Search results for: Andrew Lock

Authors: Andrew Anis Fakhrey Mosaad

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Objectives: Physiotherapy in the intensive care unit (ICU) improves patient outcomes. We aimed to determine the characteristics of physiotherapy practice and critical barriers to applying physiotherapy in ICUs. Materials and Methods: A 54-item survey for determining the characteristics physiotherapists and physiotherapy applications in the ICU was developed. The survey was electronically sent to potential participants through the Turkish Physiotherapy Association network. Sixty-five physiotherapists (47F and 18M; 23–52 years; ICU experience: 6.0±6.2 years) completed the survey. The data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Results: The duration of ICU practice was 3.51±2.10 h/day. Positioning (90.8%), active exercises (90.8%), breathing exercises (89.2%), passive exercises (87.7%), and percussion (87.7%) were the most commonly used applications. The barriers were related to physiotherapists (low level of employment and practice, lack of shift); patients (unwillingness, instability, participation restriction); teamwork (lack of awareness and communication); equipment (inadequacy, non-priority to purchase); and legal (reimbursement, lack of direct physiotherapy access, non-recognition of autonomy) procedures. Conclusion: The most common interventions were positioning, active, passive, breathing exercises, and percussion. Critical barriers toward physiotherapy are multifactorial and related to physiotherapists, patients, teams, equipment, and legal procedures. Physiotherapist employment, service maintenance, and multidisciplinary teamwork should be considered for physiotherapy effectiveness in ICUs.

Keywords: intensive care units, physical therapy, physiotherapy, exercises

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Authors: Robbie C. Murchison, Ibrahim Küçükdemiral, Andrew Cowell

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Thermal effects are the largest source of dimensional error in precision machining, and a major proportion is caused by ambient temperature variation. The use of coolant is a primary means of mitigating these effects, but there has been limited work on coolant temperature control. This research critically explored whether CNC-machine coolant refrigeration systems adapted to actively compensate for ambient temperature variation could increase machining accuracy. Accuracy data were collected from operators’ checklists for a CNC 5-axis mill and statistically reduced to bias and precision metrics for observations of one day over a sample period of 27 days. Temperature data were collected using three USB dataloggers in ambient air, the chiller inflow, and the chiller outflow. The accuracy and temperature data were analysed using Pearson correlation, then the thermodynamics of the system were described using system identification with MATLAB. It was found that 75% of thermal error is reflected in the hot coolant temperature but that this is negligibly dependent on ambient temperature. The effect of the coolant refrigeration process on hot coolant outflow temperature was also found to be negligible. Therefore, the evidence indicated that it would not be beneficial to adapt coolant chillers to compensate for ambient temperature variation. However, it is concluded that hot coolant outflow temperature is a robust and accessible source of thermal error data which could be used for prevention strategy evaluation or as the basis of other thermal error strategies.

Keywords: CNC manufacturing, machine-tool, precision machining, thermal error

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Authors: Ali Alotaibi, Francis Edum-Fotwe, Andrew Price /

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Mega construction projects create buildings and major infrastructure to respond to work and life requirements while playing a vital role in promoting any nation’s economy. However, the industry is often criticised for not balancing economic, environmental and social dimensions of their projects, with emphasis typically on one aspect to the detriment of the others. This has resulted in many negative impacts including environmental pollution, waste throughout the project lifecycle, low productivity, and avoidable accidents. The identification of comprehensive Social Responsibility (SR) indicators, which combine social, environmental and economic aspects, is urgently needed. This is particularly the case in the context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which often has mega public construction projects. The aim of this paper is to develop a set of wide-ranging SR indicators which encompass social, economic and environmental aspects unique to the KSA. A qualitative approach was applied to explore relevant indicators through a review of the existing literature, international standards and reports. A list of appropriate indicators was developed, and its comprehensiveness was corroborated by interviews with experts on mega construction projects working with SR concepts in the KSA. The findings present 39 indicators and their metrics, covering 10 economic, 12 environmental and 17 social aspects of SR mapped against their references. These indicators are a valuable reference for decision-makers and academics in the KSA to understand factors related to SR in mega construction projects. The indicators are related to mega construction projects within the KSA and require validation in a real case scenario or within a different industry to demonstrate their generalisability.

Keywords: social responsibility, construction projects, economic, social, environmental, indicators

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Authors: Andrew Enaifoghe

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Municipalities are the most fundamental units of governance, and they are responsible for providing basic services and supporting growth in the areas they rule. South African local government is primarily understood in terms of service delivery, and the South African constitution provides municipalities with the responsibility of mobilizing economic resources, to better the lives of all people. Essential public services are the primary pillars of enhanced quality of life, and appropriate supplies of safe water and sanitation are required for life, well-being, and human dignity. Therefore, having access to basic services is directly tied to social inclusion and social capital, and towns' inability to offer services can have a negative influence on social and economic growth. The problem of service delivery is seen as one of the biggest challenges facing South African municipalities today. This study attempts to assess South African municipal service delivery. Focusing on the main causes of service delivery challenges, the study also looks at the impact of these challenges to identify ways to minimize such challenges by introducing legal instruments such as municipal budgeting and annual reports. A qualitative design was adopted, and data were collected using a desktop technique and analyzed based on content. While public engagement in municipal affairs is required by law, considerable work has to be done to ensure successful participation. Finally, municipalities were deemed to need to do more to improve human capacity to offer services.

