Search results for: emergency measures

Authors: Chien-Chung Yuan, Cunqiang Cai, Wu-Hsun Chung, Shu-Te Sung

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A tanker is a critical vessel used to transport or store liquids or gases in bulk in maritime shipping. However, it is more dangerous than other types of vessels. Port State Control (PSC) inspection is an important measure to ensure maritime safety when such vessels traveling between ports. However, the current inspection system lacks a useful tool to observe the inspections for tankers and to identify non-random instances in PSC inspections. This study collects the inspection records in Taiwan’s ports from 2015 to 2018 and utilizes run charts to map the PSC inspections for tankers in terms of deficiencies. Based on these time-series charts, several patterns of deficiencies are identified. The results demonstrate that run charts are a useful tool to observe how the PSC inspections for tankers are performed. Also, the charts can help port administrations to identify abnormal phenomena for further investigation. Furthermore, with valuable information from the analysis, port administrations can take proactive improvement measures to ensure the safety of tanker shipping.

Keywords: port state control, tanker, run chart, deficiency

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Authors: Miran Ismail

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COVID-19 has caused widespread disruption in all economical sectors and industries around the world. The COVID-19 lockdown measures have resulted in production halts, restrictions on persons and goods movement, border closures, logistical constraints, and a slowdown in trade and economic activity. The main subject of this paper is to leverage technology to manage the supply chain effectively and efficiently through the usage of artificial intelligence. The research methodology is based on empirical data collected through a questionnaire survey. One of the approaches utilized is a case study of industrial organizations that face obstacles such as high operational costs, large inventory levels, a lack of well-established supplier relationships, human behavior, and system issues. The main contribution of this research to the body of knowledge is the empirical insights and on supply chain sustainability performance measurement. The results provide guidelines for the selection of advanced technologies to support supply chain processes and for the design of sustainable performance measurement systems.

Keywords: information technology, artificial intelligence, supply chain management, industrial organizations

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Authors: Perminderjit Singh, Sukhvir Singh

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Total Quality Management (TQM) refers to management methods used to enhance quality and productivity in business organizations. Total Quality Management (TQM) has become a frequently used term in discussions concerning quality. Total Quality management has brought rise in demands on the organizations policy and the customers have gained more importance in the organizations focus. TQM is considered as an important management tool, which helps the organizations to satisfy their customers. In present research critical success factors includes management commitment, customer satisfaction, continuous improvement, work culture and environment, supplier quality management, training and development, employee satisfaction and product/process design are studied. A questionnaire is developed to implement these critical success factors in implementation of total quality management in Indian industry. Questionnaires filled by consulting different industrial organizations. Data collected from questionnaires is analyzed by descriptive and importance indexes.

Keywords: total quality management, critical success factor, employee satisfaction, supplier quality management, customer focus, quality information, quality measurement

Procedia PDF Downloads 477

Authors: Taghrid Asfar, Olusanya J. Oluwole, Michael Schmidt, Alejandra Casas, Zoran Bursac, Wasim Maziak.

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Waterpipe (WP) smoking (a.k.a. hookah) has increased dramatically in the US mainly due to the misperception that it is safer than cigarette smoking. Mounting evidence show that WP smoking is addictive and harmful. Health warning labels (HWLs) are effective in communicating smoking-related risks. Currently, the FDA requires that WP tobacco packages have a textual HWL about nicotine. While this represents a good step, it is inadequate given the established harm of WP smoking beyond addiction and the superior performance of pictorial HWLs over text-only ones. We developed 24 WP pictorial HWLs in a Delphi study among international expert panel. HWLs were grouped into 6 themes: addiction, harm compared to cigarettes, harm to others, health effects, quitting, and specific harms. This study aims to compare the effect of the pictorial HWLs compared to the FDA HWL, and 2) the effect of pictorial HWLs between the 6 themes. A 2x7 between/within subject online factorial experimental study was conducted among a national convenience sample of 300 (50% current WP smokers; 50% nonsmokers) US adults (females 71.1%; mean age of 31.1±3.41 years) in March 2022. The first factor varied WP smoking status (smokers, nonsmokers). The second factor varied the HWL theme and type (text, pictorial). Participants were randomized to view and rate 7 HWLs: 1 FDA text HWL (control) and 6 HWLs, one from each of the 6 themes, all presented in random order. HWLs were rated based on the message impact framework into five categories: attention, reaction (believability, relevance, fear), perceived effectiveness, intentions to quit WP among current smokers, and intention to not initiate WP among nonsmokers. measures were assessed on a 5-point Likert scale (1=not at all to 5=very much) for attention and reaction and on a 7-point Likert scale (1=not at all to 7=very much) for the perceived effectiveness and intentions to quit or not initiate WP smoking. Means and SDs of outcome measures for each HWL type and theme were calculated. Planned comparisons using Friedman test followed by pairwise Wilcoxon signed-rank test for multiple comparisons were used to examine distributional differences of outcomes between the HWL type and themes. Approximately 74.4 % of participants were non-Hispanic Whites, 68.4% had college degrees, and 41.5% were under the poverty level. Participants reported starting WTS on average at 20.3±8.19 years. Compared with the FDA text HWL, pictorial HWLs elicited higher attention (p<0.0001), fear (p<0.0001), harm perception (p<0.0003), perceived effectiveness (p<0.0001), and intentions to quit (p=0.0014) and not initiate WP smoking (p<0.0003). HWLs in theme 3 (harm to others) achieved the highest rating in attention (4.14±1), believability (4.15±0.95), overall perceived effectiveness (7.60±2.35), harm perception (7.53±2.43), and intentions to quit (7.35±2.57). HWLs in theme 2 (WP harm compared to cigarettes) achieved the highest rating in discouraging WP smoking initiation (7.32±2.54). Pictorial HWLs were superior to the FDA text-only for several communication outcomes. Pictorial HWLs related to WP harm to others and WP harm compared to cigarette are promising. These findings provide strong evidence for the potential implementation of WP-specific pictorial HWLs.

