Search results for: design information

Authors: Septiany Trisnaningtyas

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Purpose: This research aims to examine the factors affecting the profitability of pharmaceutical company during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia. A sharp decline in the number of patients coming to the hospital for treatment during the pandemic has an impact on the growth of the pharmaceutical sector and brought major changes in financial position and business performance. Pharmaceutical companies that provide products related to the Covid-19 pandemic can survive and continue to grow. This study investigates the factors affecting the profitability of pharmaceutical company during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia associated with the number of Covid-19 cases. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses panel-data regression models to evaluate the influence of the number of Covid-19 confirmed cases on profitability of ninelisted pharmaceuticalcompanies in Indonesia. This research is based on four independent variables that were empirically examined for their relationship with profitability. These variables are liquidity (current ratio), growth rate (sales growth), firm size (total sales), and market power (the Lerner index). Covid-19 case is used as moderating variable. Data of nine pharmaceutical companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange covering the period of 2018–2021 were extracted from companies’ quarterly annual reports. Findings: In the period during Covid-19, company growth (sales growth) and market power (lerner index) have a positive and significant relationship to ROA and ROE. Total of confirmed Covid-19 cases has a positive and significant relationship to ROA and is proven to have a moderating effect between company’s growth (sales growth) to ROA and ROE and market power (Lerner index) to ROA. Research limitations/implications: Due to data availability, this study only includes data from nine listed pharmaceutical companies in Indonesian Stock exchange and quarterly annual reportscovering the period of 2018-2021. Originality/value: This study focuses onpharmaceutical companies in Indonesia during Covid-19 pandemic. Previous study analyzes the data from pharmaceutical companies’ annual reports since 2014 and focus on universal health coverage (national health insurance) implementation from the Indonesian government. This study analyzes the data using fixed effect panel-data regression models to evaluate the influence of Covid-19 confirmed cases on profitability. Pooled ordinary least squares regression and fixed effects were used to analyze the data in previous study. This study also investigate the moderating effect of Covid-19 confirmed cases to profitability in relevant with the pandemic situation.

Keywords: profitability, indonesia, pharmaceutical, Covid-19

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Authors: Jae Ni Jang, Young Uk Kim

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Background: Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer-3 (ChatGPT; San Francisco, California, Open Artificial Intelligence) is an artificial intelligence chatbot based on a large language model designed to generate human-like text. As the usage of ChatGPT is increasing among less knowledgeable patients, medical students, and anesthesia and pain medicine residents or trainees, we aimed to evaluate the accuracy of ChatGPT-3 responses to questions about the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification based on patients’ underlying diseases and assess the quality of the generated responses. Methods: A total of 47 questions were submitted to ChatGPT using textual prompts. The questions were designed for ChatGPT-3 to provide answers regarding ASA classification in response to common underlying diseases frequently observed in adult patients. In addition, we created 18 questions regarding the ASA classification for pediatric patients and pregnant women. The accuracy of ChatGPT’s responses was evaluated by cross-referencing with Miller’s Anesthesia, Morgan & Mikhail’s Clinical Anesthesiology, and the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ ASA Physical Status Classification System (2020). Results: Out of the 47 questions pertaining to adults, ChatGPT -3 provided correct answers for only 23, resulting in an accuracy rate of 48.9%. Furthermore, the responses provided by ChatGPT-3 regarding children and pregnant women were mostly inaccurate, as indicated by a 28% accuracy rate (5 out of 18). Conclusions: ChatGPT provided correct responses to questions relevant to the daily clinical routine of anesthesiologists in approximately half of the cases, while the remaining responses contained errors. Therefore, caution is advised when using ChatGPT to retrieve anesthesia-related information. Although ChatGPT may not yet be suitable for clinical settings, we anticipate significant improvements in ChatGPT and other large language models in the near future. Regular assessments of ChatGPT's ASA classification accuracy are essential due to the evolving nature of ChatGPT as an artificial intelligence entity. This is especially important because ChatGPT has a clinically unacceptable rate of error and hallucination, particularly in pediatric patients and pregnant women. The methodology established in this study may be used to continue evaluating ChatGPT.

Keywords: American Society of Anesthesiologists, artificial intelligence, Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer-3, ChatGPT

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Authors: Nusrat Praween, Krishna Thej Pammi Guru, Palash Kumar Basu

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Designing non-invasive biosensors for cancer diagnosis is essential for developing an affordable and specific tool to measure cancer-related exosome biomarkers. Exosomes, released by healthy as well as cancer cells, contain valuable information about the biomarkers of various diseases, including cancer. Despite the availability of various isolation techniques, ultracentrifugation is the standard technique that is being employed. Post isolation, exosomes are traditionally exposed to detergents for extracting their proteins, which can often lead to protein degradation. Further to this, it is very essential to develop a sensing platform for the quantification of clinically relevant proteins in a wider range to ensure practicality. In this study, exosomes were immobilized on the Au Screen Printed Electrode (SPE) using EDC/NHS chemistry to facilitate binding. After immobilizing the exosomes on the screen-printed electrode (SPE), we investigated the impact of the electric field by applying various voltages to induce exosome lysis and release their contents. The lysed solution was used for sensing TSG101, a crucial biomarker associated with various cancers, using both faradaic and non-faradaic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The results of non-faradaic and faradaic EIS were comparable and showed good consistency, indicating that non-faradaic sensing can be a reliable alternative. Hence, the non-faradaic sensing technique was used for label-free quantification of the TSG101 biomarker. The results were validated using ELISA. Our electrochemical immunosensor demonstrated a consistent response of TSG101 from 125 pg/mL to 8000 pg/mL, with a detection limit of 0.125 pg/mL at room temperature. Additionally, since non-faradic sensing is label-free, the ease of usage and cost of the final sensor developed can be reduced. The proposed immunosensor is capable of detecting the TSG101 protein at low levels in healthy serum with good sensitivity and specificity, making it a promising platform for biomarker detection.

Keywords: biosensor, exosomes isolation on SPE, electric field lysis of exosome, EIS sensing of TSG101

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Authors: Yunhan Zhang, Xiaopeng Li, Zhongxiao Peng

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Additive manufacturing (AM) possesses several key characteristics, including high design freedom, energy-efficient manufacturing process, reduced material waste, high resolution of finished products, and excellent performance of finished products. These advantages have garnered widespread attention and fueled rapid development in recent decades. AM has significantly broadened the spectrum of available materials in the manufacturing industry and is gradually replacing some traditionally manufactured parts. Similar to components produced via traditional methods, products manufactured through AM are susceptible to degradation caused by wear during their service life. Given the prevalence of 316L stainless steel (SS) parts and the limited research on the tribological behavior of 316L SS samples or products fabricated using AM technology, this study aims to investigate the degradation process and wear mechanisms of 316L SS disks fabricated using AM technology. The wear mechanisms and tribological performance of these AM-manufactured samples are compared with commercial 316L SS samples made using conventional methods. Additionally, methods to enhance the tribological performance of additive-manufactured SS samples are explored. Four disk samples with a diameter of 75 mm and a thickness of 10 mm are prepared. Two of them (Group A) are prepared from a purchased SS bar using a milling method. The other two disks (Group B), with the same dimensions, are made of Gas Atomized 316L Stainless Steel (size range: 15-45 µm) purchased from Carpenter Additive and produced using Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF). Pin-on-disk tests are conducted on these disks, which have similar surface roughness and hardness levels. Multiple tests are carried out under various operating conditions, including varying loads and/or speeds, and the friction coefficients are measured during these tests. In addition, the evolution of the surface degradation processes is monitored by creating moulds of the wear tracks and quantitatively analyzing the surface morphologies of the mould images. This analysis involves quantifying the depth and width of the wear tracks and analyzing the wear debris generated during the wear processes. The wear mechanisms and wear performance of these two groups of SS samples are compared. The effects of load and speed on the friction coefficient and wear rate are investigated. The ultimate goal is to gain a better understanding of the surface degradation of additive-manufactured SS samples. This knowledge is crucial for enhancing their anti-wear performance and extending their service life.

