Search results for: surgical tool

Authors: M. Goerke, J. Gehrmann

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Caused by shorter product life cycles and higher product variety the importance of production ramp ups is increasing. Even though companies are aware of that fact, up to 40% of the ramp up projects still miss technical and economical requirements. The success of a ramp up depends on the planning of human factors, organizational aspects and technological solutions. Since only partly considered in scientific literature, this paper lays its focus on the human factor during production ramp up. There are only incoherent methods which address the problems in this area. A systematic and holistic method to improve the capabilities of the employees during ramp up is missing. The Harada Method is a relatively young approach for developing highly-skilled workers. It consists of different worksheets which help employees to set guidelines and reach overall objectives. This approach is going to be transferred into a tool for ramp up management.

Keywords: employee development, Harada, production ramp up, organizational aspects

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Authors: Azam Najafkouchak, David Todem, Dorothy Pathak, Pramod Pathak, Joseph Gardiner

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Propensity score (PS) methods have recently become the standard analysis tool for causal inference in observational studies where exposure is not randomly assigned. Thus, confounding can impact the estimation of treatment effect on the outcome. Due to the dangers of discretizing continuous variables, the focus of this paper will be on how the variation in cut-points or boundaries will affect the average treatment effect utilizing the stratification of the PS method. In this study, we will develop a new methodology to improve the efficiency of the PS analysis through stratification and simulation study. We will also explore the property of empirical distribution of average treatment effect theoretically, including asymptotic distribution, variance estimation and 95% confident Intervals.

Keywords: propensity score, stratification, emprical distribution, average treatment effect

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Authors: Sunusi Tijjani

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Information and communication technology is an indispensable tool in the performance of office technology managers. Today's offices are automated and equipped with modern office machines that enhances and improve the work of office managers. However, today's office technology managers can process, evaluate, manage and communicate all forms of information using technological devices. Information and Communication Technology is viewed as the process of processing, storing ad dissemination information while office technology managers are trained professional who can effectively operate modern office machines, perform administrative duties and attend meetings to take dawn minute of meetings. This paper examines the importance of information and communication technology toward enhancing the work of office managers. It also stresses the importance of information and communication technology toward proper and accurate record management.

Keywords: communication, information, technology, managers

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Authors: Jian-Jun Shu

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It is common knowledge that many physical problems (such as non-linear shallow-water waves and wave motion in plasmas) can be described by the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation, which possesses certain special solutions, known as solitary waves or solitons. As a marriage of the KdV equation and the classical Burgers (KdVB) equation, the Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers (KdVB) equation is a mathematical model of waves on shallow water surfaces in the presence of viscous dissipation. Asymptotic analysis is a method of describing limiting behavior and is a key tool for exploring the differential equations which arise in the mathematical modeling of real-world phenomena. By using variable transformations, the asymptotic expansion of the KdVB equation is presented in this paper. The asymptotic expansion may provide a good gauge on the validation of the corresponding numerical scheme.

Keywords: asymptotic expansion, differential equation, Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers (KdVB) equation, soliton

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Authors: Karina Guimaraes, Lilian Santos

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This study has the purpose of planning and instituting monitoring actions as a way of knowing the scenario of assistance to the patient with stoma, treated in the public health network in Brazil, from January to November of the year 2016, from the elaboration of a technical document containing the survey of the number of procedures offered and the value of the ostomy services, accredited in the Unified Health System-SUS. The purpose of this document is to improve the quality of these services in the efficient management of available financial resources, making it indispensable for the creation of strategies for the implementation and implementation of care services for people with stomata as a strategic tool in the promotion, prevention, qualification and efficiency in health care.

Keywords: health economic, management, ostomy, unified health system

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Authors: Theresia Simatupang dan Rahmayanti

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Tax Law is a legal product and therefore should be subject to the legal norms, both about this actions, implementation, and about the material. Law has always aimed at providing justice, and besides that the law as a tool used to organize the order or rule of law. tax classification of a crime in this is very necessary, because the crime of taxation is very detrimental to the country and is still very high in society and socialization associated with punishment in sentencing that would have to provide a deterrent for the perpetrators, so refer to the this, these criminal offenses can endanger the stability of the nation's economy and the country that require special snacks. The application of legal sanctions against the perpetrators of the crime of taxation already has a strong legal basis, namely UU KUP. UU KUP have loaded threat (sanctions) severe punishment for tax payers who commit offenses and crimes in the field of taxation, which is contained in Article 38, and Article 39, Article 41, Article 41 A, and 41 B as well as Article 43 of Law and Law No. 12 KUP about 1985 Land Tax and Building. Criminal sanctions against violators of the tax provision are important because tax payers sanctions for violating tax laws.

