Search results for: collision safety

Authors: Parichehr Sharifi, Konrad Reschke, Hans-Liudger Dienel

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Psychological intervention generally targets changes in attitudes and behavior. Working with DUIs is part of traffic psychologists’ work. The primary goal of this field is to reduce the probability of re-conspicuous of the delinquent driver. One of these measurements in Germany is IFT courses for DUI s. The IFT course was designed by the Institute for Therapy Research. Participants are drivers who have fallen several times or once with a blood alcohol concentration of 1.6 per mill and who have completed a medical-psychological assessment (MPU) with the result of the course recommendation. The course covers four sessions of 3.5 hours each (1 hour / 60 m) and in a period of 3 to 4 weeks in the group discussion. This work analyzes interventions for the rehabilitation of DUI (Drunk Drivers offenders) offenders in groups under the aspect of activating psychological resources. From the aspect of sustainability, they should also have long-term consequences for the maintenance of unproblematic driving behavior in terms of the activation of resources. It is also addressing a selected consistency-theory-based intervention effect, activating psychological resources. So far, this has only been considered in the psychotherapeutic field but never in the field of traffic psychology. The methodology of this survey is one qualitative and three quantitative. In four sub-studies, it will be examined which measurements can determine the resources and how traffic psychological interventions can strengthen resources. The results of the studies have the following implications for traffic psychology research and practice: (1) In the field of traffic psychology intervention for the restoration of driving fitness, it can be stated that aspects of resource activation in this work have been investigated for the first time by qualitative and quantitative methods. (2) The resource activation could be confirmed based on the determined results as an effective factor of traffic psychological intervention. (3) Two sub-studies show a range of resources and resource activation options that must be given greater emphasis in traffic psychology interventions: - Social resource activation - improvement of the life skills of participants - Reactivation of existing social support options - Re-experiencing self-esteem, self-assurance, and acceptance of traffic-related behaviors. (4) In revising the IFT-§70 course, as well as other courses on recreating aptitude for DUI, new traffic-specific resource-enabling interventions against alcohol abuse should be developed to further enhance the courses through motivational, cognitive, and behavioral effects of resource activation, Resource-activating interventions can not only be integrated into behavioral group interventions but can also be applied in psychodynamic, psychodynamic (individual psychological) and other contexts of individual traffic psychology. The results are indicative but clearly show that personal resources can be strengthened through traffic psychology interventions. In the research, practice, training, and further education of traffic psychology, the aspect of primary resource activation (Grawe, 1999), therefore, always deserves the greatest attention for the rehabilitation of DUIs and Traffic safety.

Keywords: traffic safety, psychological resources, activating of resources, intervention programs for alcohol offenders, empowerment

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Authors: Abdelkrim Belhaoua, Jean-Pierre Radoux

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In France, the railway network is one of the main transport infrastructures and is the second largest European network. Therefore, railway inspection is an important task in railway maintenance to ensure safety for passengers using significant means in personal and technical facilities. Artificial vision has recently been applied to several railway applications due to its potential to improve the efficiency and accuracy when analyzing large databases of acquired images. In this paper, we present a vision system able to detect fastening elements based on artificial vision approach. This system acquires railway images using a CCD camera installed under a control carriage. These images are stitched together before having processed. Experimental results are presented to show that the proposed method is robust for detection fasteners in a complex environment.

Keywords: computer vision, image processing, railway inspection, image stitching, fastener recognition, neural network

Procedia PDF Downloads 456

Authors: Kathryn McMillan

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A recent study of 8500 adult Australians aged 16 and over revealed 62% had experienced childhood maltreatment. In response to multiple recommendations by bodies such as the Australian Law Reform Commission, parliamentary reports and stakeholder input, a number of key initiatives have been developed to grapple with the difficulties of a federal-state system and to screen and triage high-risk families navigating their way through the court system. The Lighthouse Project (LHP) is a world-first initiative of the Federal Circuit and Family Courts in Australia (FCFOCA) to screen family law litigants for major risk factors, including family violence, child abuse, alcohol or substance abuse and mental ill-health at the point of filing in all applications that seek parenting orders. It commenced on 7 December 2020 on a pilot basis but has now been expanded to 15 registries across the country. A specialist risk screen, Family DOORS, Triage has been developed – focused on improving the safety and wellbeing of families involved in the family law system safety planning and service referral, and ¬ differentiated case management based on risk level, with the Evatt List specifically designed to manage the highest risk cases. Early signs are that this approach is meeting the needs of families with multiple risks moving through the Court system. Before the LHP, there was no data available about the prevalence of risk factors experienced by litigants entering the family courts and it was often assumed that it was the litigation process that was fueling family violence and other risks such as suicidality. Data from the 2022 FCFCOA annual report indicated that in parenting proceedings, 70% alleged a child had been or was at risk of abuse, 80% alleged a party had experienced Family Violence, 74 % of children had been exposed to Family Violence, 53% alleged through substance misuse by party children had caused or was at risk of causing harm to children and 58% of matters allege mental health issues of a party had caused or placed a child at risk of harm. Those figures reveal the significant overlap between child protection and family violence, both of which are under the responsibility of state and territory governments. Since 2020, a further key initiative has been the co-location of child protection and police officials amongst a number of registries of the FCFOCA. The ability to access in a time-effective way details of family violence or child protection orders, weapons licenses, criminal convictions or proceedings is key to managing issues across the state and federal divide. It ensures a more cohesive and effective response to family law, family violence and child protection systems.