Keywords: degradation process, additive manufacturing, stainless steel, surface features

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Authors: Mo'ath F. Bataineh

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Exercise is highly effective against obesity. Milk contains several components that support exercising and physical performance. However, there is a lack of published studies on the relationship between camel milk and ability to exercise. A pilot study was conducted with the purpose of comparing the impact of milk type (Cow vs Camel) compared with water on physical performance. Seven male obese participants (age: 20.3 ± 1.5 years; BMI: 35.7 ± 2.7 kg/m2; resting heart rate: 92.7 ± 4.7 beats per minute; training frequency: 4.4 ± 0.8 days/week) were recruited for this pilot study. In a randomized counterbalanced crossover design, participants took part in 3 trials that included ingesting 3 different pre workout drinks in a random order. The pre workout drinks were water (W), whole cow milk (CW), and whole camel milk (CM). On each trial day, participants were asked to report to the laboratory after an overnight fasting. Following a 15-minute short recovery period after their arrival to the laboratory, each participant was presented with a 500 ml of the assigned experimental drink and were asked to ingest it in one minute and at least 120 minutes prior to performing the 6-minute walk test. All drinks were presented at room temperature. Trials with different experimental drinks were performed on separate days. Participants were given at least 4 days of washout period between trials. The trial order was randomized to avoid bias due to learning effect. The 6-minute walk test was performed by all participants and immediately at the conclusion of the test, the covered distance in meters and the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded. All data were analysed using SPSS software (Version 29.0). The repeated measures ANOVA testing of collected data showed a significant main effect for treatment on covered distance in meters, F (2, 8) = 5.794, p=0.028 with a large effect size (partial eta squared (ηp2) =0.592). Also, LSD post hoc pairwise comparison analysis revealed that Camel milk and Cow milk were significantly (p = 0.044 and p = 0.020 respectively) superior to water in improving the covered distance during the test and that Camel milk tended to be better than Cow’s milk. The RPE values were not significantly different between experimental drinks (p>0.05). In conclusion, milk is superior to water as a pre workout drink, and camel milk is comparable to cow’s milk in enhancing ability to support a higher level of performance compared with water, therefore, camel milk could be used to replace cow’s milk as a suitable pre-exercise drink without expecting any negative consequences on physical performance. The fact that these positive results were obtained with obese individuals should encourage using camel milk without the fear of disturbing physical performance in other weight categories.

Keywords: camel milk, cow milk, obesity, physical performance, pre-workout drink

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Authors: A. Durgadevi, S. Pushpavanam

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For the past several decades, CO2 levels have been dramatically increasing in the atmosphere due to the man-made emissions such as fossil fuel-fired power plants. With the increase in CO2 emissions, CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has increased resulting in global warming. This shows the need to study different ways to capture the emitted CO2 directly from the exhausts of power plants or atmosphere. There are several ways to remove CO2, such as absorption into a liquid solvent, adsorption into a solid, cryogenic separation, permeation through membranes and photochemical conversion. In most industries, the absorption of CO2 in chemical solvents (in absorption towers) is used for CO2 capture. In these towers, the mass transfer along with chemical reactions take place between the gas and liquid phase. This helps in the separation of CO2 from other gases. It is important to understand these processes in detail. These flow patterns are difficult to maintain in large scale industrial absorbers. So to get accurate information controlled gas-liquid absorption experiments are carried out in milli-channels in this work under controlled atmosphere. The absorption experiments of CO2 in varying concentrations of sodium hydroxide solution are carried out in T-junction glass milli-channels with a circular cross section (inner diameter of 2mm). The gas and liquid flow rates are controlled by a mass flow controller (MFC) and a Harvard syringe pump respectively. The slug flow in the channel is recorded using a camera and the videos are analysed. The gas slug of pure CO2 is found to decrease in size along the length of the channel due to absorption of gas in the liquid. This is also captured with the model developed and the mass transfer characteristics are studied. The pressure drop across the channel is determined by sum of the pressure drops from the gas slugs and the liquid plugs. A dimensionless correlation for the mass transfer coefficient is developed in terms of Sherwood number and compared with the existing correlations in the literature. They are found to be in close agreement with each other. In this case, due to the presence of chemical reaction, the enhancement of mass transfer is obtained. This is quantified with the help of an enhancement factor.

Keywords: absorption, enhancement factor, mass transfer coefficient, Sherwood number

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Authors: Ana Julia C. Kfouri

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A prerequisite of any building design is to provide security to the users, taking the climate and its physical and physical-geometrical variables into account. It is also important to highlight the relevance of the right material elements, which arise between the person and the agent, and must provide improved thermal comfort conditions and low environmental impact. Furthermore, technology is constantly advancing, as well as computational simulations for projects, and they should be used to develop sustainable building and to provide higher quality of life for its users. In relation to comfort, the more satisfied the building users are, the better their intellectual performance will be. Based on that, the study of thermal comfort in educational buildings is of relative relevance, since the thermal characteristics in these environments are of vital importance to all users. Moreover, educational buildings are large constructions and when they are poorly planned and executed they have negative impacts to the surrounding environment, as well as to the user satisfaction, throughout its whole life cycle. In this line of thought, to evaluate university classroom conditions, it was accomplished a detailed case study on the thermal comfort situation at Federal University of Parana (UFPR). The main goal of the study is to perform a thermal analysis in three classrooms at UFPR, in order to address the subjective and physical variables that influence thermal comfort inside the classroom. For the assessment of the subjective components, a questionnaire was applied in order to evaluate the reference for the local thermal conditions. Regarding the physical variables, it was carried out on-site measurements, which consist of performing measurements of air temperature and air humidity, both inside and outside the building, as well as meteorological variables, such as wind speed and direction, solar radiation and rainfall, collected from a weather station. Then, a computer simulation based on results from the EnergyPlus software to reproduce air temperature and air humidity values of the three classrooms studied was conducted. The EnergyPlus outputs were analyzed and compared with the on-site measurement results to be possible to come out with a conclusion related to the local thermal conditions. The methodological approach included in the study allowed a distinct perspective in an educational building to better understand the classroom thermal performance, as well as the reason of such behavior. Finally, the study induces a reflection about the importance of thermal comfort for educational buildings and propose thermal alternatives for future projects, as well as a discussion about the significant impact of using computer simulation on engineering solutions, in order to improve the thermal performance of UFPR’s buildings.

Keywords: computer simulation, educational buildings, EnergyPlus, humidity, temperature, thermal comfort

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Authors: Larissa Bolliger, Junoš Lukan, Mitja Lustrek, Dirk De Bacquer, Els Clays

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Introduction and Aim: Chronic workplace stress and its health-related consequences like mental and cardiovascular diseases have been widely investigated. This project focuses on the sources and context of psychosocial daily workplace stress in a real-world setting. The main objective is to analyze and model real-time relationships between (1) psychosocial stress experiences within the natural work environment, (2) micro-level work activities and events, and (3) physiological signals and behaviors in office workers. Methods: An Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) protocol has been developed, partly building on machine learning techniques. Empatica® wristbands will be used for real-life detection of stress from physiological signals; micro-level activities and events at work will be based on smartphone registrations, further processed according to an automated computer algorithm. A field study including 100 office-based workers with high-level problem-solving tasks like managers and researchers will be implemented in Slovenia and Belgium (50 in each country). Data mining and state-of-the-art statistical methods – mainly multilevel statistical modelling for repeated data – will be used. Expected Results and Impact: The project findings will provide novel contributions to the field of occupational health research. While traditional assessments provide information about global perceived state of chronic stress exposure, the EMA approach is expected to bring new insights about daily fluctuating work stress experiences, especially micro-level events and activities at work that induce acute physiological stress responses. The project is therefore likely to generate further evidence on relevant stressors in a real-time working environment and hence make it possible to advise on workplace procedures and policies for reducing stress.

