Assessment and optimization of environmental systems using data analysis and simulation.

For most environmental systems, specifically wastewater treatment plants and aquifers, a significant number of performance data variables are attained on a time series basis. Due to the interconnectedness of the variables, it is often difficult to assess over-arching trends and quantify temporal operational performance. The objective of this research study was to provide an effective means for comprehensive temporal evaluation of environmental systems. The proposed methodology used several multivariate data analyses and statistical techniques to present an assessment framework for the water quality monitoring programs as well as optimization of treatment plants and aquifer systems. The developed procedure considered the combination of statistical and data analysis algorithms including correlation techniques, factor analysis and principal component analysis, and multivariate stepwise regression analysis. Those methodologies were used to develop a series of independent indexes to quantify the composition of wastewater and groundwater. Also, by developing a stepwise data analysis approach, a baseline was introduced to discover the key operational parameters which significantly affect the performance of environmental systems. Moreover, a comprehensive approach was introduced to develop numerical models for forecasting key operational and quality parameters which can be used for future simulation and scenario analysis practices. The developed methodology and frameworks were successfully applied to four case studies which include three wastewater treatment plants and an aquifer system. In the first case study, the aforementioned approach was applied to the Floyds Fork water quality treatment center in Louisville, KY. The objective of this case study was to establish simple and reliable predictive models to correlate target variables with specific measured parameters. The study presented a multivariate statistical and data analyses of the wastewater physicochemical parameters to provide a baseline for temporal assessment of the treatment plant. Fifteen quality and quantity parameters were analyzed using data recorded from 2010 to 2016. To determine the overall quality condition of raw and treated wastewater, a Wastewater Quality Index (WWQI) was developed. To identify treatment process performance, the interdependencies between the variables were determined by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The five extracted components adequately represented the organic, nutrient, oxygen demanding, and ion activity loadings of influent and effluent streams. The study also utilized the model to predict quality parameters such as Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Phosphorus (TP), and WWQI. High accuracies ranging from 71% to 97% were achieved for fitting the models with the training dataset and relative prediction percentage errors less than 9% were achieved for the testing dataset. The presented techniques and procedures in this case study provide an assessment framework for the wastewater treatment monitoring programs. The second case study focused on assessing methane production of a novel combined system for treatment of high strength organic wastewater. The studied pilot plant comprised Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) process under anaerobic condition, in conjunction with Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) as the combining aerobic process. Various operational parameters were tested to maximize the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal performance and methane gas production from treating high strength synthetic wastewater. The identified optimal parameters included hydraulic retention time, organic loading rate, and disk rotational speed; equal to 5 days, 7 rpm, and 2 kg COD/m3/d, respectively. Under these conditions, the combined system achieved high removal efficiency (98% from influent COD of 10,000 mg/L) with additional benefit of methane production (116.60 L/d from a 46-liter AnRBC reactor). The obtained results from conducting this case study confirmed the effectiveness of integrated hybrid system in achieving both high removal efficiency and methane production. Thus, this system was recommended for treating high strength organic wastewater. The third case study focused on assessing the feasibility of using a contact stabilization process for secondary treatment of refinery wastewater through a step by step analysis. the studied pilot plant comprised contact-stabilization activated sludge process in conjunction with clarification reactor. Various operational parameters were tested to minimize excessive sludge production and maximize system removal performance from treating petroleum refinery wastewater. The mixed liquor dissolved oxygen (DO) and the rate of activated return sludge (RS) were selected as key operational parameters. The results indicated that the system had an optimum performance under applied aeration of 3.7 mg oxygen per liter of mixed liquor and 46% return sludge. This operational combination resulted in COD removal efficiency of 78% with daily biomass production of 1.42 kg/day. Considering the results from this case study, the contact stabilization activated sludge process was suggested as an effective alternative for secondary treatment of wastewater from petroleum refineries. The last case study combined probabilistic and deterministic approaches for assessing aquifer’s water quality. The probabilistic approach used multivariate statistical analysis to classify the groundwater’s physiochemical characteristics. Building upon the obtained results, the deterministic approach used hydrochemistry analyses for a more comprehensive assessment of groundwater suitability for different applications. For this purpose, a large geologic basin, under arid weather conditions, was evaluated. The ultimate objective was to identify: 1) groundwater classification scheme, 2) processes governing the groundwater chemistry, 3) hydrochemical characteristics of groundwater, and 4) suitability of the groundwater for drinking and agricultural purposes. Considering the results from multivariate statistical analysis, chloride salts dissolution was identified within the aquifer. Further application of the deterministic approach revealed degradation of groundwater quality throughout the basin, possibly due to the saltwater intrusion. By developing the water quality index and a multi-hazard risk assessment methodology, the suitability of groundwater for human consumption and irrigation purposes were assessed. The combined consideration of deterministic and probabilistic approaches provided an effective means for comprehensive evaluation of groundwater quality across different aquifers or within one. The presented procedures and methodologies in this research study provide environmental analysts and governmental decision makers with a comprehensive tool to evaluate current and future quality conditions within any given wastewater treatment plants and/or aquifer systems

Relationship between empowerment with dimensions of quality of life and some related factors in patients with type 2 diabetes in the Shahroud city, 2013

زمینه و هدف: تغییر رویکرد سنتی به توانمندسازی در آموزش و مراقبت بیماران دیابتی می تواند با ایجاد بستر مناسب، زمینه ساز بهبود خود مراقبتی و وضعیت سلامتی در بیماران دیابتی باشد. مطالعه حاضر با هدف تعیین ارتباط توانمندی با ابعاد کیفیت زندگی و برخی عوامل مرتبط با آن در بیماران مبتلا به دیابت نوع 2 انجام شد. روش بررسی: این مطالعه توصیفی تحلیلی در سال 1392 بر روی 156 بیمار مبتلا به دیابت نوع 2 در شهرستان شاهرود انجام شد. با استفاده از فرم اطلاعات دموگرافیک، پرسشنامه سنجش توانمندی (DES-28) و پرسشنامه کیفیت زندگی مختص بیماران دیابتی، ارتباط بین توانمندی بیمارن با ابعاد کیفیت زندگی و برخی عوامل مرتبط با آن ارزیابی و سنجیده شد. یافته ها: میانگین نمره توانمندی بیماران 84/16 ±56/82 بود. بین توانمندی بیماران با تمام ابعاد کیفیت زندگی آن ها همبستگی مثبت و معنی‌داری وجود داشت (05/

Fault diagnosis of compressor based on decision tree and fuzzy inference system

There is a strong need to use different methods for maintaining high product quality and safety production line, given the rapid technological progress. Thus, the condition monitoring is widely used as an efficient method in various industries. A variety of methods have been used so far in order to implement condition monitoring system, the most common one has been seismic waves analysis in the time-frequency domain. The current paper proposes a Fuzzy Inference System for monitoring the status of the compressor based on Daubechies wavelet transform and decision trees. The J48 algorithm was used as a tool for classification design and selection of effective features on troubleshooting. The J48 algorithm output results showed that signal processing technique by Daubechies wavelet mother has the highest accuracy for the implementation of the FIS system. The J48 algorithm output is a decision tree used on production of if-then rules and fuzzy set membership functions of the system. Finally, the combination of WT-J48-FIS overall accuracy for classifying compressor defects of 93.33 % was obtained

Compressor fault diagnosis based on SVM and GA

Due to growth of mechanization and automation, today’s industrial systems are becoming more complex. A small breakdown of any non-redundant machine component affects the operation of the entire system. Compressors are utilized widely in the oil and chemical industry. Great attention has been paid to the condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of the Compressor by the field engineers and technicians. In this study, an effective and reliable method based on vibration analysis and with signal processing and classification techniques is presented for troubleshooting of a centrifugal Compressor. Among different time – frequency methods, wavelet transformation extracts information about the signal time scale through a series of convolution operation between the measured signals and the basis wavelet which was used as a preprocessing. The used mother wavelet is (db4) in which the original signal is switched to multiple details signals; then it features are taken from pre-processed signals and they were introduced to support vector machines as input. Kernel function used here in the support vector machine is RBF in which the parameters of support vector machine were optimized using Genetic Algorithm for better performance to increase the accuracy of classification. The highest accuracy was obtained as 100 %. The obtained accuracy clearly indicates high safety margin of the multistage centrifugal pump for fault detection

Comparison of patient’s prognostic based on Madras Head Injury Prognostic Scale and Glasgow Outcome Scale in head trauma patients admitted in emergency ward of 5th Azar educative and therapeutic center in Gorgan, 2011