Keywords: municipalities, service delivery, corruption, monitoring, South Africa

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Authors: Okanta Andrew, Richmond Kweku Frempong

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As mobile networks are upgraded with technologies like WAP, GPRS and UMTS to deliver next-generation multimedia services, so are the banks and other financial institutions also getting ready to unleash the financial products on the mobile platform to meet growing demand for mobile based application services. Hence, the onset of Unstructured Supplementary Services (USSD) Banking which would make banking services available at anywhere, anytime through a string of interactive SMS sessions between a mobile device and an application server of a service provider. The aim of this studies was to find out whether the public will accept the sim banking service when it is implemented. Our target group includes: Working class. E. g. Businessmen/women, office workers, fishermen, market women, teachers etc. Nonworking class. E. g. Students (Tertiary, Senior High School), housewives. etc. The survey was in the form of a questionnaire and a verbal interview (video) which was to investigate their idea about the current banking system and the yet to be introduced sim banking concept. Meanwhile, some challenges accompanied the progression of data gathering because some populace showed reluctance in freeing their information. One other suggestion was that government should put measures against foremost challenges obstructing sim banking in Ghana counter to computers hackers. Government and individual have a key role to undertake to give suitable support to facelift the sim banking industry in the country. It was also suggested that Government put strong regulations on the use of sim banking products and services to streamline all the activities and also create awareness of the need for sim banking and emphasize its relevance in the aspect of national GDP.

Keywords: banking, mobile banking, SIM banking, mobile banking in Ghana

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Authors: Andrew Tan Hwee Chye, Yeo Zhen Ning

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This study aims to meta-analyse clinical studies comparing femoral tunnel position (FTP), femoral tunnel length (FTL) and graft bending angle (GBA) of single-bundle Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction using Transtibial (TT), Anteromedial (AM) and Outside-in (OI) techniques. A meta-analysis comparing the FTP, FTL and GBA of single-bundle ACL reconstruction utilising the TT, AM and OI was performed. Prospective Comparative Studies (PCS) and Retrospective Comparative Studies (RCS) from PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase were included. A total of 17 studies were included in this study. TT had the longest FTL, when compared to AM (Mean difference = 7.38, 95% CI: 3.76 to 11.00, P < 0.001) and OI (Mean difference = 9.47, 95% CI: 4.89 to 14.05, P < 0.001). In the deep-to-shallow direction, the OI resulted in a significantly deeper femoral tunnel as compared to the TT (Mean difference = 4.36, 95% CI: 1.39 to 7.33, P = 0.004) (Figure 6B). The AM technique also contributed to a significantly lower tunnel position as compared to the OI technique (Mean difference = 2.34, 95% CI: 0.76 to 3.92, P = 0.004). There were no significant differences in the graft bending angle between TT, AM and OI techniques. AM and OI techniques provide a more anatomical position as compared to the TT. Although FTL in the TT is longer than the AM and OI, all three techniques exceed the critical length of 25mm. There are no differences in the GBA between the three techniques.

Keywords: femoral tunnel position, femoral tunnel length, anterior cruciate ligament, transtibial, graft bending angle, anteromedial, outside-in

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Authors: Onyedikachi Ulelu, Andrew P. Longstaff, Simon Fletcher, Simon Parkinson

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The widespread interest in 'Industry 4.0' or 'digital manufacturing' has led to significant research requiring the acquisition of data from sensors, instruments, and machine signals. In-depth research then identifies methods of analysis of the massive amounts of data generated before and during manufacture to solve a particular problem. The ultimate goal is for industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) data to be processed automatically to assist with either visualisation or autonomous system decision-making. However, the collection and processing of data in an industrial environment come with a cost. Little research has been undertaken on how to specify optimally what data to capture, transmit, process, and store at various levels of an edge-cloud network. The first step in this specification is to categorise IIoT data for efficient and effective use. This paper proposes the required attributes and classification to take manufacturing digital data from various sources to determine the most suitable location for data processing on the edge-cloud network. The proposed classification framework will minimise overhead in terms of network bandwidth/cost and processing time of machine tool data via efficient decision making on which dataset should be processed at the ‘edge’ and what to send to a remote server (cloud). A fast-and-frugal heuristic method is implemented for this decision-making. The framework is tested using case studies from industrial machine tools for machine productivity and maintenance.

Keywords: data classification, decision making, edge computing, industrial IoT, industry 4.0

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Authors: Andrew Thayer, Courtney Rondeau, Paraskevi Papadopoulou

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The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) gene-editing technologies have generated considerable discussion about the applications and ethics of their use. However, no consistent guidelines for using CRISPR technologies have been developed -nor common legislation passed related to gene editing, especially as it is connected to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the European Union. The recent announcement that the first babies with CRISPR-edited genes were born, along with new studies exploring CRISPR’s applications in treating thalassemia, sickle-cell anemia, cancer, and certain forms of blindness, have demonstrated that the technology is developing faster than the policies needed to control it. Therefore, it can be seen that a reasonable and coherent regulatory framework for the use of CRISPR in human somatic and germline cells is necessary to ensure the ethical use of the technology in future years. The European Union serves as a unique region of interconnected countries without a standard set of regulations or legislation for CRISPR gene-editing. We posit that the EU would serve as a suitable model in comparing the legislations of its affiliated countries in order to understand the practicality and effectiveness of adopting majority-approved practices. Additionally, we present a proposed set of guidelines which could serve as a basis in developing a consistent regulatory framework for the EU countries to implement but also act as a good example for other countries to adhere to. Finally, an additional, multidimensional framework of smart solutions is proposed with which all stakeholders are engaged to become better-informed citizens.

