Search results for: health integrated systems

Authors: Muntanavadee Maytapattana

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This research aims to study the effects of the Parent Training Program for Obesity Reduction (PTPOR) on child waist circumference and health behaviors of pre-school children at the Samut-Songkhram kindergarten school, Samut-Songkhram province, Thailand. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of the PTPOR on child waist circumference and health behaviors of the pre-school children. The conceptual framework of this study is developed on the basis of the Ecological Systems Theory (EST), not only do the individual factors such as child characteristics and child risk factors contribute to the child’s weight status, but also other factors such as parenting style and family characteristics, as well as community and demographic factors. This research is a quasi-experimental study. Participants were pre-school overweight and obese children and their parents. Forty-one parent-child dyads were recruited into the program. Parents participated in two sessions including an educational session and a group discussion session. Research methodology uses Paired-Samples t-test to determine the difference between groups in the mean scores of the outcome variables of the children and parents. The research results show that there was significant difference between child waist circumferences mean score at the baseline and finishing the program at the 0.01 level (p = 0.001), mean score of the child waist circumference was decrease after finishing the program. And there was no significant difference between child exercise health behaviors mean score at the baseline and finishing the program at the 0.05 level; however, mean score of the child exercise behavior was increase after finishing the program. Meanwhile, there was significant difference between child dietary health behavior mean score at the baseline and finishing the program at the 0.01 level (p = 0.001), mean score of the child dietary was increase after finishing the program.

Keywords: PTPOR, child waist circumference, child health behaviors, pre-school children

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Authors: Kanda Janyam, Piyaporn Vijit

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Background: As a consequence of sustained declines in fertility and mortality during the last three decades of the 20th century, Thailand faces a rapidly growing population of older persons. This demographic change directly affect Thailand workforce. Therefore, the study of health promotion behaviour of the older employees will benefit the employers as they can then develop the preparation for promoting well-being in older persons. Purpose: The current study aims to investigate health promotion behaviour and factors related to health promotion behaviour of older employees in factory. Methodology: The research instrument was questionnaire on health promotion behaviour and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire was launched with 326 employees aged between 45-59 years in three factories in Songkhla Province, southern Thailand. The data collection started in December 2011. The data were analysed with mean, standard deviation, and correlation. Results: The results revealed that overall health promotion behaviour of the older employees in factory was at a high level. Moreover, when considered by aspect, it was found that their responsibility for health, nutrition, success in life, interpersonal relationship were at a high level while stress management, and exercise were at a moderate level. The results from correlation analysis indicated that the overall health promotion behaviour was positively related to knowledge of health promotion behaviour, attitude toward health promotion behaviour, health perception, the policy of health promotion, participation in health promotion activities, convenience in obtaining health promotion services, health resources, advice from people supporting health, and information received from the media. In addition, the results of the interviews with four key informants helped to confirm the factors related to health promotion behaviour of older employees in factory. Therefore, health promotion for elderly employees in factory is likely to be successful, if the support is given to the four health promotion factors that are divided into: leading factors consisting of attitude toward health promotion behaviour, and health perception, and supporting factors consisting of advice from other people, and information on health from various media. Practical implications: The results of the study identified the factors related to health promotion behaviour of older employees in factory. Such information will benefit employers as they can then develop specific strategies to increase their staffs’ well-being and, hence, presumably enhance the organization productivity.

Keywords: health promotion behavior, older, employee, factory

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Authors: Ria M. Caramoan, Analiza P. Rollon, Karl N. Vergel

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The Simple Interactive Models for Better Air Quality (SIM-air) is an integrated approach model that allows the available information to support the integrated urban air quality management. This study utilized the vehicular air pollution information system module of SIM-air for the assessment of vehicular emissions in Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines. The main objective of the study is to assess and predict the contribution of different types of vehicles to the vehicular emissions in terms of PM₁₀, SOₓ, and NOₓ at different policy and technology scenarios. For the base year 2017, the results show vehicular emissions of 735.46 tons of PM₁₀, 108.90 tons of SOₓ, and 2,101.11 tons of NOₓ. Motorcycle is the major source of particulates contributing about 52% of the PM₁₀ emissions. Meanwhile, Public Utility Jeepneys contribute 27% of SOₓ emissions and private cars using gasoline contribute 39% of NOₓ emissions. Ambient air quality monitoring was also conducted in the study area for the standard parameters of PM₁₀, S0₂, and NO₂. Results show an average of 88.11 µg/Ncm, 47.41 µg/Ncm and 22.54 µg/Ncm for PM₁₀, N0₂, and SO₂, respectively, all were within the DENR National Ambient Air Quality Guideline Values. Future emissions of PM₁₀, NOₓ, and SOₓ are estimated at different scenarios. Results show that in the year 2030, PM₁₀ emissions will be increased by 186.2%. NOₓ emissions and SOₓ emissions will also be increased by 38.9% and 5.5%, without the implementation of the scenarios.