Keywords: ecological momentary assessment, real-time, stress, work

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Authors: Swathi Ganesan, Nalinda Somasiri, Rebecca Jeyavadhanam, Gayathri Karthick

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The COVID-19 crisis presents a substantial and critical hazard to worldwide health. Since the occurrence of the disease in late January 2020 in the UK, the number of infected people confirmed to acquire the illness has increased tremendously across the country, and the number of individuals affected is undoubtedly considerably high. The purpose of this research is to figure out a predictive machine learning archetypal that could forecast COVID-19 cases within the UK. This study concentrates on the statistical data collected from 31st January 2020 to 31st March 2021 in the United Kingdom. Information on total COVID cases registered, new cases encountered on a daily basis, total death registered, and patients’ death per day due to Coronavirus is collected from World Health Organisation (WHO). Data preprocessing is carried out to identify any missing values, outliers, or anomalies in the dataset. The data is split into 8:2 ratio for training and testing purposes to forecast future new COVID cases. Support Vector Machines (SVM), Random Forests, and linear regression algorithms are chosen to study the model performance in the prediction of new COVID-19 cases. From the evaluation metrics such as r-squared value and mean squared error, the statistical performance of the model in predicting the new COVID cases is evaluated. Random Forest outperformed the other two Machine Learning algorithms with a training accuracy of 99.47% and testing accuracy of 98.26% when n=30. The mean square error obtained for Random Forest is 4.05e11, which is lesser compared to the other predictive models used for this study. From the experimental analysis Random Forest algorithm can perform more effectively and efficiently in predicting the new COVID cases, which could help the health sector to take relevant control measures for the spread of the virus.

Keywords: COVID-19, machine learning, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, linear regression, support vector machine, random forest

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Authors: Mumtaz Ali, Hamzullah Khan, Khalid Khanzada, Shahid Ayub, Aurangzeb Wazir

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Objective: To analyse the death of patients treated in neuro-surgical ICU for severe head injuries from different perspectives. The evaluation of the data so obtained to help improve the health care delivery to this group of patients in ICU. Study Design: It is a descriptive study based on retrospective analysis of patients presenting to neuro-surgical ICU in Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar. Study Duration: It covered the period between 1st January 2009 to 31st December 2009. Material and Methods: The Clinical record of all the patients presenting with the clinical radiological and surgical features of severe head injuries, who expired in neuro-surgical ICU was collected. A separate proforma which mentioned age, sex, time of arrival and death, causes of head injuries, the radiological features, the clinical parameters, the surgical and non surgical treatment given was used. The average duration of stay and the demographic and domiciliary representation of these patients was noted. The record was analyzed accordingly for discussion and recommendations. Results: Out of the total 112 (n-112) patients who expired in one year in the neuro-surgical ICU the young adults made up the majority 64 (57.14%) followed by children, 34 (30.35%) and then the elderly age group: 10 (8.92%). Road traffic accidents were the major cause of presentation, 75 (66.96%) followed by history of fall; 23 (20.53%) and then the fire arm injuries; 13 (11.60%). The predominant CT scan features of these patients on presentation was cerebral edema, and midline shift (diffuse neuronal injuries). 46 (41.07%) followed by cerebral contusions. 28 (25%). The correctable surgical causes were present only in 18 patients (16.07%) and the majority 94 (83.92%) were given conservative management. Of the 69 (n=69) patients in which CT scan was repeated; 62 (89.85%) showed worsening of the initial CT scan abnormalities while in 7 cases (10.14%) the features were static. Among the non surgical cases both ventilatory therapy in 7 (6.25%) and tracheostomy in 39 (34.82%) failed to change the outcome. The maximum stay in the neuro ICU leading upto the death was 48 hours in 35 (31.25%) cases followed by 31 (27.67%) cases in 24 hours; 24 (21.42%) in one week and 16 (14.28%) in 72 hours. Only 6 (5.35%) patients survived more than a week. Patients were received from almost all the districts of NWFP except. The Hazara division. There were some Afghan refugees as well. Conclusion: Mortality following the head injuries is alarmingly high despite repeated claims about the professional and administrative improvement. Even places like ICU could not change the out come according to the desired aims and objectives in the present set up. A rethinking is needed both at the individual and institutional level among the concerned quarters with a clear aim at the more scientific grounds. Only then one can achieve the desired results.

Keywords: Glasgow Coma Scale, pediatrics, geriatrics, Peshawar

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Authors: Neelam Kadyan, Pratima Ranga, Yogender

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Indigenous people are the One who are affected by the climate change the most, although there have contributed little to its causes. This is largely a result of their historic dependence on local biological diversity, ecosystem services and cultural landscapes as a source of their sustenance and well-being. Comprising only four percent of the world’s population they utilize 22 percent of the world’s land surface. Despite their high exposure-sensitivity indigenous peoples and local communities are actively responding to changing climatic conditions and have demonstrated their resourcefulness and resilience in the face of climate change. Traditional Indigenous territories encompass up to 22 percent of the world’s land surface and they coincide with areas that hold 80 percent of the planet’s biodiversity. Also, the greatest diversity of indigenous groups coincides with the world’s largest tropical forest wilderness areas in the Americas (including Amazon), Africa, and Asia, and 11 percent of world forest lands are legally owned by Indigenous Peoples and communities. This convergence of biodiversity-significant areas and indigenous territories presents an enormous opportunity to expand efforts to conserve biodiversity beyond parks, which tend to benefit from most of the funding for biodiversity conservation. Tapping on Ancestral Knowledge Indigenous Peoples are carriers of ancestral knowledge and wisdom about this biodiversity. Their effective participation in biodiversity conservation programs as experts in protecting and managing biodiversity and natural resources would result in more comprehensive and cost effective conservation and management of biodiversity worldwide. Addressing the Climate Change Agenda Indigenous Peoples has played a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The territories of indigenous groups who have been given the rights to their lands have been better conserved than the adjacent lands (i.e., Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, etc.). Preserving large extensions of forests would not only support the climate change objectives, but it would respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and conserve biodiversity as well. A climate change agenda fully involving Indigenous Peoples has many more benefits than if only government and/or the private sector are involved. Indigenous peoples are some of the most vulnerable groups to the negative effects of climate change. Also, they are a source of knowledge to the many solutions that will be needed to avoid or ameliorate those effects. For example, ancestral territories often provide excellent examples of a landscape design that can resist the negatives effects of climate change. Over the millennia, Indigenous Peoples have developed adaptation models to climate change. They have also developed genetic varieties of medicinal and useful plants and animal breeds with a wider natural range of resistance to climatic and ecological variability.