Keywords: child protection, family violence, parenting, risk screening, triage.

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Sukhpreet Singh, Kishan Bhojrath, Vijay, Avinash Kumar, Mandlesh Mishra

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The project uses an Arduino and ESP8266 to construct an alcohol detection system with an engine locking mechanism, offering a distinct way to fight drunk driving. An alcohol sensor module is used by the system to determine the amount of alcohol present in the ambient air. When the system detects alcohol levels beyond a certain threshold that is deemed hazardous for driving, it activates a relay module that is linked to the engine of the car, so rendering it inoperable. By preventing people from operating a vehicle while intoxicated, this preventive measure seeks to improve road safety. Adding an ESP8266 module also allows for remote monitoring and notifications, giving users access to real-time status updates on their system. By using an integrated strategy, the initiative provides a workable and efficient way to lessen the dangers related to driving while intoxicated.

Keywords: MQ3 sensor, ESP 8266, arduino, IoT

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Authors: Kwaku Damoah

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This study presents a comprehensive data-driven analysis to understand the evolution of adverse events (AEs) in pharmacovigilance. Utilizing data from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), we employed three analytical methods: rank-based, frequency-based, and percentage change analyses. These methods assessed temporal trends and patterns in AE reporting, focusing on various drug-active ingredients and patient demographics. Our findings reveal significant trends in AE occurrences, with both increasing and decreasing patterns from 2000 to 2023. This research highlights the importance of continuous monitoring and advanced analysis in pharmacovigilance, offering valuable insights for healthcare professionals and policymakers to enhance drug safety.

Keywords: event analysis, FDA adverse event reporting system, pharmacovigilance, temporal trend analysis

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Authors: Takeru Furuawa, Kohei Takizawa, Daisuke Kuwahara, Shunjiro Shinohara

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In the field of a space propulsion, an electric propulsion system has been developed because its fuel efficiency is much higher than a conventional chemical one. However, the practical electric propulsion systems, e.g., an ion engine, have a problem of short lifetime due to a damage of generation and acceleration electrodes of the plasma. A helicon plasma thruster is proposed as a long-lifetime electric thruster which has non-direct contact electrodes. In this system, both generation and acceleration methods of a dense plasma are executed by antennas from the outside of a discharge tube. Development of the helicon plasma thruster has been conducting under the Helicon Electrodeless Advanced Thruster (HEAT) project. Our helicon plasma thruster has two important processes. First, we generate a dense source plasma using a helicon wave with an excitation frequency between an ion and an electron cyclotron frequencies, fci and fce, respectively, applied from the outside of a discharge using a radio frequency (RF) antenna. The helicon plasma source can provide a high-density (~1019 m-3), a high-ionization ratio (up to several tens of percent), and a high particle generation efficiency. Second, in order to achieve high thrust and specific impulse, we accelerate the dense plasma by the axial Lorentz force fz using the product of the induced azimuthal current jθ and the static radial magnetic field Br, shown as fz = jθ × Br. The HEAT project has proposed several kinds of electrodeless acceleration schemes, and in our particular case, a Rotating Magnetic Field (RMF) method has been extensively studied. The RMF scheme was originally developed as a concept to maintain the Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) in a magnetically confined fusion research. Here, RMF coils are expected to generate jθ due to a nonlinear effect shown below. First, the rotating magnetic field Bω is generated by two pairs of RMF coils with AC currents, which have a phase difference of 90 degrees between the pairs. Due to the Faraday’s law, an axial electric field is induced. Second, an axial current is generated by the effects of an electron-ion and an electron-neutral collisions through the Ohm’s law. Third, the azimuthal electric field is generated by the nonlinear term, and the retarding torque generated by the collision effects again. Then, azimuthal current jθ is generated as jθ = - nₑ er ∙ 2π fRMF. Finally, the axial Lorentz force fz for plasma acceleration is generated. Here, jθ is proportional to nₑ and frequency of RMF coil current fRMF, when Bω is fully penetrated into the plasma. Our previous study has achieved 19 % increase of ion velocity using the 5 MHz and 50 A of the RMF coil power supply. In this presentation, we will show the improvement of the ion velocity using the lower frequency and higher current supplied by RMF power supply. In conclusion, helicon high-density plasma production and electromagnetic acceleration by the RMF scheme with a concept of electrodeless condition have been successfully executed.