Keywords: health communication, waterpipe smoking, factorial experiment, reaction, harm perception, tobacco regulations

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Authors: Rasha Ahmadi

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In December 2019, a coronavirus, currently identified as SARS-CoV-2, produced a series of acute atypical respiratory illnesses in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The sickness induced by this virus was named COVID-19. The virus is transmittable between humans and has caused pandemics worldwide. The number of death tolls continues to climb and a huge number of countries have been obliged to perform social isolation and lockdown. Lack of focused therapy continues to be a problem. Epidemiological research showed that senior patients were more susceptible to severe diseases, whereas children tend to have milder symptoms. In this study, we focus on other possible side effects of COVID-19 and more detailed treatment strategies. Using bioinformatics analysis, we first isolated the gene expression profile of patients with severe COVID-19 from the GEO database. Patients' blood samples were used in the GSE183071 dataset. We then categorized the genes with high and low expression. In the next step, we uploaded the genes separately to the Enrichr database and evaluated our data for signs and symptoms as well as related medication regimens. The results showed that 138 genes with high expression and 108 genes with low expression were observed differentially in the severe COVID-19 VS control group. Symptoms and diseases such as embolism and thrombosis of the abdominal aorta, ankylosing spondylitis, suicidal ideation or attempt, regional enteritis were observed in genes with high expression and in genes with low expression of acute and subacute forms of ischemic heart, CNS infection and poliomyelitis, synovitis and tenosynovitis. Following the detection of diseases and possible signs and symptoms, Carmustine, Bithionol, Leflunomide were evaluated more significantly for high-expression genes and Chlorambucil, Ifosfamide, Hydroxyurea, Bisphenol for low-expression genes. In general, examining the different and invisible aspects of COVID-19 and identifying possible treatments can help us significantly in the emergency and hospitalization of patients.

Keywords: phenotypes, drug regimens, gene expression profiles, bioinformatics analysis, severe COVID-19

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Authors: K. Lekshmi

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Land becomes a predominant constituent of transitional justice paradigm subsequent to the apartheid inspired land grabs and conflict induced forceful evictions in South Africa effecting land encroachment, expropriation, and alienation. In this pretext, post-Apartheid regime initiated land reconciliation measures which presume to overcome the politically appropriated historical injustices in conjunction with reconstructing transitional justice. As land grabs became one of the quintessential repercussions followed by ethnic cleansing in South Africa, it is prominent to study how land reconciliation becomes necessary in imparting transitional justice to the victims. The study also looks into the nature of developmental pattern after re- territorialization process in a post-conflict country like South Africa and, tries to look how re-territorialization process construed the functional distribution of income vis-a-vis income inequality in particular. Further the paper attempts to study how far land distribution and equal access as part of the land reconciliation process juxtaposed the principle of restitution. Research methodology applied is empirical followed by analytical research.

Keywords: development, land reconciliation, transitional justice, income inequality and displacement, re-territorialization

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Authors: Zenab Naseem, Sadia Imran

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One of the key solutions to the climate change crisis is to develop renewable energy resources, such as solar and wind power and biogas. This paper explores the socioeconomic and environmental viability of solar energy, based on a case study of the Soan Valley Development Program. Under this project, local farmers were provided solar water pumps at subsidized rates. These have been functional for the last seven years and have gained popularity among the local communities. The study measures the economic viability of using solar energy in agriculture, based on data from 36 households, of which 12 households each use diesel, electric and solar water pumps. Our findings are based on the net present value of each technology type. We also carry out a qualitative assessment of the social impact of solar water pumps relative to diesel and electric pumps. Finally, we conduct an environmental impact assessment, using the lifecycle assessment approach. All three analyses indicate that solar energy is a viable alternative to diesel and electricity.