Keywords: ambient air quality, emissions inventory, mobile air pollution, vehicular emissions

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Authors: Marina Kartseva, Polina Kuznetsova

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In our work, we estimate the contribution of inequality of opportunity to inequality in the health of the Russian population aged 25 to 74 years. The empirical basis of the study is the nationally representative data of the RLMS for 2018. Individual health is measured using a self-reported status on five-point scale. The startconditions are characterized by parental education and place of birth (country, type of settlement). Personal efforts to maintain health include the level of education, smoking status, and physical activity. To understand how start opportunities affect an individual's health, we use the methodology proposed in (Trannoy et al., 2010), which takes into account both direct and indirect (through the influence on efforts) effects. Regression analysis shows that all other things being equal, the starting capabilities of individuals have a significant impact on their health. In particular, parental education has a positive effect on self-reported health. Birth in another country, in another settlement, and in an urban area, on the contrary, reduceself-reported health. This allows to conclude that there exists an unfair inequality in health, namely inequality caused by factors that are independent of a person's own efforts. We estimate the contribution of inequality of opportunity to inequality in health using a nonparametric approach (Checchi, Peragine, 2010; Lazar, 2013). According to the obtained results, the contribution of unfair inequality as 72-74% for the population as a whole, being slightly higher for women (62-74% and 60-69% for men and women, respectively) and for older age (59- 62% and 67-75% for groups 25-44 years old and 45-74 years old, respectively). The obtained estimates are comparable with the results for other countries and indicate the importance of the problem of inequality of opportunities in health in Russia.

Keywords: inequality of opportunity, inequality in health, self-reported health, efforts, health-related lifestyle, Russia, RLMS

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Authors: Vera Lúcia Raposo

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The right to health care – usually known as the right to health – is recognized in many national laws and Constitutions, as well as in international human rights documents. The kind of health care that citizens are entitled to receive, especially in the framework of the National Health Service, is usually identified with conventional medicine. However, since ancient times that a different form of medicine – alternative, traditional or nonconventional medicine – exists. In recent times it is attracting increasing interest, as it is demonstrated by the use of its specific knowledge either by pharmaceutical companies either by modern health technologies. Alternative medicine refers to a holistic approach to body and mind using herbal products, animal parts and minerals instead of technology and pharmaceutical drugs. These notes contributed to a sense of distrust towards it, accusing alternative medicine of being based on superstition and ignorance. However, and without denying that some particular practices lack indeed any kind of evidence or scientific grounds, the fact is that a substantial part of alternative medicine can actually produce satisfactory results. The paper will not advocate the substitution of conventional medicine by alternative medicine, but the complementation between the two and their specific knowledge. In terms of the right to health, as a fundamental right and a human right, this thesis leads to the implementation of a wider range of therapeutic choices for patients, who should be entitled to receive different forms of health care that complement one another, both in public and private health facilities. This scenario would demand a proper regulation for alternative medicine, which nowadays does not exist in most countries, but it is essential to protect patients and public health in general and to reinforce confidence in alternative medicine.

Keywords: alternative medicine, conventional medicine, patient’s rights, right to health

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Authors: E. Karami, M. Bohloul, P. Najmadi

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The superconducting system is a suitable system for quantum computers. Quantum entanglement is a fundamental phenomenon that is key to the power of quantum computers. Quantum entanglement has been studied in different superconducting systems. In this paper, we are investigating a superconducting two-qubit system as a macroscopic system. These systems include two coupled Quantronium circuits. We calculate quantum entanglement and thermalization for system evolution and compare them. We observe, thermalization and entanglement have different behavior, and equilibrium thermal state has maximum entanglement.

Keywords: macroscopic system, quantum entanglement, thermalization, superconducting system

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Authors: Ali Albadri

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The logistics equation has never been used or studied in scientific fields outside the field of ecology. It has never been used to understand the behavior of a dynamic system of mechanical machines, like an escalator. We have studied the compatibility of the logistic map against real measurements from an escalator. This study has proven that there is good compatibility between the logistics equation and the experimental measurements. It has discovered the potential of a relationship between the fractal dimension and the non-linearity parameter, R, in the logistics equation. The fractal dimension increases as the R parameter (non-linear parameter) increases. It implies that the fractal dimension increases as the phase of the life span of the machine move from the steady/stable phase to the periodic double phase to a chaotic phase. The fractal dimension and the parameter R can be used as a tool to verify and check the health of machines. We have come up with a theory that there are three areas of behaviors, which they can be classified during the life span of a machine, a steady/stable stage, a periodic double stage, and a chaotic stage. The level of attention to the machine differs depending on the stage that the machine is in. The rate of faults in a machine increases as the machine moves through these three stages. During the double period and the chaotic stages, the number of faults starts to increase and become less predictable. The rate of predictability improves as our monitoring of the changes in the fractal dimension and the parameter R improves. The principles and foundations of our theory in this work have and will have a profound impact on the design of systems, on the way of operation of systems, and on the maintenance schedules of the systems. The systems can be mechanical, electrical, or electronic. The discussed methodology in this paper will give businesses the chance to be more careful at the design stage and planning for maintenance to control costs. The findings in this paper can be implied and used to correlate the three stages of a mechanical system to more in-depth mechanical parameters like wear and fatigue life.