Keywords: ancestral knowledge, cost effective conservation, management, indigenous peoples, climate change

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Authors: Zuhal Mohammed, Khalid Siddig, Harald Grethe

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Vocational training (VT) has been identified as a potential engine for achieving economic and social development, particularly in developing countries, while during the last two decades it is deemed as an essential determinant of human capital accumulation. Furthermore, it has a crucial role in reducing inequality, wage gaps and unemployment and in promoting skill decomposition. Government plays an important role in the human capital formulation by providing finance for education. In some countries, a large portion of the public educational investment is devoted to academic education (primary, secondary and tertiary). This is reflected in disproportionately increasing investment in various education sectors other than vocational education and VT. Nevertheless, the finance of VT system is not likely to increase or even remain at its existing level. This paper conducts an in-depth analysis to quantify the impacts of various options for expanding the public expenditure on education as well as vocational training in the Sudan. The study uses a recursive dynamic CGE modelling framework that accommodates VT and allows depicting the impact of various policies targeting the vocational training system with special focus on the agricultural sector. This allows for depicting the potential effects of various resource allocation policies not only among education versus non-education sectors, but also between the various types of education and training. Moreover, the study assesses the role of VT system in the economy through its influence on workers’ skill improvement and their movement across sectors. The results show that an increase in the public educational investment will lead to decrease the supply of low and high educated workers as results of increasing the school participation of the students in the short run. While in the medium to long run, this measure guides to increase the productivity of the labour and thus the growth rate of the gross domestic product (GDP). Therefore, the findings of the study provide Sudanese policymakers with needed information to help to adopt measures to reduce unemployment, enhance workers’ skill and ultimately improve livelihoods.

Keywords: vocational training, recursive dynamic CGE, skill level, labour market, economic growth, Sudan

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Authors: Amelia Frickey, Timothy (TJ) Sheridan, Angelica Rossi, Bahar Aliakbarian

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The growth of large food supply chains demanded improved end-to-end traceability of food products, which has led to companies being increasingly interested in using smart technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-enabled packaging to track items. As technology is being widely used, there are several technological or economic issues that should be overcome to facilitate the adoption of this track-and-trace technology. One of the technological challenges of RFID technology is its sensitivity to different environmental form factors, including packaging materials and the content of the packaging. Although researchers have assessed the performance loss due to the proximity of water and aqueous solutions, there is still the need to further investigate the impacts of food products on the reading range of RFID tags. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are not enough studies to determine the correlation between RFID tag performance and food beverages properties. The goal of this project was to investigate the effect of the solution properties (pH and conductivity) and different packaging materials filled with food-like water-based solutions on the performance of an RFID tag. Three commercially available ultra high-frequency RFID tags were placed on three different bottles and filled with different concentrations of water-based solutions, including sodium chloride, citric acid, sucrose, and ethanol. Transparent glass, Polyethylneterephtalate (PET), and Tetrapak® were used as the packaging materials commonly used in the beverage industries. Tag readability (Theoretical Read Range, TRR) and sensitivity (Power on Tag Forward, PoF) were determined using an anechoic chamber. First, the best place to attach the tag for each packaging material was investigated using empty and water-filled bottles. Then, the bottles were filled with the food-like solutions and tested with the three different tags and the PoF and TRR at the fixed frequency of 915MHz. In parallel, the pH and conductivity of solutions were measured. The best-performing tag was then selected to test the bottles filled with wine, orange, and apple juice. Despite various solutions altering the performance of each tag, the change in tag performance had no correlation with the pH or conductivity of the solution. Additionally, packaging material played a significant role in tag performance. Each tag tested performed optimally under different conditions. This study is the first part of comprehensive research to determine the regression model for the prediction of tag performance behavior based on the packaging material and the content. More investigations, including more tags and food products, are needed to be able to develop a robust regression model. The results of this study can be used by RFID tag manufacturers to design suitable tags for specific products with similar properties.

Keywords: smart food packaging, supply chain management, food waste, radio frequency identification

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Authors: Jonghyuk Yoon, Jongil Yoon, Seong-Gyo Chung

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In many kinds of industries which usually need a large amount of power, an axial piston pump has been widely used as a main power source of a hydraulic system. The axial piston pump is a type of positive displacement pump that has several pistons in a circular array within a cylinder block. As the cylinder block and pistons start to rotate, since the exposed ends of the pistons are constrained to follow the surface of the swashed plate, the pistons are driven to reciprocate axially and then a hydraulic power is produced. In the present study, a numerical simulation which has three dimensional full model of the axial piston pump was carried out using a commercial CFD code (Ansys CFX 14.5). In order to take into consideration motion of compression and extension by the reciprocating pistons, the moving boundary conditions were applied as a function of the rotation angle to that region. In addition, this pump using hydraulic oil as working fluid is intentionally designed as a small amount of oil leaks out in order to lubricate moving parts. Since leakage could directly affect the pump efficiency, evaluation of effect of oil-leakage is very important. In order to predict the effect of the oil leakage on the pump efficiency, we considered the leakage between piston-shoe and swash-plate by modeling cylindrical shaped-feature at the end of the cylinder. In order to validate the numerical method used in this study, the numerical results of the flow rate at the discharge port are compared with the experimental data, and good agreement between them was shown. Using the validated numerical method, the effect of the discharge pressure was also investigated. The result of the present study can be useful information of small axial piston pump used in many different manufacturing industries. Acknowledgement: This research was financially supported by the “Next-generation construction machinery component specialization complex development program” through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).

Keywords: axial piston pump, CFD, discharge pressure, hydraulic system, moving boundary condition, oil leaks

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Authors: Ali Ahmadi, Maryam Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi Parsaei

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Background: Stress in the workplace today is one of the most important public health concerns and a serious threat to the health of the workforce worldwide. Occupational stress can cause occupational events and reduce quality of life. As a result, it has a very undesirable impact on the performance of organizations, companies, and their human resources. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between job stress dimensions and occupational accidents in industrial factories in Southwest Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 workers in the summer of 2023 in the Southwest of Iran. To select participants, we used a convenience sampling method. The research tools in this study were the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) stress questionnaire with 35 questions and 7 dimensions and demographic information. A high score on this questionnaire indicates that there is low job stress and pressure. All workers completed the informed consent form. Univariate analysis was performed using chi-square and T-test. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the association of stress-related factors with job accidents in participants. Stata 14.0 software was used for analysis. Results: The mean age of the participants was 39.81(6.36) years. The prevalence of job accidents was 28.0% (95%CI: 21.0, 34.0). Based on the results of the multiple logistic regression with the adjustment of the effect of the confounding variables, one increase in the score of the demand dimension had a protective impact on the risk of job accidents(aOR=0.91,95%CI:0.85-0.95). Additionally, an increase in one of the scores of the managerial support (aOR=0.89, 95% CI: 0.83-0.95) and peer support (aOR=0.76, 95%CI: 0.67-87) dimensions was associated with a lower number of job accidents. Among dimensions, an increase in the score of relationship (aOR=0.89, 95%CI: 0.80-0.98) and change (aOR=0.86, 95%CI: 0.74-0.96) reduced the odds of the accident's occurrence among the workers by 11% and 16%, respectively. However, there was no significant association between role and control dimensions and the job accident (p>0.05). Conclusions: The results show that the prevalence of job accidents was alarmingly high. Our results suggested that an increase in scores of dimensions HSE questioners is significantly associated with a decrease the accident occurrence in the workplace. Therefore, planning to address stressful factors in the workplace seems necessary to prevent occupational accidents.

