Urban bus positioning: Location based services and high level system architecture

Today’s urban transport systems are dominated by private vehicles, which are significant contributors to traffic congestion and pollution. This is expected to increase as the urban population grows, predicted to account for about 68% of the world’s population by 2050. In comparison to private cars, transport systems dominated by buses produce lower traffic congestion and emissions. Therefore, improvements in bus operation activities most of which require information on bus location (i.e. location based services) should facilitate urban transport sustainability. However, to date there is no agreement globally on the location based services, their location requirements and technologies to deliver significant improvement in bus operations. Therefore, this paper creates for the first time, a comprehensive list of bus operation services and specifies the performance requirements. These are considered together with challenging spatio-temporal characteristics of the urban environment to specify a high-level location determination system architecture for urban bus operations. The services, their requirements, standards and positioning system architecture are essential for the formulation of appropriate policies, regulation, service provision, and development and procurement of urban bus positioning systems

Burnout and Resilience in Community Pharmacists in Qatar during the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Cross Sectional Study

Objective: The main aim of this study is to illustrate the prevalence of burnout and resilience among community pharmacists in Qatar during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study design that included the collection and analysis of quantitative data from community pharmacists in Qatar using a cross-sectional survey. Results: Overall, participants had a moderate level of burnout as illustrated in the mean scores of the three dimensions; 22.11±13.053 for emotional exhaustion, 7.17±6.55 for depersonalization, and 35.94±11.47 for personal accomplishment. The findings demonstrated that 15.2%, 15.6%, and 5.4% of community pharmacists had moderate levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. Further, they showed high resilience (35.7±8.57). Mental health outcomes were statistically positively correlated with fear while age was negatively correlated with depersonalization. Conclusion: This study is the first study to report the prevalence of mental health outcomes among community pharmacists during COVID-19 in Qatar. The pharmacists experienced moderate burnout but high resilience which indicates their high potential to overcome difficulties. Future interventions at the personal, national and organizational levels are needed to improve mental health during this pandemic by preventing and managing stress, improving self-efficacy and resilience, and providing adequate social support

Role of pharmacists in the care of adult asthma patients: A scoping review

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record Background: Asthma is a common long-term condition that affects people of all ages. Evidence suggests that a significant proportion of asthma patients in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) do not receive appropriate diagnosis, monitoring and/or treatment. When inadequately treated, asthma can negatively affect quality of life and may lead to hospitalisation and death. Although pharmacists play a role in asthma care globally, there appears to be no defined role for pharmacists in providing care to patients with asthma in the GCC countries. Aim: This scoping review aims to review and summarise studies conducted in the GCC countries involving pharmacists in the management of adults with asthma or evaluating pharmacists' asthma care knowledge and/or skills. Method: A systematic scoping review was undertaken. Seven databases were searched using relevant search terms for articles published up to May 2023. Studies that evaluated pharmacists’ roles, knowledge and skills in providing asthma care to adults in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain were considered eligible for inclusion. Extracted data were collated using tables and used to produce narrative descriptive summaries. Results: Out of the 1588 search results, only seven studies met the inclusion criteria. Of those, only one developed and tested a pharmacist-led inhaler technique educational intervention in the UAE within community pharmacy setting for asthma patients. The remaining six studies assessed community pharmacists’ knowledge in providing asthma management and patient education in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The quality of the included studies varied with four relying on simulated patients to assess pharmacists’ knowledge. The study that tested the intervention suggested improvement in inhaler technique and asthma symptoms control after receiving the intervention. The findings suggest a need to improve pharmacists’ knowledge of inhaler technique demonstration (mainly Metered Dose Inhalers), asthma management advice and assessment of asthma control and medication use. Conclusion: This review highlights a lack of research on pharmacist-led asthma interventions and identifies training needs to enable pharmacists to be involved in asthma care in the GCC countries. Future research could develop approaches involving pharmacists to improve asthma care and outcomes in the region.University of Exeter Global MENA Development fundUniversity of Sharja

Distance learning: opportunities and challenges in quarantine.

