Properties of concrete containing coal bottom ash and fine coconut shell as partial sand replacement

The consumption of natural sand in concrete production is very high around the worldwide and it caused the shortage of natural fine aggregate which is suitable for construction in many countries [1]. This problem gives the chance for reuse by-products materials as a source of fine aggregate by partial or full replacement in construction activities. Hence, it can reduce the demand for extraction of natural raw materials and save landfill space other than reduce the consumption of natural resources [1]. Moreover, all over the world aimed at increasing the reuse and recycling suitable material for effective replacement of cement and fine aggregate in construction sector due to lack of natural resources.

Interval type-2 fuzzy automata and Interval type-2 fuzzy grammar

The purpose of the present work is to introduce and study the concept of interval type-2 (IT2) fuzzy grammar which recognizes the given IT2 fuzzy languages. The relationship between IT2 fuzzy automata and IT2 fuzzy (weak) regular grammars is discussed. Specifically, the results we obtained here are (i ) IT2 fuzzy weak regular grammar and IT2 fuzzy regular grammar generate the same classes of IT2 fuzzy languages (ii ) for a given IT2 fuzzy regular grammars, there exists an IT2 fuzzy automata such that they accept the same IT2 fuzzy languages, and vice versa. In addition, we define some operations on IT2 fuzzy languages and it is shown that IT2 fuzzy languages recognized by IT2 fuzzy automata are closed under the operations of union, intersection, concatenation and Kleene closure, but are not closed under complement

Development of a 3G Authentication Based Mobile Access of Health Records: A Mobile Telemedicine Application

As our country progresses in its aim to be a developed country by the Year 2020, the field of Information and Communications Technology or ICT is fast becoming the forerunner for the vision. The Internet is used in almost all aspects of life. As for the communications sector, according to Global Mobile Subscriber Database December 2002 report, there are 8,814,700 mobile subscribers in Malaysia with an Annual Growth of 16.6%. Withthe adoption of 3G-communication technology in the coming years, compelling high speed services, reaching up to 2 Mb/s together with improved security features would soon be possible. Through these years in the mobile industry, the health sector has always been neglected. Reason being, the technology could not support the application and it is not so much of a revenue generating business compared to mobile games or sports news. With globalization where the society is always on the move across borders, together with degrading environment conditions and the need for time, instant health services are becoming crucial. Looking into these conditions of mobile adoption and health status, the author intends to develop a solution for a mobile telemedicine application. Kevin Hung (2003) defines telemedicine as the utilization of telecommunication technology for medical diagnosis, treatment and patient care. Thus, the main aim of this project was to develop an application that could be used for medical purposes. This project integrates the latest mobile telecommunication technologies together with medical services with the idea of providing a highly secured personalize medical system and database query as mobile handsets are becoming a necessity to individuals. This would make updating and retrieving medical health records hassle free, anytime and anywhere. This project has also laid the groundwork for future expansion by incorporating the basic audio and video streaming features. This report accounts for all the concepts, design works and results of the mobile telemedicine application that has been developed successfully

Recording of time-varying back-pain data: A wireless solution

Chronic back pain is a debilitating experience for a considerable proportion of the adult population, with a significant impact on countries’ economies and health systems. While there has been increasing anecdotal evidence to support the fact that for certain categories of patients (such as wheelchair users), the back pain experienced is dynamically varying with time, there is a relative scarcity of data to support and document this observation, with consequential impact upon such patients’ treatment and care. Part of the reason behind this state of affairs is the relative difficulty in gathering pain measurements at precisely defined moments in time. In this paper,we describe a wireless-enabled solution that collects both questionnaire and diagrammatic, visual-based data, via a pain drawing, which overcomes such limitations, enabling seamless data collection and its upload to a hospital server using existing wireless fidelity technology. Results show that it is generally perceived to be an easy-to-use and convenient solution to the challenges of anywhere/anytime data collection

Exploring Health Information Using WAP Technology: Maternity and Children Guide

The present study attempts to investigate WAP based application for pregnancy and after the birth of the baby. The system highlights the development of the fetus to the pregnant mother and the required physical exercises that the mother should go through during pregnancy. The system also provides information regarding the child’s immunization which can be stored for future reference or course of action. This entire information is made available to the mothers through their mobile devices throughout the process. The system is evaluated by enabling selected respondents to test drive the developed prototype. The findings show that the respondents consider the benefit, usefulness, and ease of use of the Maternity and Children Guide (MCG)

Real-time transmission and storage of video, audio, and health data in emergency and home care situations

