Search results for: Acute pain unit

Authors: Helena Costa Oliveira, Carmem Oliveira, Rita Moutinho

Abstract:

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a continuous strategic monitoring model focused not only on financial issues but also on internal processes, patients/users, and learning and growth. Initially dedicated to business management, it currently serves organizations of other natures - such as hospitals. This paper presents a BSC designed for a Portuguese Acute Pain Unit (APU). This study is qualitative and based on the experience of collaborators at the APU. The management of APU is based on four perspectives – users, internal processes, learning and growth, and financial and legal. For each perspective, there were identified strategic objectives, critical factors, lead indicators and initiatives. The strategic map of the APU outlining sustained strategic relations among strategic objectives. This study contributes to the development of research in the health management area as it explores how organizational insufficiencies and inconsistencies in this particular case can be addressed, through the identification of critical factors, to clearly establish core outcomes and initiatives to set up.

Keywords: Acute pain unit, balanced scorecard, hospital management, organizational performance, Portugal.

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Authors: Dong He Nam, Eric C. Mousset, David C. Levy

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The evolution of current modeling specifications gives rise to the problem of generating automated test cases from a variety of application tools. Past endeavours on behavioural testing of UML statecharts have not systematically leveraged the potential of existing graph theory for testing of objects. Therefore there exists a need for a simple, tool-independent, and effective method for automatic test generation. An architecture, codenamed ACUTE-J (Automated stateChart Unit Testing Engine for Java), for automating the unit test generation process is presented. A sequential approach for converting UML statechart diagrams to JUnit test classes is described, with the application of existing graph theory. Research byproducts such as a universal XML Schema and API for statechart-driven testing are also proposed. The result from a Java implementation of ACUTE-J is discussed in brief. The Chinese Postman algorithm is utilised as an illustration for a run-through of the ACUTE-J architecture.

Keywords: Automated testing, model based testing, statechart testing, UML, unit testing.

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Authors: Paria Soleimani, Arezoo Neshati

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Myocardial infarction is one of the leading causes of death in the world. Some of these deaths occur even before the patient reaches the hospital. Myocardial infarction occurs as a result of impaired blood supply. Because the most of these deaths are due to coronary artery disease, hence the awareness of the warning signs of a heart attack is essential. Some heart attacks are sudden and intense, but most of them start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort, then early detection and successful treatment of these symptoms is vital to save them. Therefore, importance and usefulness of a system designing to assist physicians in early diagnosis of the acute heart attacks is obvious. The main purpose of this study would be to enable patients to become better informed about their condition and to encourage them to seek professional care at an earlier stage in the appropriate situations. For this purpose, the data were collected on 711 heart patients in Iran hospitals. 28 attributes of clinical factors can be reported by patients; were studied. Three logistic regression models were made on the basis of the 28 features to predict the risk of heart attacks. The best logistic regression model in terms of performance had a C-index of 0.955 and with an accuracy of 94.9%. The variables, severe chest pain, back pain, cold sweats, shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting, were selected as the main features.

Keywords: Coronary heart disease, acute heart attacks, prediction, logistic regression.

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Authors: N. Klinpikul, P. Srichandr, N. Poolthong, N. Thavarungkul

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Breastfeeding has been receiving much attention of late. Prolonged sitting for breastfeeding often results in back pain of the mothers. This paper reports the findings of a study on the effect of some factors, especially lumbar support, on back pain of breastfeeding mothers. The results showed that the use of lumbar support can reduce back pain of breastfeeding mothers significantly. Back pain was found to increase with breastfeeding time and the rate of increase was lower when lumbar supports were used. When lumbar support thickness was increased gradually from zero (no support) to 11 cm., the degree of low back pain decreased; rapidly at first, then slowly, and leveled off when the thickness reached 9 cm. Younger mothers were less prone to back pain than older mothers. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords: back pain, breastfeeding, lumbar support