Keywords: electric propulsion, electrodeless thruster, helicon plasma, rotating magnetic field

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Authors: Abhichet Nobhiwong, Jiraporn Rojtinnakorn, Udomluk Sompong

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Six probiotic strains isolated from Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai province, Thailand; CR1-2, CM3-4, CM5-2, CR7-8, CM10-5 and CM10-8 were used to study their morphology and inhibition activity on three pathogenic bacteria; Aeromonas sp., Streptococcus sp. and Flavobacterium sp. that isolated from infected Nile tilapia. The agar well diffusion technique was applied for 24 and 48 hours incubation. Interestingly, some probiotics showed good inhibition activity both 24 and 48 hours on each 3 bacterial pathogens. The capable inhibiting Aeromonas sp. were CR1-2 and CR5-2 with inhibition diameters of 13.0 mm and 11.2 mm, respectively. For Streptococcus sp., effective probiotics were CR10-2 with inhibition diameters of 10.7 mm. Whereas for Flavobacterium sp., effective probiotics were CR5-2 with inhibition diameter of 9.7 mm. It can be concluded that these probiotics have potentiality to develop as the pathogens biocontrol products. These will be support for safety and organic aquaculture that which the most worthy for people health.

Keywords: probiotics, Aeromanas sp., Streptococcus sp., Flavobacterium sp.

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Authors: Raana Babadi Fathipour

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Strict prerequisites of logical diaries united ought to demonstrate the exploratory information is (in)significant from the statistical point of view and has driven a soak increment within the utilization and advancement of the factual program. It is essential that the utilization of numerical and measurable strategies, counting chemometrics and many other factual methods/algorithms in nourishment science and innovation has expanded steeply within the final 20 a long time. Computational apparatuses accessible can be utilized not as it were to run factual investigations such as univariate and bivariate tests as well as multivariate calibration and improvement of complex models but also to run reenactments of distinctive scenarios considering a set of inputs or essentially making expectations for particular information sets or conditions. Conducting a fast look within the most legitimate logical databases (Pubmed, ScienceDirect, Scopus), it is conceivable to watch that measurable strategies have picked up a colossal space in numerous regions.

Keywords: food science, food technology, food safety, computational tools

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Authors: Chang Su Woo, Hyun Sung Park

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Useful lifetime evaluation of chevron rubber spring was very important in design procedure to assure the safety and reliability. It is, therefore, necessary to establish a suitable criterion for the replacement period of chevron rubber spring. In this study, we performed characteristic analysis and useful lifetime prediction of chevron rubber spring. Rubber material coefficient was obtained by curve fittings of uni-axial tension, equi bi-axial tension and pure shear test. Computer simulation was executed to predict and evaluate the load capacity and stiffness for chevron rubber spring. In order to useful lifetime prediction of rubber material, we carried out the compression set with heat aging test in an oven at the temperature ranging from 50°C to 100°C during a period 180 days. By using the Arrhenius plot, several useful lifetime prediction equations for rubber material was proposed.

Keywords: chevron rubber spring, material coefficient, finite element analysis, useful lifetime prediction

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Authors: Pim Terachinda, Witaya Wannasuphoprasit, Wasuwat Kitisomprayoonkul, Anan Srikiatkhachorn

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Restoration of hand function and dexterity remain challenges in rehabilitation after stroke. We have developed soft exoskeleton hand robot in which using tendon-driven mechanism. Finger flexion and extension can be triggered by a foot switch and force can be adjusted manually depending on patient’s grip strength. The objective of this study is to investigate feasibility and safety of this device. The study was done in 2 stroke patients with the strength of the finger flexors/extensors grade 1/0 and 3/1 on Medical Research Council scale, respectively. Grasp and release training was performed for 30 minutes. No complication was observed. Results demonstrated that the device is safe, and therapy can be tailored to individual patient’s need. However, further study is required to determine recovery and rehabilitation outcomes after training in patients after nervous system injury.

Keywords: hand, rehabilitation, robot, stroke

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Authors: Spira A., Marabelle A., Kientop D., Moser E., Mumm J.