Keywords: alternative energy sources, pollution control adoption and costs, solar energy pumps, sustainable development

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Authors: P. Selyshchev

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Construction materials for nuclear facilities are operated under extreme thermal and radiation conditions. First of all, they are nuclear fuel, fuel assemblies, and reactor vessel. It places high demands on the control of their state, stability of their state, and their operating conditions. An irradiated material is a typical example of an open non-equilibrium system with nonlinear feedbacks between its elements. Fluxes of energy, matter and entropy maintain states which are far away from thermal equilibrium. The links that arise under irradiation are inherently nonlinear. They form the mechanisms of feed-backs that can lead to instability. Due to this instability the temperature of the sample, heat transfer, and the defect density can exceed the steady-state value in several times. This can lead to change of typical operation and an accident. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account the thermal instability to avoid the emergency situation. The point is that non-thermal energy can be accumulated in materials because irradiation produces defects (first of all these are vacancies and interstitial atoms), which are metastable. The stored energy is about energy of defect formation. Thus, an annealing of the defects is accompanied by releasing of non-thermal stored energy into thermal one. Temperature of the material grows. Increase of temperature results in acceleration of defect annealing. Density of the defects drops and temperature grows more and more quickly. The positive feed-back is formed and self-reinforcing annealing of radiation defects develops. To describe these phenomena a theoretical approach to thermal instability is developed via formalism of complex systems. We consider system of nonlinear differential equations for different components of microstructure and temperature. The qualitative analysis of this non-linear dynamical system is carried out. Conditions for development of instability have been obtained. Points of bifurcation have been found. Convenient way to represent obtained results is a set of phase portraits. It has been shown that different regimes of material state under irradiation can develop. Thus degradation of irradiated material can be limited by means of choice appropriate kind of evolution of materials under irradiation.

Keywords: irradiation, material, non-equilibrium state, nonlinear feed-back, thermal instability

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Authors: Tarun Jain, Lovnish Gupta, Soumen Basu

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Organic pollutants like phenols and organic dyes present in industrial waste water are posing a hazardous threat to aquatic ecosystem. Several measures have been adopted for the neutralization and photodecomposition of these harmful organic moieties, among these semiconductor photocatalysis has been provided a major thrust after the discovery of Honda-Fujishema effect. Present study demonstrates the adsorption of TiO2- P25 in nano size (~36 nm) on cement balls for effective photodegradation of Alizarin and penta chlorophenol (PCP) under UV light illumination. Triton-X was used as a stabilizer for effective adsorption of TiO2 on cement balls (TCB) followed by calcination at ~300oC for 4 h. The TCB’s were dispersed randomly in a self designed reactor for phototcatalytic performance as shown in scheme 1. The change in concentration of alizarin and PCP was observed under UV-Vis spectroscopy, PCP was detoxified within 40 min while alizarin photodecomposed within 15 min of UV light irradiation. Taking into consideration the go green slogan and future prospective this technique can be also utilized under visible light and on mass scale because this is an effective tool for environmental remediation and waste water treatment.

Keywords: organic pollutants, TiO2 cement balls, photodegradation, UV light irradiation

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Authors: Tahmeena Ali, Andrew Francis, Keong Yap, Sharynn Schuster

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Social anxiety is a chronic and debilitating condition characterized by fear and avoidance of social situations. Several risk factors have emerged, which emphasize the role of early childhood experiences in the development of this condition. As such, the current study tested the hypothesis that early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) mediate the relationship between retrospectively reported parental criticism and social anxiety whilst controlling the effects of depression. Three hundred and thirty-four non-clinical participants completed an online questionnaire consisting of self-report measures of parental criticism, EMSs of disconnection and rejection, and symptoms of social anxiety and depression. The mediation analysis confirmed the hypothesized model, indicating that EMSs mediated the relationship between parental criticism and social anxiety symptoms when controlling for depression. Whilst the current study is limited due to its cross-sectional design, the findings lend support to the developmental formulations of social anxiety and have important therapeutic implications for treatment.

Keywords: early maladaptive schema, parental criticism, schema, social anxiety

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Authors: Peter Temitope Agboola

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Food insecurity continues to affect a large number of U.S households during this coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has threatened the livelihoods of people, making them vulnerable to severe hardship and has had an unanticipated impact on the U.S economy. This study attempts to identify the food insecurity status of households and the determinant factors driving household food insecurity. Additionally, it attempts to discover the mitigation measures adopted by households during the pandemic in the city of Huntsville, Texas. A structured online sample survey was used to collect data, with a household expenditures survey used in evaluating the food security status of the household. Most survey respondents disclosed that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected their life and source of income. Furthermore, the main analytical tool used for the study is descriptive statistics and logistic regression modeling. A logistic regression model was used to determine the factors responsible for food insecurity in the study area. The result revealed that most households in the study area are food secure, with the remainder being food insecure.