Keywords: logistcs map, bifurcation map, fractal dimension, logistics equation

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Authors: Hycham Aboutaleb, Bruno Monsuez

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Current systems complexity has reached a degree that requires addressing conception and design issues while taking into account all the necessary aspects. Therefore, one of the main challenges is the way complex systems are specified and designed. The exponential growing effort, cost and time investment of complex systems in modeling phase emphasize the need for a paradigm, a framework and a environment to handle the system model complexity. For that, it is necessary to understand the expectations of the human user of the model and his limits. This paper presents a generic framework for designing complex systems, highlights the requirements a system model needs to fulfill to meet human user expectations, and defines the refined functional as well as non functional requirements modeling tools needs to meet to be useful in model-based system engineering.

Keywords: system modeling, modeling language, modeling requirements, framework

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Authors: Joon Sang Kang, Ming Ke, Yongjie Hu

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Controlling heat transfer and thermal properties of materials is important to many fields such as energy efficiency and thermal management of integrated circuits. Significant progress over the past decade has been made to improve material performance through structuring at the nanoscale, however a clear relationship between structure dimensions, interfaces, and thermal properties remains to be established. The main challenge comes from the unknown intrinsic spectral contribution from different phonons. Here, we describe our current progress on quantifying and controlling thermal spectra based on our recently developed technical approach using ultrafast optical spectroscopy. Our work brings further the promise of rational material design to achieve high performance through a synergistic experimental-modeling approach. This approach can be broadly applicable to a wide range of materials and energy systems. In particular, we demonstrate in-situ characterization and tunable thermal properties of 2D van der waals materials through ionic intercalations. The significant impacts of this research in improving the efficiency of thermal energy conversion and management will also be illustrated.

Keywords: energy, mean free path, nanoscale heat transfer, nanostructure, phonons, TDTR, thermoelectrics, 2D materials

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Authors: M. Gregušová, V. Schindlerová, I. Šajdlerová, P. Mohyla, J. Kedroň

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Company managers are always looking for more and more opportunities to succeed in today's fiercely competitive market. Maintain your place among the successful companies on the market today or come up with a revolutionary business idea; it is much more difficult than before. Each new or improved method, tools, or the approach that can improve the functioning of business processes or even the entire system is worth checking and verification. The use of simulation in the design of manufacturing systems and their management in practice is one of the ways without increased risk to find the optimal parameters of manufacturing processes and systems. The paper presents an example of using simulation to solve the bottleneck problem in concrete company.

Keywords: practical applications, business processes, systems, simulation

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Authors: Nadeem Yousuf Khan

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This paper proposes the formation of a digital emergency response system (dERS) in the aged, long-term care, and chronic disease setups in the post-COVID healthcare ecosystem, focusing on the Asia Pacific market where the aging population is increasing significantly. It focuses on the use of digital technologies such as wearables, a global positioning system (GPS), and mobile applications to build an integrated care system for old folks with co-morbidities and other chronic diseases. The paper presents a conceptual framework of a connected digital health ecosystem that not only provides proactive care to registered patients but also prevents the damages due to sudden conditions such as strokes by alerting and treating the patients in a digitally connected and coordinated manner. A detailed review of existing digital health technologies such as wearables, GPS, and mobile apps was conducted in context with the new post-COVID healthcare paradigm, along with a detailed literature review on the digital health policies and usability. A good amount of research papers is available in the application of digital health, but very few of them discuss the formation of a new framework for a connected digital ecosystem for the aged care population, which is increasing around the globe. A connected digital emergency response system has been proposed by the author whereby all registered patients (chronic disease and aged/long term care) will be connected to the proposed digital emergency response system (dERS). In the proposed ecosystem, patients will be provided with a tracking wrist band and a mobile app through which the control room will be monitoring the mobility and vitals such as atrial fibrillation (AF), blood sugar, blood pressure, and other vital signs. In addition to that, an alert in case if the patient falls down will add value to this system. In case of any variation in the vitals, an alert is sent to the dERS 24/7, and dERS clinical staff immediately trigger that alert which goes to the connected hospital and the adulatory service providers, and the patient is escorted to the nearest connected tertiary care hospital. By the time, the patient reaches the hospital, dERS team is ready to take appropriate clinical action to save the life of the patient. Strokes or myocardial infarction patients can be prevented from disaster if they are accessible to engagement healthcare. This dERS will play an effective role in saving the lives of aged patients or patients with chronic co-morbidities.