Keywords: HSE, Iran, job stress occupational accident, safety, occupational health

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Authors: Fatemeh Dehghan Khangahi, Hakan Gunes

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Transforming a public necessity into a commercial commodity becomes more and more evident as time goes on, and it is one of the issues of water shortage. Development projects of countries, consume the water and waterbeds in various forms, ignoring the concepts such as sustainability and the negative effects they place on the environment, pollute and change the ways of waterways. Throughout these processes, the water basins and all the vital environments sometimes can suffer damage to the irreparable level. In this context, the issue of Lake Urmia that is located in the North West of Iran left alone by drought, has been researched. The lake, which is on the list of UNESCO's biosphere reserves, is now exposed to the danger of desiccation. If the desiccation is fully realized, more than 5.000.000 people that they are living around the lake, will have to migrate as a result of negative living conditions. As a matter of fact, along with the recent years of increasing drought level, regional migrations have begun. In addition to migration issues, it is also necessary to specify the negative effects on human and all-round’s life that depend on the formation of salt storms, mixing of salt into the air and soil, which threaten human health seriously because the lake is salty. The main aim of this work is to raise national and international awareness of this problem, which is an environment and a human tragedy at the same time. This research has two basic questions: 1) In the case of Lake Urmia, what are environmental problems and how they have emerged and what is the role of governments? 2) What is the social consequence of this problem in relation to the first question? In response, after the literature search, having a comparative view of the situation of the Aral Sea and the Great Salt Lake (Utah, USA), which involved the two major international examples. The first, one is related to the terms of population and migration, the second is about biological properties. Then, data and status information that provided after 3 years area research has been evaluated. Towards the end, with the support of qualitative and quantitative methods, the study of social mobilization in the region has been carried out. An example of it is using the public space of TRAXTOR matches like a protests area.

Keywords: environment problems, water, social mobilization, Lake Urmia, migration

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Authors: Usharani Rathinam

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Although policies directing inclusion of marginalized were in effect, majority of chronically impoverished in India belonged to schedule caste and schedule tribes. Also, taking into account that poverty is gendered; destitute women belonged to lower social order whose need is not largely highlighted at policy level. This paper discusses on social relations poverty which highlights on how social order that existed structurally in the society can perpetuate chronic poverty, followed by a critical review on social inclusion policies of India, its merits and demerits in addressing chronic poverty. Multiple case study design is utilized to address this concern in four districts of India; Jhansi, Tikamgarh, Cuddalore and Anantapur. These four districts were selected by purposive sampling based on the criteria; the district should either be categorized as a backward district or should have a history of high poverty rate. Qualitative methods including eighty in-depth interviews, six focus group discussions, six social mapping procedures and three key informant interviews were conducted in 2011, at each of the locations. Analysis of the data revealed that irrespective of gender, schedule castes and schedule tribe participants were found to be chronically poor in all districts. Caste based discrimination is exhibited at both micro and macro levels; village and institutional levels. At village level, lower caste respondents had lesser access to public resources. Also, within institutional settings, due to confiscation, unequal access to resources is noticed, especially in fund distribution. This study found that half of the budget intended for schedule caste and schedule tribes were confiscated by upper caste administrative staffs. This implies that power based on social hierarchy marginalize lower caste participants from accessing better economic, social, and political benefits, that had led them to suffer long term poverty. This study also explored the traditional ties between caste, social structure and bonded labour as a cause of long-term poverty. Though equal access is being emphasized in constitutional rights, issues at micro level have not been reflected in formulation of these rights. Therefore, it is significant for a policy to consider the structural complexity and then focus on issues such as equal distribution of assets and infrastructural facilities that will reduce exclusion and foster long-term security in areas such as employment, markets and public distribution.

Keywords: caste, inclusion policies, India, social order

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Authors: M. Y. Abubakar, Ipinjolu J. K., Yuzine B. Esa, Magawata I., Hassan W. A., Turaki A. A.

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Catfish (Heterobranchus spp.) is a major freshwater fish that are widely distributed in Nigeria waters and are gaining rapid aquaculture expansion. However, indiscriminate artificial crossbreeding of the species with others poses a threat to their biodiversity. There is a paucity of information about the genetic variability, hence this insight on the genetic variability is badly needed, not only for the species conservation but for aquaculture expansion. In this study, we tested the level of Genetic diversity, population differentiation and phylogenetic relationship analysis on 35 individuals of two populations of Heterobranchus bidorsalis and 29 individuals of three populations of Heterobranchus longifilis using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (mtDNA COI) gene sequence. Nucleotide sequences of 650 bp fragment of the COI gene of the two species were compared. In the whole 4 and 5 haplotypes were distinguished in the populations of H. bidorsalis & H. longifilis with accession numbers (MG334168 - MG334171 & MG334172 to MG334176) respectively. Haplotypes diversity indices revealed a range of 0.59 ± 0.08 to 0.57 ± 0.09 in H. bidorsalis and 0.000 to 0.001051 ± 0.000945 in H. longifilis population, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed no significant variation among H. bidorsalis population of the Niger & Benue Rivers, detected significant genetic variation was between the Rivers of Niger, Kaduna and Benue population of H. longifilis. Two main clades were recovered, showing a clear separation between H. bidorsalis and H. longifilis in the phylogenetic tree. The mtDNA COI genes studied revealed high gene flow between populations with no distinct genetic differentiation between the populations as measured by the fixation index (FST) statistic. However, a proportion of population-specific haplotypes was observed in the two species studied, suggesting a substantial degree of genetic distinctiveness for each of the population investigated. These findings present the description of the species character and accessions of the fish’s genetic resources, through gene sequence submitted in Genetic database. The data will help to protect their valuable wild resource and contribute to their recovery and selective breeding in Nigeria.

Keywords: AMOVA, genetic diversity, Heterobranchus spp., mtDNA COI, phylogenetic tree

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Authors: Evrim Colak, Andriy E. Serebryannikov, Pavel V. Usik, Ekmel Ozbay

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Working with a dielectric photonic crystal (PC) structure which does not include surface corrugations, unidirectional transmission and dual-beam splitting are observed under normal incidence as a result of the strong diffractions caused by the embedded defect layer. The defect layer has twice the period of the regular PC segments which sandwich the defect layer. Although the PC has even number of rows, the structural symmetry is broken due to the asymmetric placement of the defect layer with respect to the symmetry axis of the regular PC. The simulations verify that efficient splitting and occurrence of strong diffractions are related to the dispersion properties of the Floquet-Bloch modes of the photonic crystal. Unidirectional and bi-directional splitting, which are associated with asymmetric transmission, arise due to the dominant contribution of the first positive and first negative diffraction orders. The effect of the depth of the defect layer is examined by placing single defect layer in varying rows, preserving the asymmetry of PC. Even for deeply buried defect layer, asymmetric transmission is still valid even if the zeroth order is not coupled. This transmission is due to evanescent waves which reach to the deeply embedded defect layer and couple to higher order modes. In an additional selected performance, whichever surface is illuminated, i.e., in both upper and lower surface illumination cases, incident beam is split into two beams of equal intensity at the output surface where the intensity of the out-going beams are equal for both illumination cases. That is, although the structure is asymmetric, symmetric bidirectional transmission with equal transmission values is demonstrated and the structure mimics the behavior of symmetric structures. Finally, simulation studies including the examination of a coupled-cavity defect for two different permittivity values (close to the permittivity values of GaAs or Si and alumina) reveal unidirectional splitting for a wider band of operation in comparison to the bandwidth obtained in the case of a single embedded defect layer. Since the dielectric materials that are utilized are low-loss and weakly dispersive in a wide frequency range including microwave and optical frequencies, the studied structures should be scalable to the mentioned ranges.

