Relapse coping strategies in young adults addicts: A quantitative study in Iran

Background: Cognitive-behavioral coping approach is known as an effective strategy to preventing relapse. Its goal is to forget incompatible behaviors and replaces them with the compatible answers. Objectives: This study examines relapse coping strategies in young adults in selected substance abuse treatment centers in Iran. Patients and Methods: The present is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 70 self-referred young addicts (18-24 years). Adolescence Relapse Coping Questionnaire was used to assess relapse coping strategies. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. Results: The findings revealed that 71.2 have experienced a relapse totally. It was hard to control the hypothetical high risk situation and they greatly wanted to use the substance (mean 7.39 of 10). Addicts have used of all three coping skills in »definitely would do» level. Conclusion: Enhancing self-efficacy through training coping skills, especially abstinence - focused coping skills to react properly in high risk situation can be useful. © 2016 Indian Psychiatric Society | Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow

Solar pond powered liquid desiccant evaporative cooling

Liquid desiccant cooling systems (LDCS) are energy efficient means of providing cooling, especially when powered by low-grade thermal sources. In this paper, the underlying principles of operation of desiccant cooling systems are examined, and the main components (dehumidifier, evaporative cooler and regenerator) of the LDCS are reviewed. The evaporative cooler can take the form of direct, indirect or semi-indirect. Relative to the direct type, the indirect type is generally less effective. Nonetheless, a certain variant of the indirect type - namely dew-point evaporative cooler - is found to be the most effective amongst all. The dehumidifier and the regenerator can be of the same type of equipment: packed tower and falling film are popular choices, especially when fitted with an internal heat exchanger. The energy requirement of the regenerator can be supplied from solar thermal collectors, of which a solar pond is an interesting option especially when a large scale or storage capability is desired

Environmental design solutions for existing concrete flat roofs in low-cost housing to improve passive cooling in western Mexico

The development of real estate in Mexico has largely ruled out the comfort of users that focused on economic matters and made it difficult to make substantial progress in adopting measures to improve indoor environmental quality. Current research projects in Mexico found that roof construction in low-cost housing struggles to meet the requirements of the indoor climate. Passive cooling strategies are techniques to control heat gain and heat dissipation in buildings to maximise the comfort and health of building users while minimising energy use. Passive cooling systems recognize climate conditions and utilise renewable sources of energy such as the sun and wind to provide cooling and ventilation. Therefore, this study aims to develop a green and sustainable solution for existing concrete flat roofs with no major interventions and investments to save energy. The design of a passive device was tested to assess its effectiveness to protect flat roofs from shortwave radiation and to allow for heat dissipation in Mexican buildings. The study used a quantitative approach based on experiments and simulation tests to evaluate design efficiency. The results showed that a perforated device with an opening percentage of 88% and a cavity of 0.05m between the roof and the device provided effective protection. Also, the device with blinds of 45° showed lower operative temperatures within a range of mean values between 0.8°C and 0.9°C compared to a roof with a full shade cover in the hot and humid season. However, the perforated device with blinds of 90° in black colour delivered the best performance compared to other models and recorded a mean value of 1.13°C in the hot sub-humid season. The results revealed the efficiency of the proposed device that can be observed within different geometric configurations, surface properties as well as the use of the nocturnal radiative cooling potential in blocking solar radiation in Mexican buildings