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Background: Both interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) have been extensively studied for their stimulatory function on T cells and their potential to obtain sustainable tumor control in RCC, melanoma, lung, and pancreatic cancer as monotherapy, as well as combination with PD-1 blockers, radiation, and chemotherapy. While approved, IL-2 retains significant toxicity, preventing its widespread use. The significant efforts undertaken to uncouple IL-2 toxicity from its anti-tumor function have been unsuccessful, and early phase clinical safety observed with PEGylated IL-10 was not met in a blinded Phase 3 trial. Deka Biosciences has engineered a novel molecule coupling wild-type IL-2 to a high affinity variant of Epstein Barr Viral (EBV) IL-10 via a scaffold (scFv) that binds to epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR). This patented molecule, termed DK210 (EGFR), is retained at high levels within the tumor microenvironment for days after dosing. In addition to overlapping and non-redundant anti-tumor function, IL-10 reduces IL-2 mediated cytokine release syndrome risks and inhibits IL-2 mediated T regulatory cell proliferation. Methods: DK210 (EGFR) is being evaluated in an open-label, dose-escalation (Phase 1) study with 5 (0.025-0.3 mg/kg) monotherapy dose levels and (expansion cohorts) in combination with PD-1 blockers, or radiation or chemotherapy in patients with advanced solid tumors overexpressing EGFR. Key eligibility criteria include 1) confirmed progressive disease on at least one line of systemic treatment, 2) EGFR overexpression or amplification documented in histology reports, 3) at least a 4 week or 5 half-lives window since last treatment, and 4) excluding subjects with long QT syndrome, multiple myeloma, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis or uncontrolled infectious, psychiatric, neurologic, or cancer disease. Plasma and tissue samples will be investigated for pharmacodynamic and predictive biomarkers and genetic signatures associated with IFN-gamma secretion, aiming to select subjects for treatment in Phase 2. Conclusion: Through successful coupling of wild-type IL-2 with a high affinity IL-10 and targeting directly to the tumor microenvironment, DK210 (EGFR) has the potential to harness IL-2 and IL-10’s known anti-cancer promise while reducing immunogenicity and toxicity risks enabling safe concomitant cytokine treatment with other anti-cancer modalities.

Keywords: cytokine, EGFR over expression, interleukine-2, interleukine-10, clinical trial

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Authors: Sekou Kangoye, Alexis Todoskoff, Mihaela Barreau

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Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MC/DC) is a structural coverage criterion that aims to prove that all conditions involved in a Boolean expression can influence the result of that expression. In the context of automotive, MC/DC is highly recommended and even required for most security and safety applications testing. However, due to complex Boolean expressions that often embedded in those applications, generating a set of MC/DC compliant test cases for any of these expressions is a nontrivial task and can be time consuming for testers. In this paper we present an approach to automatically generate MC/DC test cases for any Boolean expression. We introduce novel techniques, essentially based on binary trees to quickly and optimally generate MC/DC test cases for the expressions. Thus, the approach can be used to reduce the manual testing effort of testers.

Keywords: binary trees, MC/DC, test case generation, nontrivial task

Procedia PDF Downloads 447

Authors: Shenko Chura Aredo

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Food security and urban development are closely linked, especially in cities experiencing rapid urbanization. This paper explores the impact of food security on urban development in Adama City, Ethiopia, a fast-growing urban center that faces significant challenges related to population growth, land use changes, and food supply. By examining food systems, urban agriculture, market access, and social safety nets, the study aims to understand how food security influences urban development outcomes and vice versa. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for integrating food security into urban planning to promote sustainable urbanization and improve the resilience of food systems in Adama City.

Keywords: urbanization, food security, sustainable development, urban agriculture, Ethiopia

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Authors: Richard Colwell, Thomas Englert

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In cryogenic liquefaction processes, brazed aluminum core heat exchangers are used to minimize surface area/volume of the exchanger. Aluminum alloy (5083-H321; UNS A95083) piping must transition to higher melting point 304L stainless steel piping outside of the heat exchanger kettle or cold box for safety reasons. Since aluminum alloys and austenitic stainless steel cannot be directly welded to together, a transition joint consisting of 5 layers of different metals explosively bonded are used. Failures of two of these joints resulted in process shut-down and loss of revenue. Failure analyses, FEA analysis, and mock-up testing were performed by multiple teams to gain a further understanding into the failure mechanisms involved.

Keywords: explosion bonding, intermetallic compound, thermal strain, titanium-nickel Interface

Procedia PDF Downloads 218

Authors: Susanna Graziano, Lydia Krstic Ward

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The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate the steps of using multimedia and collaborative platforms in project-based learning. The presentation will demonstrate the stages of the learning project with various components of independent and collaborative learning, where students research the topic, share information, prepare a survey, use social media (Facebook, Instagram, WhasApp) and collaborative platforms (wikispaces.com and Google docs) to collect, analyze and process data, then produce reports and logos to be displayed as a final product. At the beginning of the presentation participants will answer a questionnaire about project based learning and share their experience on using social media, real–world project work and collaborative learning. Using a PPP, the presentation will walk participants through the steps of a completed project where tertiary education students are involved in putting together a multimedia campaign for safe driving in Kuwait. The research component of the project entails taking a holistic view on the problem of the high death rate in traffic accidents. The final goal of the project is to lead students to raise public awareness about the importance of safe driving. The project steps involve using the social media and collaborative platforms for collecting data and sharing the required materials to be used in the final product – a display of written reports, slogans and videos, as well as oral presentations. The same structure can be used to organize a multimedia campaign focusing on other issues, whilst scaffolding on students’ ability to brainstorm, retrieve information, organize it and engage in collaborative/ cooperative learning whilst being immersed in content-based learning as well as in authentic tasks. More specifically, the project we carried out at Box Hill College was a real-world one and involved a multimedia Campaign for Safe Driving since reckless driving is one of the major problems in the country. The idea for the whole project started by a presentation given by a board member of the Kuwaiti Society for Traffic Safety who was invited to college and spoke about: • Driving laws in the country, • What causes car accidents, • Driving safety tips. The principal goal of this project was to let students consider problems of traffic in Kuwait from different points of view. They also had to address the number and causes of accidents, evaluate the effectiveness of the local traffic law in order to send a warning about the importance of safe driving and, finally, suggest ways of its improvement. Benefits included: • Engagement, • Autonomy, • Motivation, • Content knowledge, • Language mastery, • Enhanced critical thinking, • Increased metacognitive awareness, • Improved social skills, • Authentic experience.

