Search results for: treatment failure

Authors: Ioana Dallinger, Vincent P. Magnini

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Due to the many moving parts and high human component, mistakes and failures sometimes occur during transactions in service environments. Because a certain portion of such failures is unavoidable, many service providers constantly look for guidance regarding optimal ways by which they should manage failures and recoveries. Through the use of a scenario-based experiment, the findings of this study run counter to the empowerment approach (i.e. that frontline employees should be empowered to resolve failure situations on their own doing). Specifically, this study finds that customers’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice are significantly higher [p-values < .05] when a manager delivers an apology as opposed to the frontline provider. Moreover, customers’ satisfaction with the recovery and commitment to the firm are also significantly stronger [p-values < .05] when a manager apologizes. Interestingly, this study also empirically tests the effects of combined apologies of both the manager and employee and finds that the combined approach yields better results for customers’ interactional justice perceptions and for their satisfaction with recovery, but not for their distributive or procedural justice perceptions or consequent commitment to the firm. This study can serve a springboard for further research. For example, perceptions and attitudes regarding employee empowerment vary based upon country culture. Furthermore, there are likely a number of factors that can moderate the cause and effect relationship between a failure recovery and customers’ post-recovery perceptions [e.g. the severity of the failure].

Keywords: apology, empowerment, service failure recovery, service recovery

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Authors: Zhichao Li

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This project has treated the waste-water that contains the nitrogen heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, by using the phenol-induced microbial communities. The treatment of nitrogen heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is a difficult problem for coking waste-water treatment. Pyridine, quinoline and indole are three kinds of most common nitrogen heterocyclic compounds in the f, and treating these refractory organics biologically has always been a research focus. The phenol-degrading bacteria can be used in the enhanced biological treatment effectively, and has a good treatment effect. Therefore, using the phenol-induced microbial communities to treat the coking waste-water can remove multiple pollutants concurrently, and improve the treating efficiency of coking waste-water. Experiments have proved that the phenol-induced microbial communities can degrade the nitrogen heterocyclic ring aromatic hydrocarbon efficiently.

Keywords: phenol, nitrogen heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phenol-degrading bacteria, microbial communities, biological treatment technology

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Authors: Sadia Aziz, Mahwish Ali, Safia Ahmed

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Comparing other methods of waste water treatment, constructed wetlands are one of the most fascinating practices because being a natural process they are eco-friendly have low construction and maintenance cost and have considerable capability of wastewater treatment. The current research was focused mainly on comparison of Ranunculus muricatus and Typha latifolia as wetland plants for domestic wastewater treatment by designing and constructing efficient pilot scale HSSF mesocosms. Parameters like COD, BOD5, PO4, SO4, NO3, NO2, and pathogenic indicator microbes were studied continuously with successive treatments. Treatment efficiency of the system increases with passage of time and with increase in temperature. Efficiency of T. latifolia planted setups in open environment was fairly good for parameters like COD and BOD5 which was showing up to 82.5% for COD and 82.6% for BOD5 while DO was increased up to 125%. Efficiency of R. muricatus vegetated setup was also good but lowers than that of T. latifolia planted showing 80.95% removal of COD and BOD5. Ranunculus muricatus was found effective in reducing bacterial count in wastewater. Both macrophytes were found promising in wastewater treatment.

Keywords: wastewater treatment, wetland, mesocosms study, wetland plants

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Authors: Diriba T. Balcha, Boris Kulig, Oliver Hensel, Eyassu Woldesenbet

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Enset fiber is agricultural waste and available in a surplus amount in Ethiopia. However, the hypothesized variation in properties of this fiber due to diversity of its plant source breed, fiber position within plant stem and chemical treatment duration had not proven that its application for the development of composite products is problematic. Currently, limited data are known on the functional properties of the fiber as a potential functional fiber. Thus, an effort is made in this study to narrow the knowledge gaps by characterizing it. The experimental design was conducted using Design-Expert software and the tensile test was conducted on Enset fiber from 10 breeds: Dego, Dirbo, Gishera, Itine, Siskela, Neciho, Yesherkinke, Tuzuma, Ankogena, and Kucharkia. The effects of 5% Na-OH surface treatment duration and fiber location along and across the plant pseudostem was also investigated. The test result shows that the rupture stress variation is not significant among the fibers from 10 Enset breeds. However, strain variation is significant among the fibers from 10 Enset breeds that breed Dego fiber has the highest strain before failure. Surface treated fibers showed improved rupture strength and elastic modulus per 24 hours of treatment duration. Also, the result showed that chemical treatment can deteriorate the load-bearing capacity of the fiber. The raw fiber has the higher load-bearing capacity than the treated fiber. And, it was noted that both the rupture stress and strain increase in the top to bottom gradient, whereas there is no significant variation across the stem. Elastic modulus variation both along and across the stem was insignificant. The rupture stress, elastic modulus, and strain result of Enset fiber are 360.11 ± 181.86 MPa, 12.80 ± 6.85 GPa and 0.04 ± 0.02 mm/mm, respectively. These results show that Enset fiber is comparable to other natural fibers such as abaca, banana, and sisal fibers and can be used as alternatives natural fiber for composites application. Besides, the insignificant variation of properties among breeds and across stem is essential for all breeds and all leaf sheath of the Enset fiber plant for fiber extraction. The use of short natural fiber over the long is preferable to reduce the significant variation of properties along the stem or fiber direction. In conclusion, Enset fiber application for composite product design and development is mechanically feasible.

