneration. Solar energy is the ultimate energy source of everything we have on Earth and is, without any doubt, the most renewable and sustainable energy source available to us. Additionally, the FO membrane process is rationally designed to limit the concentration polarization and fouling. The FO membrane’s structure and surface property will be further optimized by the adjustment of doping ratio of controllable nano-materials, membrane formation conditions, and selection of functional groups. A novel kind of nano-composite functional separation membrane with bi-interception layers and high hydrophilicity will be developed for the application in wastewater treatment. So, herein we aim to design a new wastewater treatment system include forward osmosis with high-efficiency energy recovery via the integration of photothermal membrane.

Keywords: forward osmosis, membrane, solar, water treatement

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Authors: A. O. Idris, J. Virgone, A. I. Ibrahim, D. David, E. Vergnault

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In hot countries, the major challenge is the air conditioning. The increase in energy consumption by air conditioning stems from the need to live in more comfortable buildings, which is understandable. But in Djibouti, one of the countries with the most expensive electricity in the world, this need is exacerbated by an architecture that is inappropriate and unsuitable for climatic conditions. This paper discusses the design of the roof which is the surface receiving the most solar radiation. The roof determines the general behavior of the building. The study presents Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling and analysis of the energy performance of a double skin ventilated roof. The particularity of this study is that it considers the climate of Djibouti characterized by hot and humid conditions in winter and very hot and humid in summer. Roof simulations are carried out using the Ansys Fluent software to characterize the flow and the heat transfer induced in the ventilated roof in steady state. This modeling is carried out by comparing the influence of several parameters such as the internal emissivity of the upper surface, the thickness of the insulation of the roof and the thickness of the ventilated channel on heat gain through the roof. The energy saving potential compared to the current construction in Djibouti is also presented.

Keywords: building, double skin roof, CFD, thermo-fluid analysis, energy saving, forced convection, natural convection

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Authors: Titir Bhattacharya, Tanika Chakraborty, Prabal K. De

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Maternal and child health continue to be a significant policy focus in developing countries, including India. An emerging model in health care is the creation of public and private partnerships. Since the construction of physical infrastructure is costly, governments at various levels have tried to implement social health insurance schemes where a trust calculates insurance premiums and medical payments. Typically, qualifying families get full subsidization of the premium and get access to private hospitals, in addition to low cost public hospitals, for their tertiary care needs. We analyze one such pioneering social insurance scheme in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP). The Rajiv Aarogyasri program (RA) was introduced by the Government of AP on a pilot basis in 2007 and implemented in 2008. In this paper, we first examine the extent to which access to reproductive health care changed. For example, the RA scheme reimburses hospital deliveries leading us to expect an increase in institutional deliveries, particularly in private hospitals. Second, we expect an increase in institutional deliveries to also improve child health outcomes. Hence, we estimate if the program improved infant and child mortality. We use District Level Health Survey data to create annual birth cohorts from 2000-2015. Since AP was the only state in which such a state insurance program was implemented, the neighboring states constituted a plausible control group. Combined with the policy timing, and the year of birth, we employ a difference-indifference strategy to identify the effects of RA on the residents of AP. We perform several checks against threats to identification, including testing for pre-treatment trends between the treatment and control states. We find that the policy significantly lowered infant and child mortality in AP. We also find that deliveries in private hospitals increased, and government hospitals decreased, showing a substitution effect of the relative price change. Finally, as expected, out-of-pocket costs declined for the treatment group. However, we do not find any significant effects for usual preventive care such as vaccination, showing that benefits of insurance schemes targeted at the tertiary level may not trickle down to the primary care level.

Keywords: public health insurance, maternal and child health, public-private choice

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Authors: Benhaddadi M., Déry D.