Keywords: aged care, atrial fibrillation, digital health, digital emergency response system, digital technology

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Authors: Diogo Ferreira Lima Filho, José Roberto Amazonas

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Nanotechnology opens the door to new paradigms that introduces a variety of novel tools enabling a plethora of potential applications in the biomedical, industrial, environmental, and military fields. This work proposes an integrated node model by applying the same concepts of TCNet to networks of nanodevices where the nodes are cooperatively interconnected with a low-complexity Mealy Machine (MM) topology integrating in the same electronic system the modules necessary for independent operation in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), consisting of Rectennas (RF to DC power converters), Code Generators based on Finite State Machine (FSM) & Trellis Decoder and On-chip Transmit/Receive with autonomy in terms of energy sources applying the Energy Harvesting technique. This approach considers the use of a Graphene Composite Substrate (GCS) for the integrated electronic circuits meeting the following characteristics: mechanical flexibility, miniaturization, and optical transparency, besides being ecological. In addition, graphene consists of a layer of carbon atoms with the configuration of a honeycomb crystal lattice, which has attracted the attention of the scientific community due to its unique Electrical Characteristics.

Keywords: composite substrate, energy harvesting, finite state machine, graphene, nanotechnology, rectennas, wireless sensor networks

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Authors: Manlika Ratchagit

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This paper is concerned with robust mean square stability of uncertain stochastic switched discrete time-delay systems. The system to be considered is subject to interval time-varying delays, which allows the delay to be a fast time-varying function and the lower bound is not restricted to zero. Based on the discrete Lyapunov functional, a switching rule for the robust mean square stability for the uncertain stochastic discrete time-delay system is designed via linear matrix inequalities. Finally, some examples are exploited to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.

Keywords: robust mean square stability, discrete-time stochastic systems, hybrid systems, interval time-varying delays, Lyapunov functional, linear matrix inequalities

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Authors: Jongtae Rhee, Sangkwon Han, Seungbin Ji, Junhyeong Park, Byeonghun Kim, Taekyung Kim, Byeonghyeon Jeon, Jiwoo Yang

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The shared kitchen is a concept that transfers the value of the sharing economy to the kitchen. It is a type of kitchen equipped with cooking facilities that allows multiple companies or chefs to share time and space and use it jointly. These shared kitchens provide economic benefits and convenience, such as reduced investment costs and rent, but also increase the risk of safety management, such as cross-contamination of food ingredients. Therefore, to manage the safety of food ingredients and finished products in a shared kitchen where several entities jointly use the kitchen and handle various types of food ingredients, it is critical to manage followings: the freshness of food ingredients, user hygiene and safety and cross-contamination of cooking equipment and facilities. In this study, it propose a machine learning-based system for hygiene safety and cross-contamination management, which are highly difficult to manage. User clothing management and user access management, which are most relevant to the hygiene and safety of shared kitchens, are solved through machine learning-based methodology, and cutting board usage management, which is most relevant to cross-contamination management, is implemented as an integrated safety management system based on artificial intelligence. First, to prevent cross-contamination of food ingredients, we use images collected through a real-time camera to determine whether the food ingredients match a given cutting board based on a real-time object detection model, YOLO v7. To manage the hygiene of user clothing, we use a camera-based facial recognition model to recognize the user, and real-time object detection model to determine whether a sanitary hat and mask are worn. In addition, to manage access for users qualified to enter the shared kitchen, we utilize machine learning based signature recognition module. By comparing the pairwise distance between the contract signature and the signature at the time of entrance to the shared kitchen, access permission is determined through a pre-trained signature verification model. These machine learning-based safety management tasks are integrated into a single information system, and each result is managed in an integrated database. Through this, users are warned of safety dangers through the tablet PC installed in the shared kitchen, and managers can track the cause of the sanitary and safety accidents. As a result of system integration analysis, real-time safety management services can be continuously provided by artificial intelligence, and machine learning-based methodologies are used for integrated safety management of shared kitchens that allows dynamic contracts among various users. By solving this problem, we were able to secure the feasibility and safety of the shared kitchen business.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, food safety, information system, safety management, shared kitchen