Keywords: accountability, tax crime, criminal liability, taxation

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Authors: Elineuda Do Socorro Santos Picanço Sousa, Ana Kerlly Souza da Costa

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This paper presents the analysis of the information society as a plural, inclusive and participatory society, where it is necessary to give all citizens, especially young people, the right skills in order to develop skills so that they can understand and use information through of contemporary technologies; well as carry out a critical analysis, using and producing information and all sorts of messages and / or informational language codes. This conviction inspired this article, whose aim is to present current trends in the use of technology in distance education applied as an alternative and / or supplement to classroom teaching for Youth and Adults, concepts and actions, seeking to contribute to its development in the state of Amapá and specifically, the Center for Professional of Amapá Teaching Professor Josinete Oliveira Barroso - CEPAJOB.

Keywords: youth and adults education, Ead. Professional Education, online courses, CEPAJOB

Procedia PDF Downloads 642

Authors: Chonlakorn Wiboonsiriruk, Ekachai Phaisangittisagul, Chadchai Srisurangkul, Itsuo Kumazawa

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Public transportation is a crucial aspect of passenger transportation, with buses playing a vital role in the transportation service. Passenger counting is an essential tool for organizing and managing transportation services. However, manual counting is a tedious and time-consuming task, which is why computer vision algorithms are being utilized to make the process more efficient. In this study, different object detection algorithms combined with passenger tracking are investigated to compare passenger counting performance. The system employs the EfficientDet algorithm, which has demonstrated superior performance in terms of speed and accuracy. Our results show that the proposed system can accurately count passengers in varying conditions with an accuracy of 94%.

Keywords: computer vision, object detection, passenger counting, public transportation

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Authors: Sulayman Adrees Mohammed, Ahmed Faraj Abd Alsameea

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The ongoing hindrance for Libyan oil and gas companies is the persistent challenge of eradicating maintenance program failures that result in exorbitant costs and production setbacks. Accordingly, this research is prompted to introduce the concept of lean philosophy in maintenance, which aims to eliminate waste and enhance productivity in maintenance procedures through the identification and differentiation of value-adding (VA) and non-value-adding (NVA) activities. The purpose of this paper was to explore and describe the benefits that can be gained by adopting the Lean philosophy towards the enhancement of maintenance programs' efficiency from theoretical perspectives. The oil industry maintenance community in Libya now has an introduced tool by which they can effectively evaluate their maintenance program functionality and reduce the areas of non-value added activities within maintenance, thereby enhancing the availability of the equipment and the capacity of the oil and gas facilities.

Keywords: efficiency, lean philosophy, Libyan oil and gas scenario, maintenance programs

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Authors: Michael J. Hahn

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Docker is a powerful tool used by many companies such as PayPal, MetLife, Expedia, Visa, and many others. Docker works by bundling multiple applications, binaries, and libraries together on top of an operating system image called a container. The container runs on a Docker engine that in turn runs on top of a standard operating system. This centralization saves a lot of system resources. In this paper, we will be demonstrating how to bypass Transport Layer Security and execute remote code within Docker containers built on a base image of Alpine Linux version 3.7.0 through the use of .apk files due to flaws in the Alpine Linux package management program. This exploit renders any applications built using Docker with a base image of Alpine Linux vulnerable to unwanted outside forces.

Keywords: cloud, cryptography, Docker, Linux, security

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Authors: Tugba Ayas Onol

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The paper revisits Jean-François Lyotard’s interpretation of the Kantian Sublime as a tool for understanding politics after modernity. In 1985 Lyotard announces the end of rational politics based on consensus and claims that new strategies are urged to recognize the political imperatives of marginalized groups. The charm of the sublime as a reflective judgment is grounded on the fact that the judgment of sublime is free from any notion of consensus or common sense in particular. Lyotard interprets this feature of the sublime as a respect for heterogeneity and for him aesthetic judgments can be a model for understanding justice in postmodern times, in which it seems hard to follow a single universal law among different phrase regimes. More importantly, the Kantian sublime speaks to what Lyotard addresses as the incommensurability of phase genres. The present paper shall try to evaluate Lyotard’s employment of the Kantian notion of the sublime in relation to its possible political import.