Keywords: social media, online learning platforms, collaborative platforms, project based learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 425

Authors: Liliana Gomez Cardona, Echo Parent-Racine, Joy Outerbridge, Arlene Laliberté, Outi Linnaranta

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Suicide rates among Inuit in Nunavik are six to eleven times larger than the Canadian average. The colonization, religious missions, residential schools as well as economic and political marginalization are factors that have challenged the well-being and mental health of these populations. In psychiatry, screening for mental illness is often done using questionnaires with which the patient is expected to respond how often he/she has certain symptoms. However, the Indigenous view of mental wellbeing may not fit well with this approach. Moreover, biomedical treatments do not always meet the needs of Indigenous peoples because they do not understand the culture and traditional healing methods that persist in many communities. Assess whether the questionnaires used to measure symptoms, commonly used in psychiatry are appropriate and culturally safe for the Inuit in Quebec. Identify the most appropriate tool to assess and promote wellbeing and follow the process necessary to improve its cultural sensitivity and safety for the Inuit population. Qualitative, collaborative, and participatory action research project which respects First Nations and Inuit protocols and the principles of ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP). Data collection based on five focus groups with stakeholders working with these populations and members of Indigenous communities. Thematic analysis of the data collected and emerging through an advisory group that led a revision of the content, use, and cultural and conceptual relevance of the instruments. The questionnaires measuring psychiatric symptoms face significant limitations in the local indigenous context. We present the factors that make these tools not relevant among Inuit. Although the scale called Growth and Empowerment Measure (GEM) was originally developed among Indigenous in Australia, the Inuit in Quebec found that this tool comprehends critical aspects of their mental health and wellbeing more respectfully and accurately than questionnaires focused on measuring symptoms. We document the process of cultural adaptation of this tool which was supported by community members to create a culturally safe tool that helps in resilience and empowerment. The cultural adaptation of the GEM provides valuable information about the factors affecting wellbeing and contributes to mental health promotion. This process improves mental health services by giving health care providers useful information about the Inuit population and their clients. We believe that integrating this tool in interventions can help create a bridge to improve communication between the Indigenous cultural perspective of the patient and the biomedical view of health care providers. Further work is needed to confirm the clinical utility of this tool in psychological and psychiatric intervention along with social and community services.

Keywords: cultural adaptation, cultural safety, empowerment, Inuit, mental health, Nunavik, resiliency

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: W. Widhiada, D. N. K. P. Negara, P. A. Suryawan

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The technological advances in the field of health to be very important, especially on the safety of the baby. In this case a lot of premature infants death caused by poorly managed health facilities. Mostly the death of premature baby caused by bacteria since the temperature around the baby is not normal. Related to this, the incubator equipment needs to be important, especially in how to control the temperature in incubator. On/Off controls is used to regulate the temperature distribution in the incubator so that the desired temperature is 36 °C to stay awake and stable. The authors have been observed and analyzed the data to determine the temperature distribution in the incubator using program of MATLAB/Simulink. The output temperature distribution is obtained at 36 °C in 400 seconds using an Arduino AT 2560. This incubator is able to maintain an ambient temperature and maintain the baby's body temperature within normal limits and keep the moisture in the air in accordance with the limit values required in infant incubator.

Keywords: on/off control, distribution temperature, Arduino AT 2560, baby incubator

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Authors: Jongho Park, Taekyun Kim, Jungbhin You, Sungnam Hong, Sun-Kyu Park

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Due to the aging of bridges, increasing of maintenance costs and decreasing of structural safety is occurred. The steel corrosion of reinforced concrete bridge is the most common problem and this phenomenon is accelerating due to abnormal weather and increasing CO₂ concentration due to climate change. To solve these problems, composite members using textile have been studied. A textile reinforced concrete can reduce carbon emissions by reduced concrete and without steel bars, so a lot of structural behavior studies are needed. Therefore, in this study, textile reinforced concrete beam was made and flexural test was performed. Also, the change of flexural strength according to the prestressing was conducted. As a result, flexural strength of TRC with prestressing was increased compared and flexural behavior was shown as reinforced concrete.

Keywords: AR-glass, flexural strength, prestressing, textile reinforced concrete

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Ould Bouamama, M. Bressel, D. Hissel, M. Hilairet

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Fuel cell (FC) is one of the best alternatives of fossil energy. Recently, the research community of fuel cell has shown a considerable interest for diagnosis in view to ensure safety, security, and availability when faults occur in the process. The problematic for model based FC diagnosis consists in that the model is complex because of coupling of several kind of energies and the numerical values of parameters are not always known or are uncertain. The present paper deals with use of one tool: the Linear Fractional Transformation bond graph tool not only for uncertain modelling but also for monitorability (ability to detect and isolate faults) analysis and formal generation of robust fault indicators with respect to parameter uncertainties.The developed theory applied to a nonlinear FC system has proved its efficiency.

Keywords: bond graph, fuel cell, fault detection and isolation (FDI), robust diagnosis, structural analysis

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Authors: Peng Li, Er-xiang Song

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Numerical analysis of longitudinal tunnel seismic response due to spatial variation of earthquake ground motion is an important issue that cannot be ignored in the design and safety evaluation of tunnel structures. In this paper, numerical methods for analysis of tunnel longitudinal response under asynchronous seismic wave is extensively studied, including the improvement of the 1D time-domain finite element method, three dimensional numerical simulation technique for the site asynchronous earthquake response as well as the 3-D soil-tunnel structure interaction analysis. The study outcome will be beneficial to aid further research on the nonlinear meticulous numerical analysis and seismic response mechanism of tunnel structures under asynchronous earthquake motion.

Keywords: asynchronous input, longitudinal seismic response, tunnel structure, numerical simulation, traveling wave effect

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Authors: T. Damak, O. Kriaa, A. Baccar, M. A. Ben Ayed, N. Masmoudi

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In the last few years, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems have become widely used in the safety, the security, and the commercial aspects. Forethought, several methods and techniques are computing to achieve the better levels in terms of accuracy and real time execution. This paper proposed a computer vision algorithm of Number Plate Localization (NPL) and Characters Segmentation (CS). In addition, it proposed an improved method in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) based on Deep Learning (DL) techniques. In order to identify the number of detected plate after NPL and CS steps, the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm is proposed. A DL model is developed using four convolution layers, two layers of Maxpooling, and six layers of fully connected. The model was trained by number image database on the Jetson TX2 NVIDIA target. The accuracy result has achieved 95.84%.

Keywords: ANPR, CS, CNN, deep learning, NPL

Procedia PDF Downloads 306

Authors: Cheryl Forchuk, Sandra Fisman, Steve Cordes, Dan Catunto, Katherine Krakowski, Melissa Jeffrey, John D’Oria

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The discharge of youth aged 16-25 from hospital into homelessness is a prevalent issue despite research indicating social, safety, health and economic detriments on both the individual and community. Lack of stable housing for youth discharged into homelessness results in long-term consequences, including exacerbation of health problems and costly health care service use and hospital readmission. People experiencing homelessness are four times more likely to be readmitted within one month of discharge and hospitals must spend $2,559 more per client. Finding safe housing for these individuals is imperative to their recovery and transition back to the community. People discharged from hospital to homelessness experience challenges, including poor health outcomes and increased hospital readmissions. Youth are the fastest-growing subgroup of people experiencing homelessness in Canada. The needs of youth are unique and include supports related to education, employment opportunities, and age-related service barriers. This study aims to identify the needs of youth at risk of homelessness by evaluating the efficacy of the “Preventing Discharge to No Fixed Address – Youth” (NFA-Y) program, which aims to prevent youth from being discharged from hospital into homelessness. The program connects youth aged 16-25 who are inpatients at London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care London to housing and financial support. Supports are offered through collaboration with community partners: Youth Opportunities Unlimited, Canadian Mental Health Association Elgin Middlesex, City of London Coordinated Access, Ontario Works, and Salvation Army’s Housing Stability Bank. This study was reviewed and approved by Western University’s Research Ethics Board. A series of interviews are being conducted with approximately ninety-three youth participants at three time points: baseline (pre-discharge), six, and twelve months post-discharge. Focus groups with participants, health care providers, and community partners are being conducted at three-time points. In addition, administrative data from service providers will be collected and analyzed. Since homelessness has a detrimental effect on recovery, client and community safety, and healthcare expenditure, locating safe housing for psychiatric patients has had a positive impact on treatment, rehabilitation, and the system as a whole. If successful, the findings of this project will offer safe policy alternatives for the prevention of homelessness for at-risk youth, help set them up for success in their future years, and mitigate the rise of the homeless youth population in Canada.

Keywords: youth homelessness, no-fixed address, mental health, homelessness prevention, hospital discharge

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Authors: Mamiza Haq

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This paper examines the relevance of bank capital and charter value on bank insolvency and liquidity risks. Using an unbalanced panel of 2,111 unique local banks across 22 countries over 1998-2012, we find that both bank capital and charter value lower insolvency and liquidity risks, but this effect varies among conventional, Islamic, and Islamic-window banks. The risk constraining effect of bank capital becomes more prominent in the post 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Moreover, the relationships vary when conditioned upon other key bank-specific characteristics. For instance, the effect of capital on risk-reduction diminishes in the presence of high charter value for conventional-G7 and Islamic-window banks, during-GFC and pre-GFC period; respectively. Our findings have important policy implications related to bank safety. The results are robust to a range of robustness tests.