The increase in the availability of bandwidth for wireless links, network integration, and the computational power on fixed and mobile platforms at affordable costs allows nowadays for the handling of audio and video data, their quality making them suitable for medical application. These information streams can support both continuous monitoring and emergency situations. According to this scenario, the authors have developed and implemented the mobile communication system which is described in this paper. The system is based on ITU-T H.323 multimedia terminal recommendation, suitable for real-time data/video/audio and telemedical applications. The audio and video codecs, respectively, H.264 and G723.1, were implemented and optimized in order to obtain high performance on the system target processors. Offline media streaming storage and retrieval functionalities were supported by integrating a relational database in the hospital central system. The system is based on low-cost consumer technologies such as general packet radio service (GPRS) and wireless local area network (WLAN or WiFi) for lowband data/video transmission. Implementation and testing were carried out for medical emergency and telemedicine application. In this paper, the emergency case study is described

Point of Care Healthcare Quality Control for Patients Using Mobile Devices

The advances made in the domain of mobile telecommunications over the last decade offer great potential for developments in many areas. One such area that can benefit from mobile communications is telemedicine, which is the provision of medical assistance, in one form or another, to patients who are geographically separated from the healthcare provider. When a person is ill, individual attention from medical professionals is of the utmost importance until they have returned to full health. However, people who suffer with long term and chronic illnesses may need life long care and often must manage their condition at home. Many chronically ill patients manage their condition themselves and perform ‘self-testing’ with Point of Care Test (POCT) equipment as part of this condition management. When a specimen sample is analysed at home with a POCT device, a result is available to the patient almost immediately, but the result cannot be proven to be plausible for the patient unless it is validated by the hospital systems. In addition to this the hospital is unaware of the patients condition and progress between hospital visits. This research addresses some of the issues and problems that fact patients who use POCT equipment to ‘self-manage’ their condition at home. Using mobile phone technologies and the Java platform, three alternative methods for providing patients with a service of POCT result validation and storage was designed. The implementation and test of these systems, proves that a mobile phone solution to the issues associated with patient self-testing is possible and can greatly contribute to the quality of patient care

Mobile Health Monitoring

Chronic diseases impose heavy burden and costs on the health industry in many countries. Suitable health procedures, management, and prevention of disease by continuous monitoring through modern technologies can lead to a decrease in health costs and improve people empowerment. Applying remote medical diagnosis and monitoring system based on mobile health systems can help significantly reduce health care costs and correct performance management particularly in chronic disease management. In this chapter, mHealth opportunities in patient monitoring with the introduction of various systems specifically in chronic disease are expressed. Also mHealth challenges in patient monitoring in general and specific aspects are identified. Some of the general challenges include threats to confidentiality and privacy, and lack of information communication technology (ICT), and mobile infrastructure. In specific aspect, some difficulties include lack of system interoperability with electronic health records and other IT tools, decrease in face-to-face communication between doctor and patient, ill-functioning of system that leads to medical errors and negative effects on care outcomes, patients, and personnel, and factors related to the telecommunication industry include reliability and sudden interruptions of telecommunication networks

Can the ubiquitous power of mobile phones be used to improve health outcomes in developing countries?

BACKGROUND: The ongoing policy debate about the value of communications technology in promoting development objectives is diverse. Some view computer/web/phone communications technology as insufficient to solve development problems while others view communications technology as assisting all sections of the population. This paper looks at evidence to support or refute the idea that fixed and mobile telephones is, or could be, an effective healthcare intervention in developing countries. METHODS: A Web-based and library database search was undertaken including the following databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, (nursing & allied health), Evidence Based Medicine (EBM), POPLINE, BIOSIS, and Web of Science, AIDSearch (MEDLINE AIDS/HIV Subset, AIDSTRIALS & AIDSDRUGS) databases. RESULTS: Evidence can be found to both support and refute the proposition that fixed and mobile telephones is, or could be, an effective healthcare intervention in developing countries. It is difficult to generalize because of the different outcome measurements and the small number of controlled studies. There is almost no literature on using mobile telephones as a healthcare intervention for HIV, TB, malaria, and chronic conditions in developing countries. Clinical outcomes are rarely measured. Convincing evidence regarding the overall cost-effectiveness of mobile phone " telemedicine" is still limited and good-quality studies are rare. Evidence of the cost effectiveness of such interventions to improve adherence to medicines is also quite weak. CONCLUSION: The developed world model of personal ownership of a phone may not be appropriate to the developing world in which shared mobile telephone use is important. Sharing may be a serious drawback to use of mobile telephones as a healthcare intervention in terms of stigma and privacy, but its magnitude is unknown. One advantage, however, of telephones with respect to adherence to medicine in chronic care models is its ability to create a multi-way interaction between patient and provider(s) and thus facilitate the dynamic nature of this relationship. Regulatory reforms required for proper operation of basic and value-added telecommunications services are a priority if mobile telecommunications are to be used for healthcare initiatives