Enhanced Brillouin-erbium fiber laser with Brillouin pump pre-amplification technique

We demonstrate an enhanced multiwavelength Brillouin-Erbium comb fiber-laser in which the Brillouin-pump is pre-amplified before entering the single-mode fiber. By using this simple scheme, a lower external Brillouin pump power is required to create the Brillouin gain and suppress the laser cavity modes as compared to direct injection of Brillouin pump into the single-mode fiber. The proposed technique also demonstrates that the BEFL exhibits a wide tunability and can produce up to 27-stable output channels with 10.5 GHz channels spacing

The Assessment Of The Clubfoot Children’ S Orthotic Need For The Development Of The Foot Abduction Orthosis (FAO) Prototype Design

Foot abduction is an imminent component of treatment within the Ponseti method. It is a treatment procedure where the clubfoot patient adheres to the post-corrective bracing protocol to prevent relapse of the deformity that has turned the foot downward and elevated inwards. In order to encourage the patients’ compliance to the foot abduction orthosis (FAO), various designs have been introduced in the market in the hope of improving the rate of compliance. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the assessment of the clubfoot patients’ FAO need at the orthopaedic clinic of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia in Kelantan, Malaysia. The assessment aims to understand the clubfoot patients’ lower limb movements, in order to generate ideas for the prototype design development to improve the FAO design based on the existing product in the market. The FAO that was referred for further design improvements are the Denis Browne splint and the Markel shoes. In addition, a total of 10 clubfoot patients’ parents were interviewed to obtain user experience data. This study suggests the need to eliminate the foot plates and the bulky protruding shoe and brace locks that are heavy due to the material use. Consequently, a conceptual design of the FAO was successfully developed as a proposal for potential future development of the working prototype to optimise the patients’ dynamic movement

An enhanced group mobility management method in wireless body area networks

Mobility management of wireless body area networks (WBANs) is an emerging key element in the healthcare system. The remote sensor nodes of WBAN are usually deployed on subjects’ body. Certain proxy mobile IPv6 (PMIP) methods have been recommended, however, PMIP is relatively impractical in group mobility management pertaining to WBAN. It is likely to cause enormous registration and handover interruptions. This paper presents an approach aims at overcome these limitations using improved group mobility management method. The method emphasizes on incorporation of authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) service into the local mobility anchor (LMA) as an alternative to independent practice. Furthermore, proxy binding update (PBU) and AAA inquiry messages are merged. Additionally, AAA response and proxy binding acknowledge (PBA) message are combined. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the existing PMIP methods in terms of delay time for registration, the handover interruptions and the average signaling cost

An enhanced group mobility managemnt method in wireless body area networks

Mobility management of wireless body area networks (WBANs) is an emerging key element in the healthcare system. The remote sensor nodes of WBAN are usually deployed on subjects’ body. Certain proxy mobile IPv6 (PMIP) methods have been recommended, however, PMIP is relatively impractical in group mobility management pertaining to WBAN. It is likely to cause enormous registration and handover interruptions. This paper presents an approach aims at overcome these limitations using improved group mobility management method. The method emphasizes on incorporation of authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) service into the local mobility anchor (LMA) as an alternative to independent practice. Furthermore, proxy binding update (PBU) and AAA inquiry messages are merged. Additionally, AAA response and proxy binding acknowledge (PBA) message are combined. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the existing PMIP methods in terms of delay time for registration, the handover interruptions and the average signaling cost

Re-assessing the Design Needs of Trans-Radial Amputees in Product Design Innovation

The previous study on design for disabled people has indicates that product development for trans-radial amputees should integrate designer’s reflection in identifying significant variables such as the real needs of their users, functionality, ergonomic aspect, and aesthetic. Hence, this paper intends to re-assess the design needs of trans-radial amputees through an observation study with 15 trans-radial amputees (right side). The observation aims to understand the difficulties that occurred in the daily activities of amputees, in their home situation without the help of prosthesis. The result of the study suggests the amputees’ main struggle in their daily activities; preparing meals and eating independently. Therefore, a few design criteria have been proposed, and the prototype design was successfully developed as a proposal for potential future development and production. It is hoped the outcome of this research help to surpass the kind of device constrained to help amputees preparing meals and eating independently

The Assessment of the Clubfoot Children’s Orthotic need for the development of the Foot Abduction Orthosis (FAO) prototype design