Keywords: food insecurity, household expenditure survey, COVID-19, coping strategies, food pantry

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Authors: Vasundhara H. Krishnani, Ajay Saini, Dibesh Karmacharya, Salit Kark

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Illegal Wildlife Trade is one of the most pressing global conservation challenges. Unregulated wildlife trade can threaten biodiversity, contribute to habitat loss, limit sustainable development efforts, and expedite species declines and extinctions. In low-income and middle-income countries, such as Nepal and other countries in Asia and Africa, many of the people engaged in the early stages of illegal wildlife trade, which includes the hunting and transportation of wildlife, belong to Indigenous tribes and local communities.These countries primarily rely on punitive measures to prevent and suppress Illegal Wildlife Trade. For example, in Nepal, people involved in wildlife crimes can often be sentenced to incarceration and a hefty fine and serve up to 15 years in prison. Despite these harsh punitive measures, illegal wildlife trade remains a significant conservation challenge in many countries. The aim of this study was to examine factors affecting the participation of Indigenous communities in Illegal Wildlife Trade while recording the experiences of members of the Indigenous Chepang community, some of whom were imprisoned for their alleged involvement in rhino poaching. Chepangs, belonging to traditionally a hunter-gatherer community, are often considered an isolated and marginalized Indigenous community, some of whom live around the Chitwan National Park in Nepal. Established in 1973, Chitwan National Park is situated in the Chitwan Valley of Nepal and was one of the first regions that was declared as a protected area in Nepal, aiming to protect the one-horned rhinoceros as a flagship species. Conducted over a period of three years, this study used semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions to collect data from Illegal Wildlife Trade offenders, family members of offenders, community Elders, NGO personnel, community forest representatives, Chepang community representatives, and Government school teachers from the region surrounding Chitwan National Park. The study also examined the social, cultural, health, and financial impacts that the imprisonment of offenders had on the families of the community members, especially women and children. The results suggest that involvement of the members of the Chepang community living around Chitwan National Park in the poaching of the one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) can be attributed to a range of factors, some of which include: lack of livelihood opportunities, lack of awareness regarding wildlife rules and regulations and poverty.This work emphasises the need for raising awareness and building programs to enhance alternative livelihood training and empower indigenous and marginalised communities that provide sustainable alternatives. Furthermore, the issue needs to be addressed as a community solution which includes all community members. We suggest this multi-pronged approach can benefit wildlife conservation by reducing illegal poaching and wildlife trade, as well as community conservation in regions with similar challenges. By actively involving and empowering local communities, the communities become key stakeholders in the conservation process. This involvement contributes to protecting wildlife and natural ecosystems while simultaneously providing sustainable livelihood options for local communities.

Keywords: alternative livelihoods, chepang community, illegal wildlife trade, low-and middle-income countries, nepal, one-horned rhinoceros

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Authors: Emad Amar, Tawfik Khattab, Fatma Zada

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Predicting earthquakes is an important issue in the study of geography. Accurate prediction of earthquakes can help people to take effective measures to minimize the loss of personal and economic damage, such as large casualties, destruction of buildings and broken of traffic, occurred within a few seconds. United States Geological Survey (USGS) science organization provides reliable scientific information of Earthquake Existed throughout history & Preliminary database from the National Center Earthquake Information (NEIC) show some useful factors to predict an earthquake in a seismic area like Aleutian Arc in the U.S. state of Alaska. The main advantage of this prediction method that it does not require any assumption, it makes prediction according to the future evolution of object's time series. The article compares between simulation data result from trained BP and RBF neural network versus actual output result from the system calculations. Therefore, this article focuses on analysis of data relating to real earthquakes. Evaluation results show better accuracy and higher speed by using radial basis functions (RBF) neural network.

Keywords: BP neural network, prediction, RBF neural network, earthquake

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Authors: Ian A. McCulloh, Madelaine Zinser, Jesse Patsolic, Michael Ramos

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Recommender systems are a common artificial intelligence (AI) application. For any given input, a search system will return a rank-ordered list of similar items. As users review returned items, they must decide when to halt the search and either revise search terms or conclude their requirement is novel with no similar items in the database. We present a statistically designed experiment that investigates the impact of similarity ratings on human judgement to conclude a search item is novel and halt the search. 450 participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk to render judgement across 12 decision tasks. We find the inclusion of ratings increases the human perception that items are novel. Percent similarity increases novelty discernment when compared with star-rated similarity or the absence of a rating. Ratings reduce the time to decide and improve decision confidence. This suggests the inclusion of similarity ratings can aid human decision-makers in knowledge search tasks.

Keywords: ratings, rankings, crowdsourcing, empirical studies, user studies, similarity measures, human-centered computing, novelty in information retrieval

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Authors: Svetlana K. Eden

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Movies and TV shows have long become part of modern culture. We all have our preferred genre, story, actors, and actresses. However, can we objectively discern good acting from the bad? As laymen, we are probably not objective, but what about the Oscar academy members? Are their votes based on objective measures? Oscar academy members are probably also biased due to many factors, including their professional affiliations or advertisement exposure. Heavily advertised films bring more publicity to their cast and are likely to have bigger budgets. Because a bigger budget may also help earn a Best Picture (BP) nomination, we hypothesize that best actor/actress (BA) nominees from BP-nominated movies would have higher chances of winning the award than those BA nominees from non-BP-nominated films. To test this hypothesis, three Bayesian hierarchical models are proposed, and their performance is evaluated. The results from all three models largely support our hypothesis. Depending on the proportion of BP nominations among BA nominees, the odds ratios (estimated over expected) of winning the BA award conditional on BP nomination vary from 2.8 [0.8-7.0] to 4.3 [2.0, 15.8] for actors and from 1.5 [0.0, 12.2] to 5.4 [2.7, 14.2] for actresses.