Keywords: Kant, Lyotard, sublime, politics

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Authors: Laurent Thiry, Michel Hassenforder

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This paper presents a general approach to implement efficient queries’ interpreters in a functional programming language. Indeed, most of the standard tools actually available use an imperative and/or object-oriented language for the implementation (e.g. Java for Jena-Fuseki) but other paradigms are possible with, maybe, better performances. To proceed, the paper first explains how to model data structures and queries in a functional point of view. Then, it proposes a general methodology to get performances (i.e. number of computation steps to answer a query) then it explains how to integrate some optimization techniques (short-cut fusion and, more important, data transformations). It then compares the functional server proposed to a standard tool (Fuseki) demonstrating that the first one can be twice to ten times faster to answer queries.

Keywords: data transformation, functional programming, information server, optimization

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Authors: Berrachid Dounia, Bellihi Hassan

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The financial crisis made a barrier in front of small projects that are looking for funding, but in the other hand it has had at least an interesting side effect which is the rise of alternative and increasingly creative forms of financing. The traditional forms of financing has known a recession due to the new difficult situation of economical recession that all parts of the world have known. Having an innovating idea that has an effect on both sides, the economic one and social one is very beneficial for those who wants to get rid of the economical crisis. In this case, entrepreneurs who want to be successful are looking for the means of financing that are going to get their projects to the reality. The financing could be various, whether the entrepreneur can use his own resources, or go to the three “Fs”(Family, friends, and fools),look for Angel Investors, or try for the academic solution like universities and private incubators, but sometimes, entrepreneurs feels uncomfortable about those means and start looking to newer, less traditional forms of financing their projects. In the last few years, people have shown a great interest to the use of internet for many reasons (information, social networking, communication, entertainment, transaction, etc.). The use of internet facilitates relations between people and eases the maintenance of existing relationships ,it increases also the number of exchanges which leads to a “collective creativity”, moreover, internet gives an opportunity to create new tool for mobilizing civil society, which makes the participation in a project company much easier. The new atmosphere of business forces the project leaders to look for new solution of financing that cut out the financial intermediaries. Using platforms in order to finance projects is an alternative that is changing the traditional solutions of financing projects. New creative ways of lending money appears like Peer to Peer (person to person or P2P)lending. This digital directly intermediary got his origins from microcredit principles. Crowdfunding also, like P2P, involves getting individuals to pool their resources to finance a project without a typical financial intermediary. For Lambert and Schwienbacher "Crowdfunding involves an open call, essentially through the Internet, for the provision of financial resources either in the form of donations (without rewards) or in exchange for some form of reward and/or voting rights in order to support initiatives for specific purposes". The idea of this proposal for investors and entrepreneurs is to encourage small contributions from a large number of funders "the crowd" in order to raise money to fund projects. All those conditions made from crowdfunding a useful alternative to project leaders, and especially the ones who are carrying special ideas that need special funds. As mentioned before by Laflamme. S. et Lafortune. S. internet is a tool for mobilizing civil society. In our case, the crowdfunding is the tool that funds social entrepreneurship, in the case of not for profit organizations, it focuses his attention on social problems which could be resolved by mobilizing different resources, creating innovative initiatives, and building new social arrangements which call up the civil society. Social entrepreneurs are mostly the ones who goes onto crowdfunding web site, so they propose the amount which is expected to realize their project and then they receive the funds from crowd funders. Something the crowd funders expect something in return, like a product from the business (a sample from a product (case of a cooperative) or a CD (in the case of films or songs)), but not their money back. Thus, we cannot say that their lands are donations, because a donator did not expect anything back. However, in order to encourage "crowd-funders", rewards motivates people to get interested by projects and made some money from internet. The operation of crowd funding is making all parts satisfied investors, entrepreneurs and also crowdfunding sites owners. This paper aims to give a view of the mechanism of crowdfunding, by clarifying the techniques and its different categories, and social entrepreneurship as a sponsor of social development. Also, it aims to show how this alternative of financing could be beneficial for social entrepreneurs and how it is bringing a solution to fund social projects. The article concludes with a discussion of the contribution of crowdfunding in social entrepreneurship especially in the Moroccan context.