Keywords: CRISPR, ethics, regulatory framework, European legislation

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Authors: Christen Kutz

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Objective: The aim of this study is to review a case series of 4 high-level Olympic and Division 1 wrestlers who experienced debilitating posterior circulation ischemic strokes during or after a competitive wrestling event and to identify risk factors, etiology and outcomes of stroke in young, healthy elite wrestlers. Background: Stroke occurs in one in 10,000 people under age 64. In young adults, the most common causes of stroke are cardiac embolism, hypercoagulable state, and vasculopathy. One-third of these strokes occur in young, fit individuals. There is little published literature about ischemic strokes that occur in wrestlers. Based on the nature of wrestling, the risk of injury or dissection to neurovascular structures may be a possible theory, but very few case reports exist. Methodology: 4 wrestlers under the age of 44 with a known history of ischemic stroke participated in individual interviews either in person or virtually. Each of the wrestlers provided their demographic information, wrestling background, clinical presentation at the time of stroke, imaging results, identification of potential risk factors, acute treatment and recovery. Results: 3 white male Division 1 wrestlers (2 Lehigh University, 1 Lock Haven University) and 1 black male 2008 Olympian experienced posterior circulation strokes. Case #1 felt a “pop” while wrestling (lateral medullary infarct, possible vertebral artery dissection); Case #2 awoke with severe vertigo, sweating, and vomiting after wrestling the previous day (left cerebellar infarct, (+) protein S deficiency); Case #3 severe vertigo, ataxia, and sensation of impending doom after wrestling earlier that week (left cerebellar infarct, hypoplastic left vertebral artery (+) anti-cardiolipin antibodies). Case #4 severe dizziness, confusion (left cerebellar stroke, vertebral artery dissection, small PFO). Conclusion: 3 wrestlers were started on anti-platelet therapy, risk factors were modified, and returned to their sport. 1 wrestler was placed on anti-coagulation and retired from competition.

Keywords: stroke, wrestling, Olympic, posterior circulation

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Authors: Andrew Enaifoghe

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The study examined the role of public management development in enhancing public service delivery in the South African local government. The study believes that the ultimate empowerment of the third tier sphere of governments in South Africa remains the instrument required to enhance both national and continental development. This over the year has been overwhelmed with problems and imbalance related to ethical practice, accountability and the functional local government system and the machinery itself. The study finds that imbalances are being strengthened by a lack of understanding and unanimity as to what a public management development in a democratic system is and how it should work to achieve the dividends of democracy in delivering public goods. Studies indicated that the magnitudes are widespread corruption and misrepresentations of government priorities; both of which weaken the ability of governments to enhance broad-based economic growth and social well-being of the people. This study addressed the problem of public management and accountable local government. The study indicates the need for citizens’ participation in the decision-making process in delivering public service in South Africa and how its accountability mechanism supports good governance. The study concludes that good and ethical watersheds in South Africa have since reached such proportions that social pressure, the pressure from the government and various institutions have to re-consider where they stand regarding ethics, ethical behaviour, accountability and professionalism in delivering public goods to the people at the local municipal government.

Keywords: accountability, development, democratic system, South Africa

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Authors: Daphine Namara, Jeremy I. Schwartz, Andrew K. Tusubira, Willi McFarland, Caroline Birungi, Fred C. Semitala, Martin Muddu

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Emerging evidence suggests a possible association between hyperglycemia and dolutegravir (DTG), a preferred first-line antiretroviral agent in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). There is a need for rigorous studies to validate this association in the face of increasing DTG use and the burden of non-communicable diseases among people living with HIV (PLHIV). We conducted a case-control study to assess the risk of hyperglycemia associated with the use of DTG among PLHIV attending Mulago ISS Clinic in Kampala. Cases had hyperglycemia, while controls had no hyperglycemia, as confirmed by fasting plasma glucose and oral glucose tolerance tests. Demographic, laboratory, and clinical data were collected using interviewer-administered questionnaires and medical record abstraction. The analysis compared cases and controls on DTG use prior to diagnosis of hyperglycemia while controlling for potential confounders using multivariable logistic regression. We included 204 cases and 231 controls. In multivariable analysis, patients with prior DTG use had seven times greater odds of subsequent diagnosis of hyperglycemia compared to those who had non-DTG-based regimens (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 7.01, 95% CI 1.96-25.09). The odds of hyperglycemia also increased with age (56 years and above vs. 18-35, aOR 12.38, 95% CI 3.79-40.50) and hypertension (aOR 5.78, 95% CI 2.53-13.21). Our study demonstrates a strong association between prior DTG exposure and subsequent diagnosis of hyperglycemia. Given the benefits of DTG, wide-scale use, and the growing burden of diabetes mellitus (DM) in SSA, there is a need for systematic screening for hyperglycemia and consideration of alternate regimens for those at risk for DM.

Keywords: HIV, hyperglycemia, doluteravir, diabetes

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Authors: Japnoor Garcha, Andrew P. Smith

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There has been a significant increase in the prevalence and estimates of neurodevelopmental disorders specially autism spectrum disorders in the last decade. The literature has seen increasing research on understanding well-being and mental health. The current studies have focused on seeing the impact of mental health and well-being in autism spectrum disorders and ADHD both with and without a diagnosis. To further understand the association and interaction of well-being and mental health with autism and ADHD a survey was given to 560 secondary school students. The survey used the well-being process questionnaire, the autism spectrum quotient, the ADHD self-report scale, and the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. The analysis conducted using SPSS showed that there was a significant correlation between anxiety, depression, AQ and ADHD. Anxiety and depression were also significantly correlated with all well-being and SDQ variables. The regression analysis showed that anxiety was significantly associated with positive well-being, negative well-being, emotional problems and prosocial behaviour whereas depression was significantly associated with positive well-being, negative well-being, physical health, flourishing, conduct problems, emotional problems and peer problems. This interaction led to the formation of a combined variable to see what impact the variables of anxiety, depression, AQ and ADHD would have coupled together. Further analysis showed that the combined variable was significantly correlated with all outcome variables. The regression analysis showed that the Combined variable was significantly correlated with emotional problems, and hyperactivity, stress, negative coping, psychological capital and sleepiness.

Keywords: AQ, adhd, sdq, well-being, combined variable

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Authors: Karissa Graham, Andrew Campbell-Lloyd

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The deep inferior epigastric artery perforator flap (DIEP) is used to reconstruct large volumes of tissue. The DIEP flap is based on the deep inferior epigastric artery (DIEA) and vein. Accurate knowledge of the anatomy of these vessels allows for efficient dissection of the flap, minimal damage to surrounding tissue, and a well vascularized flap. A 54 year old lady was assessed for bilateral delayed autologous reconstruction with DIEP free flaps. The right DIEA was consistent with the described anatomy. The left DIEA had a vessel branching shortly after leaving the external iliac artery and before entering the muscle. This independent branch entered the muscle and had a long intramuscular course to the largest perforator. The main DIEA vessel demonstrated a type II branching pattern but had perforators that were too small to have a viable DIEP flap. There were no communicating arterial branches between the independent vessel and DIEA, however, there was one venous communication between them. A muscle sparing transverse rectus abdominis muscle flap was raised using the main periumbilical perforator from the independent vessel. Our case report demonstrated an unreported anatomical variant of the DIEA. A few anatomical variants have been described in the literature, including a unilateral absent DIEA and peritoneal-cutaneous perforators that had no connection to the DIEA. Doing a pre-operative CTA helps to identify these rare anatomical variations, which leads to safer, more efficient, and effective operating.

Keywords: aberrant anatomy, CT angiography, DIEP anatomy, free flap

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Authors: Yuanhong Zhao, Qingping Yang, Andrew Fox, Tao Zhang

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Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is a systematic approach to assess the actual building performance after the building has been occupied for some time. In this paper, a structured POE assessment was conducted using the building use survey (BUS) methodology in two higher educational buildings in the United Kingdom. This study aims to help close the building performance gap, provide optimized building operation suggestions, and to improve occupants’ satisfaction level. In this research, the questionnaire survey investigated the influences of environmental factors on user satisfaction from the main aspects of building overall design, thermal comfort, perceived control, indoor environment quality for noise, lighting, ventilation, and other non-environmental factors, such as the background information about age, sex, time in buildings, workgroup size, and so on. The results indicate that the occupant satisfaction level with the main aspects of building overall design, indoor environment quality, and thermal comfort in summer and winter on both two buildings, which is lower than the benchmark data. The feedback of this POE assessment has been reported to the building management team to allow managers to develop high-performance building operation plans. Finally, this research provided improvement suggestions to the building operation system to narrow down the performance gap and improve the user work experience satisfaction and productivity level.

Keywords: building performance assessment systems, higher educational buildings, post-occupancy evaluation, user satisfaction

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Authors: Mohammed Agbali, Claudia Trillo, Yusuf Arayici, Terrence Fernando

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The wide-spread adoption of the Smart City concept has introduced a new era of computing paradigm with opportunities for city administrators and stakeholders in various sectors to re-think the concept of urbanization and development of healthy cities. With the world population rapidly becoming urban-centric especially amongst the emerging economies, social innovation will assist greatly in deploying emerging technologies to address the development challenges in core sectors of the future cities. In this context, sustainable health-care delivery and improved quality of life of the people is considered at the heart of the healthy city agenda. This paper examines the Boston innovation landscape from the perspective of smart services and innovation ecosystem for sustainable development, especially in transportation and healthcare. It investigates the policy implementation process of the Healthy City agenda and eHealth economy innovation based on the experience of Massachusetts’s City of Boston initiatives. For this purpose, three emerging areas are emphasized, namely the eHealth concept, the innovation hubs, and the emerging technologies that drive innovation. This was carried out through empirical analysis on results of public sector and industry-wide interviews/survey about Boston’s current initiatives and the enabling environment. The paper highlights few potential research directions for service integration and social innovation for deploying emerging technologies in the healthy city agenda. The study therefore suggests the need to prioritize social innovation as an overarching strategy to build sustainable Smart Cities in order to avoid technology lock-in. Finally, it concludes that the Boston example of innovation economy is unique in view of the existing platforms for innovation and proper understanding of its dynamics, which is imperative in building smart and healthy cities where quality of life of the citizenry can be improved.

Keywords: computing paradigm, emerging technologies, equitable healthcare, healthy cities, open data, smart city, social innovation

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Authors: Aisling Eves, Andrew Pieri, Ross McLean, Nerys Forester

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Background: The breast unit local guideline recommends that 12 cores should be used in a stereotactic-guided biopsy to diagnose DCIS. Twelve cores are regarded to provide good diagnostic value without removing more breast tissue than necessary. This study aimed to determine compliance with guidelines and investigated how the number of cores impacted upon the re-excision rate and size discrepancies. Methods: This single-centre retrospective cohort study of 72 consecutive breast screened patients with <15mm DCIS on radiological report underwent stereotactic-guided core biopsy and subsequent surgical excision. Clinical, radiological, and histological data were collected over 5 years, and ASCO guidelines for margin involvement of <2mm was used to guide the need for re-excision. Results: Forty-six (63.9%) patients had <12 cores taken, and 26 (36.1%) patients had ≥12 cores taken. Only six (8.3%) patients had 12 cores taken in their stereotactic biopsy. Incomplete surgical excision was seen in 17 patients overall (23.6%), and of these patients, twelve (70.6%) had fewer than 12 cores taken (p=0.55 for the difference between groups). Mammogram and biopsy underestimated the size of the DCIS in this subgroup by a median of 15mm (range: 6-135mm). Re-excision was required in 9 patients (12.5%), and five patients (6.9%) were found to have invasive ductal carcinoma on excision (80% had <12 cores, p=0.43). Discussion: There is poor compliance with the breast unit local guidelines and higher rates of re-excision in patients who did not have ≥12 cores taken. Taking ≥12 cores resulted in fewer missed invasive cancers lower incomplete excision and re-excision rates.