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Authors: Zolani Metu

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The death of more than 140 psychiatric patients who were unethically deinstitutionalized from the Life Esidimeni hospital Johannesburg, in 2016, shined a light on South Africa’s failing public mental healthcare system. Compounded by insufficient research evidence on African deinstitutionalization, this necessitates inquiries into deinstitutionalized mental healthcare, reintegration and community-based mental healthcare within the South African context. This study employed a quantitative research approach which utilized a cross-sectional research design, to investigate experiences with the reintegration of institutionalized forensic mental health service users into communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. A convenience sample of 100 mental health care workers from different occupational and organizational backgrounds in the Western Cape was purposively selected using the Western Cape Health Directorate as a sampling frame. A self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) was used as the data collection instrument. The results of the study indicate that criminogenic factors such as substance use, history of violent behaviour, criminal history and disruptive social behaviour complicate the reintegration of forensic mental health service users into communities. The current extent of reintegration of forensic mental health service users was found to be 'poor' (46%; n= 46); and financial difficulties, criminogenic factors and limited Community-Based Care (CBC) facilities were identified as key barriers to the reintegration process. 56% of all job applications for forensic mental health service users were unsuccessful, and 53% of all applications for their admission into CBC facilities were declined. Although social support (informal) was found to be essential for successful reintegration, institutional support (formal) through assertive community treatment (35%; n= 35) and CBC facilities (21%) and the disability grant (DG=50%) was found to be more important for family coping and reintegration. Moreover, 72% of respondents had positive perceptions about the process of reintegration; no statistically significant relationship was found between years of experience and perceptions about reintegration (P-value = 0.062); and perceptions were not found to be a barrier to reintegration. No statistically significant relationship was found between years of working experience and understanding the legislative framework of deinstitutionalization (P-Value =.0.061). However, using a Chi-square test, a significant relationship (P-value = 0.021) was found between sex and understanding the legal framework involved in the process of reintegration. The study recommends a post-2020 deinstitutionalization agenda that factors-in criminogenic realities associated with forensic mental health service users, and affirms the strengthening of PHC and community based care systems as precedents of successful deinstitutionalization and reintegration of mental health service users.

Keywords: forensic mental health, deinstitutionalization, reintegration, mental health service users

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Authors: Aziz Ahmad, Guillermo Ramirez-Prado

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Governments around the world encourage the use of solar water heating in residential houses due to the low maintenance requirements and efficiency of the solar collector water heating systems. The aim of this work is to study a domestic solar water heating system in a residential building to develop a model of the entire solar water heating system including flat-plate solar collector and storage tank. The proposed model is adaptable to any households and location. The model can be used to test different types of controllers and can provide efficiency as well as economic analysis. The proposed model is based on the heat and mass transfer equations along with assumptions applied in the model which can be modified for a variety of different solar water heating systems and sizes. Simulation results of the model were compared with the actual system which shows similar trends.

Keywords: solar thermal systems, solar water heating, solar collector model, hot water tank model, solar controllers

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Authors: Ali Kuzu

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There are about 800 thousand chemicals in our environment and the number is increasing more than a thousand every year. While most of these chemicals are used as components in various consumer products, some are faced as industrial waste in the environment. Unfortunately, many of these chemicals are hazardous and affect humans. According to the “International Program on Chemical Safety” of World Health Organization; Among the chronic health effects of chemicals, cancer is of major concern. Many substances have found in recent years to be carcinogenic in one or more species of laboratory animals. Especially with respect to long-term effects, the response to a chemical may vary, quantitatively or qualitatively, in different groups of individuals depending on predisposing conditions, such as nutritional status, disease status, current infection, climatic extremes, and genetic features, sex and age of the individuals. Understanding the response of such specific risk groups is an important area of toxicology research. People with age 65+ is defined as “aged (or elderly)”. The elderly population in the world is about 600 million, which corresponds to ~8 percent of the world population. While every 1 of each 4 people is aged in Japan, the elderly population is quite close to 20 percent in many developed countries. And elderly population in these countries is growing more rapidly than the total population. The negative effects of chemicals on elderly take an important place in health-care related issues in last decades. The aged population is more susceptible to the harmful effects of environmental chemicals. According to the poor health of the organ systems in elderly, the ability of their body to eliminate the harmful effects and chemical substances from their body is also poor. With the increasing life expectancy, more and more people will face problems associated with chemical residues.

Keywords: elderly, chemicals’ effects, aged care, care need

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Authors: Pedro G. Rodrigues, Maria J. Bárrios, Sara A. Ambrósio

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The digitalisation of health is a profoundly transformative economic, political, and social process. As is often the case, such processes need to be carefully managed if misunderstandings, policy misalignments, or outright conflicts between the government and a wide gamut of stakeholders with competing interests are to be avoided. Thus, ensuring open lines of communication where all parties know what each other’s concerns are is key to good governance, as well as efficient and effective policymaking. This project aims to make a small but still significant contribution in this regard in that we seek to determine the extent to which health managers’ perceptions of what is a priority for digital health in Portugal are aligned with official policy perspectives. By applying state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technology first to the indexed literature on digital health and then to a set of official policy documents on the same topic, followed by a survey directed at health managers working in public and private hospitals in Portugal, we obtain two priority rankings that, when compared, will allow us to produce a synthesis and toolkit on digital health policy in Portugal, with a view to identifying areas of policy convergence and divergence. This project is also particularly peculiar in the sense that sophisticated digital methods related to text analytics are employed to study good governance aspects of digitalisation applied to health care.