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Authors: Jiří Barta, Oldřich Svoboda, Jiří. F. Urbánek

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In this paper will be discussed two coin´s sides of crisis scenarios dynamics. On the one's side is negative role of subsidiary scenario branches in its compactness weakening by means unduly chaotic atomizing, having many interactive feedbacks cases, increasing a value of a complexity here. This negative role reflects the complexity of use cases, weakening leader compliancy, which brings something as a ´readiness for controlling capabilities provision´. Leader´s dissatisfaction has zero compliancy, but factual it is a ´crossbar´ (interface in fact) between planning and executing use cases. On the other side of this coin, an advantage of rich scenarios embranchment is possible to see in a support of response awareness, readiness, preparedness, adaptability, creativity and flexibility. Here rich scenarios embranchment contributes to the steadiness and resistance of scenario mission actors. These all will be presented in live power-points ´Blazons´, modelled via DYVELOP (Dynamic Vector Logistics of Processes) on the Conference.

Keywords: Leadership, Controlling, Complexity, DYVELOP, Scenarios.

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Authors: Jamal Abdi

Abstract:

This paper is largely a response/critique of Samuel P. Huntington´s Clash of Civilizations thesis. The overriding argument is that Huntington´s thesis is characterized by failure to distinguish between ´groups´ and ´categories´. Multinational civilizations overcoming their internal collective action problems, which would enable them to pursue a unified strategy vis-à-vis the West, is a rather foundational assumption in his theory. Without assigning sufficient intellectual attention to the processes through which multinational civilizations may gain capacity for concerted action i.e. become a group, he contended that the post-cold-war world would be shaped in large measure by interactions among seven or eight major civilizations. Thus, failure in providing a convincing analysis of multi-national civilizations´ transition from categories to groups is a significant weakness in Huntington´s clash theory. It is also suggested that so-called Islamic terrorism and the war on terror is not to be taken as an expression of presence of clash between a Western and an Islamic civilization, as terrorist organizations would be superfluous in a world characterized by clash of civilizations. Consequences of multinational civilizations becoming a group are discussed in relation to contemporary Western superiority.

Keywords: Clash of civilizations, groups, categories, groupism.

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Authors: Nooshin Salari, Viliam Makis, Jane Doe

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This paper presents a maintenance policy for a system consisting of two units. Unit 1 is gradually deteriorating and is subject to soft failure. Unit 2 has a general lifetime distribution and is subject to hard failure. Condition of unit 1 of the system is monitored periodically and it is considered as failed when its deterioration level reaches or exceeds a critical level N. At the failure time of unit 2 system is considered as failed, and unit 2 will be correctively replaced by the next inspection epoch. Unit 1 or 2 are preventively replaced when deterioration level of unit 1 or age of unit 2 exceeds the related preventive maintenance (PM) levels. At the time of corrective or preventive replacement of unit 2, there is an opportunity to replace unit 1 if its deterioration level reaches the opportunistic maintenance (OM) level. If unit 2 fails in an inspection interval, system stops operating although unit 1 has not failed. A mathematical model is derived to find the preventive and opportunistic replacement levels for unit 1 and preventive replacement age for unit 2, that minimize the long run expected average cost per unit time. The problem is formulated and solved in the semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) framework. Numerical example is provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed model and the comparison of the proposed model with an optimal policy without opportunistic maintenance level for unit 1 is carried out.

Keywords: Condition-based maintenance, opportunistic maintenance, preventive maintenance, two-unit system.

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Authors: Fotis N. Koumboulis, Maria P. Tzamtzi

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A supervisory scheme is proposed that implements Stepwise Safe Switching Logic. The functionality of the supervisory scheme is organized in the following eight functional units: Step- Wise Safe Switching unit, Common controllers design unit, Experimentation unit, Simulation unit, Identification unit, Trajectory cruise unit, Operating points unit and Expert system unit. The supervisory scheme orchestrates both the off-line preparative actions, as well as the on-line actions that implement the Stepwise Safe Switching Logic. The proposed scheme is a generic tool, that may be easily applied for a variety of industrial control processes and may be implemented as an automation software system, with the use of a high level programming environment, like Matlab.