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Electric motors are the single biggest consumer of electricity, and the consumption will have more than to double by 2050. Meanwhile, the existing technologies offer the potential to reduce the motor energy demand by up to 30 %, whereas the know-how to realise energy savings is not extensively applied. That is why the authors first conducted a detailed analysis of the regulation of the electric motor market in North America To illustrate the colossal energy savings potential permitted by the VFD, the authors have equipped experimental setup, based on centrifugal pump, simultaneously equipped with regulating throttle valves and variable frequency drive VFD. The obtained experimental results for 1.5 HP motor pump are extended to another motor powers, as centrifugal pumps that are different in power may have similar operational characteristics if they are located in a similar kind of process, permitting the simulations for 5 HP and 100 HP motors. According to the obtained results, VFDs tend to be most cost-effective when fitted to larger motor pumps, in addition to higher duty cycle of the motor and relative time operating at lower than full load. The energy saving permitted by the VFD use is huge, and the payback period for drive investment is short. Nonetheless, it’s important to highlight that there is no general rule of thumb that can be used to obtain the impact of the relative time operating at lower than full load. Indeed, in terms of energy-saving differences, 50 % flow regulation is tremendously better than 75 % regulation, but a slightly enhanced relative to 25 %. Two main distinct reasons can explain this somewhat not anticipated results: the characteristics of the process and the drop in efficiency when motor is operating at low speed.

Keywords: motor, drive, energy efficiency, centrifugal pump

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Authors: Pradip Lingfa, L. M. Das, S. N. Naik

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In the last three decades the world has been confronting an energy crisis caused by the decreased of fossil resources, and increased of environmental problems. This situation resulted in a search for an alternative fuel. Non-edible vegetable oils are promising sources for producing liquid fuels. In the present experimental investigation, the engine tests were carried out for performance and exhaust emissions on 2.5 L Turbo-charged diesel engine fuelled with 5% biodiesel blend obtained from non-edible vegetable oils such as Jatropha, Karanja, and Castor Seeds. The engine tests were carried out at full throttle position with various engine speeds of 1500, 1750, 2000, 2250, 2750 and 3000 rpm respectively. After test, it was observed that 5% Jatropha biodiesel blend have highest brake power of 46.65 kW and less brake specific fuel consumptions of 225.8 kg/kW-hr compared to other two biodiesel blends of brake power of 45.99 kW, 45.81 kW and brake specific fuel consumption of 234.34, 236.55 kg/kW-hr respectively. The brake specific fuel consumption of biodiesel blends increase at increasing speeds for all biodiesel blends. NOx emissions for biodiesel blends were observed to be higher compared to diesel fuel during the entire range of engine operations. The emission characteristics like CO, HC and smoke were lowered at all engine speed conditions compared to diesel fuel.

Keywords: biodiesel blend, brake power, brake specific fuel consumption, emission, performance

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Authors: Emine Öğüt, Mehtap Öztürk, Adem Öğüt

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Affective commitment is defined as a strong belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values. Organizational justice is an antecedent of the organizational commitment and it has the potential to create powerful benefits for organizations and employees alike. When perceived unfairness among employees increases, affective commitment decreases and absenteeism increases accordingly. In this research, relationships between organizational justice perception, affective commitment and absenteeism is analysed. In this regard, a field study has been conducted over the physicians working in the hospitals of the Health Ministry and University Hospitals in the province of Konya. The partial least squares (PLS) method is used to analyse the survey data. The findings of the research shows that there is a positive statistically significant relationship between organizational justice perception and affective commitment while there is a negative statistically significant relationship between organizational justice and absenteeism.

Keywords: organizational justice, affective commitment, absenteeism, healthcare management

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Authors: John Okanda Okwaro

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Carbon (IV) oxide (CO₂) is emitted majorly from fossil fuel combustion and industrial production. The sources of interest of carbon (IV) oxide in the study area are mining activities, transport systems, and industrial processes. This study is aimed at building models that will help in monitoring the emissions within the study area. Three scenarios were discussed, namely: pessimistic scenario, business-as-usual scenario, and optimistic scenario. The result showed that there was a reduction in carbon dioxide concentration by approximately 50.5 ppm between March 2020 and January 2021 inclusive. This is majorly due to reduced human activities that led to decreased consumption of energy. Also, the CO₂ concentration trend follows the business-as-usual scenario (BAU) path. From the models, the pessimistic, business-as-usual, and optimistic scenarios give CO₂ concentration of about 545.9 ppm, 408.1 ppm, and 360.1 ppm, respectively, on December 31st, 2021. This research helps paint the picture to the policymakers of the relationship between energy sources and CO₂ emissions. Since the reduction in CO₂ emission was due to decreased use of fossil fuel as there was a decrease in economic activities, then if Kenya relies more on green energy than fossil fuel in the post-COVID-19 period, there will be more CO₂ emission reduction. That is, the CO₂ concentration trend is likely to follow the optimistic scenario path, hence a reduction in CO₂ concentration of about 48 ppm by the end of the year 2021. This research recommends investment in solar energy by energy-intensive companies, mine machinery and equipment maintenance, investment in electric vehicles, and doubling tree planting efforts to achieve the 10% cover.