Marine Predators Algorithm: A nature-inspired metaheuristic

© 2020 This paper presents a nature-inspired metaheuristic called Marine Predators Algorithm (MPA) and its application in engineering. The main inspiration of MPA is the widespread foraging strategy namely Lévy and Brownian movements in ocean predators along with optimal encounter rate policy in biological interaction between predator and prey. MPA follows the rules that naturally govern in optimal foraging strategy and encounters rate policy between predator and prey in marine ecosystems. This paper evaluates the MPA's performance on twenty-nine test functions, test suite of CEC-BC-2017, randomly generated landscape, three engineering benchmarks, and two real-world engineering design problems in the areas of ventilation and building energy performance. MPA is compared with three classes of existing optimization methods, including (1) GA and PSO as the most well-studied metaheuristics, (2) GSA, CS and SSA as almost recently developed algorithms and (3) CMA-ES, SHADE and LSHADE-cnEpSin as high performance optimizers and winners of IEEE CEC competition. Among all methods, MPA gained the second rank and demonstrated very competitive results compared to LSHADE-cnEpSin as the best performing method and one of the winners of CEC 2017 competition. The statistical post hoc analysis revealed that MPA can be nominated as a high-performance optimizer and is a significantly superior algorithm than GA, PSO, GSA, CS, SSA and CMA-ES while its performance is statistically similar to SHADE and LSHADE-cnEpSin. The source code is publicly available at: https://github.com/afshinfaramarzi/Marine-Predators-Algorithm, http://built-envi.com/portfolio/marine-predators-algorithm/, https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/74578-marine-predators-algorithm-mpa, and http://www.alimirjalili.com/MPA.html

A Quantitative Investigation of Dislocation Density in an Al Matrix Composite Produced by a Combination of Micro-/Macro-Rolling

An aluminum matrix composite with dispersed carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was produced via flake powder metallurgy using a micro-rolling process and vacuum hot pressing (VHP), followed by conventional rolling using a macro-rolling process. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the produced composites were studied. In addition, a new quantitative model was introduced to study the dislocation density based on the microstructural parameters. The results revealed that the distribution characteristics of the CNTs in the Al matrix and the Al-CNT interfaces were the two main governing parameters of dislocation density. Moreover, the dependence of dislocation density on the geometry of the grains and crystallographic texture was shown in this model. The microstructural evolution revealed that a lamellar grain structure had been achieved, with a high capacity for the storage of dislocation. A uniform distribution of CNTs with high bonding quality was also seen in the final microstructure

A global systematic, review-meta analysis and ecological risk assessment of ciprofloxacin in river water

The presence of antibiotics and their metabolites such as ciprofloxacin (CIP) in water resources attracted notable attention as a new international health concern. A systematic and review-meta analysis was performed to evaluate the concentration of CIP in the rivers along with the related ecological risk assessment. PubMed, Scopus and Embase databases were screened to retrieve the related articles among 1 January 1983 to 10 July 2018. Fifty-five articles (58 studies of data reports) comprising 1,886 samples from 20 countries were included. Furthermore, the meta-analysis was performed by the aid of a random effects model (REM) to estimate pooled concentration with 95 confidence intervals (CI). According to findings, the concentration of CIP in the river downstream of untreated wastewater was higher than other rivers located downstream of treated wastewater. Also, the meta-analysis of data based on year of study subgroup demonstrated that over time, the concentration of CIP in the rivers was increased. The ecological risk assessment showed that people settled in some regions of South Africa was at a potential (HQ: 1�10 value) adverse ecological risk of CIP in the river. Therefore immediate control plans besides appropriate removal techniques should be approached for complete eradication of antibiotics like CIP. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Microbial Exchange via Fomites and Implications for Human Health.

Purpose of reviewFomites are inanimate objects that become colonized with microbes and serve as potential intermediaries for transmission to/from humans. This review summarizes recent literature on fomite contamination and microbial survival in the built environment, transmission between fomites and humans, and implications for human health.Recent findingsApplications of molecular sequencing techniques to analyze microbial samples have increased our understanding of the microbial diversity that exists in the built environment. This growing body of research has established that microbial communities on surfaces include substantial diversity, with considerable dynamics. While many microbial taxa likely die or lay dormant, some organisms survive, including those that are potentially beneficial, benign, or pathogenic. Surface characteristics also influence microbial survival and rates of transfer to and from humans. Recent research has combined experimental data, mechanistic modeling, and epidemiological approaches to shed light on the likely contributors to microbial exchange between fomites and humans and their contributions to adverse (and even potentially beneficial) human health outcomes.SummaryIn addition to concerns for fomite transmission of potential pathogens, new analytical tools have uncovered other microbial matters that can be transmitted indirectly via fomites, including entire microbial communities and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Mathematical models and epidemiological approaches can provide insight on human health implications. However, both are subject to limitations associated with study design, and there is a need to better understand appropriate input model parameters. Fomites remain an important mechanism of transmission of many microbes, along with direct contact and short- and long-range aerosols