Keywords: digital health, health informatics, text analytics, governance, natural language understanding

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Authors: Manlika Rajchakit

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This paper is concerned with robust mean square stability of uncertain stochastic switched discrete time-delay systems. The system to be considered is subject to interval time-varying delays, which allows the delay to be a fast time-varying function and the lower bound is not restricted to zero. Based on the discrete Lyapunov functional, a switching rule for the robust mean square stability for the uncertain stochastic discrete time-delay system is designed via linear matrix inequalities. Finally, some examples are exploited to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.

Keywords: robust mean square stability, discrete-time stochastic systems, hybrid systems, interval time-varying delays, lyapunov functional, linear matrix inequalities

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Authors: John Chan, Jake Linnenbank, Gavin Caird

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Automatic Selective Door Operation (ASDO) systems are increasingly used in railways to provide Correct Side Door Enable (CSDE) protection as well as to protect passenger doors opening off the platform where the train is longer than the platform, or in overshoot or undershoot scenarios. Such ASDO systems typically utilise trackside-installed RFID beacons, such as Eurobalises for odometry positioning purposes. Installing such trackside infrastructure may not be desirable or possible due to various factors such as conflict with existing infrastructure, potential damage from track tamping and jurisdiction constraints. Ultra-wideband (UWB) positioning technology could enable ASDO positioning requirements to be met without requiring installation of equipment directly on track since UWB technology can be installed on adjacent infrastructure such as on platforms. This paper will explore the feasibility of upgrading existing ASDO systems with UWB positioning technology, the feasibility of retrofitting UWB-enabled ASDO systems onto unfitted trains, and any other considerations relating to the use of UWB positioning for ASDO applications.

Keywords: UWB, ASDO, automatic selective door operations, CSDE, correct side door enable

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Authors: Saqib Amina, Waqas Mehmoodb, Iftikhar Yasinc

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This study analyzes the robust association between ethnic violence and mental health from a global perspective (201-countries across the world) by using the panel data for the period 1970 to 2020. Mental health has been determined through various dimensions such as mental disorders, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The empirical findings show that ethnic violence has a significant positive association with all types of mental health indicators, including mental disorders, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The study also reveals that institutional quality may reduce the effect of mental health disorders in a better way than promoting democracy. This study suggests the non-stigmatizing social form of community-based support services instead of a stigmatizing the concept of mental illnesses that promotes hospitalization and drug treatment.

Keywords: ethnic violence, unemployment, mental health, violence

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Authors: Kulvinder Singh Mann

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The usability and simulation of information systems, known as Hospital Information System (HIS), Radiology Information System (RIS), and Picture Archiving, Communication System, for electronic medical records has shown a good impact for actors in the hospital. The objective is to help and make their work easier; such as for a nurse or administration staff to record the medical records of the patient, and for a patient to check their bill transparently. However, several limitations still exists on such area regarding the type of data being stored in the system, ability for data transfer, storage and protocols to support communication between medical devices and digital images. This paper reports the simulation result of integrating several systems to cope with those limitations by using the Modality Worklist and DICOM standard. It succeeds in documenting the reason of that failure so future research will gain better understanding and be able to integrate those systems.

Keywords: HIS, RIS, PACS, modality worklist, DICOM, digital images

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Authors: Taner Izzet Acarer, Ece Ceylan Baba

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This paper examines green building certification systems and their current processes in comparison with anticipatory systems. Rapid growth of human population and depletion of natural resources are causing irreparable damage to urban and natural environment. In this context, the concept of ‘sustainable architecture’ has emerged in the 20th century so as to establish and maintain standards for livable urban spaces, to improve quality of urban life, and to preserve natural resources for future generations. The construction industry is responsible for a large part of the resource consumption and it is believed that the ‘green building’ designs that emerge in construction industry can reduce environmental problems and contribute to sustainable development around the world. A building must meet a specific set of criteria, set forth through various certification systems, in order to be eligible for designation as a green building. It is disputable whether methods used by green building certification systems today truly serve the purposes of creating a sustainable world. Accordingly, this study will investigate the sets of rating systems used by the most popular green building certification programs, including LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), BREEAM (Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Methods), DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen System), in terms of ‘Anticipatory Systems’ in accordance with the certification processes and their goals, while discussing their contribution to architecture. The basic methodology of the study is as follows. Firstly analyzes of brief historical and literature review of green buildings and certificate systems will be stated. Secondly, processes of green building certificate systems will be disputed by the help of anticipatory systems. Anticipatory Systems is a set of systems designed to generate action-oriented projections and to forecast potential side effects using the most current data. Anticipatory Systems pull the future into the present and take action based on future predictions. Although they do not have a claim to see into the future, they can provide foresight data. When shaping the foresight data, Anticipatory Systems use feedforward instead of feedback, enabling them to forecast the system’s behavior and potential side effects by establishing a correlation between the system’s present/past behavior and projected results. This study indicates the goals and current status of LEED, BREEAM and DGNB rating systems that created by using the feedback technique will be examined and presented in a chart. In addition, by examining these rating systems with the anticipatory system that using the feedforward method, the negative influences of the potential side effects on the purpose and current status of the rating systems will be shown in another chart. By comparing the two obtained data, the findings will be shown that rating systems are used for different goals than the purposes they are aiming for. In conclusion, the side effects of green building certification systems will be stated by using anticipatory system models.

Keywords: anticipatory systems, BREEAM, certificate systems, DGNB, green buildings, LEED

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Authors: Dipendra Kumar Yadav, Rajani Ghimire, Saroj Yadav

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Background: The concern about adolescent on reproductive health has grown due to unprecedented increasing rates of early pregnancies and sexually transmitted Infections and they do not have adequate awareness and knowledge about it. Access to these services as well as information about them is, therefore, crucial for adolescents to utilize and benefit from sexual and reproductive health services. The objective of the study was to assess the reproductive health knowledge, attitude and health services utilization among adolescents in rural and urban areas of Kaski district. Materials and Methods: A community-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescents (10-19 years of age) in rural and urban areas of Kaski district, Nepal. The period of data collection was October to November, 2014. Altogether 419 participants were taken for the study. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 15.86 and standard deviation was ±2.305. More than half (58.7 %) of the respondents were females and 41.3 % were males. Out of 419, majority (78.8%) of the respondents were known about family planning, among them only 70 % of respondents were aware about family planning methods. Fifty-one percentages of the respondents were aware about the sexually transmitted diseases. Before giving a birth there is need to consult with partner with this fact 68.7 % of the respondents were agree, 23.6 % of them were neutral and very few (7.6%) of them were disagree. Nearly twenty six percentage of the respondents were faced the reproductive health problems within one month. Out of 107 respondents, 57.9 % did not utilize reproductive health services because of different reasons. Conclusions: The overall level of knowledge towards reproductive health among adolescents was found low. However, levels of attitude towards different reproductive health components were found favorable. Only 42.1% of the respondents were utilized reproductive health services among those who was faced the reproductive health problems within one month which was low coverage of reproductive health services utilization.

Keywords: reproductive health knowledge, reproductive health attitudes, adolescent, service utilization

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Authors: Michał Witas

Abstract:

This paper presents a technical approach to analysis of security of SCADA systems. Main goal of the paper is to make SCADA administrators aware of risks resulting from SCADA systems usage and to familiarize with methods that can be adopt to existing or planned system, to increase overall system security level. Because SCADA based systems become a industrial standard, more attention should be paid to the security of that systems. Industrial Control Systems (ICS) like SCADA are responsible for controlling crucial aspects of wide range of industrial processes. In pair with that responsibility, goes a lot of money that can be earned or lost – this fact is main reason of increased interest of attackers. Additionally ICS are often responsible for maintaining resources strategic from the point of view of national economy, like electricity (including nuclear power plants), heating, water resources or military facilities, so they can be targets of terrorist cybernetic attacks. Without proper risk analysis and management, vulnerabilities resulting from the usage of SCADA can be easily exploited by potential attacker. Paper is based mostly on own experience in systems security, gathered during academic studies and professional work in international company. As title suggests, it will cover only basics of topic, because every of points mentioned in the document can be base for additional research and papers.

Keywords: denial of service, SCADA, security policy, distributed network

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Authors: Y. Fekir, K. Mederbal, M. A. Hamadouche, D. Anteur

Abstract:

The soil erosion by water has become one of the biggest problems of the environment in the world, threatening the majority of countries. There are several models to evaluate erosion. These models are still a simplified representation of reality. They permit the analysis of complex systems, measurements are complementary to allow an extrapolation in time and space and may combine different factors. The empirical model of soil loss proposed by Wischmeier and Smith (Universal Soil Loss Equation), is widely used in many countries. He considers that erosion is a multiplicative function of five factors: rainfall erosivity (the R factor) the soil erodibility factor (K), topography (LS), the erosion control practices (P) and vegetation cover and agricultural practices (C). In this work, we tried to develop a tool based on Web GIS functionality to evaluate soil losses caused by erosion taking into account five factors. This tool allows the user to integrate all the data needed for the evaluation (DEM, Land use, rainfall ...) in the form of digital layers to calculate the five factors taken into account in the USLE equation (R, K, C, P, LS). Accordingly, and after treatment of the integrated data set, a map of the soil losses will be achieved as a result. We tested the proposed tool on a watershed basin located in the weste of Algeria where a dataset was collected and prepared.