Keywords: Oscar, best picture, best actor/actress, bias

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Authors: Azad Hussain, Shoaib Ali, M. Y. Malik, Saba Nazir, Sarmad Jamal

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This article reports a fundamental numerical investigation to analyze the impact of thermal radiations on MHD flow of differential type nanofluid past a porous plate. Here, viscosity is taken as function of temperature. Energy equation is deliberated in the existence of viscous dissipation. The mathematical terminologies of nano concentration, velocity and temperature are first cast into dimensionless expressions via suitable conversions and then solved by using Shooting technique to obtain the numerical solutions. Graphs has been plotted to check the convergence of constructed solutions. At the end, the influence of effective parameters on nanoparticle concentration, velocity and temperature fields are also deliberated in a comprehensive way. Moreover, the physical measures of engineering importance such as the Sherwood number, Skin friction and Nusselt number are also calculated. It is perceived that the thermal radiation enhances the temperature for both Vogel's and Reynolds' models but the normal stress parameter causes a reduction in temperature profile.

Keywords: MHD flow, differential type nanofluid, Porous medium, variable viscosity, thermal radiation

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Authors: Shohra Qaderi

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Introduction: Tetanus is a severe infection characterized by the spasm of skeletal muscles that often progresses toward respiratory failure. Acute Renal failure (ARF) is an important complication associated Tetanus infection, occurring in 15%-39% of cases. Presentation of cases: A previous healthy 14-year-old boy was admitted to the Tetanus ward of a hospital in Kabul, presenting with severe muscle spasms. On day four of admission, he started having cola-colored urine with decreased urine output. Due to lack of peritoneal dialysis, he went under hemodialysis in view of rapidly raising in blood urea (from baseline 32 mg/dl to 150 mg/dl) and creatinine from (baseline 0.9 mg/dl to 6.2g/dl). Despite all efforts, he had a sudden cardiac arrest and passed away on day 6 of admission. Discussion: ARF is a complication of tetanus, reported to be mild and non-oliguric. Suggested pathological mechanisms include autonomic dysfunction and rhabdomyolysis, owing to uncontrolled muscle spasms. Autonomic dysfunction, most evident in the first two weeks of infection. Conclusion: The prevalence and mortality of tetanus is high in Afghanistan. Physicians and pediatricians need to be aware of this complication of tetanus so as to take appropriate preventive measures and recognize and manage it early.

Keywords: afghanistan, acute renal failure, child, mortality

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Authors: Rodríguez Sánchez Carla, Sancho-Esper Franco, Guillen-Davo Marina

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Tourism is one of the most important sectors worldwide since it is an important economic engine for today's society. It is also one of the sectors that most negatively affect the environment in terms of CO₂ emissions due to this expansion. In light of this, airlines are developing Voluntary Carbon Offset (VCO). There is important evidence focused on analyzing the features of these VCO programs and their efficacy in reducing CO₂ emissions, and findings are mixed without a clear consensus. Different research approaches have centered on analyzing factors and consequences of VCO programs, such as economic modelling based on panel data, survey research based on traveler responses or experimental research analyzing customer decisions in a simulated context. This study belongs to the latter group because it tries to understand how different characteristics of an online ticket purchase website affect the willingness of a traveler to choose a sustainable one. The proposed behavioral model is based on several theories, such as the nudge theory, the dual processing ELM and the cognitive dissonance theory. This randomized experiment aims at overcoming previous studies based on self-reported measures that mainly study sustainable behavioral intention rather than actual decision-making. It also complements traditional self-reported independent variables by gathering objective information from an eye-tracking device. This experiment analyzes the influence of two characteristics of the online purchase website: i) the type of information regarding flight CO₂ emissions (quantitative vs. qualitative) and the comparison framework related to the sustainable purchase decision (negative: alternative with more emissions than the average flight of the route vs. positive: alternative with less emissions than the average flight of the route), therefore it is a 2x2 experiment with four alternative scenarios. A pretest was run before the actual experiment to refine the experiment features and to check the manipulations. Afterward, a different sample of students answered the pre-test questionnaire aimed at recruiting the cases and measuring several pre-stimulus measures. One week later, students came to the neurolab at the University setting to be part of the experiment, made their decision regarding online purchases and answered the post-test survey. A final sample of 21 students was gathered. The committee of ethics of the institution approved the experiment. The results show that qualitative information generates more sustainable decisions (less contaminant alternative) than quantitative information. Moreover, evidence shows that subjects are more willing to choose the sustainable decision to be more ecological (comparison of the average with the less contaminant alternative) rather than to be less contaminant (comparison of the average with the more contaminant alternative). There are also interesting differences in the information processing variables from the eye tracker. Both the total time to make the choice and the specific times by area of interest (AOI) differ depending on the assigned scenario. These results allow for a better understanding of the factors that condition the decision of a traveler to be part of a VCO program and provide useful information for airline managers to promote these programs to reduce environmental impact.