Keywords: forecasting, greenhouse gas, green energy, hierarchical data format

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Authors: Jeffrey Cacho, Sherwin Reyes

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The research targeted enhancing energy utilization and reducing waste in roasting processes, particularly in Camarines Norte, where Bounty Agro Ventures Incorporated dominates through brands such as Chooks-to-Go, Uling Roaster, and Reyal. Competitors like Andok’s and Baliwag Lechon Manok also share the market. A staggering 90% of these businesses use traditional glass-type roasting furnaces fueled by wood charcoal, leading to significant energy loss and inefficiency due to suboptimal heat conservation. Only a mere 10% employ electric ovens. Many available furnaces, typically constructed from industrial materials through welding and other metal joining techniques, are not energy-efficient. Cost-prohibitive commercial options compel some micro-enterprises to fabricate their furnaces. The study proposed developing an eco-friendly, cost-effective roasting furnace with excellent heat retention. The distinct design aimed to reduce cooks' heat exposure and overall fuel consumption. The furnace features an angle bar frame, a combustion chute for fuel burning, a heat-retaining clay-walled chamber, and a top cover, all contributing to improved energy savings and user safety.

Keywords: biomass roasting furnace, heat storage, combustion chute, start-up roasting business

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Authors: Neva Leposa

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While environmental policy makers are trying to increase pro-environmental behavior among tourists or outdoor recreation users through changing users’ attitudes, the focus of this paper is turned to the importance of so far marginalized – materiality in the users’ practices. The case study of leisure boating in Sweden used in this paper demonstrates how through the change of materiality (i.e. equipment and physical size of the leisure boats) emergent affordances in materially bound practices are transformed, and the boater-boat-sea nexus is redefined. Participatory observation and in-depth interviewing of Swedish West Coast visitors reveal two stories, first one points to the fact that sail boating practice is becoming increasingly motorized and second one describes how leisure boats are becoming increasingly perceived and used as mobile summer houses. Hence, such practice increases energy and matter consumption. This paper describes how that change happens through practice theory and affordance theory, thus points to visibility and the importance of materiality in shaping human nature nexus. Boating practice changes through the change of the materiality of the boats. In particular, energy consumption increases through the change of engagement with the matter. This study puts focus environmental attitudes focused strivings in question, for the fact that it is too individual-centered and lacks contextual understanding of the materially bound practices and may fail in the very thing it is aiming to do - reduce the environmental impacts.

Keywords: practice theory, affordance theory, leisure boating, materiality

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Authors: Hasan Yildizhan

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According to the Solar Energy Potential Atlas (GEPA) prepared by Turkish Ministry of Energy, Hakkari is ranked first in terms of sunshine duration and it is ranked eighth in terms of solar radiation energy. Accordingly, Hakkari has a rich potential of investment with regard to solar radiation energy. The part of the solar radiation energy arriving on the surface of the earth which is transposable to useful work is determined by means of exergy analysis. In this study, the radiation exergy values for Hakkari have been calculated and evaluated by making use of the monthly average solar radiation energy and temperature values measured by General Directorate of State Meteorology.

Keywords: solar radiation exergy, Hakkari, solar energy potential, Turkey

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Authors: Angel Fabian Mijangos, Jaime Alvarez Quintana

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Waste heat occurs in many areas of daily life because world’s energy consumption is inefficient. In general, generating 1 watt of power requires about 3 watt of energy input and involves dumping into the environment the equivalent of about 2 watts of power in the form of heat. Therefore, an attractive and sustainable solution to the energy problem would be the development of highly efficient thermoelectric devices which could help to recover this waste heat. This work presents the influence on the thermoelectric properties of metallic, semiconducting, and dielectric nanoparticles added into the grain boundaries of polycrystalline antimony (Sb) and bismuth (Bi) matrixes in order to obtain p- and n-type thermoelectric materials, respectively, by hot pressing methods. Results show that thermoelectric properties are significantly affected by the electrical and thermal nature as well as concentration of nanoparticles. Nevertheless, by optimizing the amount of the nanoparticles on the grain boundaries, an oscillatory behavior in ZT as function of the concentration of the nanoscale constituents is present. This effect is due to energy filtering mechanism which module the quantity of charge transport in the system and affects thermoelectric properties. Accordingly, a ZTmax can be accomplished through the addition of the appropriate amount of nanoparticles into the grain boundaries region. In this case, till three orders of amelioration on ZT is reached in both systems compared with the reference sample of each one. This approach paves the way to pursuit high performance thermoelectric materials in a simple way and opens a new route towards the enhancement of the thermoelectric figure of merit.

