Abstract: Background and aim: It has not been well studied
whether fentanyl-thiopental (FT) is effective and safe for PSA in
orthopedic procedures in Emergency Department (ED). The aim of
this trial was to evaluate the effectiveness of intravenous FT versus
fentanyl-midazolam (FM) in patients who suffered from shoulder
dislocation or distal radial fracture-dislocation.
Methods: In this randomized double-blinded study, Seventy-six
eligible patients were entered the study and randomly received
intravenous FT or FM. The success rate, onset of action and recovery
time, pain score, physicians’ satisfaction and adverse events were
assessed and recorded by treating emergency physicians. The
statistical analysis was intention to treat.
Results: The success rate after administrating loading dose in FT
group was significantly higher than FM group (71.7% vs. 48.9%,
p=0.04); however, the ultimate unsuccessful rate after 3 doses of
drugs in the FT group was higher than the FM group (3 to 1) but it
did not reach to significant level (p=0.61). Despite near equal onset
of action time in two study group (P=0.464), the recovery period in
patients receiving FT was markedly shorter than FM group
(P
Abstract: This paper presents a novel statistical description of
the counterpoise effective length due to lightning surges, where the
(impulse) effective length had been obtained by means of regressive
formulas applied to the transient simulation results. The effective
length is described in terms of a statistical distribution function, from
which median, mean, variance, and other parameters of interest could
be readily obtained. The influence of lightning current amplitude,
lightning front duration, and soil resistivity on the effective length has
been accounted for, assuming statistical nature of these parameters. A
method for determining the optimal counterpoise length, in terms of
the statistical impulse effective length, is also presented. It is based on
estimating the number of dangerous events associated with lightning
strikes. Proposed statistical description and the associated method
provide valuable information which could aid the design engineer in
optimising physical lengths of counterpoises in different grounding
arrangements and soil resistivity situations.
Abstract: This paper presents an evolutionary algorithm for
solving multi-objective optimization problems-based artificial neural
network (ANN). The multi-objective evolutionary algorithm used in
this study is genetic algorithm while ANN used is radial basis
function network (RBFN). The proposed algorithm named memetic
elitist Pareto non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-based RBFN
(MEPGAN). The proposed algorithm is implemented on medical
diseases problems. The experimental results indicate that the
proposed algorithm is viable, and provides an effective means to
design multi-objective RBFNs with good generalization capability
and compact network structure. This study shows that MEPGAN
generates RBFNs coming with an appropriate balance between
accuracy and simplicity, comparing to the other algorithms found in
literature.
Abstract: At certain depths during large diameter displacement
pile driving, rebound well over 0.25 inches was experienced,
followed by a small permanent-set during each hammer blow. High
pile rebound (HPR) soils may stop the pile driving and results in a
limited pile capacity. In some cases, rebound leads to pile damage,
delaying the construction project, and the requiring foundations
redesign. HPR was evaluated at seven Florida sites, during driving of
square precast, prestressed concrete piles driven into saturated, fine
silty to clayey sands and sandy clays. Pile Driving Analyzer (PDA)
deflection versus time data recorded during installation, was used to
develop correlations between cone penetrometer (CPT) pore-water
pressures, pile displacements and rebound. At five sites where piles
experienced excessive HPR with minimal set, the pore pressure
yielded very high positive values of greater than 20 tsf. However, at
the site where the pile rebounded, followed by an acceptable
permanent-set, the measured pore pressure ranged between 5 and 20
tsf. The pore pressure exhibited values of less than 5 tsf at the site
where no rebound was noticed. In summary, direct correlations
between CPTu pore pressure and rebound were produced, allowing
identification of soils that produce HPR.
Abstract: In Brazil, neonatal mortality rate is considered
incompatible with the country development conditions, and has been
a Public Health concern. Reduction in infant mortality rates has also
been part of the Millennium Development Goals, a commitment
made by countries, members of the Organization of United Nations
(OUN), including Brazil. Fetal mortality rate is considered a highly
sensitive indicator of health care quality. Suitable actions, such as
good quality and access to health services may contribute positively
towards reduction in these fetal and neonatal rates. With appropriate
antenatal follow-up and health care during gestation and delivery,
some death causes could be reduced or even prevented by means of
early diagnosis and intervention, as well as changes in risk factors
and interventions. Objectives: To study the quality of maternal and
infant health care based on fetal and neonatal mortality, as well as the
possible actions to prevent those deaths in Botucatu (Brazil).