Keywords: Agricultural waste, Chemical treatment, Fiber characteristics, Natural fiber

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Authors: Norbert Simon, Rodeano Roslee, Abdul Ghani Rafek, Goh Thian Lai, Azimah Hussein, Lee Khai Ern

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The 54 km stretch of Ranau-Tambunan (RTM) road in Sabah is subjected to slope failures almost every year. This study is focusing on identifying section of roads that are susceptible to failure based on temporal landslide density and lineament density analyses. In addition to the analyses, the rock slopes in several sections of the road were assessed using the geological strength index (GSI) technique. The analysis involved 148 landslides that were obtained in 1978, 1994, 2009 and 2011. The landslides were digitized as points and the point density was calculated based on every 1km2 of the road. The lineaments of the area was interpreted from Landsat 7 15m panchromatic band. The lineament density was later calculated based on every 1km2 of the area using similar technique with the slope failure density calculation. The landslide and lineament densities were classified into three different classes that indicate the level of susceptibility (low, moderate, high). Subsequently, the two density maps were overlap to produce the final susceptibility map. The combination of both high susceptibility classes from these maps signifies the high potential of slope failure in those locations in the future. The final susceptibility map indicates that there are 22 sections of the road that are highly susceptible. Seven rock slopes were assessed along the RTM road using the GSI technique. It was found from the assessment that rock slopes along this road are highly fractured, weathered and can be classified into fair to poor categories. The poor condition of the rock slope can be attributed to the high lineament density that presence in the study area. Six of the rock slopes are located in the high susceptibility zones. A detailed investigation on the 22 high susceptibility sections of the RTM road should be conducted due to their higher susceptibility to failure, in order to prevent untoward incident to road users in the future.

Keywords: GSI, landslide, landslide density, landslide susceptibility, lineament density

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Authors: Azlinda Saadon

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This paper provides detail review on river bank erosion studies with respect to their processes, methods of measurements and factors governing river bank erosion. Bank erosion processes are commonly associated with river changes initiation and development, through width adjustment and planform evolution. It consists of two main types of erosion processes; basal erosion due to fluvial hydraulic force and bank failure under the influence of gravity. Most studies had only focused on one factor rather than integrating both factors. Evidences of previous works have shown integration between both processes of fluvial hydraulic force and bank failure. Bank failure is often treated as probabilistic phenomenon without having physical characteristics and the geotechnical aspects of the bank. This review summarizes the findings of previous investigators with respect to measurement techniques and prediction rates of river bank erosion through field investigation, physical model and numerical model approaches. Factors governing river bank erosion considering physical characteristics of fluvial erosion are defined.

Keywords: river bank erosion, bank erosion, dimensional analysis, geotechnical aspects

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Authors: Jaan-Willem Simon, Bertram Stier, Brett Bednarcyk, Evan Pineda, Stefanie Reese

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Textile composites, in which the reinforcing fibers are woven or braided, have become very popular in numerous applications in aerospace, automotive, and maritime industry. These textile composites are advantageous due to their ease of manufacture, damage tolerance, and relatively low cost. However, physics-based modeling of the mechanical behavior of textile composites is challenging. Compared to their unidirectional counterparts, textile composites introduce additional geometric complexities, which cause significant local stress and strain concentrations. Since these internal concentrations are primary drivers of nonlinearity, damage, and failure within textile composites, they must be taken into account in order for the models to be predictive. The macro-scale approach to modeling textile-reinforced composites treats the whole composite as an effective, homogenized material. This approach is very computationally efficient, but it cannot be considered predictive beyond the elastic regime because the complex microstructural geometry is not considered. Further, this approach can, at best, offer a phenomenological treatment of nonlinear deformation and failure. In contrast, the mesoscale approach to modeling textile composites explicitly considers the internal geometry of the reinforcing tows, and thus, their interaction, and the effects of their curved paths can be modeled. The tows are treated as effective (homogenized) materials, requiring the use of anisotropic material models to capture their behavior. Finally, the micro-scale approach goes one level lower, modeling the individual filaments that constitute the tows. This paper will compare meso- and micro-scale approaches to modeling the deformation, damage, and failure of textile-reinforced polymer matrix composites. For the mesoscale approach, the woven composite architecture will be modeled using the finite element method, and an anisotropic damage model for the tows will be employed to capture the local nonlinear behavior. For the micro-scale, two different models will be used, the one being based on the finite element method, whereas the other one makes use of an embedded semi-analytical approach. The goal will be the comparison and evaluation of these approaches to modeling textile-reinforced composites in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and utility.

Keywords: multiscale modeling, continuum damage model, damage interaction, textile composites

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Authors: Young-Min Ko, Seung-Jun Yu, Chang-Bin Ha, Hyoung-Kyu Song

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In a wireless communication system, the failure of base station can result in a communication disruption in the cell. This paper proposes a way to deal with the failure of base station in a wireless communication system based on OFDM. Cooperative communication of the adjacent base stations can be a solution of the problem. High performance is obtained by the configuration of transmission signals which is applied CDD scheme in the cooperative communication. The Cooperative scheme can be a effective solution in case of the particular situation.

Keywords: base station, CDD, OFDM, diversity gain, MIMO

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Authors: Suneeta Kumari, Abanti Sahoo

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Industrial effluents treatment is a major problem in the world. All wastewater treatment methods have some problems in the environment. Due to this reason, today many natural biopolymers are being used in the waste water treatment because those are safe for our environment. In this study, synthesis and characterization of polyethersulfone/chitosan membranes (Thin film composite membrane) are carried out. Fish scales are used as raw materials. Different characterization techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) are analysed for the synthesized membrane. The performance of membranes such as flux, rejection, and pore size are also checked. The synthesized membrane is used for the treatment of steel industry waste water where Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), pH, colour, Total dissolved solids (TDS), Total suspended solids (TSS), Electrical conductivity (EC) and Turbidity aspects are analysed.

Keywords: fish scale, membrane synthesis, treatment of industrial effluents, chitosan

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Authors: Hammadi Larbi

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The treatment of wastewater in sewage plants usually results in the formation of a large amount of sludge. These appear at the outlet of the treatment plant as a viscous fluid loaded with a high concentration of dry matter. This sludge production presents environmental, ecological, and economic risks. That is why it is necessary to find many solutions for minimizing these risks. In the present article, the effect of hydrogen peroxide, thermal treatment, and quicklime on the characteristics of the activated sludge produced in urban wastewater plant were evaluated in order to avoid any risk in the plants. The study shows increasing of the dose of H2O2 from 0 to 0.4 g causes an increase in the solubilization rate of COD from 12% to 45% and a reduction in the organic matter content of sludge (VM/SM) from 74% to 36% . The results also show that the optimum efficiency of the heat treatment corresponds to a temperature of 80 ° C for a treatment time of 40 min is 47% and 51.82% for a temperature equal to 100 ° C and 76.30 % for a temperature of 120 ° C, and 79.38% for a temperature of 140 ° C. The treatment of sludge by quicklime gives the optimum efficiency of 70.62 %. It was shown the increasing of the temperature from 80°C to 140°C, the pH of sludge was increased from 7.12 to 9.59. The obtained results showed that with increasing the dose of quicklime from 0 g/l to 1g/l in activated sludge led to an increase of their pH from 7.12 to 12.06. The study shows the increasing the dose of quicklime from 0 g/l to 1g/l causes also an increase in the solubilization of COD from 0% to 70.62 %

Keywords: activated sludge, hydrogen peroxide, thermal treatment, quicklime

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Authors: Perminder JitKaur, Santosh Satya, K. K. Pant, S. N. Naik

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Bamboo is extensively used in construction industry. Low durability of bamboo due to fungus infestation and termites attack under storage puts certain constrains for it usage as modern structural material. Looking at many chemical formulations for bamboo treatment leading to severe harmful environment effects, research on eco-friendly preservatives for bamboo treatment has been initiated world-over. In the present studies, eco-friendly preservative for bamboo treatment has been developed. To validate its application for structural purposes, investigation of effect of treatment on compressive strength has been investigated. Neem oil(25%) integrated with copper naphthenate (0.3%) on dilution with kerosene oil impregnated into bamboo culm at 2 bar pressure, has shown weight loss of only 3.15% in soil block analysis method. The results of compressive strength analysis using The results from compressive strength analysis using HEICO Automatic Compression Testing Machine, reveal that preservative treatment has not altered the structural properties of bamboo culms. Compressive strength of control (11.72 N/mm2) and above treated samples (11.71 N/mm2) was found to be comparable.

Keywords: D. strictus, bamboo, neem oil, presure treatment, compressive strength

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Authors: Seok Hong Min, Tae Kwon Ha

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In the present study, hot-rolled sheets of Mg-xZn alloy s(x=6, 8, and 10 weight percent) were produced by employing casting, homogenization heat treatment, hot rolling, and annealing processes subsequently. Effect of Zn addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-Zn alloys were also investigated in each process. Through calculation of phase equilibria of Mg-Zn alloys, solution treatment temperature was decided as temperatures from 350 oC, where supersaturated solid solution can be obtained. After solution treatment, hot rolling was successfully conducted by reduction of 60%. Compression and tension tests were carried out at room temperature on the samples as-cast, solution treated, hot-rolled and recrystallized after rolling.