Keywords: asymmetric transmission, beam deflection, blazing, bi-directional splitting, defect layer, dual beam splitting, Floquet-Bloch modes, isofrequency contours, line defect, oblique incidence, photonic crystal, unidirectionality

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Authors: Rofida Gamal, Mostafa Mohammed, Mariam Adel, Marwa Gamal, Marwa kamal, Ayat Saber, Maha Mamdouh, Amira Emad, Mai Ramadan

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Lynch Syndrome is an inherited genetic condition associated with an increased risk of colorectal and other cancers. Detecting Lynch Syndrome in individuals is crucial for early intervention and preventive measures. This study proposes a computational pipeline for Lynch Syndrome detection by integrating alignment, variant calling, and annotation. The pipeline leverages popular tools such as FastQC, Trimmomatic, BWA, bcftools, and ANNOVAR to process the input FASTQ file, perform quality trimming, align reads to the reference genome, call variants, and annotate them. It is believed that the computational pipeline was applied to a dataset of Lynch Syndrome cases, and its performance was evaluated. It is believed that the quality check step ensured the integrity of the sequencing data, while the trimming process is thought to have removed low-quality bases and adaptors. In the alignment step, it is believed that the reads were accurately mapped to the reference genome, and the subsequent variant calling step is believed to have identified potential genetic variants. The annotation step is believed to have provided functional insights into the detected variants, including their effects on known Lynch Syndrome-associated genes. The results obtained from the pipeline revealed Lynch Syndrome-related positions in the genome, providing valuable information for further investigation and clinical decision-making. The pipeline's effectiveness was demonstrated through its ability to streamline the analysis workflow and identify potential genetic markers associated with Lynch Syndrome. It is believed that the computational pipeline presents a comprehensive and efficient approach to Lynch Syndrome detection, contributing to early diagnosis and intervention. The modularity and flexibility of the pipeline are believed to enable customization and adaptation to various datasets and research settings. Further optimization and validation are believed to be necessary to enhance performance and applicability across diverse populations.

Keywords: Lynch Syndrome, computational pipeline, alignment, variant calling, annotation, genetic markers

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Authors: Cláudia Alcoforado, Anabela Ribeiro

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This paper is part of an ongoing PhD thesis. It seeks to develop a model to identify the spatial failures of the public transportation supply. In the construction of the model, it also seeks to detect the social needs arising from the disadvantage in transport. The case study is carried out for the Brazilian city of Recife. Currently, Recife has a population density of 7,039.64 inhabitants per km². Unfortunately, only 46.9% of urban households on public roads have adequate urbanization. Allied to this reality, the trend of the occupation of the poorest population is that of the peripheries, a fact that has been consolidated in Brazil and Latin America, thus burdening the families' income, since the greater the distances covered for the basic activities and consequently also the transport costs. In this way, there have been great impacts caused by the supply of public transportation to locations with low demand or lack of urban infrastructure. The model under construction uses methods such as Currie’s Gap Assessment associated with the London’s Public Transport Access Level, and the Public Transport Accessibility Index developed by Saghapour. It is intended to present the stage of the thesis with the spatial/need gaps of the neighborhoods of Recife already detected. The benefits of the geographic information system are used in this paper. It should be noted that gaps are determined from the transport supply indices. In this case, considering the presence of walking catchment areas. Still in relation to the detection of gaps, the relevant demand index is also determined. This, in turn, is calculated through indicators that reflect social needs. With the use of the smaller Brazilian geographical unit, the census sector, the model with the inclusion of population density in the study areas should present more consolidated results. Based on the results achieved, an analysis of transportation disadvantage will be carried out as a factor of social exclusion in the study area. It is anticipated that the results obtained up to the present moment, already indicate a strong trend of public transportation in areas of higher income classes, leading to the understanding that the most disadvantaged population migrates to those neighborhoods in search of employment.

Keywords: gap assessment, public transport supply, social exclusion, spatial gaps

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Authors: Antonio Lopez-Villegas, Rafael Bautista-Mesa, Emilio Robles-Musso, Daniel Catalan-Matamoros, Cesar Leal-Costa

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Objectives: The purpose of this trial was to evaluate the burden borne by and the costs to informal caregivers of users with telemonitoring of pacemakers. Methods: This is a controlled, non-randomised clinical trial, with data collected from informal caregivers, five years after implantation of pacemakers. The Spanish version of the Survey on Disabilities, Personal Autonomy, and Dependency Situations was used to get information on clinical and social characteristics, levels of professionalism, duration and types of care, difficulties in providing care, health status, economic and job aspects, impact on the family or leisure due to informal caregiving for patients with pacemakers. Results: After five years of follow-up, 55 users with pacemakers finished the study. Of which, 50 were helped by a caregiver, 18 were included in the telemonitoring group (TM) and 32 in the conventional follow-up group (HM). Overall, females represented 96.0% of the informal caregivers (88.89% in TM and 100.0% in HM group). The mean ages were 63.17 ± 15.92 and 63.13 ± 14.56 years, respectively (p = 0.83) in the groups. The majority (88.0%) of the caregivers declared that they had to provide their services between 6 and 7 days per week (83.33% in TM group versus 90.63% in HM group), without significant differences between both groups. The costs related to care provided by the informal caregivers were 47.04% higher in the conventional follow-up group than in the TM group. Conclusions: The results of this trial confirm that there were no significant differences between the informal caregivers regarding to baseline characteristics, workload and time worked in both groups of follow-up. The costs incurred by the informal caregivers providing care for users with pacemakers included in telemonitoring group are significantly lower than those in the conventional follow-up group. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02234245. Funding: The PONIENTE study, has been funded by the General Secretariat for Research, Development and Innovation, Regional Government of Andalusia (Spain), project reference number PI/0256/2017, under the research call 'Development and Innovation Projects in the Field of Biomedicine and Health Sciences', 2017.

Keywords: costs, disease burden, informal caregiving, pacemaker follow-up, remote monitoring, telemedicine

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Authors: Keiko Tamura, Munenari Inoguchi, Michiyo Tsuji

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When disasters occur, in order to raise the speed of each decision making and response, it is common that delegation of authority is carried out. This tendency is particularly evident when the department or branch of the organization are separated by the physical distance from the main body; however, there are some issues to think about. If the department or branch is too dependent on the head office in the usual condition, they might feel lost in the disaster response operation when they are face to the situation. Avoiding this problem, an organization should decide how to delegate the authority and also who accept the responsibility for what before the disaster. This paper will discuss about the method which presents an approach for executing the delegation of authority process, implementing authorities, management by objectives, and preparedness plans and agreement. The paper will introduce the examples of efforts for the three research centers of Niigata University, Japan to arrange organizations capable of taking necessary actions for disaster response. Each center has a quality all its own. One is the center for carrying out the research in order to conserve the crested ibis (or Toki birds in Japanese), the endangered species. The another is the marine biological laboratory. The third one is very unique because of the old growth forests maintained as the experimental field. Those research centers are in the Sado Island, located off the coast of Niigata Prefecture, is Japan's second largest island after Okinawa and is known for possessing a rich history and culture. It takes 65 minutes jetfoil (high-speed ferry) ride to get to Sado Island from the mainland. The three centers are expected to be easily isolated at the time of a disaster. A sense of urgency encourages 3 centers in the process of organizational restructuring for enhancing resilience. The research team from the risk management headquarters offer those procedures; Step 1: Offer the hazard scenario based on the scientific evidence, Step 2: Design a risk management organization for disaster response function, Step 3: Conduct the participatory approach to make consensus about the overarching objectives, Step 4: Construct the unified operational action plan for 3 centers, Step 5: Simulate how to respond in each phase based on the understanding the various phases of the timeline of a disaster. Step 6: Document results to measure performance and facilitate corrective action. This paper shows the result of verifying the output and effects.