Keywords: voluntary carbon offset, airline, online purchase, carbon emission, sustainability, randomized experiment

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Authors: Grmanesh Gidey Kahsay

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In modern technical engineering applications, quality is defined in two ways. The first one is that quality is the parameter that measures a product or service’s characteristics to meet and satisfy the pre-stated or fundamental needs (reliability, durability, serviceability). The second one is the quality of a product or service free of any defect or deficiencies. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) describes quality as a pursuit of optimal solutions to confirm successes and fulfillment to be accountable for the product or service's requirements and expectations. This article focuses on quality engineering tools in modern industrial applications. Quality engineering is a field of engineering that deals with the principles, techniques, models, and applications of the product or service to guarantee quality. Including the entire activities to analyze the product’s design and development, quality engineering emphasizes how to make sure that products and services are designed and developed to meet consumers’ requirements. This episode acquaints with quality tools such as quality systems, auditing, product design, and process control. The finding presents thoughts that aim to improve quality engineering proficiency and effectiveness by introducing essential quality techniques and tools in some selected industries.

Keywords: essential quality tools, quality systems and models, quality management systems, and quality assurance

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Authors: Hafiz Faisal Siddique, Adnan Ahmed Mazari, Antonin Havelka

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Compression socks are highly recommended textile garment for pressure exertion on the lower part of leg. The extent of compression that a patient can easily manage depends on stage (limb size and shape) of venous disease and his activities (mobility, age). Due to dynamic mechanical influence, the socks destroy their extent of pressure exertion around the leg. The main aim of this research is to investigate how the performance of compression socks is deteriorated due to expected induced wearing mechanical impacts. Wearing mechanical impacts influence the durability parameter i.e. tensile energy loss. For tensile energy loss, cut-strip samples were interacted to constant rate of loading and un-loading, cyclic-loading upto 15th cycles for ±5mm extension (considering muscles expansion and relaxation) and were dwelled (stayed) for 3 minutes at 25%, 50% and 75% extension levels, simultaneously. Statistical validation of tensile energy loss was performed by introducing measures of correlation, p-value (≤ 0.05), R-square values using MINITAB 17 software.

Keywords: compression socks, loading and unloading, 15th cyclic loading, Dwell time effect

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Authors: Urbánek Jiří J., Krahulec Josef, Urbánek Jiří F., Johanidesová Jitka

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These Computational assistance for the research and modelling of critical infrastructure subjects continuity deal with this paper. It enables us the using of prevailing operation system MS Office (SmartArt...) for mathematical models, using DYVELOP (Dynamic Vector Logistics of Processes) method. It serves for crisis situations investigation and modelling within the organizations of critical infrastructure. In the first part of the paper, it will be introduced entities, operators and actors of DYVELOP method. It uses just three operators of Boolean algebra and four types of the entities: the Environments, the Process Systems, the Cases and the Controlling. The Process Systems (PrS) have five “brothers”: Management PrS, Transformation PrS, Logistic PrS, Event PrS and Operation PrS. The Cases have three “sisters”: Process Cell Case, Use Case and Activity Case. They all need for the controlling of their functions special Ctrl actors, except ENV – it can do without Ctrl. Model´s maps are named the Blazons and they are able mathematically - graphically express the relationships among entities, actors and processes. In the second part of this paper, the rich blazons of DYVELOP method will be used for the discovering and modelling of the cycling cases and their phases. The blazons need live PowerPoint presentation for better comprehension of this paper mission. The crisis management of energetic crisis infrastructure organization is obliged to use the cycles for successful coping of crisis situations. Several times cycling of these cases is a necessary condition for the encompassment of the both the emergency event and the mitigation of organization´s damages. Uninterrupted and continuous cycling process bring for crisis management fruitfulness and it is a good indicator and controlling actor of organizational continuity and its sustainable development advanced possibilities. The research reliable rules are derived for the safety and reliable continuity of energetic critical infrastructure organization in the crisis situation.

Keywords: blazons, computational assistance, DYVELOP method, critical infrastructure

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Authors: Fazia Rahmoune, Sofiane Ziani

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Retrial queueing systems have been extensively used to stochastically model many problems arising in computer networks, telecommunication, telephone systems, among others. In this work, we consider a $M/G/1$ retrial queue with an unreliable server with random vacations and two types of primary customers, persistent and impatient. This model involves the unreliability of the server, which can be subject to physical breakdowns and takes into account the correctives maintenances for restoring the service when a failure occurs. On the other hand, we consider random vacations, which can model the preventives maintenances for improving system performances and preventing breakdowns. We give the necessary and sufficient stability condition of the system. Then, we obtain the joint probability distribution of the server state and the number of customers in orbit and derive the more useful performance measures analytically. Moreover, we also analyze the busy period of the system. Finally, we derive the stability condition and the generating function of the stationary distribution of the number of customers in the system when there is no vacations and impatient customers, and when there is no vacations, server failures and impatient customers.