Keywords: crowd-funding, social entrepreneurship, projects funding, financing

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Authors: Kristian Bugeja, Upeshala A. Jayawardena, Clarissa Fenech, Mark Zammit Vincenti

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Introduction: Biliary colic, acute cholecystitis, and gallstone pancreatitis are some of the most common surgical presentations at Gozo General Hospital (GGH). National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines advise that suitable patients with acute biliary problems should be offered a laparoscopic cholecystectomy within one week of diagnosis. There has traditionally been difficulty in achieving this mainly due to the reluctance of some surgeons to operate in the acute setting, limited, timely access to MRCP and ERCP, and organizational issues. Methodology: A retrospective study was performed involving all biliary pathology-related admissions to GGH during the two-year period of 2019 and 2020. Patients’ files and electronic case summary (ECS) were used for data collection, which included demographic data, primary diagnosis, co-morbidities, management, waiting time to surgery, length of stay, readmissions, and reason for readmissions. NICE clinical guidance 188 – Gallstone disease were used as the standard. Results: 51 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 58 years, and 35 (68.6%) were female. The main diagnoses on admission were biliary colic in 31 (60.8%), acute cholecystitis in 10 (19.6%). Others included gallstone pancreatitis in 3 (5.89%), chronic cholecystitis in 2 (3.92%), gall bladder malignancy in 4 (7.84%), and ascending cholangitis in 1 (1.97%). Management included laparoscopic cholecystectomy in 34 (66.7%); conservative in 8 (15.7%) and ERCP in 6 (11.7%). The mean waiting time for laparoscopic cholecystectomy for patients with acute cholecystitis was 74 days – range being between 3 and 146 days since the date of diagnosis. Only one patient who was diagnosed with acute cholecystitis and managed with laparoscopic cholecystectomy was done so within the 7-day time frame. Hospital re-admissions were reported in 5 patients (9.8%) due to vomiting (1), ascending cholangitis (1), and gallstone pancreatitis (3). Discussion: Guidelines were not met for patients presenting to Gozo General Hospital with acute biliary pathology. This resulted in 5 patients being re-admitted to hospital while waiting for definitive surgery. The local issues resulting in the delay to surgery need to be identified and steps are taken to facilitate the provision of urgent cholecystectomy for suitable patients.

Keywords: biliary colic, acute cholecystits, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, conservative management

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Authors: T. Almutairi, K. Naudi, N. Nairn, X. Ju, B. Eng, J. Whitters, A. Ayoub

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Purpose: At present Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) imaging does not record dental morphology accurately due to the scattering produced by metallic restorations and the reported magnification. The aim of this pilot study is the development and validation of a new method for the replacement of the distorted dentition of CBCT scans with the dental image captured by the digital intraoral camera. Materials and Method: Six dried skulls with orthodontics brackets on the teeth were used in this study. Three intra-oral markers made of dental stone were constructed which were attached to orthodontics brackets. The skulls were CBCT scanned, and occlusal surface was captured using TRIOS® 3D intraoral scanner. Marker based and surface based registrations were performed to fuse the digital intra-oral scan(IOS) into the CBCT models. This produced a new composite digital model of the skull and dentition. The skulls were scanned again using the commercially accurate Laser Faro® arm to produce the 'gold standard' model for the assessment of the accuracy of the developed method. The accuracy of the method was assessed by measuring the distance between the occlusal surfaces of the new composite model and the 'gold standard' 3D model of the skull and teeth. The procedure was repeated a week apart to measure the reproducibility of the method. Results: The results showed no statistically significant difference between the measurements on the first and second occasions. The absolute mean distance between the new composite model and the laser model ranged between 0.11 mm to 0.20 mm. Conclusion: The dentition of the CBCT can be accurately replaced with the dental image captured by the intra-oral scanner to create a composite model. This method will improve the accuracy of orthognathic surgical prediction planning, with the final goal of the fabrication of a physical occlusal wafer without to guide orthognathic surgery and eliminate the need for dental impression.