Keywords: delegation of authority, disaster response, risk management, unified command

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Authors: B. Gepts, E. Meex, E. Nuyts, E. Knaepen, G. Verbeeck

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The importance of resource efficiency and environmental impact assessment has raised the interest in knowing the amount of materials used in buildings. If no BIM model or energy performance certificate is available, material quantities can be obtained through an estimation or time-consuming calculation. For the interior wall area, no validated estimation method exists. However, in the case of environmental impact assessment or evaluating the existing building stock as future material banks, knowledge of the material quantities used in interior walls is indispensable. This paper presents a validated method for the estimation of the interior wall area for dwellings based on easy-to-collect building characteristics. A database of 4963 residential buildings spread all over Belgium is used. The data are collected through onsite measurements of the buildings during the construction phase (between mid-2010 and mid-2017). The interior wall area refers to the area of all interior walls in the building, including the inner leaf of exterior (party) walls, minus the area of windows and doors, unless mentioned otherwise. The two predictive modelling techniques used are 1) a (stepwise) linear regression and 2) a decision tree. The best estimation method is selected based on the best R² k-fold (5) fit. The research shows that the building volume is by far the most important variable to estimate the interior wall area. A stepwise regression based on building volume per building, building typology, and type of house provides the best fit, with R² k-fold (5) = 0.88. Although the best R² k-fold value is obtained when the other parameters ‘building typology’ and ‘type of house’ are included, the contribution of these variables can be seen as statistically significant but practically irrelevant. Thus, if these parameters are not available, a simplified estimation method based on only the volume of the building can also be applied (R² k-fold = 0.87). The robustness and precision of the method (output) are validated three times. Firstly, the prediction of the interior wall area is checked by means of alternative calculations of the building volume and of the interior wall area; thus, other definitions are applied to the same data. Secondly, the output is tested on an extension of the database, so it has the same definitions but on other data. Thirdly, the output is checked on an unrelated database with other definitions and other data. The validation of the estimation methods demonstrates that the methods remain accurate when underlying data are changed. The method can support environmental as well as economic dimensions of impact assessment, as it can be used in early design. As it allows the prediction of the amount of interior wall materials to be produced in the future or that might become available after demolition, the presented estimation method can be part of material flow analyses on input and on output.

Keywords: buildings as material banks, building stock, estimation method, interior wall area

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Authors: Chin-Hsiang Lo, Wey Chia, Shih-Tien Hsu

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Introduction: Since 2016, the annual number of passengers on commercial flights at Taoyuan International Airport (TIA) has been ~40 million. Due to the outbreak and spread of COVID-19, the number of international flights sharply diminished in recent years. However, TIA is located at an East-Asian flight transportation junction; thus, many commercial and cargo flights continue service. When severe medical events happen on a commercial airliner, the decision to divert or not is based on consideration of both medical and operational issues. This study discusses the events related to the diversion of airplanes or reentry after taxiing for medical emergencies at Taoyuan International Airport. Background: We analyzed emergency medical records from the medical clinic of TIA from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2022, for patients who needed emergency medical services but were unable to reach the airport clinic by themselves. We also collected data for patients treated after diversion from other airports or reentry after taxiing due to medical emergencies. Information such as when and where the event occurred, chief signs and symptoms, the tentative diagnosis (using the ICD-9-CM), management, and the sociodemographic features of the passengers were extracted from the medical records. Summary of Cases: TIA handled approximately 152 million passengers and 1,093,762 flights during the study period; a total of 2,804 emergencies occurred during this time period. Thirty-three medical emergencies warranted diversion (21 cases) or reentry (12 cases); 13 cases were diverted from Asia-Pacific flights and five from Asia-North America flights. The age of the passengers with diversion emergencies ranged from 2–85 years (mean, 46±20-years-old). Twenty-seven patients were transported to an emergency department, and four patients died. For all cases of diversion or reentry, the most common diagnoses were neurogenic problems (42.4%), Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) (15.2%), and cardiovascular problems (12.1%). Discussion: Most aircraft diversions were related to syncope, seizure, and OHCA. The decision to divert depends on medical and operational considerations. Emergency conditions are often serious; thus, improvement of the effectiveness of cooperation between airlines and medical teams remains a challenge.

Keywords: diversion, syncope, seizure, OHCA

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Authors: Donghun Jeong, Somyoung Shin, Yeoil Yun

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A large-scale traffic accident refers to an accident in which more than three people die or more than thirty people are dead or injured. In order to prevent a large-scale traffic accident from causing a big loss of lives or establish effective improvement measures, it is important to analyze accident situations in-depth and understand the effects of major accident variables on an accident. This study aims to analyze the contribution of individual accident variables to accident results, based on the accurate reconstruction of traffic accidents using PC-Crash’s Multi-Body, which is an accident reconstruction program, and simulation of each scenario. Multi-Body system of PC-Crash accident reconstruction program is used for multi-body accident reconstruction that shows motions in diverse directions that were not approached previously. MB System is to design and reproduce a form of body, which shows realistic motions, using several bodies. Targeting the 'freight truck cargo drop accident around the Changwon Tunnel' that happened in November 2017, this study conducted a simulation of the freight truck cargo drop accident and analyzed the contribution of individual accident majors. Then on the basis of the driving speed, cargo load, and stacking method, six scenarios were devised. The simulation analysis result displayed that the freight car was driven at a speed of 118km/h(speed limit: 70km/h) right before the accident, carried 196 oil containers with a weight of 7,880kg (maximum load: 4,600kg) and was not fully equipped with anchoring equipment that could prevent a drop of cargo. The vehicle speed, cargo load, and cargo anchoring equipment were major accident variables, and the accident contribution analysis results of individual variables are as follows. When the freight car only obeyed the speed limit, the scattering distance of oil containers decreased by 15%, and the number of dropped oil containers decreased by 39%. When the freight car only obeyed the cargo load, the scattering distance of oil containers decreased by 5%, and the number of dropped oil containers decreased by 34%. When the freight car obeyed both the speed limit and cargo load, the scattering distance of oil containers fell by 38%, and the number of dropped oil containers fell by 64%. The analysis result of each scenario revealed that the overspeed and excessive cargo load of the freight car contributed to the dispersion of accident damage; in the case of a truck, which did not allow a fall of cargo, there was a different type of accident when driven too fast and carrying excessive cargo load, and when the freight car obeyed the speed limit and cargo load, there was the lowest possibility of causing an accident.

Keywords: accident reconstruction, large-scale traffic accident, PC-Crash, MB system

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Authors: Mitakshara Sharma, S. K. Nema, Sanjeev Narang