Keywords: energy filtering, grain boundaries, thermoelectric, nanostructured materials

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Authors: Yu-Ching Cheng, Yi-Kai Juan, Daniel Castro

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Energy consumption of buildings has been an increasing concern for researchers and practitioners in the last decade. Sustainable building renovation can reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions; meanwhile, it also can extend existing buildings useful life and facilitate environmental sustainability while providing social and economic benefits to the society. School buildings are different from other designed spaces as they are more crowded and host the largest portion of daily activities and occupants. Strategies that focus on reducing energy use but also improve the students’ learning environment becomes a significant subject in sustainable school buildings development. A decision model is developed in this study to solve complicated and large-scale combinational, discrete and determinate problems such as school renovation projects. The task of this model is to automatically search for the most cost-effective (lower cost and higher quality) renovation strategies. In this study, the search process of optimal school building renovation solutions is by nature a large-scale zero-one programming determinate problem. A* is suitable for solving deterministic problems due to its stable and effective search process, and genetic algorithms (GA) provides opportunities to acquire global optimal solutions in a short time via its indeterminate search process based on probability. These two algorithms are combined in this study to consider trade-offs between renovation cost and improved quality, this decision model is able to evaluate current school environmental conditions and suggest an optimal scheme of sustainable school buildings renovation strategies. Through adoption of this decision model, school managers can overcome existing limitations and transform school buildings into spaces more beneficial to students and friendly to the environment.

Keywords: decision model, school buildings, sustainable renovation, genetic algorithm, A* search algorithm

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Authors: Yuguang Gao, Mingtao Deng

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The integration of independently operating hospitals into a unified healthcare service system has become a strategic imperative in the pursuit of hospitals’ high-quality development. Central to the concept of group governance over such transformation, exemplified by a collaborative medical alliance, is the delineation of shared value, vision, and goals. Given the inherent disparity in capabilities among hospitals within the alliance, particularly in the treatment of different diseases characterized by Disease Related Groups (DRG) in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and resource utilization, this study aims to address the centralized decision-making of intra-hospital patient referral within the medical alliance to enhance the overall production and quality of service provided. We first introduce the notion of production utility, where a higher production utility for a hospital implies better performance in treating patients diagnosed with that specific DRG group of diseases. Then, a Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) framework is established for patient referral among hospitals, where patient flow modeling incorporates a queueing system with fixed capacities for each hospital. The simulation study begins with a two-member alliance. The pivotal strategy examined is a "whether-to-refer" decision triggered when the bed usage rate surpasses a predefined threshold for either hospital. Then, the decision encompasses referring patients to the other hospital based on DRG groups’ production utility differentials as well as bed availability. The objective is to maximize the total production utility of the alliance while minimizing patients’ average length of stay and turnover rate. Thus the parameter under scrutiny is the bed usage rate threshold, influencing the efficacy of the referral strategy. Extending the study to a three-member alliance, which could readily be generalized to multi-member alliances, we maintain the core setup while introducing an additional “which-to-refer" decision that involves referring patients with specific DRG groups to the member hospital according to their respective production utility rankings. The overarching goal remains consistent, for which the bed usage rate threshold is once again a focal point for analysis. For the two-member alliance scenario, our simulation results indicate that the optimal bed usage rate threshold hinges on the discrepancy in the number of beds between member hospitals, the distribution of DRG groups among incoming patients, and variations in production utilities across hospitals. Transitioning to the three-member alliance, we observe similar dependencies on these parameters. Additionally, it becomes evident that an imbalanced distribution of DRG diagnoses and further disparity in production utilities among member hospitals may lead to an increase in the turnover rate. In general, it was found that the intra-hospital referral mechanism enhances the overall production utility of the medical alliance compared to individual hospitals without partnership. Patients’ average length of stay is also reduced, showcasing the positive impact of the collaborative approach. However, the turnover rate exhibits variability based on parameter setups, particularly when patients are redirected within the alliance. In conclusion, the re-structuring of diagnostic disease groups within the medical alliance proves instrumental in improving overall healthcare service outcomes, providing a compelling rationale for the government's promotion of patient referrals within collaborative medical alliances.