The urgent introduction of distance education into the learning process due to the COVID-19 pandemic has become a spontaneous experiment, requiring urgent decisions, effective mechanisms to implement into the educational process and analysis of ongoing educational process. The possibilities of modern digital technologies made it possible to quickly set up the information component of education and to controle student’s knowledge. A detailed analysis of the communication between the faculty members of the department among themselves and analysis of the features of teaching and self-education of students in the field of medical radiology and oncology based on answers and comments with using Google classroom, Socrative, Messenger Telegram, etc. was made. Issues of communicative interaction between faculty members and students, psychological aspects of distance communication, language of instruction, logistics of distance education and methodological problems are described in details. It has been suggested that distance education may be equally effective for theoretical subjects in full-time study form, but when studying clinical disciplines, the priority should be given to traditional methods of teaching, involving student's bedside training. Taking into account technical possibilities and high risk of development of extreme and emergency situations, it is suggested to introduce permanent readiness for distance education, to create all – Ukrainian distance imitation service of patients’ follow-up. The importance of using the state language in training as the basis for mastering the professional Ukrainian and English language as the basis for mastering international medical experience is indicated

A 2-D PVDF force sensing system for micro-manipulation and micro-assembly

Despite the enormous research efforts in creating new applications with MEMS, the research efforts at the backend such as packaging and assembly are relatively limited. One reason for this is the level of difficulty involved. One fundamental challenge lies in the fact that at micro-scale, micro mechanical structures are fragile and easy to break - they typically will break at the micro-Newton (μN or 10-6N) force range, which is a range that cannot be felt by human operators. In this paper, we will present our ongoing development of a polyvinylidence fluoride (PVDF) multi-direction micro-force sensing system that can be potentially used for force-reflective manipulation of micro-mechanical devices or micro-organisms over remote distances. Thus far, we have successfully demonstrated 1D and 2D sensing systems that are able to sense force information when a micro-manipulation probe-tip is used to lift a micro mass supported by 2μm×30μm×200μm polysilicon beams. Hence, we have shown that force detection in the 50μN range is possible with PVDF sensors integrated with commercial micro-manipulation probe-tips. We believe this project will eventually make a great impact to the globalization of MEMS foundries because it will allow global users to micro-assemble and micro-manipulate surface micromachined devices from their laboratories, and therefore, reduce the time from design to production significantly.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Internet-based remote sensing and manipulation in micro environment

Recent developments in the Internet have significantly increased the human capability to reach and obtain information from remote locations. In parallel, the advent of micro sensors and actuators makes it possible for humans to sense and act in a microenvironment. Combined, the Internet and ME will produce a new technology for humans to sense and act in remote microenvironments, allowing the potential development of micro teleoperation and micro automation technologies. These new technologies have potential impact on several fields, including remote micro-automation and biomedical engineering. In this paper, we will present our ongoing development of polyvinylidence fluoride (PVDF) sensors that can be used force-reflective control of micromechanical devices over the Internet. Internet based teleoperation between Hong Kong and Michigan State was demonstrated using an event-based control scheme, which ensured stability and synchronization. Control was enhanced by multimedia feedback, which included, in add ition to the traditional video, force feedback. The force fed back augmented the limited information supplied by visual feedback. We believe this project will eventually make a great impact to the globalization of MEMS foundries because it will allow global users to micro-assemble and micro-manipulate surface micromachined devices from their laboratories, and hence, reduce the time from design to production significantly.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Electrochemical fabrication of TiO2 -Au nanocomposites

Nanocomposites comprised of electrosynthesized/annealed TiO2 on indium tin oxide substrates, using the electrogeneration of base method, followed by electrodeposited gold clusters are presented, and their photoelectrochemical response is examined. The TiO2 films are nodular with a rough morphology. Gold nanoparticles were electrodeposited onto the electrogenerated TiO2 with galvanostatic pulses. A step photoresponse analysis was employed to characterize the photoelectrochemical behavior of three different forms of the TiO2-Au composite: (i) TiO2 decorated with Au nanoparticles, TiO2/Au, (ii) TiO2 with embedded Au nanoparticles in a sandwichlike fashion, TiO2/Au/TiO 2, and (iii) TiO2 with embedded and decorated Au nanoparticles, TiO2/Au/TiO2/Au. The TiO2/Au composite resulted in the highest photocurrent response under UV irradiation and in a broadening of the photocurrent response to the visible region, although with successive testing a decrease in the photocurrent response was observed. The photoresponse of the buried Au nanoparticles, TiO2/Au/TiO 2, was slightly lower compared to Au decorating the TiO2 electrosynthesized surface, TiO2/Au, but significantly higher than pristine electrosynthesized TiO2. © 2009 The Electrochemical Society