Keywords: Supervisory systems, safe switching, nonlinear systems.

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Authors: Jiří F. Urbánek, Jiří Barta

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Societal security, continuity scenarios and methodological cycling approach explained in this article. Namely societal security organizational challenges ask implementation of international standards BS 25999-2 & global ISO 22300 which is a family of standards for business continuity management system. Efficient global organization system is distinguished of high entity´s complexity, connectivity & interoperability, having not only cooperative relations in a fact. Competing business have numerous participating ´enemies´, which are in apparent or hidden opponent and antagonistic roles with prosperous organization system, resulting to a crisis scene or even to a battle theatre. Organization business continuity scenarios are necessary for such ´a play´ preparedness, planning, management & overmastering in real environments.

Keywords: Business Continuity, Societal Security Crisis Scenarios Cycles.

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Authors: Michal Spilacek, Marian Brazdil, Otakar Stelcl, Jiri Pospisil

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This paper shows an experimental testing of a small unit for combustion of solid fuels, such as charcoal and wood logs, that can provide electricity. One of the concepts is that the unit does not require qualified personnel for its operation. The unit itself is composed of two main parts. The design requires a heat producing stove and electricity producing thermoelectric generator. After the construction the unit was tested and the results show that the emission release is within the legislative requirements for emission production and environmental protection. That qualifies such unit for indoor application.

Keywords: Micro-cogeneration, thermoelectric generator, biomass combustion, wood stove.

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Authors: M. Ramezani, Gh. Amin, E. Jalili

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In present study the effects of anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive of vitex hydro-alcoholic extract were evaluated on male mice. In inflammatory test mice were divided into 7 groups: first group was control. The second group, positive control group, received dexamethasone (15 mg/kg) and the other five groups received different doses of hydroalcohol extract of Vitex fruit (265, 365, 465, 565, and 665 mg/kg). The inflammation was caused by xylene-induced ear edema. Formalin test was used for evaluation of antinociceptive effect of extract. In this test, mice were divided into 7 groups: control, morphine (10mg/kg) as positive control group, and Vitex extract groups ((265, 365, 465, 565, and 665 mg/kg). All drugs were administered intrapritoneally, 30 min before each test. The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey-kramer multiple comparison test. Results have shown significant antiinflammatory effects of extract at all dosed as compared with control (P<0.05). In the first phase of formalin test (0-5 min) none doses of extract could inhibit acute pain, but in the second phase (15-30 min) chronic pain decreased at 265, 365, 465, and 565 mg/kg doses (P<0.05). The results of this research indicated that Vitex extract remarkably inhibited inflammation and second phase of nociception (inflammatory pain) and can be used for treatment of inflammatory diseases.

Keywords: Anti-inflammatory, Antinociceptive, Mice, Vitexagnus castus.

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Authors: Wararit Panichkitkosolkul

Abstract:

The unit root tests based on the robust estimator for the first-order autoregressive process are proposed and compared with the unit root tests based on the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator. The percentiles of the null distributions of the unit root test are also reported. The empirical probabilities of Type I error and powers of the unit root tests are estimated via Monte Carlo simulation. Simulation results show that all unit root tests can control the probability of Type I error for all situations. The empirical power of the unit root tests based on the robust estimator are higher than the unit root tests based on the OLS estimator.

Keywords: Autoregressive, Ordinary least squares, Type I error, Power of the test, Monte Carlo simulation.