Keywords: modeling, retrial queue, unreliable server, vacation, stochastic analysis

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Authors: Mai Ghazal, Ahmed Hammad

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Cost overruns in construction projects are considered as worldwide challenges since the cost performance is one of the main measures of success along with schedule performance. To overcome this problem, studies were conducted to investigate the cost overruns' factors, also projects' historical data were analyzed to extract new and useful knowledge from it. This research is studying and analyzing the effect of some factors causing cost overruns using the historical data from completed construction projects. Then, using these factors to estimate the probability of cost overrun occurrence and predict its percentage for future projects. First, an intensive literature review was done to study all the factors that cause cost overrun in construction projects, then another review was done for previous researcher papers about mining process in dealing with cost overruns. Second, a proposed data warehouse was structured which can be used by organizations to store their future data in a well-organized way so it can be easily analyzed later. Third twelve quantitative factors which their data are frequently available at construction projects were selected to be the analyzed factors and suggested predictors for the proposed model.

Keywords: construction management, construction projects, cost overrun, cost performance, data mining, data warehousing, knowledge discovery, knowledge management

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Authors: Akram Sadouki

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Urbanization is one of the most significant drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. This study aims to evaluate the impact of urban expansion on local biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in Algiers, Algeria. Using a combination of field surveys, remote sensing data, and GIS analysis, we quantified changes in land use and land cover over the past three decades. Our results indicate a substantial reduction in green spaces and natural habitats, leading to a decline in native species diversity and abundance. Furthermore, we observed alterations in ecosystem services, including reduced air and water quality, increased urban heat island effects, and diminished carbon sequestration capabilities. This paper highlights the urgent need for sustainable urban planning and conservation strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of urbanization on biodiversity. We propose several policy recommendations, such as the creation of urban green belts, restoration of degraded areas, and incorporation of biodiversity considerations into city planning processes. By adopting these measures, Algiers can enhance its resilience to environmental changes and ensure the well-being of its inhabitants.

Keywords: biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, Algiers, urbanization

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Authors: Nathaniel Deboever, Malcolm Breeze, Adrian Sheen

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Basic surgical and suturing techniques are a fundamental requirement for all doctors. In order to gain confidence and competence, doctors in training need to obtain sufficient teaching and just as importantly: practice. Young doctors with an apt level of expertise on these simple surgical skills, which are often used in the Emergency Department, can help alleviate some pressure during a busy evening. Unfortunately, learning these skills can be quite difficult during medical school or even during junior doctor years. The aim of this project was to adequately train medical students attending University of Sydney’s Nepean Clinical School through a series of workshops highlighting practical skills, with hopes to further extend this program to junior doctors in the hospital. The sessions instructed basic skills via tutorials, demonstrations, and lastly, the sessions cemented these proficiencies with practical sessions. During such an endeavor, it is fundamental to employ models that appropriately resemble what students will encounter in the clinical setting. The sustainability of workshops is similarly important to the continuity of such a program. To address both these challenges, the authors have developed models including suturing platforms, knot tying, and vessel ligation stations, as well as a shave and punch biopsy models and ophthalmologic foreign body device. The unique aspect of this work is that we utilized hands-on teaching sessions, to address a gap in doctors-in-training and junior doctor curriculum. Presented to you through this poster are our approaches to creating models that do not employ animal products and therefore do not necessitate particular facilities or discarding requirements. Covering numerous skills that would be beneficial to all young doctors, these models are easily replicable and affordable. This exciting work allows for countless sessions at low cost, providing enough practice for students to perform these skills confidently as it has been shown through attendee questionnaires.

Keywords: medical education, surgical models, surgical simulation, surgical skills education

Procedia PDF Downloads 157

Authors: Aminu Fagge Muhammad

Abstract:

The digital economy is fast becoming the most innovative and widest reaching economy in the world, especially in developing countries. The paper aimed at examining role of digital economy in the emerging countries like Nigeria. The methodology used in the study is Business Model Perspective: lying between the process and structural perspectives, bring in the idea of the new business models that are being enabled e.g. e-business or e-commerce. The paper concluded that, the policy objectives and measures, and processes and structures necessary to enhance digital economy growth and its contribution to socio-economic development. The finding reveals that, digital infrastructure is in part incomplete, costly and poorly-performing in emerging economies like Nigeria. The wider digital ecosystem suffers a shortfall in human capabilities, weak financing, and poor governance. It is also found that, Growth in the digital economy is exacerbating digital exclusion, inequality, adverse incorporation and other digital harms. It is recommended that, government in partnership with private sector should build strong local infrastructure to enable broadband availability and accessibility and to create an enabling environment for strong competition in the telecom and technology ecosystem.

Keywords: Digital Economy, Emerging Countries, Business Model , Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Sanja Pfeifer, Nataša Šarlija, Marina Jeger, Ana Bilandžić

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The purpose of this study is to explore the different facets of growth among micro, small and medium-sized firms in Croatia and to analyze the differences between models designed for all micro, small and medium-sized firms and those in creative industries. Three growth prediction models were designed and tested using the growth of sales, employment and assets of the company as dependent variables. The key drivers of sales growth are: prudent use of cash, industry affiliation and higher share of intangible assets. Growth of assets depends on retained profits, internal and external sources of financing, as well as industry affiliation. Growth in employment is closely related to sources of financing, in particular, debt and it occurs less frequently than growth in sales and assets. The findings confirm the assumption that growth strategies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in creative industries have specific differences in comparison to SMEs in general. Interestingly, only 2.2% of growing enterprises achieve growth in employment, assets and sales simultaneously.