Foot abduction is an imminent component of treatment within the Ponseti method. It is a treatment procedure where the clubfoot patient adheres to the post-corrective bracing protocol to prevent relapse of the deformity that has turned the foot downward and elevated inwards. In order to encourage the patients’ compliance to the foot abduction orthosis (FAO), various designs have been introduced in the market in the hope of improving the rate of compliance. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the assessment of the clubfoot patients’ FAO need at the orthopaedic clinic of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia in Kelantan, Malaysia. The assessment aims to understand the clubfoot patients’ lower limb movements, in order to generate ideas for the prototype design development to improve the FAO design based on the existing product in the market. The FAO that was referred for further design improvements are the Denis Browne splint and the Markel shoes. In addition, a total of 10 clubfoot patients’ parents were interviewed to obtain user experience data. This study suggests the need to eliminate the foot plates and the bulky protruding shoe and brace locks that are heavy due to the material use. Consequently, a conceptual design of the FAO was successfully developed as a proposal for potential future development of the working prototype to optimise the patients’ dynamic movement. Keywords - Clubfoot,Conceptual design, FAO design, Prototype development

Nurses` Perception Regarding Diabetic Wound Care at Primary Health Care Level

One of the challenges regarding quality of care at primary care level is diabetic wound services; where the nurses are the pillar in wound care. The study objective was to determine the perception of nurses regarding the diabetic wound services in the health centers.  A descriptive qualitative study carried in Khartoum State Sudan targeted nurses at the health centers. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was carried out using semi-structured open ended questions. Saturation of information was obtained after four FGD sessions resulted in 26 nurses. Informed consent was signed and obtained from each nurse. Two independent qualified researchers carried out content analysis of the recorded information. The results show that female to male ratio was 2:1. Most of nurses were holders of Technical Nursing Certificate. Almost all nurses have not received in-service training about diabetes and diabetic wound care. Factors affecting diabetic wound services were lack of guidelines for services and follow-up registry, insufficient consumables and dressing materials and negative patients` attitudes. In-service training on diabetic wound care was absent. Guidelines and follow up registry for diabetic wound care were not available at the health centers.  Health centers were lacking sufficient dressing and surgical materials. Strengthening the capacity of nurses and availing adequate resources and services` guidelines are recommended.

The Appropriation of Product Design as Solution to Minimise Risk of Exertional Heat Illness among Marathon Runners

The intensity of environmental heat stress during a marathon race increases the runner’s metabolic heat production. Based on series of participatory studies and interview sessions with 100 respondents among runners, the contributing factors to this homeostatic imbalance risk are the excessive amount of body-water deficit from extensive sweating, and the rapid increase of cardiovascular and thermal strain while running. In addition, environmental factors such as humidity, the increase of air temperature, wind speed and solar radiation contribute to the marathon runner’s low performance during running with the paucity of cooling strategy that results in the increase of core body temperature with symptoms of exertional heat illness. This paper elucidates the integration of the statistical and theoretical studies of exertional heat illness and the human physiological responses complementing with the product design context. The integration demonstrates the synchronisation of design thinking process within the ergonomics ergosystem framework to develop the appropriate prototype design for marathon runners. As outcome, this research has successfully developed a running suit as its design proposal to minimise exertional heat illness risk and promote the runner’s safety, wellbeing and performance in the heat

Saudi-KAU Coupled Global Climate Model: Description and Performance

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Design and development of trash trap of stream for mini hydro

The river became increasingly contaminated over the years and in the wake of rapid development in the town. The purpose of this paper is to invent and provide a trash collector for mini hydro that is readily removable so that the trashes collected can be easily disposed of. Design of the trash trap should be compatible with existing stream structures. Trash trap must prevent any trash and debris from passing through the mini hydro. Fieldwork was done at the stream river to investigate the surrounding and stream structure. The data collected were mass of trash collected with diverter and without diverter. A total of 10.0 kg of trashes were collected. The efficiency of the trash trap was calculated by the proportion of the average mass of diverted trashes by the total mass of trapped trashes. The targeted efficiency for this trash trap project is 70.0%. Based on the data collected, the efficiency of this trash trap is 84.12%. The targeted efficiency was achieved and design improvement of this trash trap will be discussed at the recommendation. In conclusion, the trash trap had been proven as a potential solution for the mini hydro machine problem, diverts and prevents most of the trashes from entering the mini hydro and blocked the turbine from rotating