Keywords: Mg-Zn alloy, heat treatment, microstructure, mechanical properties, hot rolling

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Authors: M. A. Munteanu, A. M. Lungu, A. I. Chivescu, V. Teodorescu, E. Tufanoiu, C. Nicolae, T. I. Nanea

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Introduction: Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), which were first developed as antidiabetic medications, have demonstrated numerous positive benefits on the cardiovascular system, especially in the prevention of heart failure (HF). HF is a challenging, multifaceted disease that needs all-encompassing therapy. It should not be viewed as a limited form of heart illness but rather as a systemic disease that leads to multiple organ failure and death. SGLT2i is an extremely effective tool for treating HF by using its pleiotropic effects. In addition to its use in patients with diabetes mellitus who are at high cardiovascular risk or who have already experienced a cardiovascular event, SGLT2i administration has been shown to have positive effects on a variety of HF manifestations and stages, regardless of the patient's presence of diabetes mellitus. Material and Methods: According to the guide, 110 patients (83 males and 27 females) with heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF), with T2D and neoplasia, were enrolled in the prospective study. The structural and functional state of the left ventricle myocardium and ejection fraction was assessed through echocardiography. Patients were randomized to receive once-daily dapagliflozin 10 mg. Results: Patients with HFmrEF were divided into 3 subgroups according to age. 7% (8) patients aged < 45 years, 35% (28) patients aged between 46-59 years, and 58% (74) patients aged> 60 years. The most prevalent comorbidities were hypertension (43.1%), coronary heart disease (40%), and obesity (33.2%). Study drug discontinuation and serious adverse events were not frequent in the subgroups, in either men or women, until now. Conclusions: SGLT-2 inhibitors are a novel class of antidiabetic agents that have demonstrated positive efficacy and safety outcomes in the setting of HFmrEF. Until now, in our study, dapagliflozin was safe and well-tolerated irrespective of sex.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus type 2, Sodium-glucose co-transporters-2 inhibitors, heart failure, neoplasia

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Authors: Muhammad Naveed Iftikhar, Farah Khalid

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Global best practices as ordained by international organizations comprise a broader top-down approach to development problems, without taking into account country-specific factors. The political economy of each country is extremely different and the failure of several attempts of international organizations to implement global best practice models in developing countries each with its unique set of variables, goes on to show that this is not the most efficient solution to development problems. This paper is a humble attempt at shedding light on some specific examples of failures of the global best practices. Pakistan has its unique set of problems and unless those are added to the broader equation of development, country-specific reform and growth will continue to pose a challenge to reform programs initiated by international organizations. The three case studies presented in this paper are just a few prominent examples of failure of the global best practice, top-down, universalistic approach to development as ordained by international organizations. Development and reform can only be achieved if local dynamics are given their due importance. The modus operandi of international organizations needs to be tailored according to each country’s unique politico-economic environment.

Keywords: best practice, development, context

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Authors: Hadeer E. Eliwa, Naglaa S. Bazan, Ebtissam A. Darweesh, Nagwa A. Sabri

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Background: Generic substitution of brand ivabradine prescriptions can reduce drug expenditures and improve adherence. However, the distrust of generic medicines by practitioners and patients due to doubts regarding their quality and fear of counterfeiting compromise the acceptance of this practice. Aim: The goal of this study is to compare the therapeutic equivalence of brand product versus the generic product of ivabradine in adult patients with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (≤ 40%) (HFrEF). Methodology: Thirty-two Egyptian patients with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) were treated with branded ivabradine (Procrolan ©) and generic (Bradipect ©) during 24 (2x12) weeks. Primary outcomes were resting heart rate (HR), NYHA FC, Quality of life (QoL) using Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MLWHF) and EF. Secondary outcomes were the number of hospitalizations for worsening HFrEF and adverse effects. The washout period was not allowed. Findings: At the 12th week, the reduction in HR was comparable in the two groups (90.13±7.11 to 69±11.41 vs 96.13±17.58 to 67.31±8.68 bpm in brand and generic groups, respectively). Also, the increase in EF was comparable in the two groups (27.44 ±4.59 to 33.38±5.62 vs 32±5.96 to 39.31±8.95 in brand and generic groups, respectively). The improvement in NYHA FC was comparable in both groups (87.5% in brand group vs 93.8% in the generic group). The mean value of the QOL improved from 31.63±15.8 to 19.6±14.7 vs 35.68±17.63 to 22.9±15.1 for the brand and generic groups, respectively. Similarly, at end of 24 weeks, no significant changes were observed from data observed at 12th week regarding HR, EF, QoL and NYHA FC. Only minor side effects, mainly phosphenes, and a comparable number of hospitalizations were observed in both groups. Conclusion: The study revealed no statistically significant differences in the therapeutic effect and safety between generic and branded ivabradine. We assume that practitioners can safely interchange between them for economic reasons.