Keywords: stereotactic core biopsy, DCIS, breast screening, Re-excision rates, core biopsy

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Authors: Raymond Xu, Ashley Hua, Andrew Wang, Yuru Lin

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During COVID-19, the depression rate has increased dramatically. Young adults are most vulnerable to the mental health effects of the pandemic. Lower-income families have a higher ratio to be diagnosed with depression than the general population, but less access to clinics. This research aims to achieve early depression detection at low cost, large scale, and high accuracy with an interdisciplinary approach by incorporating clinical practices defined by American Psychiatric Association (APA) as well as multimodal AI framework. The proposed approach detected the nine depression symptoms with Natural Language Processing sentiment analysis and a symptom-based Lexicon uniquely designed for young adults. The experiments were conducted on the multimedia survey results from adolescents and young adults and unbiased Twitter communications. The result was further aggregated with the facial emotional cues analyzed by the Convolutional Neural Network on the multimedia survey videos. Five experiments each conducted on 10k data entries reached consistent results with an average accuracy of 88.31%, higher than the existing natural language analysis models. This approach can reach 300+ million daily active Twitter users and is highly accessible by low-income populations to promote early depression detection to raise awareness in adolescents and young adults and reveal complementary cues to assist clinical depression diagnosis.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, COVID-19, depression detection, psychiatric disorder

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Authors: Georgia Hopley, Andrew Murray, Alan Macpherson

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Objectives: This study aims to (i) assess the prevalence of symptoms of mental health disorders among a cohort of professional golfers, (ii) compare prevalence values with data from the general population and other elite athlete cohorts, and (iii) assess how players cope with mental health problems and players’ opinions on the mental health support services available to them. Methods: Players competing on the 2020 Challenge Tour (n=261) were sent a questionnaire that assessed symptoms of depression, distress, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Questions were also included to assess coping behaviors and opinions on current support measures. Results: The two-week symptom prevalence was 10.3% for depression, 51.7% for distress, 8.6% for anxiety, 10.3% for sleep disturbance, 13.8% for obsessive thoughts, and 27.6% for compulsive behavior. The prevalence of symptoms is comparable with other elite athlete cohorts, and symptoms of anxiety and distress were reported more frequently than in the general population. 67% of players who had experienced a mental health issue did not seek professional help at the time, and 61% of players did not think sufficient support was available to them. Conclusion: Mental health problems are prevalent among elite golfers; however, this study demonstrates that the majority of players do not seek help from professionally accredited practitioners. Following the discussion of this study, the European Tour Group now provides a 24/7 mental health crisis hotline for players and has educated staff members on how to identify players with mental health issues and signpost them to the appropriate support.

Keywords: elite athletes, golf, mental health, sport science, sport psychiatry

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Authors: Thampi Rawther, Jack Cecire, Andrew Sutherland

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Introduction: CT facilitates the diagnosis of potentially life-threatening injuries and facilitates early management. There is evidence that reduced CT acquisition time reduces mortality and length of hospital stay. Currently, there are variable recommendations for ideal timing. Indeed, the NHS standard contract for a major trauma service and STAG both recommend immediate access to CT within a maximum time of 60min and appropriate reporting within 60min of the scan. At Coffs Harbour Health Campus (CHHC), a CT radiographer is on site between 8am-11pm. Aim: To investigate the average time to CT at CHHC and assess for any significant relationship between time to CT and injury severity score (ISS) or time of triage. Method: All major trauma calls between Jan 2021-Oct 2021 were audited (N=87). Patients were excluded if they went from ED to the theatre. Time to CT is defined as the time between triage to the timestamp on the first CT image. Median and interquartile range was used as a measure of central tendency as the data was not normally distributed, and Chi-square test was used to determine association. Results: The median time to CT is 51.5min (IQR 40-74). We found no relationship between time to CT and ISS (P=0.18) and time of triage to time to CT (P=0.35). We compared this to other centres such as John Hunter Hospital and Gold Coast Hospital. We found that the median CT acquisition times were 76min (IQR 52-115) and 43min, respectively. Conclusion: This shows an avenue for improvement given 35% of CT’s were >30min. Furthermore, being proactive and aware of time to CT as an important factor to trauma management can be another avenue for improvement. Based on this, we will re-audit in 12-24months to assess if any improvement has been made.