Keywords: USLE, erosion, web gis, Algeria

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Authors: Ahmad Aridah, Maria Fay Rola-Rubzen, Zora Singh

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This study investigated the effectiveness of various types of irrigation systems in regards to the impact that these have on the productivity of date palms in the semi-arid and arid region of Sebha, Southwest Libya. The date palm is an economically important crop in Libya and contributes to the agriculture industry, foreign exchange earnings, farmers’ income, and employment in the country. The date palm industry relies on large amounts of water for growing the crop. Farmers in Southwest Libya use a variety of irrigation systems, but the quality and quantity of water varies between systems and this affects the productivity and income of farmers. Using survey data from 210 farmers, this study estimated and assessed the pros and cons of different types of irrigation systems for date palm production under various irrigation systems currently used in Sebha, Libya. The number of years farmers have used irrigation, the area, irrigation water consumption, time of irrigation, number of farm workers (including family labour) and inputs used were measured for surface, sprinkler and drip irrigation methods. Findings from this research provide new insights into the advantages and disadvantages of the various irrigation systems, problems encountered by farmers and the factors that affect the quality and quantity of the irrigation system. The paper discussed proposed solutions to deal with the problems including timing of irrigation, canal maintenance, repair of wells and water control.

Keywords: Libya, factors, irrigation method, date palm

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Authors: Cindy de Frias, Erum Whyne

Abstract:

Objectives: The current study examined whether the link between stress and health-related quality of life was buffered by protective factors, namely mindfulness, in a sample of middle-aged and older adults. Method: In this cross-sectional study, 134 healthy, community-dwelling adults (aged 50–85 years) were recruited from Dallas, Texas. The participants were screened for depressive symptoms and severity (using the Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9]). All participants completed measures of self-reported health status (i.e., SF-36v2: mental and physical health composites), life stress (using the Elder’s Life Stress Inventory [ELSI]), and trait mindfulness (i.e., Mindful Attention Awareness Scale). Results: Hierarchical regressions (covarying for age, gender, and education) showed that life stress was inversely related to physical and mental health. Mindfulness was positively related to mental health. The negative effect of life stress on mental health was weakened for those individuals with greater trait mindfulness. Discussion: The results suggest that mindfulness is a powerful, adaptive strategy that may protect middle-aged and older adults from the well-known harmful effects of stress on healthy aging.

Keywords: health, stress, mindfulness, aging

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Authors: Kazuma Okada, Tomoaki Hashimoto, Hirokazu Tahara

Abstract:

Recently, the effectiveness of random dither quantization method for linear feedback control systems has been shown in several papers. However, the random dither quantization method has not yet been applied to nonlinear feedback control systems. The objective of this paper is to verify the effectiveness of random dither quantization method for nonlinear feedback control systems. For this purpose, we consider the attitude stabilization problem of satellites using discrete-level actuators. Namely, this paper provides a control method based on the random dither quantization method for stabilizing the attitude of satellites using discrete-level actuators.

Keywords: quantized control, nonlinear systems, random dither quantization

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Authors: Tien-Li Chang, Huang-Chi Huang, Zhao-Chi Chen, Wun-Yi Chen

Abstract:

The droplet-based microfluidic are used as micro-reactors for chemical and biological assays. Hence, the precise addition of reagents into the droplets is essential for this function in the scope of lab-on-a-chip applications. To obtain the characteristics (size, velocity, pressure, and frequency of production) of droplets, this study describes an integrated on-chip method of real-time signal detection. By controlling and manipulating the fluids, the flow behavior can be obtained in the droplet-based microfluidics. The detection method is used a type of infrared sensor. Through the varieties of droplets in the microfluidic devices, the real-time conditions of velocity and pressure are gained from the sensors. Here the microfluidic devices are fabricated by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). To measure the droplets, the signal acquisition of sensor and LabVIEW program control must be established in the microchannel devices. The devices can generate the different size droplets where the flow rate of oil phase is fixed 30 μl/hr and the flow rates of water phase range are from 20 μl/hr to 80 μl/hr. The experimental results demonstrate that the sensors are able to measure the time difference of droplets under the different velocity at the voltage from 0 V to 2 V. Consequently, the droplets are measured the fastest speed of 1.6 mm/s and related flow behaviors that can be helpful to develop and integrate the practical microfluidic applications.

Keywords: microfluidic, droplets, sensors, single detection

Procedia PDF Downloads 490