Keywords: bradipect©, heart failure, ivabradine, Procrolan ©, therapeutic equivalence

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Authors: Alireza Moghtaderi, Negin Khakpour

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Disc Herniation is a common complication in the society and it is one of the main reasons for referring to physical medicine and rehabilitation clinics. Despite of various methods proposed for treatingthis disease, still there is disagreement on success of these methods especially in non-surgical methods, and thus current study aims at determining effect of laser beam and magnet on treatment of Intervertebral Disc Herniation. During a clinical trial study, 80 patients with Intervertebral Disc Herniation underwent a combined package of treatment including magnet, laser beam, PRP and Prolotherapy during 6 months. Average age of patients was 51.25 ± 10.7 with range of 25 – 71 years. 30 men (37.5%) and 50 women (62.5%) took part in the study. average weight of patients was 64.3 ± 7.2 with range of 49 – 79 kg. highest level of Disc Herniation was L5 – S1 with frequency of 17 cases (21.3%). Disc Herniation was severe in 30 cases before treatment, but it reduced to 3 casesafter treatment. This study indicates effect of combined treatment using non-invasive laser beam and magnet therapy on disco genic diseases and mechanical pains of spine is highly effective.

Keywords: hallux, valgus, botulinum toxin a, pain

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Authors: Q. Ahmed, Y. Ren, R. Emery, J. Newman, M. Agarwal

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Celery (Apium graveolens var. dulce) is grown in Australia for domestic consumption and export markets. Quarantine treatment enables export of celery to the world that enforces quarantine against springtails. In the field, celery bunches become host to the Australian native springtail (Hypogastrura vernalis) (Collembola: Hypogastruridae). Springtails live inside the celery bunch and do not cause damage to the product. Springtails are, however, considered a quarantine pest and have had a significant impact on celery exports. In this experiment, cold treatments were conducted on fresh celery to investigate their effect on springtail mortality. Four low-temperature treatments were used (3, 5, 10, and 15 ºC) over four treatment periods (3, 5, 7, and 14 days). Springtail mortality was not affected by the 3, 5, 10 and 15 ºC treatments for the treatment periods of 3, 5, 7, and 14 days. Low-temperature damage was observed most noticeably on celery in the 3 and 5 ºC treatments.

Keywords: springtails, fresh celery, cold treatment, quarantine treatment

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Authors: Khedidja Benouis

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Environmental issues in the food industry are related to the water because it consumes water and release large volumes of wastewater. The treatment of such discharges techniques can be adapted to different situations encountered. For dairy effluents, it is necessary and very effective to use a treatment that eliminates much of the pollutant load,thus, to drastically reduce the organic loading rate. This study aims to evaluate the Efficiency and limitations of physicochemical treatment by coagulation - flocculation of liquid effluent from this type of food industry in Algeria, to give an example of the type and the degree of pollution generated by this sector and in order to reduce pollution and minimize its environmental issues. Coagulation - flocculation-sedimentation was carried out using lime without addition of additive (flocculant), the processing efficiency is indicated by the concentration of pollutants in treated water. The results show that treatment is not sufficient to remove organic pollution, but it has significantly reduced the Total suspended solids (TSS), nitrate (NO3-N) and phosphate (PO4-P).

Keywords: Algeria, coagulation-flocculation, dairy effluent, treatment

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Authors: SunWoo Lee, TaeBum Lee, YoonHwa Park, YooJeong Kim

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Solar lentigines appear predominantly on chronically sun-exposed areas of skin, such as the face and the back of the hands. Among the several ways to lentigines treatment, quality-switched lasers are well-known effective treatment for removing solar lentigines. The present pilot study was therefore designed to assess the efficacy of quality-switched ruby laser treatment of such lentigines compare between pretreatment and posttreatment of skin brightness. Twenty-two adults with chronic sun-damaged skin (mean age 52.8 years, range 37–74 years) were treated at the Korean site. A 694 nm Q-switched ruby laser was used, with the energy density set from 1.4 to 12.5 J/cm2, to treat solar lentigines. Average brightness of skin color before ruby laser treatment was 137.3 and its skin color was brightened after ruby laser treatment by 150.5. Also, standard deviation of skin color was decreased from 17.8 to 16.4. Regarding the multivariate model, age and energy were identified as significant factors for skin color brightness change in lentigo depigmentation by ruby laser treatment. Their respective odds ratios were 1.082 (95% CI, 1.007–1.163), and 1.431 (95% CI, 1.051–1.946). Lentigo depigmentation treatment using ruby lasers resulted in a high performance in skin color brightness. Among the relative factors involve with ruby laser treatment, age and energy were the most effective factors which skin color change to brighter than pretreatment.