Keywords: orthognathic surgery, superimposition, models, cone beam computed tomography

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Authors: Florin Leon

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This paper describes a simulator of traffic scenarios tailored to facilitate autonomous driving model training for urban environments. With the rising prominence of self-driving vehicles, the need for diverse datasets is very important. The proposed simulator provides a flexible framework that allows the generation of custom scenarios needed for the validation and enhancement of trajectory prediction algorithms. Its controlled yet dynamic environment addresses the challenges associated with real-world data acquisition and ensures adaptability to diverse driving scenarios. By providing an adaptable solution for scenario creation and algorithm testing, this tool proves to be a valuable resource for advancing autonomous driving technology that aims to ensure safe and efficient self-driving vehicles.

Keywords: autonomous driving, car simulator, machine learning, model training, urban simulation environment

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Authors: Nuran Öze

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Communities and societies have been changing towards computer mediated communication. This paper explores online and offline identities and how relationships are formed and negotiated within internet environments which offer opportunities for people who know each other offline and move into relationships online. The expectations and norms of behavior within everyday life cause people to be embodied self. According to the age categories of Turkish Cypriots, their measurements of attitudes in Facebook will be investigated. Face-to-face field research and semi-structured interview methods are used in the study. Face-to-face interview has been done with Turkish Cypriots who are using Facebook already. According to the study, in constructing a linkage between real and virtual identities mostly affected from societal relations serves as a societal grooming tool for Turkish Cypriots.

Keywords: facebook, identity, social media, virtual reality

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Authors: Angeliki Peponi, Paulo Morgado, Jorge Trindade

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Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are applied as a robust tool for modeling and forecasting the erosion changes in Costa Caparica, Lisbon, Portugal, for 2021. ANNs present noteworthy advantages compared with other methods used for prediction and decision making in urban coastal areas. Multilayer perceptron type of ANNs was used. Sensitivity analysis was conducted on natural and social forces and dynamic relations in the dune-beach system of the study area. Variations in network’s parameters were performed in order to select the optimum topology of the network. The developed methodology appears fitted to reality; however further steps would make it better suited.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, backpropagation, coastal urban zones, erosion prediction

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Authors: Gabriel Calvo, Carmen Armero, Luigi Spezia

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A basketball player is said to have a hot hand if his/her performance is better than expected in different periods of time. A way to deal with this phenomenon is to make use of latent variables, which can indicate whether the player is ‘on fire’ or not. This work aims to model the hot hand phenomenon through a Bayesian hidden Markov model (HMM) with two states (cold and hot) and two different probability of success depending on the corresponding hidden state. This task is illustrated through a comprehensive simulation study. The simulated data sets emulate the field goal attempts in an NBA season from different profile players. This model can be a powerful tool to assess the ‘streakiness’ of each player, and it provides information about the general performance of the players during the match. Finally, the Bayesian HMM allows computing the posterior probability of any type of streak.

Keywords: Bernoulli trials, field goals, latent variables, posterior distribution

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Authors: Nada Farhani, Naim Terbeh, Mounir Zrigui

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The recognition of the objects contained in images has always presented a challenge in the field of research because of several difficulties that the researcher can envisage because of the variability of shape, position, contrast of objects, etc. In this paper, we will be interested in the recognition of objects. The classical Hough Transform (HT) presented a tool for detecting straight line segments in images. The technique of HT has been generalized (GHT) for the detection of arbitrary forms. With GHT, the forms sought are not necessarily defined analytically but rather by a particular silhouette. For more precision, we proposed to combine the results from the GHT with the results from a calculation of similarity between the histograms and the spatiograms of the images. The main purpose of our work is to use the concepts from recognition to generate sentences in Arabic that summarize the content of the image.

Keywords: recognition of shape, generalized hough transformation, histogram, spatiogram, learning

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Authors: Edward B. Ssekulima, Amir Etemadi

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This paper presents a Systems Thinking and System of Systems (SoS) viewpoint for managing requirements complexity in the grid integration of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE). To achieve a SoS approach, it is often necessary to inculcate a Systems Thinking (ST) perspective in the planning and design of the attendant system. We show how this approach can support the enhanced integration of VRE (wind, solar small hydro) for which intermittency is a key inhibiting factor to their sustainable grid integration. The results indicate that a ST and SoS approach are a critical tool for decision makers in the planning, design and deployment of VRE Sources for their sustainable grid-integration in accordance with relevant techno-economic, social and environmental requirements.