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Authors: Asha Hasnimy Mohd Hashim, Lee Ai Choo

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We investigated the effects of modified preprogrammed training mode Chase Trainer from Balance Trainer (BT3, HurLab, Tampere, Finland) on athlete who experienced unilateral Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS). Twenty-seven athletes with mean age= 14.23 ±1.31 years, height = 164.89 ± 7.85 cm, weight = 56.94 ± 9.28 kg were randomly assigned to two groups: experiment (EG; n = 14) and injured (IG; n = 13). EG performed a series of Chase Trainer program which required them to shift their body weight at different directions, speeds and angle of leaning twice a week for duration of 8 weeks. The static postural control and perceived pain level measures were taken at baseline, after 6 weeks and 8 weeks of training. There was no significant difference in any of tested variables between EG and IG before and after 6-week the intervention period. However, after 8-week of training, the postural control (eyes open) and perceived pain level of EG improved compared to IG (p<0.05). The postural control with eyes closed of EG improved (p<0.05) but the values were not significantly different compared to IG after training. The results suggest that using Chase Trainer exercise program it is possible to improve individual postural control and decreased perceived pain level in athlete with unilateral Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS).

Keywords: Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome, perceived pain level, postural control.

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Authors: T. Bovornvirakit, K. Viravaidya

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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a new worldwide public health problem. A diagnosis of this disease using creatinine is still a problem in clinical practice. Therefore, a measurement of biomarkers responsible for AKI has received much attention in the past couple years. Cytokine interleukin-18 (IL-18) was reported as one of the early biomarkers for AKI. The most commonly used method to detect this biomarker is an immunoassay. This study used a planar platform to perform an immunoassay using fluorescence for detection. In this study, anti-IL-18 antibody was immobilized onto a microscope slide using a covalent binding method. Make-up samples were diluted at the concentration between 10 to 1000 pg/ml to create a calibration curve. The precision of the system was determined using a coefficient of variability (CV), which was found to be less than 10%. The performance of this immunoassay system was compared with the measurement from ELISA.

Keywords: Acute kidney injury, Acute renal failure, Antibody immobilization, Interleukin-18

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Authors: Ju-Seok Kim, Sun-Ae Moon, Tae-Gu Lee, Seung-Jae Moon, Jae-Heon Lee

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As a simple to method estimate the plant heating energy capacity of an apartment complex, a new load calculation method has been proposed. The method which can be called as unit building method, predicts the heating load of the entire complex instead of summing up that of each apartment belonging to complex. Comparison of the unit heating load for various floor sizes between the present method and conventional approach shows a close agreement with dynamic load calculation code. Some additional calculations are performed to demonstrate it-s application examples.

Keywords: Unit Building Method, Unit Heating Load, TFMLoad.

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Authors: N. H. Harun, A. S. Abdul Nasir, M. Y. Mashor, R. Hassan

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Leukaemia is a blood cancer disease that contributes to the increment of mortality rate in Malaysia each year. There are two main categories for leukaemia, which are acute and chronic leukaemia. The production and development of acute leukaemia cells occurs rapidly and uncontrollable. Therefore, if the identification of acute leukaemia cells could be done fast and effectively, proper treatment and medicine could be delivered. Due to the requirement of prompt and accurate diagnosis of leukaemia, the current study has proposed unsupervised pixel segmentation based on clustering algorithm in order to obtain a fully segmented abnormal white blood cell (blast) in acute leukaemia image. In order to obtain the segmented blast, the current study proposed three clustering algorithms which are k-means, fuzzy c-means and moving k-means algorithms have been applied on the saturation component image. Then, median filter and seeded region growing area extraction algorithms have been applied, to smooth the region of segmented blast and to remove the large unwanted regions from the image, respectively. Comparisons among the three clustering algorithms are made in order to measure the performance of each clustering algorithm on segmenting the blast area. Based on the good sensitivity value that has been obtained, the results indicate that moving kmeans clustering algorithm has successfully produced the fully segmented blast region in acute leukaemia image. Hence, indicating that the resultant images could be helpful to haematologists for further analysis of acute leukaemia.