Keywords: imaging, rural surgery, trauma surgery, improvement

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Authors: Sagar Ghos, Andrew E. Elaryan, Syed Ashik Ali, Musharraf Zaman, Mohammed Ashiqur Rahman

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Achieving desired density during construction is an important indicator of pavement quality. Insufficient compaction often compromises pavement performance and service life. Intelligent compaction (IC) is an emerging technology for monitoring compaction quality during the construction of asphalt pavements. This paper aims to provide an overview of findings from four case studies in Oklahoma involving the compaction quality of asphalt pavements, namely SE 44th St project (Project 1) and EOC Turnpike project (Project 2), Highway 92 project (Project 3), and 108th Avenue project (Project 4). For this purpose, an IC technology, the intelligent compaction analyzer (ICA), developed at the University of Oklahoma, was used to evaluate compaction quality. Collected data include GPS locations, roller vibrations, roller speed, the direction of movement, and temperature of the asphalt mat. The collected data were analyzed using a widely used software, VETA. The average densities for Projects 1, 2, 3 and 4, were found as 89.8%, 91.50%, 90.7% and 87.5%, respectively. The maximum densities were found as 94.6%, 95.8%, 95.9%, and 89.7% for Projects 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. It was observed that the ICA estimated densities correlated well with the field core densities. The ICA results indicated that at least 90% of the asphalt mats were subjected to at least two roller passes. However, the number of passes required to achieve the desired density (94% to 97%) differed from project to project depending on the underlying layer. The results of these case studies show both opportunities and challenges in using IC for monitoring compaction quality during construction in real-time.

Keywords: asphalt pavement construction, density, intelligent compaction, intelligent compaction analyzer, intelligent compaction measure value

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Authors: Gadisa Demie, Mesele Negash, Zerihun Asrat, Lojka Bohdan

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Deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics have led to significant carbon (C) emissions. Agroforestry (AF) is a suitable land-use option for tackling such declines in ecosystem services, including climate change mitigation. However, it is unclear how biomass models, AF practices, and socio-ecological factors determine these roles, which hinders the implementation of climate change mitigation initiatives. This study aimed to estimate the ecosystem C stocks of the studied AF practices in relation to socio-ecological variables in central Ethiopia. Out of 243 AF farms inventoried, 108 were chosen at random from three AF practices to estimate their biomass and soil organic carbon. A total of 432 soil samples were collected from 0–30 and 30–60 cm soil depths; 216 samples were taken for each soil organic carbon fraction (%C) and bulk density computation. The study found that the currently developed allometric equations were the most accurate to estimate biomass C for trees growing in the landscape when compared to previous models. The study found higher overall biomass C in woodlots (165.62 Mg ha-¹) than in homegardens (134.07 Mg ha-¹) and parklands (19.98 Mg ha-¹). Conversely, overall, SOC was higher for homegardens (143.88 Mg ha-¹), but lower for parklands (53.42 Mg ha-¹). The ecosystem C stock was comparable between homegardens (277.95 Mg ha-¹) and woodlots (275.44 Mg ha-¹). The study found that elevation, wealthy levels, AF farm age, and size have a positive and significant (P < 0.05) effect on overall biomass and ecosystem C stocks but non-significant with slope (P > 0.05). Similarly, SOC increased with increasing elevation, AF farm age, and wealthy status but decreased with slope and non-significant with AF farm size. The study also showed that species diversity had a positive (P <0.05) effect on overall biomass C stocks in homegardens. The overall study highlights that AF practices have a great potential to lock up more carbon in biomass and soils; however, these potentials were determined by socioecological variables. Thus, these factors should be considered in management strategies that preserve trees in agricultural landscapes in order to mitigate climate change and support the livelihoods of farmers.

Keywords: agricultural landscape, biomass, climate change, soil organic carbon

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Authors: James Jin, Weisi Xia, Runzhe Gao, Alain Vandal, Darren Svirkis, Andrew Hill

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Background: Post-haemorrhoidectomy pain is concerned by patients/clinicians. Minimizing the postoperation pain is highly interested clinically. Combinations of topical cream targeting three hypothesised post-haemorrhoidectomy pain mechanisms were developed and their effectiveness were evaluated. Specifically, a multi-centred double-blinded randomized clinical trial (RCT) was conducted in adults undergoing excisional haemorrhoidectomy. The primary analysis was conveyed on the data collected to evaluate the effectiveness of the combinations of topical cream targeting three hypothesized pain mechanisms after the operations. Methods: 192 patients were randomly allocated to 4 arms (each arm has 48 patients), and each arm was provided with pain cream 10% metronidazole (M), M and 2% diltiazem (MD), M with 4% lidocaine (ML), or MDL, respectively. Patients were instructed to apply topical treatments three times a day for 7 days, and record outcomes for 14 days after the operations. The primary outcome was VAS pain on day 4. Covariates and models were selected in the blind review stage. Multiple imputations were applied for the missingness. LMER, GLMER models together with natural splines were applied. Sandwich estimators and Wald statistics were used. P-values < 0.05 were considered as significant. Conclusions: The addition of topical lidocaine or diltiazem to metronidazole does not add any benefit. ML had significantly better pain and recovery scores than combination MDL. Multimodal topical analgesia with ML after haemorrhoidectomy could be considered for further evaluation. Further trials considering only 3 arms (M, ML, MD) might be worth exploring.

Keywords: RCT, primary analysis, multiple imputation, pain scores, haemorrhoidectomy, analgesia, lmer

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Authors: Emmanuel Ekpa, Adaji Andrew, Queen Opaluwa, Isreal Daraobong

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Three (3) indigenous bacteria species (Bacillus spp, Acinectobacter spp and Moraxella spp) previously isolated from contaminated soil of some auto mechanic workshops were used for bioremediation studies on some irrigation water used at Sarkin-noma Fadama farms located in Lokoja Kogi State, Nigeria. This was done in order to investigate their bioremediation potentials using a simple pour plate method. The physicochemical parameters and heavy metal analysis (using AAS iCE 3000) of the irrigation water were performed before and after inoculation of the isolated organisms. Nitrate and phosphate concentration were found to be 10.56mg/L and 12.63mg/L prior to inoculation while iron and zinc were 0.9569mg/L and 0.2245mg/L respectively. Other physicochemical parameters were also observed to be high prior to inoculation. After the bioremediation test (inoculation with the isolated organisms), a nitrate and phosphate content of 2.53mg/L and 2.61mg/L were recorded respectively, iron and zinc gave 0.1694mg/L and 0.0174mg/L concentrations while other physicochemical parameters measured were also found to be lower in their respective values. The implication of this present study is that a number of carefully isolated indigenous bacteria species are capable of reducing the amount of heavy metal concentrations in water. Also, non-metallic contaminants like nitrate and phosphate are susceptible to bioremediation in the presence of such efficient system.