Keywords: bank capital, charter value, risk, financial crisis

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Authors: William C. Bracken

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This paper discusses the forensic investigation of a fatality-involved catastrophic structure collapse and the special challenges faced when tasked with directing such an effort. While this paper discusses the investigation’s findings and the outcome of the event; this paper’s primary focus is on the challenges faced directing a forensic investigation that requires coordinating with governmental oversight while also having to accommodate multiple parties’ investigative teams. In particular the challenges discussed within this paper included maintaining on-site safety and operations while accommodating outside investigator’s interests. In addition this paper discusses unique challenges that one may face such as what to do about unethical conduct of interested party’s investigative teams, “off the record” sharing of information, and clandestinely transmitted evidence.

Keywords: catastrophic structure collapse, collapse investigation, Jacksonville parking garage collapse, forensic investigation

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Authors: Daniela Manila Bianchi, Samantha Lupi, Elisa Barcucci, Sandra Fragassi, Clara Tramuta, Lucia Decastelli

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Introduction: The undeclared allergens detection in food products plays a fundamental role in the safety of the allergic consumer. The protection of allergic consumers is guaranteed, in Europe, by Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament, which governs the consumer's right to information and identifies 14 food allergens to be mandatorily indicated on food labels: among these, an egg is included. An egg can be present as an ingredient or as contamination in raw and cooked products. The main allergen egg proteins are ovomucoid, ovalbumin, lysozyme, and ovotransferrin. This study presents the results of a survey conducted in Northern Italy aimed at detecting the presence of undeclared egg proteins in food matrices in the latest ten years (2011-2021). Method: In the period January 2011 - October 2021, a total of 1205 different types of food matrices (ready-to-eat, meats, and meat products, bakery and pastry products, baby foods, food supplements, pasta, fish and fish products, preparations for soups and broths) were delivered to Food Control Laboratory of Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale of Piemonte Liguria and Valle d’Aosta to be analyzed as official samples in the frame of Regional Monitoring Plan of Food Safety or in the contest of food poisoning. The laboratory is ISO 17025 accredited, and since 2019, it has represented the National Reference Centre for the detection in foods of substances causing food allergies or intolerances (CreNaRiA). All samples were stored in the laboratory according to food business operator instructions and analyzed within the expiry date for the detection of undeclared egg proteins. Analyses were performed with RIDASCREEN®FAST Ei/Egg (R-Biopharm ® Italia srl) kit: the method was internally validated and accredited with a Limit of Detection (LOD) equal to 2 ppm (mg/Kg). It is a sandwich enzyme immunoassay for the quantitative analysis of whole egg powder in foods. Results: The results obtained through this study showed that egg proteins were found in 2% (n. 28) of food matrices, including meats and meat products (n. 16), fish and fish products (n. 4), bakery and pastry products (n. 4), pasta (n. 2), preparations for soups and broths (n.1) and ready-to-eat (n. 1). In particular, in 2011 egg proteins were detected in 5% of samples, in 2012 in 4%, in 2013, 2016 and 2018 in 2%, in 2014, 2015 and 2019 in 3%. No egg protein traces were detected in 2017, 2020, and 2021. Discussion: Food allergies occur in the Western World in 2% of adults and up to 8% of children. Allergy to eggs is one of the most common food allergies in the pediatrics context. The percentage of positivity obtained from this study is, however, low. The trend over the ten years has been slightly variable, with comparable data.

Keywords: allergens, food, egg proteins, immunoassay

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Authors: Guillaume Craveur

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This study highlights the impact of an onboard fire for the evacuation of a rolling stock. Two fires models are achieved. The first one is a zone model realized with the CFAST software. Then, this fire is imported in a building EXODUS model in order to determine the evacuation time with effects of fire effluents (temperature, smoke opacity, smoke toxicity) on passengers. The second fire is achieved with Fire Dynamics Simulator software. The fire defined is directly imported in the FDS+Evac model which will permit to determine the evacuation time and effects of fire effluents on passengers. These effects will be compared with tenability criteria defined in some standards in order to see if the situation is acceptable. Different power of fire will be underlined to see from what power source the hazard become unacceptable.

