A Low Cost Method to Develop an Initial Pavement Management System

Implementation of a pavement management system requires data collection to estimate system needs, performance modeling to forecast time sensitive changes and decision making to allocate interventions. Many agencies have embarked into the implementation of a pavement management system which eventually after some years render its fruits, however, implementation typically involves expensive equipment, years of data collection and hundreds of hours of workmanship. This all result in a barrier that impedes implementation at small municipalities and governments in developing countries. A low cost solution to estimate road surface roughness condition and to implement an initial pavement management system is proposed in this research. Pavement roughness can be estimated with an accelerometer built-in tablets and smart phones. Vertical accelerations normalized by speed can be used to produce a proxy for International Roughness Index. Testing of the method was done by comparing different tablets, applications, vehicles, speeds and location of the instrument inside the vehicle. Performance models were developed using World Bank’s equation of IRI, road repair strategies were correlated to testing sections in need of maintenance or rehabilitation repairs. This research shows a case study of the town of Saint-Michelle in Quebec. Data was collected for all municipal roads in Saint Michelle and a pavement management system was developed. It was found that $254,418 dollars is required in order to sustain current levels of condition. It is recommended that in the future performance models are based on several years of observations in order to replace the synthetic deterministic curves herein adopted

AXIAL Crushing Of Thin-Walled Tube With Hole Under Quasi-Static Loading

Thin-walled tube is one of the energy absorbing structure utilized to dissipate energy and increase the efficiency of crashworthiness. During the accident, thin-walled tube dissipates the kinetic energy of the structure and converts it into other form of energy. Thus, this gives enough energy dissipation before hitting the human. This study examines the circular and square thin-walled tubes of mild steel subjected to axial crushing test by using Instron machine. These tubes include imperfection (round holes) located at three different locations. The theoretical results obtained from mathematical equations for the circular and square tubes crushing have been compared to the experimental results and a good agreement has been achieved between the theoretical and experimental results. The analysis of load-displacement characteristics includes the peak load, energy absorption capacity, mean crushing load, crush force efficiency (CFE), and specific energy absorption(SEA) results. The diameter, location and number of the holes were varied to investigate the effect of these parameters to the load-displacement characteristics. The location of round hole is located in 3 different level in the tube. As a result, the circular tube is capable of providing better decrease peak load and higher absorbed energy compared to the square tube.It was found that the better specimen is the circular tube with multi-hole, due to it has the excellent result in decrease the peak load reached to 16 %, it was concluded that value of the peak load is optimum in circular thin-walled tube. While the value of energy absorption slightly decreases in all specimens with holes compared with tube without hole. The location of holes in circular tube has the effect on the type of deformation. However, it does not affect the deformation in the square tube the location unaffected on the deformation. At the end, the modifications performed on the original tube shows an improvement in the load-displacement characteristics. The information obtained in this study will serve as a guide to better design the thin-walled tube in the future

Mechanical Circulatory Support in High-Risk Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

The use of mechanical circulatory devices to support high-risk elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has become more common as the group of patients considered inoperable or high risk for surgical revascularization has grown. Most of the data examining outcomes in high-risk PCI are observational and retrospective. Limited prospective randomized studies have been unable to show improved clinical outcomes with routine mechanical circulatory support (MCS) in patients with a high burden of coronary artery disease and reduced ejection fraction. The role for MCS in high-risk PCI continues to evolve as understanding of the appropriate groups for this therapy evolves

Implementation of a Research Plan Management System for Research Center of TIU University

Mobile apps are always evolving to make our lives simpler. This research study focuses on developing a cross-platform mobile application for TIU’s research center’s Research Plan Management System (RPMS). TIU currently does not have a mobile application that allows academics to submit their annual research plans and proposals online rather than filling out paper or electronic forms. This study was done at TIU’s research center for an experimental object, and it used Flutter as a development platform, Firebase as a backend database, and Dart as a programming language to create a mobile app that serves as a research management system for the institution. It enables related departments to track the research publication process until it reaches the final stage, and staff may electronically submit their research plans and acquire the appropriate permissions, as well as allowing the Research Center and departments to view real staff progress. According to our study survey, more than 70% of TIU staff believe that using a mobile application to submit and follow-up with the research plan is better than the traditional paper-based system

TRANSDERMAL OF ATENOLOL VIA MICROEMULSIONS

Objective: Developing novel non-ionic microemulsions (MEs) for transdermal of atenolol as satisfactory alternative drug delivery systems for the oral route. Methods: Seven MEs were developed then checked for encapsulation of atenolol using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR-spectroscopy) (), isotropy, droplet sizes, rheological properties and transdermal flux using Franz diffusion cell. Furthermore, two MEs with best flux values were selected for bioavailability evaluation after transdermal application over rat’s skin. Results: The results showed that the MEs complies with colloidal systems properties. Also, the developed MEs were stable throughout the study, ideal viscous systems with droplet sizes below 500 nm and isotropic. Besides, FTIR-spectra could reveal the structure of the MEs and encapsulation of atenolol inside the dispersed phase. Moreover, the flux values of atenolol in MEs through rat’s skin varied with different factors such as atenolol concentration, MEs’s composition, and zetapotential. The highest flux value of the developed systems was 243.5±16.3 µg. cm-2. h-1. Furthermore, the in vivo results showed that using the two tested microemulsions maximum plasma levels of atenolol 5.22±0.43 and 4.06±0.15 mg. ml-1at 8.18 and 3.64 h respectively could be achieved. Conclusion: The developed microemulsions can be promise formulations for transdermal administration of atenolol as alternative for oral tablets

Cardiac Tamponade Secondary to COVID-19

A 67-year-old female presented with upper respiratory symptoms and was diagnosed with COVID-19. She was found to have a large hemorrhagic pericardial effusion with echocardiographic signs of tamponade and mild left ventricular impairment. Clinical course was complicated by development of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. She was treated with pericardiocentesis, colchicine, corticosteroids and hydroxychloroquine with improvement in symptoms

Association of LOXL1 gene common sequence variants in Jordanian patients with exfoliation syndrome and exfoliative glaucoma

AIM: To investigate the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the LOXL1 gene with exfoliation syndrome/glaucoma (XFS/XFG) among Jordanians. METHODS: Sixty-one patients with XFS/XFG and 59 healthy control individuals were recruited in the study. Patients were diagnosed with XFS/XFG using standard clinical examination techniques. The exonic rs1048661 SNP and the intronic rs2165241 SNP in LOXL1 gene were genotyped using sequencing technique. Allele and genotype frequencies were compared between cases and controls using Chi-square analysis. RESULTS: The G allele of the rs1048661 SNP and the T allele of the rs2165241 SNP were common in the sample with frequencies of 86.4% and 81.4%, respectively. In addition, there were no significant differences in the genotypic and allelic distributions between patients and controls for rs1048661 SNP (P=0.770, OR=1.21, 95%CI: 0.56-2.60) and for rs2165241 SNP (P=0.605, OR=1.12, 95%CI: 0.59-2.09). In addition, no significant associations were found between haplotypes of the examined SNPs and XFS/XFG in the sample (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: Variations in LOXL1 gene may not be associated with XFS/XFG in the Jordanian population. More studies are required to confirm the current findings