Keywords: bioremediation, heavy metals, physicochemical parameters, Bacillus spp, Acinectobacter spp and Moraxella spp, AAS, spectrometer 3000

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Authors: Carlos Joel Tchawouo Mbiada

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At the back of the apartheid era, South Africa embarked on a democratic drive of all its institution underpinned by a social justice perspective to eradicate past injustices. These democratic values based on fundamental human rights and equality informed all rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. This means that all rights are therefore infused by social justice perspective and labour rights are no exception. Labour law is therefore regulated to the extent that it is viewed as too rigid. Hence a call for more flexibility to enhance investment and boost job creation. This view articulated by the Free Market Foundation fell on deaf ears as the opponents believe in what is termed regulated flexibility which affords greater protection to vulnerable workers while promoting business opportunities and investment. The question that this paper seeks to examine is to what extent the regulation of labour law will go to protect employees. This question is prompted by the recent Constitutional Court’s judgment of National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa v Trenstar which barred the employer from employing labour replacement in response to the strike action by its employees. The question whether employers may use replacement labour and have recourse to lock-outs in response to strike action is considered in the context of the dichotomy between the Free market foundation and social justice perspectives which are at loggerheads in the South African collective bargaining process. With the current unemployment rate soaring constantly, the aftermath of the Covid 19 pandemic, the effects of the war in Ukraine and lately the financial burden of load shedding on companies to run their businesses, this paper argues for a policy shift toward deregulation or a lesser state and judiciary intervention. This initiative will relieve the burden on companies to run a viable business while at the same time protecting existing jobs.

Keywords: labour law, replacement labour, right to strike, free market foundation perspective, social justice perspective

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Authors: Dhruv J. Limaye, Hanga Galfalvy, Cheick A. Sissoko, Yung-yu Huang, Chunanning Tang, Ying Liu, Shu-Chi Hsiung, Andrew J. Dwork, Gorazd B. Rosoklija, Victoria Arango, Lewis Brown, J. John Mann, Maura Boldrini

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Memory and emotion require hippocampal cell viability and connectivity and are disrupted in major depressive disorder (MDD). Applying shotgun proteomics and stereological quantification of neural progenitor cells (NPCs), intermediate neural progenitors (INPs), and mature granule neurons (GNs), to postmortem human hippocampus, identified differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), and fewer NPCs, INPs and GNs, in untreated MDD (uMDD) compared with non-psychiatric controls (CTRL) and antidepressant-treated MDD (MDDT). DEPs lower in uMDD vs. CTRL promote mitosis, differentiation, and prevent apoptosis. DEPs higher in uMDD vs. CTRL inhibit the cell cycle, and regulate cell adhesion, neurite outgrowth, and DNA repair. DEPs lower in MDDT vs. uMDD block cell proliferation. We observe group-specific correlations between numbers of NPCs, INPs, and GNs and an abundance of proteins regulating mitosis, differentiation, and apoptosis. Altered protein expression underlies hippocampus cellular and volume loss in uMDD, supports a trophic effect of antidepressants, and offers new treatment targets.

Keywords: proteomics, hippocampus, depression, mitosis, migration, differentiation, mitochondria, apoptosis, antidepressants, human brain

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Authors: Siobhan O’Shea, Sangeetha Vijaysri Nair, Hee Cheol Kim, Charles Thomas Nugent, Cheuk Yan William Tong, Sam Douthwaite, Andrew Worlock

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The Aptima® HIV-1 Quant Dx Assay is a fully automated assay on the Panther system. It is based on Transcription-Mediated Amplification and real time detection technologies. This assay is intended for monitoring HIV-1 viral load in plasma specimens and for the detection of HIV-1 in plasma and serum specimens. Nine-hundred and seventy nine specimens selected at random from routine testing at St Thomas’ Hospital, London were anonymised and used to compare the performance of the Aptima HIV-1 Quant Dx assay and Roche COBAS® AmpliPrep/COBAS® TaqMan® HIV-1 Test, v2.0. Two-hundred and thirty four specimens gave quantitative HIV-1 viral load results in both assays. The quantitative results reported by the Aptima Assay were comparable those reported by the Roche COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 Test, v2.0 with a linear regression slope of 1.04 and an intercept on -0.097. The Aptima assay detected HIV-1 in more samples than the Roche assay. This was not due to lack of specificity of the Aptima assay because this assay gave 99.83% specificity on testing plasma specimens from 600 HIV-1 negative individuals. To understand the reason for this higher detection rate a side-by-side comparison of low level panels made from the HIV-1 3rd international standard (NIBSC10/152) and clinical samples of various subtypes were tested in both assays. The Aptima assay was more sensitive than the Roche assay. The good sensitivity, specificity and agreement with other commercial assays make the HIV-1 Quant Dx Assay appropriate for both viral load monitoring and detection of HIV-1 infections.

