Modelling and Control of Collecting Solar Energy for Heating Houses in Norway

In this research, a new model was developed and modified with a combined solar heating system which works with solar radiation and electricity. In order to model the system, the outdoor temperature of the location and solar irradiance has been considered. The case study of this research has been done in Porsgrunn City in the south of Norway. The building which was modelled in this research is a passive solar building which is able to store heat by using phase change materials, which are mounted on the floor and release the heat when the temperature of the house decreases. The model of the house was designed based on some assumptions about ambient temperature, solar collector size, transmitting lines length and some specific properties like air density and specific heat. The results of this research show that a solar heating system which is working with electricity can provide a sufficient temperature for the house in winter time. With using the phase change materials in order to have a passive solar building design, an improvement in the temperature inside the house was seen. Based on the simulation results which were achieved, a solar heating system which works with electricity can be an efficient system to heat the house, especially in the winter times

Analysis of causes and outcomes of corneal transplantation in al-zahra eye hospital in southeast of Iran from 2011-2016

Background: Corneal transplantation is known as the most successful and common type of organ transplant, but it calls for more intensive and long-term care. Given the lack of adequate information on this important surgery in this province and the differences between indications and causes of corneal transplantation, the present research was carried out to examine the causes and outcomes of corneal transplant in patients visiting Al-Zahra eye hospital who had received donated cornea in the past five years.Methods: In a retrospective analytical-descriptive study 135 files of 149 eyes that had gone through corneal transplantation were examined. Information on the age, gender, residence, indications, and surgery consequences was extracted and was analyzed in SPSS 19 statistical software with descriptive statistics (percentage, frequency, mean, and standard deviation.Results: The highest transplant indication was keratoconus with a frequency of 39.9% followed by bullous keratopathy, corneal opacity, and transplant rejection with frequencies of 16.1, 12.7, and 10.1%, respectively. Other indications were corneal scar (9.4%), corneal perforation (2.7%), trauma (2.7%), and Fuchs’ corneal dystrophy (1.3%) in the order mentioned. Concerning postoperative complications in this research, 57.7% of the eyes (86 cases) showed no complication. Moreover, complications were mostly related to astigmatism with a frequency of 30.8% (46 cases).Conclusions: In general, the most common indication in this research was keratoconus. Most surgeries were also complication-free and most complications were associated with astigmatism

Assessment of the Role of Maternal Characteristics, Mental Health and Maternal Marital Satisfaction in Prediction of Neonatal Birth Weight

Background Neonatal mortality comprises a large part of infant mortality, and it depends largely on neonatal birth weight. Besides maternal diseases, it seems that other important factors such as maternal demographic characteristics, mental health and marital satisfaction, affects their infants birth weight. This study conducted aiming to evaluate these affecting factors on neonatal birth weight. Materials and Methods  This study was descriptive – correlative, and conducted on all of the mothers and their neonates who were 200 mothers and neonates born during the summer 2015, in Urmia Kosar hospital that lasted 6 months. We used the GHQ (General Health Questionnaire), to evaluate the mental status of mothers and ENRICH for the evaluation of marital satisfaction. Demographic characteristics of mothers collected to special forms. Results In this study, 200 mothers, and 200 neonates born in Kosar Hospital were studied. The mean age of the mothers was 28.06 ± 6.34 years and the duration of pregnancy was 39.14 ± 1.21 months. The amount of obtained was significant for pregnancy duration in predicting neonatal birth weight. In marital status parameters, beta amounts for economic, family and communication was significant in predicting neonatal birth weight. Among parameters of maternal mental health, correlation of depression was significant in predicting neonatal birth weight. Conclusion According to results, in white race low maternal age was a risk factor for bearing low birth weight baby. Marital satisfaction and bearing no stress from husband lets the fetus grow well and reaches normal birth weight

Novel Layered Double Hydroxides-Hydroxyapatite/gelatin Bone Tissue Engineering Scaffolds: Fabrication, Characterization, and in Vivo Study