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Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by metabolic abnormalities, chronic hyperglycaemia and long term macrovascular & microvascular complications. Vascular complications are due to platelet hyperactivity and dysfunction, increased inflammation, altered coagulation and endothelial dysfunction. Large proportion of patients with Type II DM suffers from preventable vascular angiopathies, and there is need to develop risk factor modifications and interventions to reduce impact of complications. These complications are attributed to platelet activation, recognised by increase in Platelet Volume Indices (PVI) including Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) and Platelet Distribution Width (PDW). The current study is prospective analytical study conducted over 2 years. Out of 1100 individuals, 930 individuals fulfilled inclusion criteria and were segregated into three groups on basis of glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1C): - (a) Diabetic, (b) Non-Diabetic and (c) Subjects with Impaired fasting glucose (IFG) with 300 individuals in IFG and non-diabetic groups & 330 individuals in diabetic group. Further, diabetic group was divided into two groups on the basis of presence or absence of known diabetes related vascular complications. Samples for HbA1c and PVI were collected using Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) as anticoagulant and processed on SYSMEX-X-800i autoanalyser. The study revealed gradual increase in PVI from non-diabetics to IFG to diabetics. PVI were markedly increased in diabetic patients. MPV and PDW of diabetics, IFG and non diabetics were (17.60 ± 2.04)fl, (11.76 ± 0.73)fl, (9.93 ± 0.64)fl and (19.17 ± 1.48)fl, (15.49 ± 0.67)fl, (10.59 ± 0.67)fl respectively with a significant p value 0.00 and a significant positive correlation (MPV-HbA1c r = 0.951; PDW-HbA1c r = 0.875). MPV & PDW of subjects with diabetes related complications were higher as compared to those without them and were (17.51±0.39)fl & (15.14 ± 1.04)fl and (20.09 ± 0.98) fl & (18.96 ± 0.83)fl respectively with a significant p value 0.00. There was a significant positive correlation between PVI and duration of diabetes across the groups (MPV-HbA1c r = 0.951; PDW-HbA1c r = 0.875). However, a significant negative correlation was found between glycaemic levels and total platelet count (PC- HbA1c r =-0.164). This is multi-parameter and comprehensive study with an adequately powered study design. It can be concluded from our study that PVI are extremely useful and important indicators of impending vascular complications in all patients with deranged glycaemic control. Introduction of automated cell counters has facilitated the availability of PVI as routine parameters. PVI is a useful means for identifying larger & active platelets which play important role in development of micro and macro angiopathic complications of diabetes leading to mortality and morbidity. PVI can be used as cost effective markers to predict and prevent impending vascular events in patients with Diabetes mellitus especially in developing countries like India. PVI, if incorporated into protocols for management of diabetes, could revolutionize care and curtail the ever increasing cost of patient management.

Keywords: diabetes, IFG, HbA1C, MPV, PDW, PVI

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Authors: Ashenafi Ayele, Shewit Haftu, Tesfalem Araya

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Background: “Post-psychotic depression”, “post schizophrenic depression”, and “secondary depression” have been used to describe the occurrence of depressive symptoms during the chronic phase of schizophrenia. Post-psychotic depression is the most common cause of death due to suicide in schizophrenia patients. Overall lifetime risk for patients with schizophrenia is 50% for suicide attempts and 9-13% lifetime risk for completed suicide and also it is associated with poor prognosis and poor quality of life. Objective: To assess determinant of post psychotic depression in schizophrenia patients ACSH and Mekelle General Hospital, Tigray Ethiopia 2019. Methods: An institutional based unmatched case control study was conducted among 69 cases and 138 controls with the ratio of case to control 1 ratio 2. The sample is calculated using epi-info 3.1 to assess the determinant factors of post-psychotic depression in schizophrenia patients. The cases were schizophrenia patients who have been diagnosed at least for more than one-year stable for two months, and the controls are any patients who are diagnosed as schizophrenia patients. Study subjects were selected using a consecutive sampling technique. The Calgary depression scale for schizophrenia self-administered questionnaire was used. Before the interview, it was assessed the client’s capacity to give intended information using a scale called the University of California, San Diego Brief Assessment of Capacity to Consent (UBACC). Bivariant and multiple Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine between the independent and dependent variables. The significant independent predictor was declared at 95% confidence interval and P-value of less than 0.05. Result: Females were affected by post psychotic depression with the (AOR=2.01, 95%CI: 1.003- 4.012, P= 0.49).Patients who have mild form of positive symptom of schizophrenia affected by post psychotic depression with (AOR =4.05, 95%CI: 1.888- 8.7.8, P=0001).Patients who have minimal form of negative symptom of schizophrenia are affected by post psychotic depression with (AOR =4.23, 95%CI: 1.081-17.092, P=.038). Conclusion: In this study, sex (female) and presence of positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia were significantly associated. It is recommended that the post psychotic depression should be assessed in every schizophrenia patient to decrease the severity of illness, and to improve patient’s quality of life.

Keywords: determinants, post-psychotic depression, Mekelle city

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Authors: Aprajeeta Jha, Punyadarshini P. Tripathy

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Drying technologies for various food processing operations shares an inevitable linkage with energy, cost and environmental sustainability. Hence, solar drying of food grains has become imperative choice to combat duo challenges of meeting high energy demand for drying and to address climate change scenario. But performance and reliability of solar dryers depend hugely on sunshine period, climatic conditions, therefore, offer a limited control over drying conditions and have lower efficiencies. Solar drying technology, supported by Photovoltaic (PV) power plant and hybrid type solar air collector can potentially overpower the disadvantages of solar dryers. For development of such robust hybrid dryers; to ensure quality and shelf-life of paddy grains the optimization of process parameter becomes extremely critical. Investigation of the moisture distribution profile within the grains becomes necessary in order to avoid over drying or under drying of food grains in hybrid solar dryer. Computational simulations based on finite element modeling can serve as potential tool in providing a better insight of moisture migration during drying process. Hence, present work aims at optimizing the process parameters and to develop a 3-dimensional (3D) finite element model (FEM) for predicting moisture profile in paddy during solar drying. COMSOL Multiphysics was employed to develop a 3D finite element model for predicting moisture profile. Furthermore, optimization of process parameters (power level, air velocity and moisture content) was done using response surface methodology in design expert software. 3D finite element model (FEM) for predicting moisture migration in single kernel for every time step has been developed and validated with experimental data. The mean absolute error (MAE), mean relative error (MRE) and standard error (SE) were found to be 0.003, 0.0531 and 0.0007, respectively, indicating close agreement of model with experimental results. Furthermore, optimized process parameters for drying paddy were found to be 700 W, 2.75 m/s at 13% (wb) with optimum temperature, milling yield and drying time of 42˚C, 62%, 86 min respectively, having desirability of 0.905. Above optimized conditions can be successfully used to dry paddy in PV integrated solar dryer in order to attain maximum uniformity, quality and yield of product. PV-integrated hybrid solar dryers can be employed as potential and cutting edge drying technology alternative for sustainable energy and food security.

Keywords: finite element modeling, moisture migration, paddy grain, process optimization, PV integrated hybrid solar dryer

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Authors: Layal Mansour

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The aim of this paper is to identify whether oil price volatility or geopolitical risks can predict future financial stress periods or economic recessions in Kuwait. We construct the first Financial Stress Index for Kuwait (FSIK) that includes informative vulnerable indicators of the main financial sectors: the banking sector, the equities market, and the foreign exchange market. The study covers the period from 2000 to 2020, so it includes the two recent most devastating world economic crises with oil price fluctuation: the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and Ukraine-Russia War. All data are taken by the central bank of Kuwait, the World Bank, IMF, DataStream, and from Federal Reserve System St Louis. The variables are computed as the percentage growth rate, then standardized and aggregated into one index using the variance equal weights method, the most frequently used in the literature. The graphical FSIK analysis provides detailed information (by dates) to policymakers on how internal financial stability depends on internal policy and events such as government elections or resignation. It also shows how monetary authorities or internal policymakers’ decisions to relieve personal loans or increase/decrease the public budget trigger internal financial instability. The empirical analysis under vector autoregression (VAR) models shows the dynamic causal relationship between the oil price fluctuation and the Kuwaiti economy, which relies heavily on the oil price. Similarly, using vector autoregression (VAR) models to assess the impact of the global geopolitical risks on Kuwaiti financial stability, results reveal whether Kuwait is confronted with or sheltered from geopolitical risks. The Financial Stress Index serves as a guide for macroprudential regulators in order to understand the weakness of the overall Kuwaiti financial market and economy regardless of the Kuwaiti dinar strength and exchange rate stability. It helps policymakers predict future stress periods and, thus, address alternative cushions to confront future possible financial threats.

Keywords: Kuwait, financial stress index, causality test, VAR, oil price, geopolitical risks

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