Keywords: HIV viral load, Aptima, Roche, Panther system

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Authors: Isaiah Chacha, Samuel Arimi, Andrew Thaiya

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Background: This study was conducted to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding anthrax in Maragua, Kenya to provide baseline information to design interventions. Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted among head of households, health and veterinary workers in Maragua Sub-county in August and September 2014. Administered questionnaires were used to collect data from household members and a key informant interview held with health and veterinary workers. Multi stage sampling was used to obtain participants’ knowledge, attitudes and practices. Questions were scored and descriptively analyzed using Excel spreadsheet then exported to GenStat Discovery Edition 4. Results: A total of 293 community members were recruited in this study. The overall level of knowledge was 77.9% of all community members regarding cause, transmission, symptoms and prevention of the disease in both humans and animals. Majority of the participants (96.3%) had heard about anthrax. A total of 99 (33.8%) correspondents had seen a person with anthrax and 75.1% think that anthrax is a very serious disease in the area. Of the interviewed correspondents, 14.3% of them have had their animals (mostly cattle) suffer from anthrax while 15.7% had either suffered from anthrax or have had their family member who suffered from anthrax. Conclusion: The study findings indicate above average knowledge on cause, symptoms, transmission and prevention of anthrax among community members in humans and animals. Practices in this study were still risk among community members. Veterinary and Medical health planners should design anthrax awareness interventions as a team targeting to reach these communities and the public through barazas, radio, CHW and other communication channel on a regular basis.

Keywords: anthrax, attitudes, Kenya, knowledge, Maragua, practices

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Authors: John Allbutt, Andrew Murray, Jonathan Ling, Thomas M. Heffernan

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Ultra-endurance events place unique physical and psychological pressures on participants. In this study, we examined the psychologically challenging aspects of taking part in a 3000 mile transatlantic rowing race using a qualitative approach. To date, more people have been into space than have rowed an ocean and only one psychological study has been conducted on this experience which had a specific research focus. The current study was a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. Participants were an opportunity sample of seven competitors from a recent ocean rowing race. Participants were asked about the psychological aspects of the event after it had finished. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Several themes emerged from the analysis. These related to: 1) preparation; 2) bodily aches/pains, 3) race setbacks; 4) boat conditions; 5) interpersonal factors and communication; 6) strategies for managing stress and interpersonal tensions. While participants were generally very positive about the event, the analysis showed that they experienced significant psychological challenges during their voyage. Competitors paid considerable attention to preparing for the physical challenges of the event. However, not all prospective competitors gave the same time to preparing for psychological factors or were aware how they might play out during their voyage. All Atlantic rowing crews should be aware of the psychological challenges they face, and have strategies in place to help cope with the psychological strain of taking part.

Keywords: confinement experiences, ocean rowing, stress, ultra-endurance sport

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Authors: Praveen Chandramenon, Andrew Gascoyne, Fideline Tchuenbou-Magaia

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Aquaponics offers a simple conclusive solution to the food and environmental crisis of the world. This approach combines the idea of Aquaculture (growing fish) to Hydroponics (growing vegetables and plants in a soilless method). Smart Aquaponics explores the use of smart technology including artificial intelligence and IoT, to assist farmers with better decision making and online monitoring and control of the system. Identification of different growth stages of Swiss Chard plants and predicting its harvest time is found to be important in Aquaponic yield management. This paper brings out the comparative analysis of a standard Aquaponics with a Vermiponics (Aquaponics with worms), which was grown in the controlled environment, by implementing IoT and deep learning-based growth stage segregation and harvest time prediction of Swiss Chards before and after applying an optimal freshwater replenishment. Data collection, Growth stage classification and Harvest Time prediction has been performed with and without water replenishment. The paper discusses the experimental design, IoT and sensor communication with architecture, data collection process, image segmentation, various regression and classification models and error estimation used in the project. The paper concludes with the results comparison, including best models that performs growth stage segregation and harvest time prediction of the Aquaponic and Vermiponic testbed with and without freshwater replenishment.

Keywords: aquaponics, deep learning, internet of things, vermiponics

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Authors: Wanjiku Karanja

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Facebook has monopoly power in the social networking market. It has grown and entrenched its monopoly power through the capture of its users’ data value chains. However, antitrust law’s consumer welfare roots have prevented it from effectively addressing the role of data capture in Facebook’s market dominance. These regulatory blind spots are augmented in Facebook’s proposed Diem cryptocurrency project and its Novi Digital wallet. Novi, which is Diem’s digital identity component, shall enable Facebook to collect an unprecedented volume of consumer data. Consequently, Novi has seismic implications on internet identity as the network effects of Facebook’s large user base could establish it as the de facto internet identity layer. Moreover, the large tracts of data Facebook shall collect through Novi shall further entrench Facebook's market power. As such, the attendant lock-in effects of this project shall be very difficult to reverse. Urgent regulatory action is therefore required to prevent this expansion of Facebook’s data resources and monopoly power. This research thus highlights the importance of data capture to competition and market health in the social networking industry. It utilizes interviews with key experts to empirically interrogate the impact of Facebook’s data capture and control of its users’ data value chains on its market power. This inquiry is contextualized against Novi’s expansive effect on Facebook’s data value chains. It thus addresses the novel antitrust issues arising at the nexus of Facebook’s monopoly power and the privacy of its users’ data. It also explores the impact of platform design principles, specifically data portability and data portability, in mitigating Facebook’s anti-competitive practices. As such, this study finds that Facebook is a powerful monopoly that dominates the social media industry to the detriment of potential competitors. Facebook derives its power from its size, annexure of the consumer data value chain, and control of its users’ social graphs. Additionally, the platform design principles of data interoperability and data portability are not a panacea to restoring competition in the social networking market. Their success depends on the establishment of robust technical standards and regulatory frameworks.

Keywords: antitrust law, data protection law, data portability, data interoperability, digital identity, Facebook

Procedia PDF Downloads 93