Keywords: collaborative medical alliance, disease related group, patient referral, simulation

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Authors: Tulika Bhattacharyya, Suhita Chopra Chatterjee

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Family caregivers are vital in providing physical and emotional care to the aged. Providing care to aged involves physical as well as psycho-socio-economic challenges, compels the caregiver to fit in manifold roles, feel overburdened; which in turn requires them to change their priorities in life. The study conducted on family caregivers of the hospitalized elderly explores caregiver’s burden using Zarit Burden Scale (ZBS). The data has been collected from two randomly selected Multispecialty Hospitals in Kolkata (India), after obtaining ethical clearance from the Institutional Review Board of both the hospitals. The predictors of burden were also assessed using interview schedules. Among fifty-seven caregivers who participated in the study, caregiver’s burden was identified among thirty respondents with twenty-six having mild to moderate burden and four having moderate to severe burden. Majority of the caregivers were found to be female, reflecting the gendered nature of caregiving. Family caregivers spent more than six hours per day on caregiving, which severely disturbed their work-life including loss of job. The study revealed that the caregivers’ marital status, family structure, academic qualification, occupation and time spent on caregiving are related to family caregivers’ burden. The burden of care giving was accentuated by poor access to information, counseling, and lack of supportive services. The paper concludes by indicating the need for greater state interventions for caregivers.

Keywords: caregivers burden, family caregiving, hospitalized elderly, elderly in Kolkata, India, Zarit Burden Scale

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Authors: Kobamelo Mashaba

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The molten slag has a high substantial temperatures range between 1723-1923, carrying a huge amount of useful energy for reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions under the heat recovery process. Therefore in this study, we investigated the performance of the modified crank Nicolson method for a delayed partial differential equation on the heat recovery of molten slag in the metallurgical mining environment. It was proved that the proposed method converges quickly compared to the classic method with the existence of a unique solution. It was inferred from numerical result that the proposed methodology is more viable and profitable for the mining industry.

Keywords: delayed partial differential equation, modified Crank-Nicolson Method, molten slag, heat recovery, parabolic equation

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Authors: Paulina Clara Appiah, Kofi Issah, Timothy Letsa, Kennedy Nartey, Amanua Chinbuah, Adoma Dwomo-Fokuo, Jacqeline G. Asibey

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Background: The Every Newborn Action Plan provides evidence–based interventions to end preventable deaths in high burden countries. Brong Ahafo Region is one of ten regions in Ghana with less than half of its district hospitals having sick newborn units. Facility-based neonatal care is not prioritized and under-funded, and there is also inadequate knowledge and competence to manage the sick. The aim of this intervention was to make available in–patient care for sick newborns in all 19 district hospitals through the strengthening of facility-based systems. Methods: With the development and dissemination of the National Newborn Strategy and Action Plan 2014-2018, the country was able to attract PATH which provided the region with basic resuscitation equipment, supported hospital providers’ capacity building in Helping Babies Breathe, Essential Care of Every Baby, Infection Prevention and Management and held a symposia on managing the sick newborn. Newborn advocacy was promoted through newborn champions at the facility and community levels. Hospital management was then able to mobilize resources from communities, corporate organizations and from internally generated funds; created or expanded sick newborn care units and provided essential medicines and equipment. Kangaroo Mother Care was initiated in 6 hospitals. Pediatric specialist outreach services initiated comprised telephone consultations, teaching ward rounds and participating in perinatal death audits meetings. Newborn data capture and management was improved through the provision and training on the use of standard registers provided from the national level. Results: From February 2015 to November 2017, hospitals with sick newborn units increased from 7 to 19 (37%-100%). 180 pieces each of newborn ventilation bags and masks size 0, 1 and penguin suction bulbs were distributed to the hospitals, in addition to 20 newborn mannequin sets and 90 small clinical reminder posters. 802 providers (96.9%) were trained in resuscitation, of which 96% were successfully followed up in 6 weeks, 91% in 6 months and 80% in 12 months post-training. 53 clinicians (65%) were trained and mentored to manage sick newborns. 56 specialist teaching ward rounds were conducted. Data completeness improved from 92.6% - 99.9%. Availability of essential medicines improved from 11% to 100%. Number of hospital cots increased from 116 to 248 (214%). Cot occupancy rate increased from 57.4% to 92.5%. Hospitals with phototherapy equipment increased from 0 to 12 (63%). Hospitals with incubators increased from 1 to 12 (5%-63%). Newborn deaths among admissions reduced from 6.3% to 5.4%. Conclusion: Access to in-patient care increased significantly. Newborn advocacy successfully mobilized resources required for strengthening facility –based systems.