Keywords: creative industries, growth prediction model, growth determinants, growth measures

Procedia PDF Downloads 332

Authors: Michael Campbell, Malaz Elsaddig, Kevin Jones

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Background: Despite encouraging progress, global maternal mortality has remained stubbornly high since the declaration of the Millennium development goals. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for well over half of maternal deaths with Post-Partum Haemorrhage (PPH) being the lead cause. ‘In house’ simulation training delivered by local doctors may be a sustainable approach for improving emergency obstetric care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a Train-the-Trainer (TtT) model in a rural Ugandan hospital to ascertain whether it can feasibly improve practitioners’ management of PPH. Methods: Three Ugandan doctors underwent a training course to enable them to design and deliver simulation training. These doctors used MamaNatalie® models to simulate PPH scenarios for midwives, nurses and medical students. The main outcome was improvement in participants’ knowledge and confidence, assessed using self-reported scores on a 10-point scale. Results: The TtT model produced significant improvements in the confidence and knowledge scores of the ten participants. The mean confidence score rose significantly (p=0.0005) from 6.4 to 8.6 following the simulation training. There was also a significant increase in the mean knowledge score from 7.2 to 9.0 (p=0.04). Medical students demonstrated the greatest overall increase in confidence scores whilst increases in knowledge scores were largest amongst nurses. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that a TtT model can be used in a low resource setting to improve healthcare professionals’ confidence and knowledge in managing obstetric emergencies. This Train-the-Trainer model represents a sustainable approach to addressing skill deficits in low resource settings. We believe that its expansion across healthcare institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa will help to reduce the region’s high maternal mortality rate and step closer to achieving the ambitions of the Millennium development goals.

Keywords: low resource setting, post-partum haemorrhage, simulation training, train the trainer

Procedia PDF Downloads 177

Authors: Thochi Seb Rengma, Mahendra Kumar Gupta, P. M. V. Subbarao

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Hydrokinetic turbines can be used to produce power in inaccessible villages located near rivers. The hydrokinetic turbine uses the kinetic energy of the water and maybe put it directly into the natural flow of water without dams. For off-grid power production, the Savonius-type vertical axis turbine is the easiest to design and manufacture. This proposal uses three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to measure the considerable interaction and complexity of turbine blades. Savonius hydrokinetic turbine (SHKT) performance is affected by a blockage in the river, canals, and waterways. Putting a large object in a water channel causes water obstruction and raises local free stream velocity. The blockage correction factor or velocity increment measures the impact of velocity on the performance. SHKT performance is evaluated by comparing power coefficient (Cp) with tip-speed ratio (TSR) at various blockage ratios. The maximum Cp was obtained at a TSR of 1.1 with a blockage ratio of 45%, whereas TSR of 0.8 yielded the highest Cp without blockage. The greatest Cp of 0.29 was obtained with a 45% blockage ratio compared to a Cp max of 0.18 without a blockage.

Keywords: savonius hydrokinetic turbine, blockage ratio, vertical axis turbine, power coefficient

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Wan-I Lee, Nelio Mendoza Figueredo

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The impact of COVID-19 has a significant effect on all sectors of society globally. Health information technology (HIT) has become an effective health strategy in this age of distancing. In this regard, Mobile Health (mHealth) plays a critical role in managing patient and provider workflows during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the users' perception of service quality about mHealth services plays a significant role in shaping confidence and subsequent behaviors regarding the mHealth users' intention of use. This study's objective was to explore levels of user attributes analyzed by a qualitative method of how health practitioners and patients are satisfied or dissatisfied with using mHealth services; and analyzed the users' intention in the context of Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research explores the experienced usability of a mHealth services during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study uses qualitative methods that include in-depth and semi-structured interviews that investigate participants' perceptions and experiences and the meanings they attribute to them. The five cases consisted of health practitioners, clinic staff, and patients' experiences using mHealth services. This study encourages participants to discuss issues related to the research question by asking open-ended questions, usually in one-to-one interviews. The findings show the positive and negative attributes of mHealth service quality. Hence, the significant importance of patients' and health practitioners' issues on several dimensions of perceived service quality is system quality, information quality, and interaction quality. A concept map for perceptions regards to emergency uses' intention of mHealth services process is depicted. The findings revealed that users pay more attention to "Medical care", "ease of use" and "utilitarian benefits" and have less importance for "Admissions and Convenience" and "Social influence". To improve mHealth services, the mHealth providers and health practitioners should better manage users' experiences to enhance mHealth services. This research contributes to the understanding of service quality issues in mHealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19, mobile health, service quality, use intention

Procedia PDF Downloads 148