Developing Porous Biodegradable Scaffolds through Simple Methods is One of the Main Approaches of Bone Tissue Engineering (BTE). in This Work, a Novel BTE Composite Containing Layered Double Hydroxides (LDH), Hydroxyapatite (HA) and Gelatin (GEL) Was Fabricated using Co-Precipitation and Solvent-Casting Methods. Physiochemical Characterizations Showed that the Chemical Composition and Microstructure of the Scaffolds Were Similar to the Natural Spongy Bone. Interconnected Macropores Ranging over 100 to 600 Μm Were Observed for Both Scaffolds While the Porosity of 90 ± 0.12% and 92.11 ± 0.15%, as Well As, Young\u27s Modulus of 19.8 ± 0.41 and 12.5 ± 0.35 GPa Were Reported for LDH/GEL and LDH-HA/GEL Scaffolds, Respectively. the Scaffolds Were Degraded in Deionized Water after a Month. the SEM Images Revealed that between Two Scaffolds, the LDH-HA/GEL with Needle-Like Secondary HA Crystals Showed Better Bioactivity. According to the Alkaline Phosphatase Activity and Alizarin Red Staining Results, LDH-HA/GEL Scaffolds Demonstrated Better Bone-Specific Activities Comparing to LDH/Gel Scaffold as Well as Control Sample (P \u3c 0.05). the Rabbit Adipose Stem Cells (ASCs) Were Extracted and Cultured, Then Seeded on the LDH-HA/GEL Scaffolds after Confluence. Three Groups of Six Adult Rabbits Were Prepared: The Scaffold + ASCs Group, the Empty Scaffold Group and the Control Group. the Critical Defects Were Made on the Left Radius and the Scaffolds with or Without ASCs Were Implanted There While the Control Group Was Left Without Any Treatment. All Animals Were Sacrificed after 12 Weeks. Histomorphometric Results Showed that the Regeneration of Defects Was Accelerated by Scaffold Implantation But ASC-Seeding Significantly Improved the Quality of New Bone Formation (P \u3c 0.05). the Results Confirmed the Good Performance of LDH-HA/GEL Scaffold to Induce Bone Regeneration

Multiethnic Exome-Wide Association Study of Subclinical AtherosclerosisCLINICAL PERSPECTIVE

The burden of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic individuals is heritable and associated with elevated risk of developing clinical coronary heart disease (CHD). We sought to identify genetic variants in protein-coding regions associated with subclinical atherosclerosis and the risk of subsequent CHD

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

A Review on Techno-Economic Assessment of Solar Water Heating Systems in the Middle East

Currently, the economy of Middle Eastern countries relies heavily on fossil fuel sources. The direct and indirect adverse consequences of fossil fuel utilization for power generation enforce the region’s countries to raise the share of renewable energy. In this context, various incentive policies have been developed to encourage the residential and industrial sectors to support a portion of energy needs through renewable energy resources. In this case, a solar water heating system (SWHS) as an application of solar thermal technology provides some of the heat energy requirements for domestic hot water (DHW) and space heating, supported conventionally by electricity or natural gas, or even other fossil fuels. This paper reviews the feasibility of the SWHS in the Middle East region from technical and economical standpoints and investigates some of the progress, challenges, and barriers toward this market. The pay-back times and CO2 emission reduction under different incentive frameworks and configurations of each system have been assessed in this context. Furthermore, the advantages and weaknesses of the SWHS in several countries have been reported. Finally, various guidelines have been proposed to enhance the development of this technology

Quantitative Risk-Analysis Process of Oil and Gas Upstream Service Contracts

Contracts are a means to allocate the scope of work and associated risks to the owners and contractors involved. In case of megaprojects, because there is much at stake, identifying risk factors of megaprojects and estimating their likelihoods and consequences are vital. Likewise, analyzing how the contract risks are shared between parties and predicting the possibilities of achieving the contract goals are important practices as well. This paper, through an exploratory research, describes a risk-analysis procedure and the results of applying probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) techniques on the new Iranian upstream contract framework for a real-world gas megaproject. Such a process consists of (1) gathering and reporting all risk factors affecting construction schedule, cost, internal rate of return (IRR), and gross and net revenue; (2) eliciting and debiasing expert judgments; (3) building a mathematical model to implement Monte Carlo simulation; and (4) providing the probability distribution function (PDF) of project financial parameters. Results of this paper are of interest to practitioners involved in contractual negotiations as well as those who are responsible for developing financial framework of upstream service contracts

Defect Detection in Pipes using a Mobile Laser-Optics Technology and Digital Geometry

This paper presents a novel method for defect detection in pipes using a mobile laser-optics technology and conventional digital-geometry-based image processing techniques. The laser-optics consists of a laser that projects a line onto the pipe’s surface, and an omnidirectional camera. It can be mounted on a pipe crawling robot for conducting continuous inspection. The projected laser line will be seen as a half-oval in the image. When the laser line passes over defected points, the image moments on the pixel information would change. We propose a B-spline curve fitting on the digitally-convoluted image and a curvature estimation algorithm to detect the defects from the image. Defect sizes of 2 mm or larger can be detected using this method in pipes of up to 24 inch in diameter. The proposed sensor can detect 180-degree (i.e., upper half surface of the pipe). By turning the sensor 180 degrees, one will be able to detect the other half (i.e., lower half of the pipe’s surface). While, 360-degree laser rings are available commercially, but they did not provide the intensity needed for our experimentation. We also propose a fast boundary extraction algorithm for real time detection of defects, where a trace of consecutive images are used to track the image features. Tests were carried out on PVC and steel pipes