Keywords: facility-based systems, Ghana, in-patient care, newborn advocacy

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Authors: Gökçen A. Çiftçioğlu, M. A. Neşet Kadırgan, Figen Kadırgan

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Solar energy, since it is available every day, is seen as one of the most valuable renewable energy resources. Thus, the energy of sun should be efficiently used in various applications. The most known applications that use solar energy are heating water and spaces. High efficiency solar collectors need appropriate selective surfaces to absorb the heat. Selective surfaces (Selektif-Sera) used in this study are applied to flat collectors, which are produced by a roll to roll cost effective coating of nano nickel layers, developed in Selektif Teknoloji Co. Inc. Efficiency of flat collectors using Selektif-Sera absorbers are calculated in collaboration with Institute for Solar Technik Rapperswil, Switzerland. The main cause of high energy consumption in industry is mostly caused from low temperature level processes. There is considerable effort in research to minimize the energy use by renewable energy sources such as solar energy. A feasibility study will be presented to obtain the potential of solar thermal energy utilization in the textile industry using these solar collectors. For the feasibility calculations presented in this study, textile dyeing and finishing factory located at Kahramanmaras is selected since the geographic location was an important factor. Kahramanmaras is located in the south east part of Turkey thus has a great potential to have solar illumination much longer. It was observed that, the collector area is limited by the available area in the factory, thus a hybrid heating generating system (lignite/solar thermal) was preferred in the calculations of this study to be more realistic. During the feasibility work, the calculations took into account the preheating process, where well waters heated from 15 °C to 30-40 °C by using the hot waters in heat exchangers. Then the preheated water was heated again by high efficiency solar collectors. Economic comparison between the lignite use and solar thermal collector use was provided to determine the optimal system that can be used efficiently. The optimum design of solar thermal systems was studied depending on the optimum collector area. It was found that the solar thermal system is more economic and efficient than the merely lignite use. Return on investment time is calculated as 5.15 years.

Keywords: energy, renewable energy, selective surface, solar collector

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Authors: Benjamin Mugisha Bugingo

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Healthcare staffhas been considered as asignificant pillar to the health care system. However, the contest of human resources for health in terms of the turnover of health workers in Uganda has been more distinct in the latest years. The objective of the paper, therefore, were to investigate the influence Role Human resource management functions in on employeeperformance of professional health workers in public district hospitals in Kampala. The study objectives were: to establish the effect of performance management function, financialincentives, non-financial incentives, participation, and involvement in the decision-making on the employee performance of professional health workers in public district hospitals in Kampala. The study was devised in the social exchange theory and the equity theory. This study adopted a descriptive research design using quantitative approaches. The study used a cross-sectional research design with a mixed-methods approach. With a population of 402 individuals, the study considered a sample of 252 respondents, including doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, and dentists from 3 district hospitals. The study instruments entailed a questionnaire as a quantitative data collection tool and interviews and focus group discussions as qualitative data gathering tools. To analyze quantitative data, descriptive statistics were used to assess the perceived status of Human resource management functions and the magnitude of intentions to stay, and inferential statistics were used to show the effect of predictors on the outcome variable by plotting a multiple linear regression. Qualitative data were analyzed in themes and reported in narrative and verbatim quotes and were used to complement descriptive findings for a better understanding of the magnitude of the study variables. The findings of this study showed a significant and positive effect of performance management function, financialincentives, non-financial incentives, and participation and involvement in decision-making on employee performance of professional health workers in public district hospitals in Kampala. This study is expected to be a major contributor for the improvement of the health system in the country and other similar settings as it has provided the insights for strategic orientation in the area of human resources for health, especially for enhanced employee performance in relation with the integrated human resource management approach

Keywords: human resource functions, employee performance, employee wellness, profecial workers

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Authors: Astari Indarsari, Bastian B. Purba, Muhammad Fadlilah

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In Indonesian climates that have the tropic climate, one of the potential energy sources is coming from solar energy. From the solar energy, we can convert it into the others energy, such as electrical energy. In this topic, we want to do the research about Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC). The materials that we use as sensitizer is anthocyanin that we extract from apple skin, because the anthocyanin is one of the most effective as a sensitizer for DSSC. The variable in this research is pH. The pH that we used are pH 0,5; pH 1; pH 1,5; pH 2; pH 2,5. The method is electrolysis, and we use TiO2 as sensitized material. The hypothesis from this research is the smaller pH can make higher the efficiency of the absorbent of the solar energy.

