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Determining Relationship Between Physical Health Care Settings and Mycobacterium Tuberculosis
No full textAbstract. Healthy indoor air environment quality is needed for healthy building hospital. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is a microbial infectious agent which causes tuberculosis (TB) disease in human. Hence, health care workers (HCWs) are belonged to a highly potential risk group to be infected by MTB. This research aims to investigate the source and factor(s) of TB transmission in sustainable indoor air environment at the Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru (HSAJB), Malaysia. The view taken in this paper is that the transmission dynamic of MTB from an active pulmonary TB (PTB) patient to another person via indoor air environment in the health care setting is generated as a result of an interaction between architect, building planner and owner, design and facility engineer, construction engineer, occupational health and safety professionals, hospital and HCWs, epidemiologist and public health officer. The findings were obtained by combining questionnaire and interview approaches using five ordinal measures of agreement using Likert Scale measurement. Analysis of qualitative data found that the source of MTB transmission was coming from active PTB patients especially those with sputum smear positive (SS+). The studied ambient parameters and factors affecting indoor air environment sustainability were thermal comfort, humidity, air pressure, temperature, duration exposure, area and volume, direction of air flow, lighting, air circulation exchange and MTB density in the air
Article Can the Excellence of the Internal Be Measured? -A Preliminary Study
No full textAbstract The scientific framework for internal excellence (1) is reviewed in the context of a scientific measurement device that may be used to track progress. This device has been approved by Russian Health Authorities for general use, following clinical trials and the recommendation of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A case study is presented with this measurement device and the results corroborate the scientific framework for transformation
H&TECH
No full textABSTRACT In this study thermal performance of corrugated plate heat exchanger (PHE) in single-phase flow is carried out using the ANSYS CFX software. Aim of this research is to develop a generalized Nusselt Number correlation for a commercial PHE configuration under single-phase flow for two different chevron angle plates, 30 o /30 o and 60 o /60 o . The steady state simulation is carried out for a Reynolds number range of 500 to 2500, and the Prandtl number range of 3.5 to 7.5 is maintained in the simulation. The results showed that Nusselt number is increased with increasing Reynolds number as well as by increasing the chevron angle. However, Prandtl number showed trivial impact on the Nusselt number
Marique, Dujardin, Teller and Reiter: Urban Sprawl and travel energy consumption in Belgium URBAN SPRAWL AND TRAVEL ENERGY CONSUMPTION: THE CASE OF THE WALLOON REGION OF BELGIUM Marique, Dujardin, Teller and Reiter: Urban Sprawl and Travel Energy Consumpt
No full textAbstract In the actual context of growing interests in environmental issues, reducing energy consumption in the transport sector, which represents 27% of final energy in the Walloon region of Belgium, appears as an important policy target. Although it is often argued that more compact urban forms would significantly reduce transport energy consumption, urban sprawl is a concern in a large part of the regional territory. Moreover, assessment tools dedicated to transport energy consumption are lacking. In this context, the paper first presents a quantitative method developed to assess the transport system in the Walloon region of Belgium. Statistical data available at the neighbourhood scale and characteristics of cars and public vehicles are used to predict transport needs and assess energy consumption as far as home-to-work and home-toschool travels are concerned. Three index are presented and mapped (the energy performance index, the modal share and the mean distance travelled) to investigate the interdependences between spatial planning, urban sprawl and travel energy consumption in the Walloon region of Belgium. Three complementary scales are used: the "municipality" scale allows to highlight the general structure of the territory whereas the "former municipality" and the "census block" scales (the smallest geographical unit in which data are available in Belgium) highlight more detailed phenomenon. The evolution of the performance index between 1991 and 2001 and the difference in energy performance between home-towork and home-to-school travels are also presented. Our main findings are presented and highlight that urban planning acts upon travel energy consumption. We show particularly that main cities present low energy consumption. However, a local scale approach is useful to highlight the existence of secondary suburban and rural cores presenting low transport energy consumption. In this respect, distance from home to destination is paramount while the mode of transport used has a lower impact
New Approach to Ammonia Synthesis by Catalysis in Magnetic Field
No full textAbstract. Ammonia production is a capital-intensive industry as it requires high temperature (400-500 o C) and also high pressure (150-300 bar) for its daily operations. An earnest effort was made to synthese ammonia gas using an in-house designed microreactor. The production of ammonia was carried out in a magnetic field reaction zone, with the reaction temperature of 30°C -280°C and ambient operation pressure. Mn 0.8 Zn 0.2 Fe 2 O 4 nanoparticles, synthesized using the sol gel method, were used as the catalyst for the ammonia synthesis. XRD confirmed the single phase ferrites and FESEM images revealed nanofibre-like morphology when sintered at 700 o C in argon gas. Electron diffraction was performed using HRTEM and obtained diffraction patterns confirmed the crystal structure of the catalyst. By using the Kjeldahl method it was found that the reaction carried out in 1 Tesla magnetic field gave approximately 46% ammonia yield. The proposed new method could be appealing for ammonia manufacturers due to highly economical implication which may offer urea producers a potential contender in the competitive market place