زمینه و هدف: آسیب‌ های تروماتیک سر بزرگترین علت مرگ و ناتوانی در میان بیماران ترومایی است. تخمین پیش‌ آگهی بیمار بلافاصله پس از بروز ضربه سر، می ‌تواند اساس تصمیمات بالینی صحیح در آینده، صرفه‌ جویی در هزینه‌ ها، توان بخشی به موقع و افزایش رضایت بیماران باشد؛ بنابراین این مطالعه با هدف تعیین پیش ‌آگهی بیماران ضربه سر مراجعه ‌کننده به بخش فوریت مرکز آموزشی درمانی پنجم آذر گرگان با مقیاس پیش‌ گویی کننده مدراس انجام گردید. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه توصیفی- همبستگی 117 نفر از بیماران ضربه سر مراجعه‌ کننده به بخش فوریت مرکز آموزشی درمانی پنجم آذر گرگان با روش نمونه‌ گیری در دسترس انتخاب و بررسی شدند. جمع ‌آوری داده ‌ها با استفاده از برگه اطلاعات دموگرافیک، مقیاس پیش ‌گویی جراحات سر مدراس و مقیاس برآیند گلاسکو (GOS) انجام شد. داده‌ ها در محیط نرم ‌افزار آماری SPSS با استفاده از آمار توصیفی و آزمون ‌های آنالیز واریانس، کای مجذور، ضریب همبستگی پیرسون و تی مستقل تحلیل شد. یافته‌ ها: میانگین و انحراف معیار سن بیماران 54/1±51/32 بود. بر حسب مقیاس پیش‌ گویی ضربه سر مدراس، پیش‌ آگهی اغلب بیماران (7/54) خوب بود. بیماران با ضایعات داخل جمجمه و شکستگی ‌های جمجمه از پیش ‌آگهی ضعیف ‌تری برخوردار بودند و این تفاوت از نظر آماری معنی ‌دار بود (001/0P<). بین نمرات حاصل از مقیاس پیش‌ گویی ضربه سر مدراس در بدو پذیرش با نتایج نهایی ضربه سر بر اساس مقیاس برآیند گلاسکو، ارتباط مستقیم و معنی‌ دار آماری وجود داشت (001/0P<، 688/0r=). نتیجه ‌گیری: با توجه به یافته ‌های این مطالعه، مقیاس پیش ‌گویی ضربه سر مدراس، در مقایسه با سایر مقیاس‌ های مورد استفاده در این زمینه مقیاسی دقیق، سریع و در عین حال ساده‌ تر و کاربردی ‌تر است؛ لذا انجام پژوهش‌ های بیشتر با هدف کاربرد جهت تریاژ بیماران در اورژانس توصیه می ‌شود

Relationship between occupational stress and cardiovascular diseases risk factors in drivers

Objectives: Of all work stressors, occupational stress is the leading cause of many disorders among workers. Drivers are classified as a high risk group for work related stress. This study set out to determine the relationship between risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and occupational stress among drivers. Material and Methods: Two hundred and twenty two Ilam’s intercity drivers were selected for the study. For measuring work stress, the Osipow work stress questionnaire was used. After a 10-h fasting period, systolic and diastolic blood pressure was recorded. Intravenous blood samples were taken to determine cholesterol, triglyceride and blood glucose levels. The independent samples t-test and Pearson’s correlation test were used to assess the relationship between variables and occupational stress. Results: Seventy-one percent of the intercity drivers suffered from average to acute stress, and 3.1% of them suffered from acute stress. There was no significant relationship between occupational stress and diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.254) among the drivers. Nevertheless, the Pearson’s correlation test demonstrated a strong relationship between work stress and blood glucose (p < 0.01), while no strong correlation was found for blood triglycerides and cholesterol levels. Conclusions: Based on the results, high rates of occupational stress were observed in the Ilam’s intercity drivers. Occupational stress may have effect on blood glucose levels but the results did not suggest a considerable relationship between risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and occupational stress among intercity drivers. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2016;29(6):895–90

Sensor Fault Detection and Compensation with Performance Prescription for Robotic Manipulators

This paper focuses on sensor fault detection and compensation for robotic manipulators. The proposed method features a new adaptive observer and a new terminal sliding mode control law established on a second-order integral sliding surface. The method enables sensor fault detection without the need to impose known bounds on fault value and/or its derivative. It also enables fast and fixed-time fault-tolerant control whose performance can be prescribed beforehand by defining funnel bounds on the tracking error. The ultimate boundedness of the estimation errors for the proposed observer and the fixed-time stability of the control system are shown using Lyapunov stability analysis. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified using numerical simulations on two different robotic manipulators, and the results are compared with existing methods. Our results demonstrate performance gains obtained by the proposed method compared to the existing results

The Effect of Home Phototherapy in Jaundice and Bilirubin Levels of Neonates in Urmia City

Neonatal jaundice is one of the most common diseases in neonatal medicine. Phototherapy is a safe and secure method and is one of the most common treatments of indirect hyperbilirubinemia. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of home phototherapy in neonatal hyperbilirubinemia in Urmia. The present study is a cross-sectional study by the Cohort method. Two hundred three full-term infants older than 24 hours, who were referred to phototherapy for home phototherapy for two months, were selected as the study population. Neonatal serum bilirubin levels in both groups were measured at the beginning and 24 hours after phototherapy. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS-20. In this study, the mean neonatal bilirubin level before phototherapy was 14.33 ±2.41 mg/dl before and 8.11 ± 2.29 mg/dl after phototherapy. The reduction rate of bilirubin after home phototherapy was 6.6 mg/dl per day and these differences were statistically significant. During phototherapy at home, phototherapy was successful in 96.6% of the neonates recovered, and only seven neonates (3.4%) had complications. Due to the lower prevalence of complications and low duration of treatment, it can be concluded that home phototherapy can be a good alternative for the treatment of neonatal jaundice. Therefore, this method is recommended for the treatment of neonatal jaundice through proper phototherapy training at home