Keywords: fire safety engineering, numerical tools, rolling stock, evacuation

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Authors: Mojtaba Eshraghi Arani

Abstract:

Concluding the contract for carriage of cargo with the shipper (through bill of lading or charterparty), the carrier must transport the cargo from loading port to the port of discharge and deliver it to the consignee. Unless otherwise agreed in the contract, the carrier must avoid from any deviation, transfer of cargo to another vessel or unreasonable stoppage of carriage in-transit. However, the vessel might break down in-transit for any reason and becomes unable to continue its voyage to the port of discharge. This is a frequent incident in the carriage of goods by sea which leads to important dispute between the carrier/owner and the shipper/charterer (hereinafter called “cargo interests”). It is a generally accepted rule that in such event, the carrier/owner must repair the vessel after which it will continue its voyage to the destination port. The dispute will arise in the case that temporary repair of the vessel cannot be done in the short or reasonable term. There are two options for the contract parties in such a case: First, the carrier/owner is entitled to repair the vessel while having the cargo onboard or discharged in the port of refugee, and the cargo interests must wait till the breakdown is rectified at any time, whenever. Second, the carrier/owner will be responsible to charter another vessel and transfer the entirety of cargo to the substitute vessel. In fact, the main question revolves around the duty of carrier/owner to perform transfer of cargo to another vessel. Such operation which is called “trans-shipment” or “transhipment” (in terms of the oil industry it is usually called “ship-to-ship” or “STS”) needs to be done carefully and with due diligence. In fact, the transshipment operation for various cargoes might be different as each cargo requires its own suitable equipment for transfer to another vessel, so this operation is often costly. Moreover, there is a considerable risk of collision between two vessels in particular in bulk carriers. Bulk cargo is also exposed to the shortage and partial loss in the process of transshipment especially during bad weather. Concerning tankers which carry oil and petrochemical products, transshipment, is most probably followed by sea pollution. On the grounds of the above consequences, the owners are afraid of being held responsible for such operation and are reluctant to perform in the relevant disputes. The main argument raised by them is that no regulation has recognized such duty upon their shoulders so any such operation must be done under the auspices of the cargo interests and all costs must be reimbursed by themselves. Unfortunately, not only the international conventions including Hague rules, Hague-Visby Rules, Hamburg rules and Rotterdam rules but also most domestic laws are silent in this regard. The doctrine has yet to analyse the issue and no legal researches was found out in this regard. A qualitative method with the concept of interpretation of data collection has been used in this paper. The source of the data is the analysis of regulations and cases. It is argued in this article that the paramount rule in the maritime law is “the accomplishment of the voyage” by the carrier/owner in view of which, if the voyage can only be finished by transshipment, then the carrier/owner will be responsible to carry out this operation. The duty of carrier/owner to apply “due diligence” will strengthen this reasoning. Any and all costs and expenses will also be on the account pf the owner/carrier, unless the incident is attributable to any cause arising from the cargo interests’ negligence.

Keywords: cargo, STS, transshipment, vessel, voyage

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: Osama Elsarrar, Marjorie Darrah, Richard Devin

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This paper discusses the idea of capturing an expert’s knowledge in the form of human understandable rules and then inserting these rules into a dynamic cell structure (DCS) neural network. The DCS is a form of self-organizing map that can be used for many purposes, including classification and prediction. This particular neural network is considered to be a topology preserving network that starts with no pre-structure, but assumes a structure once trained. The DCS has been used in mission and safety-critical applications, including adaptive flight control and health-monitoring in aerial vehicles. The approach is to insert expert knowledge into the DCS before training. Rules are translated into a pre-structure and then training data are presented. This idea has been demonstrated using the well-known Iris data set and it has been shown that inserting the pre-structure results in better accuracy with the same training.

Keywords: neural network, self-organizing map, rule extraction, rule insertion

Procedia PDF Downloads 172

Authors: Wissem Abdaoui, Ilhem Mokhtari, Adel Gouri, Benouareth Djamel Eddine

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Contracted in a health facility, hospital-acquired infections are a major public health problem in recent years. The increase of nosocomial infections is partly related to diagnostic and therapeutic advances in medicine. The aim of our study was to isolate and diagnose some types of bacteria that are circulating in the hospital by performing different samples at two medical services: Pulmonary and Infectious Diseases. The antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed for bacterial isolates. The results have shown that there is a predominance of enterobacteria followed by the staphylococcus with its two species epidermidis ans saprophyticus. The study of the antibiogramme identified that some of these bacteria have a resistant profile against all the tested antibiotics. The fight against nosocomial infections is difficult because it must act on several factors: quality of care, safety of the hospital environment, hygiene, wearing gloves etc. are all areas that should be of heightened vigilance and preventive measures.

Keywords: nosocomial infection, isolation, identification, sensitivity and resistance to antibiotics

Procedia PDF Downloads 380

Authors: Baldev Setia, Raj Rajeshwari, Maneesh Kumar

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Present paper is an analysis of water transmission mains failed due to surge analysis by using basic software known as Surge Analysis Program (SAP). It is a real time failure case study of a pipe laid in Una, Himachal Pradesh. The transmission main is a 13 kilometer long pipe with 7.9 kilometers as pumping main and 5.1 kilometers as gravitational main. The analysis deals with mainly pumping mains. The results are available in two text files. Besides, several files are prepared with specific view to obtain results in a graphical form. These results help to observe the pressure difference and surge occurrence at different locations along the pipe profile, which help to redesign the transmission main with different but suitable safety measures against possible surge. A technically viable and economically feasible design has been provided as per the relevant manual and standard code of practice.

Keywords: surge, water hammer, transmission mains, SAP 2000

Procedia PDF Downloads 366