Keywords: depigmentation, lentigine, quality switched ruby laser, skin color

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Authors: Shohreh Azizi, Wag Nel

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The rapid population growth in South Africa has increased the requirement of waste water treatment facilities. The aim of this study is to assess the potential use of Fluidized bed Bio Reactor for Mmabatho sewage treatment plant. The samples were collected from the Inlet and Outlet of reactor daily to analysis the pH, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Suspended Solid (TSS) as per standard method APHA 2005. The studies were undertaken on a continue laboratory scale, and analytical data was collected before and after treatment. The reduction of 87.22 % COD, 89.80 BOD % was achieved. Fluidized Bed Bio Reactor remove Bod/COD removal as well as nutrient removal. The efforts also made to study the impact of the biological system if the domestic wastewater gets contaminated with any industrial contamination and the result shows that the biological system can tolerate high Total dissolved solids up to 6000 mg/L as well as high heavy metal concentration up to 4 mg/L. The data obtained through the experimental research are demonstrated that the FBBR may be used (<3 h total Hydraulic Retention Time) for secondary treatment in Mmabatho wastewater treatment plant.

Keywords: fluidized bed bioreactor, wastewater treatment plant, biological system, high TDS, heavy metal

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Authors: Parthasarathi Pramanik

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Body packing is a way of transfer drugs across the international border or any drug prohibited area. The drugs are usually hidden in body packets inside the anatomical body cavities like mouth, intestines, rectum, ear, vagina etc. Cocaine is a very common drug for body packing across the world. A 48 year old male was reported dead in his hotel after complaining of chest pain and vomiting. At autopsy, there were eighty-two white cylindrical body packs in the stomach, small and large intestines. Seals of few of the packets were opened. Toxicological examination revealed presence of cocaine in the stomach, liver, kidney and hair samples. Microscopically, presence of myocardial necrosis with interstitial oedema along with hypertrophy and fibrosis of the myocardial fibre suggested heart failure due to cocaine cardio toxicity. However, focal lymphocyte infiltration and perivascular fibrosis in the myocardium also indicated chronic cocaine toxicity of the deceased. After careful autopsy examination it was considered the victim was died due congestive heart failure secondary to acute and chronic cocaine poisoning.

Keywords: cardiac failure, cocaine, body packer, sudden death

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Authors: Anjana Aggarwal, Sheilja Walia

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Prevalence of obesity and overweight is increasing due to sedentary lifestyles and busy schedules of people that spend less time on physical exercise. To reduce weight, people are finding easier and more convenient ways. The easiest solution is the use of dietary supplements and fat burners. These are products that decrease body weight by increasing the basal metabolic rate. Various reports have been published on the consumption of fat burners leading to heart palpitations, seizures, anxiety, depression, psychosis, bradycardia, insomnia, muscle contractions, hepatotoxicity, and even liver failure. Case reports and series are reporting that the ingredients present in the fat burners caused acute liver failure (ALF) and hepatic toxicity in many cases. Another contributing factor is the absence of regulations from the Food and Drug Administration on these products, leading to increased consumption and a higher risk of liver diseases among the population. This systematic review aims to attain a better understanding of the dietary supplements used globally to reduce weight and document the case reports/series of acute liver failure caused by the consumption of fat burners. Electronic databases like PubMed, Cochrane, Google Scholar, etc., will be systematically searched for relevant articles. Various websites of dietary products and brands that sell such supplements, Journals of Hepatology, National and international projects launched for ALF, and their reports, along with the review of grey literature, will also be done to get a better understanding of the topic. After discussing with the co-author, the selection and screening of the articles will be performed by the author. The studies will be selected based on the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The case reports and case series that will be included in the final list of the studies will be assessed for methodological quality using the CARE guidelines. The results from this study will provide insights and a better understanding of fat burners. Since the supplements are easily available in the market without any restrictions on their sale, people are unaware of their adverse effects. The consumption of these supplements causes acute liver failure. Thus, this review will provide a platform for future larger studies to be conducted.

Keywords: acute liver failure, dietary supplements, fat burners, weight loss supplements

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Authors: Abeer N. Alshukairi, Abdulrahman A. Alrajhi, Abdulfattah W. Alamri, Adel F. Alothman

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We described the nosocomial transmission of a pre-XDR or an MDR case of pulmonary tuberculosis in a HIV negative health care worker in an area endemic for MDR & XDR tuberculosis. With inadequate therapy and non-compliance, his strain developed acquired resistance and he presented with extra-pulmonary XDR tuberculosis in the form of multi-focal osteomyelitis and encysted pleural effusion. He was cured after 2 years of therapy with various anti-tuberculous drugs in addition to interferon gamma.