Methods: Classification of prevention according to the International
Classification of Diseases and the modified Wigglesworth´s
classification. In order to evaluate adequacy, indicators of quality of
antenatal and delivery care were established by the authors. Results:
Considering fetal deaths, 56.7% of them occurred before delivery,
which reveals possible shortcomings in antenatal care, and 38.2% of
them were a result of intra- labor changes, which could be prevented
or reduced by adequate obstetric management. These findings were
different from those in the group of early neonatal deaths which were
also studied. Adequacy of health services showed that antenatal and
childbirth care was appropriate for 24% and 33.3% of pregnant
women, respectively, which corroborates the results of prevention.
These results revealed that shortcomings in obstetric and antenatal
care could be the causes of deaths in the study. Early and late
neonatal deaths have similar characteristics: 76% could be prevented
or reduced mainly by adequate newborn care (52.9%) and adequate
health care for gestational women (11.7%). When adequacy of care
was evaluated, childbirth and newborn care was adequate in 25.8%
and antenatal care was adequate in 16.1%. In conclusion, direct
relationship was found between adequacy and quality of care
rendered to pregnant women and newborns, and fetal and infant
mortality. Moreover, our findings highlight that deaths could be
prevented by an adequate obstetric and neonatal management.
Abstract: Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are one of the major
treatment modalities that play important role in the management of a
number of different cancers. This study for the first time evaluates the
toxicity of these treatment modalities and its impact on quality of life
of cancer patients in Pakistan. The study also for the first time
determines what cancer patients of different ages and cancer stages
believe would be an effective intervention to manage their
psychosocial needs and treatment induced toxicity. The article also
provides evidence based approach for the use of variety of
interventions to mange cancer treatment induced morbidity and
toxicity. In light of the present study and reviewed research data,
evidence based recommendations are also made for selection of
appropriate interventions to manage Pain, Nausea and Vomiting,
Anxiety and Depression, Fatigue and Overall QOL of cancer
survivors.
Abstract: Text mining techniques are generally applied for
classifying the text, finding fuzzy relations and structures in data
sets. This research provides plenty text mining capabilities. One
common application is text classification and event extraction,
which encompass deducing specific knowledge concerning incidents
referred to in texts. The main contribution of this paper is the
clarification of a concept graph generation mechanism, which is based
on a text classification and optimal fuzzy relationship extraction.
Furthermore, the work presented in this paper explains the application
of fuzzy relationship extraction and branch and bound (BB) method
to simplify the texts.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to design and simulate a
particular type of Asynchronous State Machine (ASM), namely a
‘traffic light controller’ (TLC), operated at a frequency of 0.5 Hz.
The design task involved two main stages: firstly, designing a 4-bit
binary counter using J-K flip flops as the timing signal and,
subsequently, attaining the digital logic by deploying ASM design
process. The TLC was designed such that it showed a sequence of
three different colours, i.e. red, yellow and green, corresponding to
set thresholds by deploying the least number of AND, OR and NOT
gates possible. The software Multisim was deployed to design such
circuit and simulate it for circuit troubleshooting in order for it to
display the output sequence of the three different colours on the
traffic light in the correct order. A clock signal, an asynchronous 4-
bit binary counter that was designed through the use of J-K flip flops
along with an ASM were used to complete this sequence, which was
programmed to be repeated indefinitely. Eventually, the circuit was
debugged and optimized, thus displaying the correct waveforms of
the three outputs through the logic analyser. However, hazards
occurred when the frequency was increased to 10 MHz. This was
attributed to delays in the feedback being too high.
Abstract: Negative pressure phenomenon appears in many
thermodynamic, geophysical and biophysical processes in the Nature
and technological systems. For more than 100 years of the laboratory
researches beginning from F. M. Donny’s tests, the great values of
negative pressure have been achieved. But this phenomenon has not
been practically applied, being only a nice lab toy due to the special
demands for the purity and homogeneity of the liquids for its
appearance. The possibility of creation of direct wave of negative
pressure in real heterogeneous liquid systems was confirmed
experimentally under the certain kinetic and hydraulic conditions.
The negative pressure can be considered as the factor of both useful
and destroying energies. The new approach to generation of the
negative pressure waves in impure, unclean fluids has allowed the
creation of principally new energy saving technologies and
installations to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of different
production processes. It was proved that the negative pressure is one
of the main factors causing hard troubles in some technological and
natural processes. Received results emphasize the necessity to take
into account the role of the negative pressure as an energy factor in
evaluation of many transient thermohydrodynamic processes in the
Nature and production systems.
Abstract: In and around Erode District, it is estimated that more
than 1250 chemical and allied textile processing fabric industries are
affected, partially closed and shut off for various reasons such as poor
management, poor supplier performance, lack of planning for
productivity, fluctuation of output, poor investment, waste analysis,
labor problems, capital/labor ratio, accumulation of stocks, poor
maintenance of resources, deficiencies in the quality of fabric, low
capacity utilization, age of plant and equipment, high investment and
input but low throughput, poor research and development, lack of
energy, workers’ fear of loss of jobs, work force mix and work ethic.