Keywords: sustainable grid-integration, system of systems, systems thinking, variable energy resources

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Authors: Hyeon-Seong Kim, Sang-Mi Park, Seul-Gi Kim, Seon-Ju Han, Leen-Seok Kang

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The use of BIM, including 4D CAD system, in a construction project is gradually increasing. Since the building construction works repeatedly in the vertical space, it is relatively easy to confirm the interference effect when applying the BIM, but the interference effect for the civil engineering project is relatively small because the civil works perform non-repetitive processes in the horizontal space. For this reason, it is desirable to apply BIM to the construction phase when applying BIM to the civil engineering project, and the most active BIM tool applied to the construction phase is the 4D CAD function for the schedule management. This paper proposes the application procedure of BIM by the construction phase of civil engineering project and a linear 4D CAD construction methodology suitable for the civil engineering project in which linear work is performed.

Keywords: BIM, 4D CAD, linear 4D simulation, VR

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Authors: A. L. Agarwal, D. A. Mahajan

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Construction industry tumbled along with other industry/sectors during recent economic crash. Construction business could not regain thereafter and still pass through slowdown phase, resulted many real estate as well as infrastructure projects not completed on schedule and within budget. There are many theories, tools, techniques with software packages available in the market to analyze construction schedule. This study focuses on the construction project schedule and uncertainties associated with construction activities. The infrastructure construction project has been considered for the analysis of uncertainty on project activities affecting project duration and analysis is done using @RISK software. Different simulation results arising from three probability distribution functions are compiled to benefit construction project managers to plan more realistic schedule of various construction activities as well as project completion to document in the contract and avoid compensations or claims arising out of missing the planned schedule.

Keywords: construction project, distributions, project schedule, uncertainty

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Authors: Jeonghwan Jeon

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Technology planning with both internal capacity and external resource is necessary for successful open innovation. Until now, many types of research have been conducted for this issue. However, technology planning for open innovation at the national level has not been researched sufficiently. This study proposes Open roadmap for open innovation at the national level. The proposed open roadmap can manage the inflow & outflow open innovation systematically. Six types of open roadmap are classified with respect to the innovation direction and characteristics. The proposed open roadmap is applied to the open innovation cases of the Roman period. The proposed open roadmap is expected to be helpful tool for technology policy planning at the national level.

Keywords: technology planning, open innovation, internal resource, external resource, technology management

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Authors: Michał Rogala, Jakub Gajewski

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As the automotive industry develops, passive safety is becoming an increasingly important aspect when designing motor vehicles. A commonly used solution is energy absorption by thin-walled construction. One such structure is a closed thin-walled profile fixed to the vehicle stringers. The article presents numerical tests of conical thin-walled profiles filled with aluminum foam. The columns were loaded axially with constant energy. On the basis of the results obtained, efficiency indicators were calculated. The efficiency of the foam filling was evaluated. Artificial neural networks were used for data analysis. The application of regression analysis was used as a tool to study the relationship between the quantities characteristic of the dynamic crush.

Keywords: aluminium foam, crashworthiness, neural networks, thin-walled structure

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Authors: Rossana Taravella, Gilberto M. Cellura, Giuseppe Cirrincione, Salvatore Asciutto, Marco Caruso, Massimo Benedetto, Renato Ciofalo, Giuliana Pace, Salvatore Novo