No full textABSTRACT Chromium was used as a corrosion inhibitor in the reactor cooling water and was introduced into the groundwater at Hanford as a result of planned and unplanned discharges from reactors during plutonium production since 1944. Beginning in 1995, groundwater treatment methods were evaluated leading to the use of pump and treat facilities with ion exchange using Dowex 21K, a regenerable strong base anion exchange resin. This required regeneration of the resin which is currently performed offsite. Resin was installed in a 4 vessel train, with resin removal required from the lead vessel approximately once a month. In 2007, there were 8 trains (32 vessels) in operation. In 2008, DOE recognized that regulatory agreements would require significant expansion in the groundwater chromium treatment capacity. Previous experience from one of the DOE project managers led to identification of a possible alternative resin, and the contractor was requested to evaluate alternative resins for both cost and programmatic risk reductions. Testing was performed onsite in 2009 and 2010, using a variety of potential resins in two separate facilities with groundwater from specific remediation sites to demonstrate resin performance in the specific groundwater chemistry at each site. The testing demonstrated that a weak base anion single use resin, ResinTech SIR-700, was effective at removing chromium, had a significantly higher capacity, could be disposed of efficiently on site, and would eliminate the complexities and programmatic risks from sampling, packaging, transportation and return of resin for regeneration. This resin was installed in Hanford's newest groundwater treatment facility, 100-DX which was started in November, 2010, and used in a sister facility, 100-HX, started up in September of 2011, increasing chromium treatment capacity to 25 trains (100 vessels). This resin is also being tested in existing facilities that utilize Dowex 21K for conversion to the new resin. This paper will describe the results of the testing, performance in the facilities, continued optimization in the pump and treat facilities, and the estimated savings and non-tangible benefits of the conversion
Personal non-commercial use only
No full textABSTRACT. Objective. Studies of Caucasian populations have shown conflicting results concerning the association between a promoter polymorphism -169T>C of the Fc receptor-like 3 (FCRL3) gene and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It is unknown whether FCRL3 is associated with autoantibody status and disease severity. We investigated associations between FCRL3 -169T>C and autoantibody status and joint damage in patients with RA. Methods. A total of 652 Norwegian patients with RA from 2 cohorts and 981 Norwegian controls, previously genotyped for FCRL3 -169T>C (rs7528684), were studied. Data on anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) and rheumatoid factor (RF) were available. The EURIDISS cohort (disease duration ≤ 4 yrs at baseline) was followed longitudinally, with assessment of radiographic hand damage at baseline and after 10 years (n = 117) according to the van der Heijde-modified Sharp score. Results. We found significant associations with ACPA-positive RA for both the C allele (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.08-1.52, p = 0.004) and the C/C genotype (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.18-2.10, p = 0.002). Similar associations were seen with RF-positive RA. No association was found with ACPA-negative or RF-negative RA. The C/C genotype was found to be associated with 10-year radiographic progression in multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses, after adjustment for ACPA, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, age, and sex. Conclusion. The promoter polymorphism of FCRL3 was associated with autoantibody-positive RA. Despite the low number of patients, the C/C genotype of the FCRL3 polymorphism consistently and independently predicted radiographic progression. These findings suggest that FCRL3 is involved in both disease susceptibility and progression
How Well Are We Caring for Caregivers? Prevalence of Grief-Related Symptoms and Need for Bereavement Support Among Long-Term Care Staff
No full textAbstract To define the prevalence and correlates of grief-related symptoms among long-term care staff who care for patients near the end of life, a cross-sectional survey was conducted at six Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) organizations that provide long-term care in the home and in institutions. All clinical and non-clinical program staff were surveyed to examine the prevalence of 20 grief-related symptoms and assess current sources of bereavement support, as well as willingness to use additional sources of support. Suveys were completed by 203/236 staff (86%), who described a wide variety of symptoms they attributed to the death of one of their patients in the past month. Most staff (147/203; 72%) reported at least one symptom. Staff with more symptoms had experienced more patient deaths in the past month (Spearman rho 5 0.20, P 5 0.007), had worked for a longer time at a PACE organization (Spearman rho 5 0.16, P 5 0.031), and reported a closer and longer relationship with the last patient who died (Spearman rho 5 0.32, P ! 0.001; rho 5 0.24, P 5 0.001). Although staff identified several informal sources of bereavement support (mean 2.3 sources, range 0--6), almost all (n 5 194; 96%) said they would use additional support services if they were offered. These community-based long-term care staff experience a variety of symptoms attributable to the deaths of their patients, and would welcome additional sources of bereavement support. J Pain Symptom Manage 2005;30:227--233.
Demonstration of Santoku: Optimizing Machine Learning over Normalized Data
No full textABSTRACT Advanced analytics is a booming area in the data management industry and a hot research topic. Almost all toolkits that implement machine learning (ML) algorithms assume that the input is a single table, but most relational datasets are not stored as single tables due to normalization. Thus, analysts often join tables to obtain a denormalized table. Also, analysts typically ignore any functional dependencies among features because ML toolkits do not support them. In both cases, time is wasted in learning over data with redundancy. We demonstrate Santoku, a toolkit to help analysts improve the performance of ML over normalized data. Santoku applies the idea of factorized learning and automatically decides whether to denormalize or push ML computations through joins. Santoku also exploits database dependencies to provide automatic insights that could help analysts with exploratory feature selection. It is usable as a library in R, which is a popular environment for advanced analytics. We demonstrate the benefits of Santoku in improving ML performance and helping analysts with feature selection