Keywords: osteomyelitis, treatment, XDR tuberculosis, successful treatment

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Authors: Lela Mirtskhulava, Mariam Khunjgurua, Nino Lomineishvili, Koba Bakuria

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Software reliability prediction gives a great opportunity to measure the software failure rate at any point throughout system test. A software reliability prediction model provides with the technique for improving reliability. Software reliability is very important factor for estimating overall system reliability, which depends on the individual component reliabilities. It differs from hardware reliability in that it reflects the design perfection. Main reason of software reliability problems is high complexity of software. Various approaches can be used to improve the reliability of software. We focus on software reliability model in this article, assuming that there is a time redundancy, the value of which (the number of repeated transmission of basic blocks) can be an optimization parameter. We consider given mathematical model in the assumption that in the system may occur not only irreversible failures, but also a failure that can be taken as self-repairing failures that significantly affect the reliability and accuracy of information transfer. Main task of the given paper is to find a time distribution function (DF) of instructions sequence transmission, which consists of random number of basic blocks. We consider the system software unreliable; the time between adjacent failures has exponential distribution.

Keywords: exponential distribution, conditional mean time to failure, distribution function, mathematical model, software reliability

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Authors: Farzad Shidfar, Najmeh Rostami, Ziaodin Mazhari, Fatemeh Hosseini Baharanchi

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Background and Aim: The rate of failure to maintain a reduced weight has been increased. By definition, people who regain about one-third to two-thirds of their lost weight after one year from the end of the dietary treatment and return all the lost weight after 5 years it is called weight regain. This study was performed to find the causes of weight regain and its relationship with biochemical and psychological factors. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed by reviewing the files of people who followed the dietary treatment in 1397-1398.seventy-three persons was in the weight regain group, and seventy-three people were in the weight maintenance group. Psychological factors such as depression, anxiety, quality of life, physical activity, and dietary frequency were assessed through a questionnaire, and biochemical factors such as serum insulin and fasting blood sugar were measured. The mean basal energy in the weight regain group was significantly higher than the weight maintenance group (p = 0.004). There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of food intake and inflammatory index of food. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of food intake and inflammatory index of food. Mean serum insulin concentration (p = 0.023), mean fasting blood sugar (p = 0.04) and insulin resistance (p = 0.013) in the weight regain group were higher than the weight maintenance group. The weight maintenance group showed higher insulin sensitivity than the weight regain group (p = 0.005). There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of psychological indicators. Conclusion: The only body mass index after one year from the end of the treatment period, insulin sensitivity, serum insulin concentration, fasting blood sugar, insulin resistance, selenium intake, and basal energy expenditure Specific and significant with weight regain. However, the significance of insulin resistance, basal energy expenditure, and body mass index after one year from the end of the treatment period was higher than other variables in the weight regain group.

Keywords: body weight maintenance, weight regain, insulin resistance, insulin sensitivity

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Authors: Lutfi Abosrra, Alseddeq Alabaoub, Nuri Elhaloudi

Abstract:

Corrosion processes in the Oil & Gas industry can lead to failures that are usually costly to repair, costly in terms of loss of contaminated product, in terms of environmental damage and possibly costly in terms of human safety. This article describes the results of the corrosion review and criticality assessment done at Mellitah Gas (SRU unit) for pressure equipment and piping system. The information gathered through the review was intended for developing a qualitative RBI study. The corrosion criticality assessment has been carried out by applying company procedures and industrial recommended practices such as API 571, API 580/581, ASME PCC 3, which provides a guideline for establishing corrosion integrity assessment. The corrosion review is intimately related to the probability of failure (POF). During the corrosion study, the process units are reviewed by following the applicable process flow diagrams (PFDs) in the presence of Mellitah’s personnel from process engineering, inspection, and corrosion/materials and reliability engineers. The expected corrosion damage mechanism (internal and external) was identified, and the corrosion rate was estimated for every piece of equipment and corrosion loop in the process units. A combination of both Consequence and Likelihood of failure was used for determining the corrosion risk. A qualitative consequence of failure (COF) for each individual item was assigned based on the characteristics of the fluid as per its flammability, toxicity, and pollution into three levels (High, Medium, and Low). A qualitative probability of failure (POF)was applied to evaluate the internal and external degradation mechanism, a high-level point-based (0 to 10) for the purpose of risk prioritizing in the range of Low, Medium, and High.