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Objectives: This retrospective analysis sought to evaluate 1-month outcomes and therapy effectiveness of a population of patients treated with MitraClip therapy. We describe in this article the preliminary results of primary effectiveness endpoint. Background: Percutaneous Mitral Repair is being developed to treat severe mitral regurgitation (MR), with increasing real-world cases of functional MR (FMR). In the EVEREST (Endovascular Valve Edge-to-Edge Repair Study)II trial, the percutaneous device showed superior safety but less reduction in MR at 1year. 4-year outcomes from EVEREST II trial showed no difference in the prevalence of moderate-severe and severe MR or mortality at 4years between surgical mitral repair and percutaneous approach. Methods: We analysed retrospectively collected data from one center experience in Italy enrolled from January 2011 to December 2016. The study included 62 patients [mean age 74±11years, 43 men (69%)] with MR of at least grade3+. Most of the patients had functional MR, were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class III or IV, with a large portion (78%) of mild-to-moderate Tricuspid Regurgitation (TR). One or more clips were implanted in 67 procedures (62 patients). Results and Conclusions: Severity of MR was reduced in all successfully treated patients,54(90%) were discharged with MR≤2+ (primary effectiveness endpoint). Clinical 1-month follow-up data showed an improvement in NYHA functional class (42 patients (70%) in NYHA class I-II). 60 of 62 (97 %) successfully treated patients were free from death and mitral valve surgery at 1-month follow-up. MitraClip therapy reduces functional MR with acute MR reduction to <2+ in the great majority of patients, with a large freedom from death, surgery or recurrent MR in a great portion of patients.

Keywords: MitraClip, mitral regurgitation, heart valves, catheter-based therapy

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Authors: Ishith Seth, Lyndel Hewitt, Takako Yabe, James Wykes, Jonathan Clark, Bruce Ashford

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Background: Vastus lateralis (VL) can be used to reconstruct defects of the head and neck. Whilst the advantages are documented, donor-site morbidity is not well described. This study aimed to assess donor-site morbidity after VL flap harvest. The results will determine future directions for preventative and post-operative care to improve patient health outcomes. Methods: Ten participants (mean age 55 years) were assessed for the presence of donor-site morbidity after VL harvest. Musculoskeletal (pain, muscle strength, muscle length, tactile sensation), quality of life (SF-12), and lower limb function (lower extremity function, gait (function and speed), sit to stand were assessed using validated and standardized procedures. Outcomes were compared to age-matched healthy reference values or the non-operative side. Analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. Results: There was no difference in muscle strength (knee extension), muscle length, ability to sit-to-stand, or gait function (all P > 0.05). Knee flexor muscle strength was significantly less on the operated leg compared to the non-operated leg (P=0.02) and walking speed was slower than age-matched healthy values (P<0.001). Thigh tactile sensation was impaired in 89% of participants. Quality of life was significantly less for the physical health component of the SF-12 (P<0.001). The mental health component of the SF-12 was similar to healthy controls (P=0.26). Conclusion: There was no effect on donor site morbidity with regards to knee extensor strength, pain, walking function, ability to sit-to-stand, and muscle length. VL harvest affected donor-site knee flexion strength, walking speed, tactile sensation, and physical health-related quality of life.

Keywords: vastus lateralis, morbidity, head and neck, surgery, donor-site morbidity

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Authors: Aicha Laouani, Sonia Rouatbi, Saad Saguem, Gila Benchetrit, Pascale calabrese

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A new approach based on respiratory inductive plethysmography (RIP) signal analysis has been used for bronchoconstriction changes evaluation in 50 healthy controls and in 44 adults with moderate bronchial obstruction treated with a bronchodilatation protocol. Thoracic and abdominal motions were recorded ( 5 min) by RIP. For each recording the thoracoabdominal signals were analysed and a mean distance (D) was calculated. Airway resistance (Raw) and spirometric data were measured with a body plethysmograph. The results showed that both D and Raw were higher in subjects compared to the healthy group. Significant decreases of D and Raw were also observed after bronchodilatation in the obstructive group. There was also a positive and a significant correlation between D and Raw in subjects before and after bronchodilatation. This D calculated from RIP Signals could be used as a non invasive tool for continuous monitoring of bronchoconstriction changes.

Keywords: airway resistance, bronchoconstriction, thorax, respiratory inductive plethysmography

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Authors: Andreas Kapardis, Maria Krambia-Kapardis, Sofia Michaelides-Mateou

Abstract:

Corruption and economic crime is a serious problem affecting the sustainability of businesses in the 21st century. Nowadays, many corruption or fraud cases come to light thanks to whistleblowers. This article will first discuss the concept of whistleblowing as well as some relevant legislation enacted around the world. Secondly, it will discuss the findings of a survey of whistleblowers or could-have-been whistleblowers. Finally, suggestions for the development of a comprehensive whistleblowing framework will be considered. Whistleblowing can be described as expressing a concern about a wrongdoing within an organization, such as a corporation, an association, an institution or a union. Such concern must be in the public interest and in good faith and should relate to the cover up of matters that could potentially result in a miscarriage of justice, a crime, criminal offence and threats to health and safety. Whistleblowing has proven to be an effective anti-corruption mechanism and a powerful tool that helps deterring fraud, violations, and malpractices within organizations, corporations and the public sector. Research in the field of whistleblowing has concentrated on the reasons for whistleblowing and financial bounties; the effectiveness of whistleblowing; whistleblowing being a prosocial behavior with a psychological perspective and consequences; as a tool in protecting shareholders, saving lives and billions of dollars of public funds. Whilst, no other study of whistleblowing has been carried out on whistleblowers or intended whistleblowers. The study reported in the current paper analyses the findings of 74 whistleblowers or intended whistleblowers, the reasons behind their decision to blow the whistle, or not to proceed to blow the whistle and any regrets they may have had. In addition a profile of a whistleblower is developed concerning their age, gender, marital and family status and position in an organization. Lessons learned from the intended whistleblowers and in response to the questions if they would be willing to blow the whistle again show that enacting legislation to protect the whistleblower is not enough. Similarly, rewarding the whistleblower does not appear to provide the whistleblower with an incentive since the majority noted that “work ethics is more important than financial rewards”. We recommend the development of a comprehensive and holistic framework for the protection of the whistleblower and to ensure that remedial actions are immediately taken once a whistleblower comes forward. The suggested framework comprises (a) hard legislation in ensuring the whistleblowers follow certain principles when blowing the whistle and, in return, are protected for a period of 5 years from being fired, dismissed, bullied, harassed; (b) soft legislation in establishing an agency to firstly ensure psychological and legal advice is provided to the whistleblowers and secondly any required remedial action is immediately taken to avert the undesirable events reported by a whistleblower from occurring and, finally; (c) mechanisms to ensure the coordination of actions taken.

Keywords: whistleblowing, business ethics, legislation, business

Procedia PDF Downloads 309

Authors: H. E. Elzain, S. Y. Chung, V. Senapathi, Kye-Hun Park

Abstract:

Groundwater is considered a significant source for drinking and irrigation purposes in Miryang city, and it is attributed to a limited number of a surface water reservoirs and high seasonal variations in precipitation. Population growth in addition to the expansion of agricultural land uses and industrial development may affect the quality and management of groundwater. This research utilized multidisciplinary approaches of geostatistics such as multivariate statistics, factor analysis, cluster analysis and kriging technique in order to identify the hydrogeochemical process and characterizing the control factors of the groundwater geochemistry distribution for developing risk maps, exploiting data obtained from chemical investigation of groundwater samples under the area of study. A total of 79 samples have been collected and analyzed using atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) for major and trace elements. Chemical maps using 2-D spatial Geographic Information System (GIS) of groundwater provided a powerful tool for detecting the possible potential sites of groundwater that involve the threat of contamination. GIS computer based map exhibited that the higher rate of contamination observed in the central and southern area with relatively less extent in the northern and southwestern parts. It could be attributed to the effect of irrigation, residual saline water, municipal sewage and livestock wastes. At wells elevation over than 85m, the scatter diagram represents that the groundwater of the research area was mainly influenced by saline water and NO3. Level of pH measurement revealed low acidic condition due to dissolved atmospheric CO2 in the soil, while the saline water had a major impact on the higher values of TDS and EC. Based on the cluster analysis results, the groundwater has been categorized into three group includes the CaHCO3 type of the fresh water, NaHCO3 type slightly influenced by sea water and Ca-Cl, Na-Cl types which are heavily affected by saline water. The most predominant water type was CaHCO3 in the study area. Contamination sources and chemical characteristics were identified from factor analysis interrelationship and cluster analysis. The chemical elements that belong to factor 1 analysis were related to the effect of sea water while the elements of factor 2 associated with agricultural fertilizers. The degree level, distribution, and location of groundwater contamination have been generated by using Kriging methods. Thus, geostatistics model provided more accurate results for identifying the source of contamination and evaluating the groundwater quality. GIS was also a creative tool to visualize and analyze the issues affecting water quality in the Miryang city.

Keywords: groundwater characteristics, GIS chemical maps, factor analysis, cluster analysis, Kriging techniques

Procedia PDF Downloads 168