The main objective of this work is to analyze the existing conditions
in textile fabric sector, validate the break even of Total Productivity
(TP), analyze, design and implement fuzzy sets and mathematical
programming for improvement of productivity and quality
dimensions in the fabric processing industry. It needs to be
compatible with the reality of textile and fabric processing industries.
The highly risk events from productivity and quality dimension were
found by fuzzy systems and results are wrapped up among the textile
fabric processing industry.
Abstract: 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.
Abstract: Assembly line balancing problem is aimed to divide
the tasks among the stations in assembly lines and optimize some
objectives. In assembly lines the workload on stations is different
from each other due to different tasks times and the difference in
workloads between stations can cause blockage or starvation in some
stations in assembly lines. Buffers are used to store the semi-finished
parts between the stations and can help to smooth the assembly
production. The assembly line balancing and buffer sizing problem
can affect the throughput of the assembly lines. Assembly line
balancing and buffer sizing problems have been studied separately in
literature and due to their collective contribution in throughput rate of
assembly lines, balancing and buffer sizing problem are desired to
study simultaneously and therefore they are considered concurrently
in current research. Current research is aimed to maximize
throughput, minimize total size of buffers in assembly line and
minimize workload variations in assembly line simultaneously. A
multi objective optimization objective is designed which can give
better Pareto solutions from the Pareto front and a simple example
problem is solved for assembly line balancing and buffer sizing
simultaneously. Current research is significant for assembly line
balancing research and it can be significant to introduce optimization
approaches which can optimize current multi objective problem in
future.
Abstract: A game for training of breath (TRABR) for continuous
monitoring of pulmonary ventilation during the patients’ therapy
focuses especially on monitoring of their ventilation processes. It is
necessary to detect, monitor and differentiate abdominal and thoracic
breathing during the therapy. It is a fun form of rehabilitation where
the patient plays and also practicing isolated breathing. Finally the
game to practice breath was designed to evaluate whether the patient
uses two types of breathing or not.
Abstract: Code- mixing in spontaneous speech has been widely
discussed, but not in virtual situations; especially in context of the
third language learning students. Thus, this study is an attempt to
explore the linguistic characteristics of the mixing of Japanese,
English and Thai in a mobile Line chat room by students with their
background of English as L2, Japanese as L3 and Thai as mother
tongue. The result found that insertion of Thai content words is a very
common linguistic phenomenon embedded with the other two
languages in the sentences. As chatting is to be ‘relational’ or
‘interactional’, it affected the style of lexical choices to be speech-like,
more personal and emotionally-related. A personal pronoun in
Japanese is often mixed into the sentences. The Japanese
sentence-final question particle か “ka” was added to the end of the
sentence based on Thai grammar rules. Some unique characteristics
were created while chatting.
Abstract: Prior to quantifying the variables of the information
model for using school terminology in Croatia's region of Dalmatia
from 1884 to 2014, the most relevant model variables had to be
determined: historical circumstances, standard of living, education
system, linguistic situation, and media. The research findings show
that there was no significant transfer of the 1884 school terms into
1949 usage; likewise, the 1949 school terms were not widely used in
2014. On the other hand, the research revealed that the meaning of
school terms changed over the decades. The quantification of the
variables will serve as the groundwork for creating an information
model for using school terminology in Dalmatia from 1884 to 2014
and for defining direct growth rates in further research.
Abstract: Motion Tracking and Stereo Vision are complicated,
albeit well-understood problems in computer vision. Existing
softwares that combine the two approaches to perform stereo motion
tracking typically employ complicated and computationally expensive
procedures. The purpose of this study is to create a simple and
effective solution capable of combining the two approaches. The
study aims to explore a strategy to combine the two techniques
of two-dimensional motion tracking using Kalman Filter; and depth
detection of object using Stereo Vision. In conventional approaches
objects in the scene of interest are observed using a single camera.
However for Stereo Motion Tracking; the scene of interest is
observed using video feeds from two calibrated cameras. Using two
simultaneous measurements from the two cameras a calculation for
the depth of the object from the plane containing the cameras is made.
The approach attempts to capture the entire three-dimensional spatial
information of each object at the scene and represent it through a
software estimator object. In discrete intervals, the estimator tracks
object motion in the plane parallel to plane containing cameras and
updates the perpendicular distance value of the object from the plane
containing the cameras as depth. The ability to efficiently track
the motion of objects in three-dimensional space using a simplified
approach could prove to be an indispensable tool in a variety of
surveillance scenarios. The approach may find application from high
security surveillance scenes such as premises of bank vaults, prisons
or other detention facilities; to low cost applications in supermarkets
and car parking lots.