Keywords: anthocyanin, TiO2, DSSC, apple skin

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Authors: Chonmapat Torasa

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This paper presents the performance of electricity generation and consumption from solar generator installed at Rajabhat Suan Sunandha’s learning center in Samutsongkram. The result from the experiment showed that solar cell began to work and distribute the current into the system when the solar energy intensity was 340 w/m2, starting from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm (duration of 8 hours). The highest intensity read during the experiment was 1,051.64w/m2. The solar power was 38.74kWh/day. The electromotive force from solar cell averagely was 93.6V. However, when connecting solar cell with the battery charge controller system, the voltage was dropped to 69.07V. After evaluating the power distribution ability and electricity load of tested solar cell, the result showed that it could generate power to 11 units of 36-wattfluorescent lamp bulbs, which was altogether 396W. In the meantime, the AC to DC power converter generated 3.55A to the load, and gave 781VA.

Keywords: solar cell, solar-cell power generating system, computer, systems engineering

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Authors: Muhamad Rasyid Angkotasan

Abstract:

Eco-village is an ecosystem where the countryside or urban communities that are inside trying to integrate the social environment with low impact way of life to achieve this, they integrate the various aspects of ecological design, agriculture permanent, ecological building and the alternative energy. Eco-village in question is eco-village conducted on of marine tourism areas, where natural resources are very good, without ignoring the global issue of climate change. Desperately needed a source of energy, which can support the fulfillment of energy needs in a sustainable. Fulfillment of energy sources that offer is the use or application of environmentally friendly technologies of usage is still very low in Indonesia, the technology namely the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), OTEC is expected to be a source of the alternative energy, which can support the goal of eco-village of the region's of marine tourism.

Keywords: eco village, saving energy, ocean thermal energy conversion, environmental engineering

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Authors: Patrick T. Aquino, Jimwel B. Balunday, Cephas Olivier V. Cabatit, Mary Grace Q. Razonable

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In 2023, the Philippine Department of Energy (PDOE) published the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Plan (NEECP) and Roadmap 2023-2050 to be the basis of a comprehensive program for the efficient supply and economical use of energy. The building sector, as one of the most energy-intensive sectors, shall conform to the energy-conserving design to reduce the use of energy. The concept of Net-Zero Energy Building (NZEB), and its definitions promote to improve energy efficiency of the buildings. The PDOE partnered with Meralco Power Academy to survey and conduct focus group discussions to establish the readiness into NZE-aspiring buildings of government entities. This paper outlines important NZEB principles, best practices from other countries, issues and gaps relating to energy management program, and the recommendations on the development of a framework for NZEB under government building in the Philippines. Results revealed the limitation on specific data to establish a baseline building energy efficiency performance index and significant energy uses; the need to update the Guidelines for Energy Conservation Design of Buildings, including NZEB definition and requirements; appropriate enabling infrastructures and programs to transition government buildings into NZE-aspiring buildings to Nearly Zero Energy Buildings by 2050.

Keywords: NZEB, energy efficiency, buildings, Philippines

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Authors: Timothy J. Considine, Edward J. M. Manderson

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This paper develops an econometric forecasting system of energy demand coupled with engineering-economic models of energy supply. The framework is used to quantify the impact of state-level renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) achieved predominately with solar generation on electricity rates, electricity consumption, and environmental quality. We perform the analysis using Arizona’s RPS as a case study. We forecast energy demand in Arizona out to 2035, and find by this time the state will require an additional 35 million MWh of electricity generation. If Arizona implements its RPS when supplying this electricity demand, we find there will be a substantial increase in electricity rates (relative to a business-as-usual scenario of reliance on gas-fired generation). Extending the current regime of tax credits can greatly reduce this increase, at the taxpayers’ expense. We find that by 2025 Arizona’s RPS will implicitly abate carbon dioxide emissions at a cost between $101 and $135 per metric ton, and by 2035 abatement costs are between $64 and $112 per metric ton (depending on the future evolution of nature gas prices).