Keywords: corrosion, criticality assessment, RBI, POF, COF

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Authors: Cristiane C. B. Alves, Livia Eisler, Gustavo Mota, Kurt Faltin Jr., Cristina L. F. Ortolani

Abstract:

The correct positioning of the brackets is essential for the success of orthodontic treatment. Indirect bracket placing technique has the main objective of eliminating the positioning errors, which commonly occur in the technique of direct system of brackets. The objective of this study is to demonstrate that the exact positioning of the brackets is of extreme relevance for the success of the treatment. The present work shows a case report of an adult female patient who attended the clinic with the complaint of being in orthodontic treatment for more than 5 years without noticing any progress. As a result of the intra-oral clinical examination and documentation analysis, a class III malocclusion, an anterior open bite, and absence of all third molars and first upper and lower bilateral premolars were observed. For the treatment, the indirect bonding technique with self-ligating ceramic braces was applied. The preparation of the trays was done after the intraoral digital scanning and printing of models with a 3D printer. Brackets were positioned virtually, using a specialized software. After twelve months of treatment, correction of the malocclusion was observed, as well as the closing of the anterior open bite. It is concluded that the adequate and precise positioning of brackets is necessary for a successful treatment.

Keywords: anterior open-bite, CAD/CAM, orthodontics, malocclusion, angle class III

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Authors: D. Naresh Yadav, K. Anand Kishore, Bhaskar Bethi, Shirish H. Sonawane, D. Bhagawan

Abstract:

The untreated industrial wastewater discharged into the environment causes the contamination of soil, water and air. Advanced treatment methods for enhanced wastewater treatment are attracting substantial interest among the currently employed unit processes in wastewater treatment. The textile industry is one of the predominant in wastewater production at current industrialized situation. The refused dyes at textile industry need to be treated in proper manner before its discharge into water bodies. In the present investigation, hybrid treatment process has been developed for the treatment of synthetic mixed dye wastewater. Photocatalysis and ceramic nanoporous membrane are mainly used for process integration to minimize the fouling and increase the flux. Commercial semiconducting powders (TiO2 and ZnO) has used as a nano photocatalyst for the degradation of mixed dye in the hybrid system. Commercial ceramic nanoporous tubular membranes have been used for the rejection of dye and suspended catalysts. Photocatalysis with catalyst has shown the average of 34% of decolorization (RB-32%, BG-34% and CR-36%), whereas ceramic nanofiltration has shown the 56% (RB-54%, BG-56% and CR-58%) of decolorization. Integration of photocatalysis and ceramic nanofiltration has shown 96% (RB-94%, BG-96% and CR-98%) of dye decolorization over 90 min of operation.

Keywords: photocatalysis, ceramic nanoporous membrane, wastewater treatment, advanced oxidation process, process integration

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Authors: Abdelfatah Elsenosy, Mahmoud Ebrahim

Abstract:

Background: Distal radius fractures are commonly encountered in orthopedic practice, especially in elderly patients. A number of clinical papers have supported the idea that anatomic restoration of the distal end of the radius is essential to gain superior results. Aim and objectives: The aim of the study is to systematically review the literature for the management of distal end radius in elderly persons (conservative treatment versus percutaneous wire fixation) as regards radiological and functional outcomes. Subjects and methods: Studies were identified from the Medline, Cochrane, EMBASE, and Google Scholar databases were searched until 2019 using combinations of the following search terms: distal radius fracture, conservative treatment, non-operative treatment, and nonsurgical treatment, surgical treatment, operative, elderly, and older. Reference lists of relevant studies were manually searched. Results: There was no statistical significance difference between CI and PKF groups’ frequency of complication in all of the selected studies. Based on the results, we recommend more analysis regarding every parameter of the radiographic and functional results and specific complications related to each fixation need to be accomplished, which requires more Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with high quality. Conclusion: Surgical treatment seems to be more effective distal radius fracture compared with conservative treatment when the radiographic outcomes were analyzed, and no significant differences were detected in the functional outcomes and complication rate.

Keywords: radius, fracture, surgical, RCTs, conservative, radiographic, outcomes, orthopedic

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Authors: Payel Datta, Abhishek Das, Abhishek Roychoudhury, Dhiman Chattopadhyay, Tanushyam Chattopadhyay

Abstract:

Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) is most predominantly used in image/video processing, natural language processing (NLP), audio and speech recognition but not that much used in system performance evaluation. In this paper, authors are going to describe the architecture of an abstraction layer constructed using ML/DL to detect the system failure. This proposed system is used to detect the system failure by evaluating the performance metrics of an IoT service deployment under constrained infrastructure environment. This system has been tested on the manually annotated data set containing different metrics of the system, like number of threads, throughput, average response time, CPU usage, memory usage, network input/output captured in different hardware environments like edge (atom based gateway) and cloud (AWS EC2). The main challenge of developing such system is that the accuracy of classification should be 100% as the error in the system has an impact on the degradation of the service performance and thus consequently affect the reliability and high availability which is mandatory for an IoT system. Proposed ML/DL classifiers work with 100% accuracy for the data set of nearly 4,000 samples captured within the organization.

Keywords: machine learning, system performance, performance metrics, IoT, edge

Procedia PDF Downloads 170