Keywords: Acute Leukaemia Images, Clustering Algorithms, Image Segmentation, Moving k-Means.

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Authors: Rosita Hedayati , Sedighe Kahrizi , Mohammad Parnianpour , Fariba Bahrami , Anoshirvan Kazemnejad

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The study of the variability of the postural strategies in low back pain patients, as a criterion in evaluation of the adaptability of this system to the environmental demands is the purpose of this study. A cross-sectional case-control study was performed on 21 recurrent non-specific low back pain patients and 21 healthy volunteers. The electromyography activity of Deltoid, External Oblique (EO), Transverse Abdominis/Internal Oblique (TrA/IO) and Erector Spine (ES) muscles of each person was recorded in 75 rapid arm flexion with maximum acceleration. Standard deviation of trunk muscles onset relative to deltoid muscle onset were statistically analyzed by MANOVA . The results show that chronic low back pain patients exhibit less variability in their anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) in comparison with the control group. There is a decrease in variability of postural control system of recurrent non-specific low back pain patients that can result in the persistence of pain and chronicity by decreasing the adaptability to environmental demands.

Keywords: EMG Onset Latency, Variability, Posture, Non - specific Low Back Pain

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Authors: Lídia E. O. Cruz, Adriano P. C. Calvo, Renato J. Soares, Regiane A. Carvalho

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Individuals with non-specific chronic low back pain may present altered movement patterns during functional activities. However, muscle behavior before and after performing a functional task with different load conditions is not yet fully understood. The aim of this study is to analyze lumbar muscle activity before and after performing the functional task of picking up and placing an object on the ground (with and without load) in individuals with nonspecific chronic low back pain. 20 subjects with nonspecific chronic low back pain and 20 healthy subjects participated in this study. A surface electromyography was performed in the ilio-costal, longissimus and multifidus muscles to evaluate lumbar muscle activity before and after performing the functional task of picking up and placing an object on the ground, with and without load. The symptomatic participants had greater lumbar muscle activation compared to the asymptomatic group, more evident in performing the task without load, with statistically significant difference (p = 0,033) between groups for the right multifidus muscle. This study showed that individuals with nonspecific chronic low back pain have higher muscle activation before and after performing a functional task compared to healthy participants.

Keywords: Chronic low back pain, functional task, lumbar muscles, muscle activity.

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Authors: Richard Grünes, Karel Roubik

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The article deals with technical support of intracranial single unit activity measurement. The parameters of the whole measuring set were tested in order to assure the optimal conditions of extracellular single-unit recording. Metal microelectrodes for measuring the single-unit were tested during animal experiments. From signals recorded during these experiments, requirements for the measuring set parameters were defined. The impedance parameters of the metal microelectrodes were measured. The frequency-gain and autonomous noise properties of preamplifier and amplifier were verified. The measurement and the description of the extracellular single unit activity could help in prognoses of brain tissue damage recovery.

Keywords: Measuring set, metal microelectrodes, single-unit, noise, impedance parameters, gain characteristics.

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Authors: S. Dabiran

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Chest pain is one of the most prevalent complaints among adults that cause the people to attend to medical centers. The aim was to determine the prevalence and risk factors of chest pain among over 30 years old people in Tehran. In this cross-sectional study, 787 adults took part from Apr 2005 until Apr 2006. The sampling method was random cluster sampling and there were 25 clusters. In each cluster, interviews were performed with 32 over 30 years old, people lived in those houses. In cases with chest pain, extra questions asked. The prevalence of CP was 9% (71 cases). Of them 21 cases (6.5%) were in 41-60 year age ranges and the remainders were over 61 year old. 19 cases (26.8%) mentioned CP in resting state and all of the cases had exertion onset CP. The CP duration was 10 minutes or less in all of the cases and in most of them (84.5%), the location of pain mentioned left anterior part of chest, left anterior part of sternum and or left arm. There was positive history of myocardial infarction in 12 cases (17%). There was significant relation between CP and age, sex and between history of myocardial infarction and marital state of study people. Our results are similar to other studies- results in most parts, however it is necessary to perform supplementary tests and follow up studies to differentiate between cardiac and non-cardiac CP exactly.

Keywords: Chest pain, myocardial infarction, risk factor, prevalence

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Authors: J. Stejskal, P. Hajek

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The goal of this article is the analysis of knowledge transfer at the regional level of the Czech Republic. We show how goals of enterprises´ innovative activities are related to the rate of cooperation with different actors within regional innovative systems as well as in other world regions. The results show that the most important partners of enterprises are their suppliers and clients in most Czech regions. The cooperation rate of enterprises correlates significantly mainly with enterprises´ efforts to enter new markets and reduce labour costs per unit output. The meaning of this cooperation decreases with the increase of partner’s distance. Regarding the type of a cooperating partner, cooperation within an enterprise had to do with the increase of market share and decrease of labour costs. On the other hand, cooperation with clients had to do with efforts to replace outdated products or processes or enter new markets. We can pay less attention to the cooperation with government authorities and organizations. The reasons for marginalization of this cooperation should be submitted to further detailed investigation.

Keywords: Knowledge, transfer, innovative process, Czech republic, region.

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Authors: Saimir Heta, Kastriot Haxhirexha, Virtut Velmishi, Nevila Alliu, Ilma Robo

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Background: Testicular rotation can occur at any age. The possibility to save the testicle is the fastest possible surgical intervention which is indicated by the presence of acute pain even at rest. The time element is more important to diagnose and proceed further with surgical intervention. Testicular damage is a consequence which mainly depends on the moment of onset of symptoms, at the time when the symptoms are diagnosed, the earliest action to be performed is surgical intervention. Sometimes medical tests are needed to confirm a diagnosis, or to help identify another cause for symptoms; for example, the urine test, that is used to check for infection, associated with the scrotal ultrasound test. Control of blood flow to the longitudinal supply vessels of the testicles is indicated. The sign that indicates testicular rotation is a reduction in blood flow. This is the element which is distinguished from ultrasound examination. Surgery may be needed to determine if the patient’s symptoms are caused by the rotation of the testis or any other condition. Discussion: As a surgical intervention of the emergency, the torsion of the test depends very much on the duration of the torsion, as the success in the life of the testicle depends on the fastest surgical intervention. From the previous clinic, it is noted that in any case presented to the pediatric patient diagnosed with testicular rotation, there is always a link with personal history that the patient refers to the presence of a previous episode of testicular trauma. Literature supports this fact very logically. Conclusions: Salvation without testicular atrophy depends closely on establishing the diagnosis of testicular rotation as soon as possible. Following the logic above, it can be said that the diagnosis for rotation should be performed as soon as possible, to avoid consequences that will not be favorable for the patient.

Keywords: Acute scrotum, testicular torsion, newborns, infants, clinical presentation.

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Authors: S.R.Kamat, A.Yoxall, C.Craig , M.J.Carré, J.Rowson

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The hand is one of the essential parts of the body for carrying out Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). Individuals use their hands and fingers in everyday activities in the both the workplace and home. Hand-intensive tasks require diverse and sometimes extreme levels of exertion, depending on the action, movement or manipulation involved. The authors have undertaken several studies looking at grip choice and comfort. It is hoped that in providing improved understanding of discomfort during ADLs this will aid in the design of consumer products. Previous work by the authors outlined a methodology for calculating pain frequency and pain level for a range of tasks. From an online survey undertaken by the authors with regards manipulating objects during everyday tasks, tasks involving gripping were seen to produce the highest levels of pain and discomfort. Questioning of the participants showed that cleaning tasks were seen to be ADL's that produced the highest levels of discomfort, with women feeling higher levels of discomfort than men. This paper looks at the methodology for calculating pain frequency and pain level with particular regards to gripping activities. This methodology shows that activities such as mopping, sweeping and hoovering shows the highest numbers of pain frequency and pain level at 3112.5 frequency per month while the pain level per person doing this action was 0.78.The study then uses thin-film force sensors to analyze the force distribution in the hand whilst hoovering and compares this for differing grip styles and genders. Women were seen to have more of their hand under a higher pressure than men when undertaking hoovering. This suggests that women may feel greater discomfort than men since their hand is at a higher pressure more of the time.