Keywords: electricity demand, renewable portfolio standard, solar, carbon dioxide

Procedia PDF Downloads 464

Authors: N. Chérif, T. Allaoui, M. Benasla, H. Chaib

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Industrialization and population growth are the prime factors for which the consumption of electricity is steadily increasing. Thus, to have a balance between production and consumption, it is necessary at first to increase the number of power plants, lines and transformers, which implies an increase in cost and environmental degradation. As a result, it is now important to have mesh networks and working close to the limits of stability in order to meet these new requirements. The transient stability studies involve large disturbances such as short circuits, loss of work or production group. The consequence of these defects can be very serious, and can even lead to the complete collapse of the network. This work focuses on the regulation means that networks can help to keep their stability when submitted to strong disturbances. The magnetic energy storage-based superconductor (SMES) comprises a superconducting coil short-circuited on it self. When such a system is connected to a power grid is able to inject or absorb the active and reactive power. This system can be used to improve the stability of power systems.

Keywords: short-circuit, power oscillations, multiband PSS, power system, SMES, transient stability

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Authors: Asmir Gogic, Aljo Mujcic, Sandra Ibric, Nermin Suljanovic

Abstract:

Ubiquity of natural disasters during last few decades have risen serious questions towards the prediction of such events and human safety. Every disaster regardless its proportion has a precursor which is manifested as a disruption of some environmental parameter such as temperature, humidity, pressure, vibrations and etc. In order to anticipate and monitor those changes, in this paper we propose an overall system for disaster prediction and monitoring, based on wireless sensor network (WSN). Furthermore, we introduce a modified and simplified WSN routing protocol built on the top of the trickle routing algorithm. Routing algorithm was deployed using the bluetooth low energy protocol in order to achieve low power consumption. Performance of the WSN network was analyzed using a real life system implementation. Estimates of the WSN parameters such as battery life time, network size and packet delay are determined. Based on the performance of the WSN network, proposed system can be utilized for disaster monitoring and prediction due to its low power profile and mesh routing feature.

Keywords: bluetooth low energy, disaster prediction, mesh routing protocols, wireless sensor networks

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Fatima Hassan Mohamed Ahmed

Abstract:

This study discusses the possibility techniques of using wind energy to operate the aeration devices which are used in the intensive fish farm for Nile Tilapia. The main objective is to show at what expense this renewable energy source can increase the production. The study was done for the oxygen consumption by 1 kg fishes of tilapia put in 1 m3. The theoretical study shows that the fishes consume around 0.5 gO2/hour when using paddle wheels with average oxygen transfer rate 2.6 kgO2/kW.h comparing this with dissolved oxygen consumed by fishes it was found that 1 kW will aerate 5200 m3 and the same power will aerate 1800 m3 when using air diffuser system with average oxygen transfer rate 0.9 kgO2/kW.h, this power can be supplied by the wind turbine with dimension with a tower 6 m high and diameter 2.7 m.

Keywords: aeration, fish pond, wind, power

Procedia PDF Downloads 620

Authors: Maria Anjelica P. Ancheta, Roberto S. Soriano, Erickson L. Llaguno

Abstract:

The main purpose of this study is to examine whether there is a significant relationship between socio-economic class and household water supply demand, through determining or verifying the factors governing water use consumption patterns of households from a sampling from different socio-economic classes in Metro Manila, the national capital region of the Philippines. This study is also an opportunity to augment the lack of local academic literature due to the very few publications on urban household water demand after 1999. In over 600 Metro Manila households, a rapid survey was conducted on their average monthly water consumption and habits on household water usage. The questions in the rapid survey were based on an extensive review of literature on urban household water demand. Sample households were divided into socio-economic classes A-B and C-D. Cluster analysis, dummy coding and outlier tests were done to prepare the data for regression analysis. Subsequently, backward stepwise regression analysis was used in order to determine different statistical models to describe the determinants of water consumption. The key finding of this study is that the socio-economic class of a household in Metro Manila is a significant factor in water consumption. A-B households consume more water in contrast to C-D families based on the mean average water consumption for A-B and C-D households are 36.75 m3 and 18.92 m3, respectively. The most significant proxy factors of socio-economic class that were related to household water consumption were examined in order to suggest improvements in policy formulation and household water demand management.

Keywords: household water uses, socio-economic classes, urban planning, urban water demand management

Procedia PDF Downloads 279