Abstract: An environmentally benign protocol for the one-pot,
three-component synthesis of Triazolo[1,2-a]indazole-1,3,8-trione
derivatives by condensation of dimedone, urazole and aromatic
aldehydes catalyzed by HClO4/SiO2 NPS as an ecofriendly catalyst
with high catalytic activity and reusability at 100ºC under solventfree
conditions is reported. The reaction proceeds to completion
within 20-30 min in 77-86% yield.
Abstract: Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) of
commercial Al-Mg-Si alloy was conducted using two strain rates.
The ECAP processing was conducted at room temperature and at
250°C. Route A was adopted up to a total number of four passes in
the present work. Structural evolution of the aluminum alloy discs
was investigated before and after ECAP processing using optical
microscopy (OM). Following ECAP, simple compression tests and
Vicker’s hardness were performed. OM micrographs showed that, the
average grain size of the as-received Al-Mg-Si disc tends to be larger
than the size of the ECAP processed discs. Moreover, significant
difference in the grain morphologies of the as-received and processed
discs was observed. Intensity of deformation was observed via the
alignment of the Al-Mg-Si consolidated particles (grains) in the
direction of shear, which increased with increasing the number of
passes via ECAP. Increasing the number of passes up to 4 resulted in
increasing the grains aspect ratio up to ~5. It was found that the
pressing temperature has a significant influence on the
microstructure, Hv-values, and compressive strength of the processed
discs. Hardness measurements demonstrated that 1-pass resulted in
increase of Hv-value by 42% compared to that of the as-received
alloy. 4-passes of ECAP processing resulted in additional increase in
the Hv-value. A similar trend was observed for the yield and
compressive strength. Experimental data of the Hv-values
demonstrated that there is a lack of any significant dependence on the
processing strain rate.
Abstract: Risperidone (RISP) is an antipsychotic agent and has
low water solubility and nontargeted delivery results in numerous
side effects. Hence, an attempt was made to develop SLNs hydrogel
for intranasal delivery of RISP to achieve maximum bioavailability
and reduction of side effects. RISP loaded SLNs composed of 1.65%
(w/v) lipid mass were produced by high shear homogenization (HSH)
coupled ultrasound (US) method using glycerylmonostearate (GMS)
or Imwitor 900K (solid lipid). The particles were loaded with 0.2%
(w/v) of the RISP & surface-tailored with a 2.02% (w/v) non-ionic
surfactant Tween® 80. Optimization was done using 32 factorial
design using Design Expert® software. The prepared SLNs
dispersion incorporated into Polycarbophil AA1 hydrogel (0.5%
w/v). The final gel formulation was evaluated for entrapment
efficiency, particle size, rheological properties, X ray diffraction, in
vitro diffusion, ex vivo permeation using sheep nasal mucosa and
histopathological studies for nasocilliary toxicity. The entrapment
efficiency of optimized SLNs was found to be 76 ± 2%,
polydispersity index
Abstract: The problem of psychologist training remains a key
priority in Armenia. During the Soviet period, the notion of a
psychologist was obscure not only in Armenia but also in other
Soviet republics. The breakup of the Soviet Union triggered a gradual
change in this area activating the cooperation with specialists from
other countries. The need for recovery from the psychological trauma
caused by the 1988 earthquake pushed forward the development of
practical psychology in Armenia. This phenomenon led to positive
changes in perception of and interest to a psychologist
profession.Armenian universities started designing special programs
for psychologists’ preparation. Armenian psychologists combined
their efforts in the field of training relevant specialists.
During the recent years, the Bologna educational system was
introduced in Armenia which led to implementation of education
quality improvement programs. Nevertheless, even today the issue of
psychologists’ training is not yet settled in Armenian universities. So
far graduate psychologists haven’t got a clear idea of personal and
professional qualities of a psychologist. Recently, as a result of
educational reforms, the psychology curricula underwent changes,
but so far they have not led to a desired outcome. Almost all curricula
in certain specialties are aimed to form professional competencies
and strengthen practical skills.
A survey conducted in Armenia aimed to identify what are the
ideas of young psychology specialists on the image of a psychologist.
The survey respondents were 45 specialists holding bachelor’s degree
as well as 30 master degree graduates, who have not been working
yet. The research reveals that we need to change the approach of
preparing psychology practitioners in the universities of Armenia.
Such an approach to psychologist training will make it possible to
train qualified specialists for enhancement of modern psychology
theory and practice.