Project Scheduling: Survey and Research Potentials

Abstract: project scheduling is very critical topic in project management. Resource constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) consists of activities that must be scheduled based on dependencies relationships and priorities of activities. In the recent years there have been many survey papers around the area of project scheduling, as many researchers developed both exact and heuristic scheduling schemes. This paper give an over view around the resource constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP)

Assessment of Emissions from Cement Plants Using AERMOD Modeling

Coal combustion generates many gases and emissions which are harmful to public health and the environment. So, it is necessary to assess the health risks for the people living in the nearby cement plants that use coal as a fuel. In this article, a health risk assessment HRA was carried out concerning the air emissions from a cement plant in the heavy industry area located at Beni Suef governorate - Egypt. The article handles the assessment of the health risks for pollutants classified as non-carcinogenic i.e. sulfur dioxide - mercury and the health risks for pollutants classified as carcinogenic i.e. arsenic – chromium VI. An Air dispersion modeling program AERMOD is used to measure and evaluate long and short terms health impacts to expect the concentration of pollutants at the ground level within 30 km radius of the studied cement plant. The emissions measurements findings are used as input to the model in addition to some factors such as meteorology and surrounding terrain. Consequently, the program can implement simulations for the emissions concentration level of the mentioned pollutants and their effects on the population at Jazirat Abu Salih village, which is 10 km far from the studied cement plant. The results for mentioned pollutants concentrations levels matched with acceptance and safe levels of ambient air quality standards. In addition, the increment lifetime cancer risk ILCR by inhalation was calculated for arsenic and chromium and all results conformed with the safe and accepted limits

Clinical characteristics and precipitating factor(s) associated with diabetic ketoacidosis presentation in children with newly diagnosed diabetes

Background. To compare the demographic and clinical characteristics of children with newly clinically diagnosed type 1 diabetes (T1DM) who presented with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) versus non DKA presentation and to identify the precipitating factor(s) related to progression to DKA. Methods. Over a 3 month period, 99 patients newly diagnosed with T1DM were recruited from Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolism Pediatric Unit (DEMPU), Cairo University, with 53 patients presented with DKA and 46 were non DKA. Results. Polyuria, polydipsia, weight loss, polyphagia and nocturia were the most common symptoms preceding the diagnosis among the whole study group (93.8%, 92% and 80.8%, 76.8%, 46.5 % respectively) with no difference between DKA and non DKA groups. Delayed diagnosis occurred in 98.1% and 58.7% of DKA and non DKA groups respectively. In the DKA group the diagnosis of diabetes was missed in 69.8% and in 28.3% the initiation of insulin therapy was delayed despite diagnosis. Multivariate analysis performed to identify the most significant precipitating factor(s) associated with the development of DKA at diabetes diagnosis showed that delayed start of insulin therapy was the most significant factor (OR = 1.267, P value = 0.023). Conclusion. The prevalence of DKA is high among Egyptianchildren at diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. It is not only caused by misdiagnosis and mismanagement of diabetes, but also delayed initiation of insulin therapy in those diagnosed. This highlights the importance of increasing awareness concerning clinical features of diabetes in children and the urgency of insulin therapy among primary health care professionals and the community

A Study of morphological features of footprints in Egyptian and Malaysian population

Determination of sex and ethnicity is one of the main tasks in building the biological profile of individuals. Keen examination of footprints that may be found at the crime scene can give valuable clues in forensic identification. The current work aimed to study the footprint morphological features and their relation to sex and population difference. The study was conducted on 200 adult volunteers. They were divided into two equal racial groups: Malaysians and Egyptians. The collected footprints were classified into four types based on relative morphological toes lengths. Toes inter-distance, phalangeal marks position and number, humps count and Chippaux-Smirak index (CSI) were examined. The frequency of these characteristics was analyzed statistically using regression analysis. Among the studied morphological features, it was found that t3-t4 inter-distance, phalangeal marks number, humps count and CSI differed significantly between males and females. As regards ethnicity, all footprints characteristics differed significantly between Egyptians and Malaysians except CSI

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely