Pattern of medical waste management: existing scenario in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Medical waste is infectious and hazardous. It poses serious threats to environmental health and requires specific treatment and management prior to its final disposal. The problem is growing with an ever-increasing number of hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic laboratories in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. However, research on this critical issue has been very limited, and there is a serious dearth of information for planning. This paper seeks to document the handling practice of waste (e.g. collection, storage, transportation and disposal) along with the types and amount of wastes generated by Health Care Establishments (HCE). A total of 60 out of the existing 68 HCE in the study areas provided us with relevant information.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The methodology for this paper includes empirical field observation and field-level data collection through inventory, questionnaire survey and formal and informal interviews. A structured questionnaire was designed to collect information addressing the generation of different medical wastes according to amount and sources from different HCE. A number of in-depth interviews were arranged to enhance our understanding of previous and existing management practice of medical wastes. A number of specific questions were asked of nurses, hospital managers, doctors, and cleaners to elicit their knowledge. The collected data with the questionnaire survey were analysed, mainly with simple descriptive statistics; while the qualitative mode of analysis is mainly in narrative form.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The paper shows that the surveyed HCE generate a total of 5,562 kg/day of wastes, of which about 77.4 per cent are non-hazardous and about 22.6 per cent are hazardous. The average waste generation rate for the surveyed HCE is 1.9 kg/bed/day or 0.5 kg/patient/day. The study reveals that there is no proper, systematic management of medical waste except in a few private HCE that segregate their infectious wastes. Some cleaners were found to salvage used sharps, saline bags, blood bags and test tubes for resale or reuse.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The paper reveals that lack of awareness, appropriate policy and laws, and willingness are responsible for the improper management of medical waste in Dhaka City. The paper also shows that a newly designed medical waste management system currently serves a limited number of HCE. New facilities should be established for the complete management of medical waste in Dhaka City.</p

Learning, Memory, and the Role of Neural Network Architecture

The performance of information processing systems, from artificial neural networks to natural neuronal ensembles, depends heavily on the underlying system architecture. In this study, we compare the performance of parallel and layered network architectures during sequential tasks that require both acquisition and retention of information, thereby identifying tradeoffs between learning and memory processes. During the task of supervised, sequential function approximation, networks produce and adapt representations of external information. Performance is evaluated by statistically analyzing the error in these representations while varying the initial network state, the structure of the external information, and the time given to learn the information. We link performance to complexity in network architecture by characterizing local error landscape curvature. We find that variations in error landscape structure give rise to tradeoffs in performance; these include the ability of the network to maximize accuracy versus minimize inaccuracy and produce specific versus generalizable representations of information. Parallel networks generate smooth error landscapes with deep, narrow minima, enabling them to find highly specific representations given sufficient time. While accurate, however, these representations are difficult to generalize. In contrast, layered networks generate rough error landscapes with a variety of local minima, allowing them to quickly find coarse representations. Although less accurate, these representations are easily adaptable. The presence of measurable performance tradeoffs in both layered and parallel networks has implications for understanding the behavior of a wide variety of natural and artificial learning systems

Efficient Physical Embedding of Topologically Complex Information Processing Networks in Brains and Computer Circuits

Nervous systems are information processing networks that evolved by natural selection, whereas very large scale integrated (VLSI) computer circuits have evolved by commercially driven technology development. Here we follow historic intuition that all physical information processing systems will share key organizational properties, such as modularity, that generally confer adaptivity of function. It has long been observed that modular VLSI circuits demonstrate an isometric scaling relationship between the number of processing elements and the number of connections, known as Rent's rule, which is related to the dimensionality of the circuit's interconnect topology and its logical capacity. We show that human brain structural networks, and the nervous system of the nematode C. elegans, also obey Rent's rule, and exhibit some degree of hierarchical modularity. We further show that the estimated Rent exponent of human brain networks, derived from MRI data, can explain the allometric scaling relations between gray and white matter volumes across a wide range of mammalian species, again suggesting that these principles of nervous system design are highly conserved. For each of these fractal modular networks, the dimensionality of the interconnect topology was greater than the 2 or 3 Euclidean dimensions of the space in which it was embedded. This relatively high complexity entailed extra cost in physical wiring: although all networks were economically or cost-efficiently wired they did not strictly minimize wiring costs. Artificial and biological information processing systems both may evolve to optimize a trade-off between physical cost and topological complexity, resulting in the emergence of homologous principles of economical, fractal and modular design across many different kinds of nervous and computational networks

Sources of heavy metals in the Western Bay of Izmit surface sediments

The study aimed to examine source apportionment of heavy metals of the surface sediments in the < 63 mu m size fraction. The sediment samples collected from 34 sites at the Western Bay of Izmit were subjected to a total digestion technique and analysed for major (total organic carbon, Al, Fe, Mg, and S) and trace (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn, V, and Zn) elements by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry. The results were compared with the marine sediment quality standards, as well as literature values reported to assess the pollution status of the sediments. A factor analysis/multiple regression (FA/MR) multivariate receptor modelling technique was used for quantitative source apportionment to estimate the contributions from each source of contamination. Source fingerprints were obtained from the literature. A varimax rotated factor analysis was applied to the whole data set, and four probable source types were identified as the iron and steel industry, paint industry, crustal and sewage for heavy metals, explaining about 84% of the total variance. Source apportionment results derived from the FA and FA/MR methods agree well with each other

Cost Data Modelling and Searching to Support Low Volume, High Complexity, Long Life Defence Systems Development

This paper presents a data modelling and a semi-automatic data searching method to support cost estimation in the product development process, particularly for low volume, high complexity and long life products typified by defence products and systems. The paper covers a literature review in the area of cost estimation in product development, the data sets needed to perform cost estimation, the method of modelling the data and the techniques of supporting cost data searching. The proposed method will be used to support cost estimation of product development decisions for defence electronic products. To compare with the traditional approach, the method has demonstrated that by creating a centralised environment such as the databases and using a data-driven approach, the system is made more efficient by reducing the number of processes in carrying out cost estimation and thus this provides more information to make an informed concept design decision during the product development process based on the systems competence of instant cost estimation feedback

Diversity of citrus germplasm in the Black Sea Region in Turkey

The Black Sea Agricultural region represents 12.59% of Turkey’s fruit production and particularly the East Black Sea region ranks as 3rd in citrus fruit production after the Mediterranean and Aegean regions. Due to climate, soil and geographical features, production is mainly focused on hazelnut and tea. In Turkey, the citrus fruit production in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions is economical because of the ecological conditions of these regions. However, Satsuma mandarin which has the highest export finds its best ecology in the East Black Sea Region. In addition to mandarin, local citrus fruit species produced also include orange, lemon, citron and grapefruit. Nevertheless, due to increasing rate of tea production in this region, citrus fruit orchards have been destroyed and biodiversity has been threatened. In this paper, citrus germplasm in the East Black Sea region is evaluated and protection approaches are discussed. © 2019 International Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.This project has been funded by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Scientific Research Projects Unit (BAP)Project number: ? ? ? ?. ? ? ?. ? ?. ?

Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus L) - genetic resources in the Eastern Black Sea region, Turkey

The Eastern Black Sea region is an ecologically rich region where many fruit species grow naturally. One of the fruit species growing in this region is the cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus L.) that is consumed by local people. There are many different forms of cherry laurel in the region. In this research, the structure of leaves and fruits of cherry laurel genotypes growing in the Eastern Black Sea region ware examined in detail. © 2019 International Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved

Characterization and selection of indigenous fruit variants in the Eastern Black Sea region (Turkey) for future breeding

The Turkish province of Rize, in the Eastern Black Sea Region, is very rich in natural diversity. Its districts are home to a wide range of landrace fruit species including whortleberry, Caucasian whortleberry, aromatic black grapes, apples, pears, tangerines, chestnuts, plums, and quinces. This study aimed to investigate the diversity of fruit trees and bushes in the province of Rize and determine the natural expansion area of various species. The survey also recorded morphological characterizations of existing genotypes and allowed for the propagation of interesting accessions for ex situ conservation. Trial plots were created for the preservation and curation of the local fruit varieties that were observed. Disease resistance, ease of vegetative propagation, and fruit quality of these accessions were also examin.Thanks to Recep Tayyip Erdogan University Scientific Research Projects Unit (Project No: RUBAP ?? ??. ? ??. ? ?. ?) for financial support