Keywords: hovering, grip, pain

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Authors: Sayeed Salam

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An effort to develop a unit commitment approach capable of handling large power systems consisting of both thermal and hydro generating units offers a large profitable return. In order to be feasible, the method to be developed must be flexible, efficient and reliable. In this paper, various proposed methods have been described along with their strengths and weaknesses. As all of these methods have some sort of weaknesses, a comprehensive algorithm that combines the strengths of different methods and overcomes each other-s weaknesses would be a suitable approach for solving industry-grade unit commitment problem.

Keywords: Unit commitment, Solution methods, and Comprehensive algorithm.

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Authors: Andrea Zielke-Nadkarni

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Pain management is a question of quality of life and an indicator for nursing quality. Chronic pain which is predominant in oncology and palliative nursing situations is perceived today as a multifactorial, individual emotional experience with specific characteristics including the sociocultural dimension when dealing with migrant patients. This dimension of chronic pain is of major importance in professional nursing of migrant patients in hospices or palliative care units. Objectives of the study are: 1. To find out more about the sociocultural views on pain and nursing care, on customs and nursing practices connected with pain of both Turkish Muslim and German Christian women, 2. To improve individual and family oriented nursing practice with view to sociocultural needs of patients in severe pain in palliative care. In a qualitative-explorative comparative study 4 groups of women, Turkish Muslims immigrants (4 from the first generation, 5 from the second generation) and German Christian women of two generations (5 of each age group) of the same age groups as the Turkish women and with similar educational backgrounds were interviewed (semistructured ethnographic interviews using Spradley, 1979) on their perceptions and experiences of pain and nursing care within their families. For both target groups the presentation will demonstrate the following results in detail: Utterance of pain as well as “private” and “public” pain vary within different societies and cultures. Permitted forms of pain utterance are learned in childhood and determine attitudes and expectations in adulthood. Language, especially when metaphors and symbols are used, plays a major role for misunderstandings. The sociocultural context of illness may include specific beliefs that are important to the patients and yet seem more than far-fetched from a biomedical perspective. Pain can be an influential factor in family relationships where respect or hierarchies do not allow the direct utterance of individual needs. Specific resources are often, although not exclusively, linked to religious convictions and are significantly helpful in reducing pain. The discussion will evaluate the results of the study with view to the relevant literature and present nursing interventions and instruments beyond medication that are helpful when dealing with patients from various socio-cultural backgrounds in painful end-oflife situations.

Keywords: Pain management, migrants, sociocultural context, palliative care.

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Authors: El Sayed A. Sharara, A. Tsuji, K. Terada

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Call centers have been expanding and they have influence on activation in various markets increasingly. A call center’s work is known as one of the most demanding and stressful jobs. In this paper, we propose the fatigue detection system in order to detect burnout of call center agents in the case of a neck pain and upper back pain. Our proposed system is based on the computer vision technique combined skin color detection with the Viola-Jones object detector. To recognize the gesture of hand poses caused by stress sign, the YCbCr color space is used to detect the skin color region including face and hand poses around the area related to neck ache and upper back pain. A cascade of clarifiers by Viola-Jones is used for face recognition to extract from the skin color region. The detection of hand poses is given by the evaluation of neck pain and upper back pain by using skin color detection and face recognition method. The system performance is evaluated using two groups of dataset created in the laboratory to simulate call center environment. Our call center agent burnout detection system has been implemented by using a web camera and has been processed by MATLAB. From the experimental results, our system achieved 96.3% for upper back pain detection and 94.2% for neck pain detection.

Keywords: Call center agents, fatigue, skin color detection, face recognition.

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Authors: Vipin Saini, Sunil Kamboj, Suman Bala, A. Pandurangan

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The present invention relates to multiple-unit tablet dosage forms, which is composed of several subunits (multiparticulates/pellets). Each small multiparticulate further composed of many layers. Some layer contains drug substance; others are rate controlling polymer. The resulting multiple-unit tablet dosage forms of pantoprazole were satisfactory fabricated. Pelletization technique has some advantages over coated tablet formulation. In coated tablet the coating may be damaged and a pinhole possibly formed that would result in increased release of drug in stomach and may be deactivated in stomach juices. If the coat of some pellets may be damaged that would not affect the release properties of the multiple-unit tablet. Hence they are beneficial in this aspect. The results confirmed the successful preparation of stable and bioequivalent once daily controlled release multiple-unit tablets of pantoprazole.

Keywords: Controlled release, multiple unit tablets, pantoprazole, pelletization.

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Authors: P. Sanzo

Abstract:

Ten percent of the population will develop plantar fasciitis (PF) during their lifetime. Two million people are treated yearly accounting for 11-15% of visits to medical professionals. Treatment ranges from conservative to surgical intervention. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ECSWT) on heel pain, function, range of motion (ROM), and strength in patients with PF. One hundred subjects were treated with ECSWT and measures were taken before and three months after treatment. There was significant differences in visual analog scale scores for pain at rest (p=0.0001); after activity (p= 0.0001) and; overall improvement (p=0.0001). There was also significant improvement in Lower Extremity Functional Scale scores (p=0.0001); ankle plantarflexion (p=0.0001), dorsiflexion (p=0.001), and eversion (p=0.017),and first metatarsophalangeal joint flexion (p=0.002) and extension (p=0.003) ROM. ECSWT is an effective treatment improving heel pain, function and ROM in patients with PF.

Keywords: Extracorporeal shockwave therapy, shockwave therapy, plantar fasciitis, heel pain, function, range of motion, strength.

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Authors: Leila Jafari, Viliam Makis, Akram Khaleghei G.B.

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a maintenance model of a two-unit series system with economic dependence. Unit#1 which is considered to be more expensive and more important, is subject to condition monitoring (CM) at equidistant, discrete time epochs and unit#2, which is not subject to CM has a general lifetime distribution. The multivariate observation vectors obtained through condition monitoring carry partial information about the hidden state of unit#1, which can be in a healthy or a warning state while operating. Only the failure state is assumed to be observable for both units. The objective is to find an optimal opportunistic maintenance policy minimizing the long-run expected average cost per unit time. The problem is formulated and solved in the partially observable semi-Markov decision process framework. An effective computational algorithm for finding the optimal policy and the minimum average cost is developed, illustrated by a numerical example.

Keywords: Condition-Based Maintenance, Semi-Markov Decision Process, Multivariate Bayesian Control Chart, Partially Observable System, Two-unit System.

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Authors: Sharareh Afsharian, Andrea Bei, Marco Bianchi

Abstract:

In this paper we introduce a new unit test technique called déjà-vu object. Déjà-vu objects replace real objects used by classes under test, allowing the execution of isolated unit tests. A déjà-vu object is able to observe and record the behaviour of a real object during real sessions, and to replace it during unit tests, returning previously recorded results. Consequently déjà-vu object technique can be useful when a bottom-up development and testing strategy is adopted. In this case déjà-vu objects can increase test portability and test source code readability. At the same time they can reduce the time spent by programmers to develop test code and the risk of incompatibility during the switching between déjà-vu and production code.

Keywords: Bottom-up testing approach, integration test, testportability, unit test.

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