Optimum Maintenance Policy for Equipment over Changing of the Operation Environment

This chapter investigates optimization of maintenance policy of a repairable equipment whose lifetime distribution depends on the operating environment severity. The considered equipment is undergone to a maintenance policy which consists of repairing minimally at failure and maintaining after operating periods. The periodic maintenance is preventive maintenance (PM) and allows reducing consequently the equipment age but with higher cost than minimal repair. In addition, the equipment has to operate at least in two operating environments with different severity. Therefore, in this analysis, the equipment lifetime distribution function depends on the operating severity. Under these hypotheses, a mathematical modeling of the maintenance cost per unit of time is proposed and discussed. This cost is mathematically analyzed in order to derive optimal periods between preventive maintenance (PM) and the optimal condition under which these exist

Optimal Maintenance Policy for Second-Hand Equipments under Uncertainty

This chapter addresses a maintenance optimization problem for re-manufactured equipments that will be reintroduced into the market as second-hand equipments. The main difference of this work and the previous literature on the maintenance optimization of second-hand equipments is the influence of the uncertainties due to the indirect obsolescence concept. The uncertainty is herein about the spare parts availability to perform some maintenance actions on equipment due to technology vanishing. The maintenance policy involves in fact a minimal repair at failure and a preventive repair after some operating period. To deal with this shortcoming, the life cycle of technology or spare parts availability is defined and modeled as a random variable whose lifetimes distribution is well known and Weibull distributed. Accordingly, an optimal maintenance policy is discussed and derived for such equipment in order to overcome the uncertainty on reparation action. Moreover, experiments are then conducted and different life cycle of technologies are evaluated according to their obsolescence processes (accidental or progressive vanishing) on the optimal operating condition

Meeting the sexual health needs of men who have sex with men in Senegal

A study conducted in Dakar, Senegal by researchers from the National AIDS Council, Cheikh Anta Diop University, and the Horizons program obtained information on the needs, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes of men who have sex with men (MSM). This study offers important insights into the sexuality of MSM, their vulnerability to STI/HIV, and the role of violence and stigma in their lives. The results also highlight the lack of sexual health services and information available to cover the specific needs of MSM. The results of this study were summarized during a meeting held in April 2001 in Dakar and raised awareness of the importance for public health of developing non-stigmatizing interventions for MSM. The results led to the establishment of an NGO pool to develop and coordinate activities for MSM in Dakar

Low-cost adaptation options to support green growth in agriculture, water resources, and coastal zones

The regional climate as it is now and in the future will put pressure on investments in sub-Saharan Africa in water resource management, fisheries, and other crop and livestock production systems. Changes in oceanic characteristics across the Atlantic Ocean will result in remarkable vulnerability of coastal ecology, littorals, and mangroves in the middle of the twenty-first century and beyond. In line with the countries' objectives of creating a green economy that allows reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved resource efficiency, and prevention of biodiversity loss, we identify the most pressing needs for adaptation and the best adaptation choices that are also clean and affordable. According to empirical data from the field and customized model simulation designs, the cost of these adaptation measures will likely decrease and benefit sustainable green growth in agriculture, water resource management, and coastal ecosystems, as hydroclimatic hazards such as pluviometric and thermal extremes become more common in West Africa. Most of these adaptation options are local and need to be scaled up and operationalized for sustainable development. Governmental sovereign wealth funds, investments from the private sector, and funding from global climate funds can be used to operationalize these adaptation measures. Effective legislation, knowledge transfer, and pertinent collaborations are necessary for their success

Low-cost adaptation options to support green growth in agriculture, water resources, and coastal zones

The regional climate as it is now and in the future will put pressure on investments in sub-Saharan Africa in water resource management, fisheries, and other crop and livestock production systems. Changes in oceanic characteristics across the Atlantic Ocean will result in remarkable vulnerability of coastal ecology, littorals, and mangroves in the middle of the twenty-first century and beyond. In line with the countries' objectives of creating a green economy that allows reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved resource efficiency, and prevention of biodiversity loss, we identify the most pressing needs for adaptation and the best adaptation choices that are also clean and affordable. According to empirical data from the field and customized model simulation designs, the cost of these adaptation measures will likely decrease and benefit sustainable green growth in agriculture, water resource management, and coastal ecosystems, as hydroclimatic hazards such as pluviometric and thermal extremes become more common in West Africa. Most of these adaptation options are local and need to be scaled up and operationalized for sustainable development. Governmental sovereign wealth funds, investments from the private sector, and funding from global climate funds can be used to operationalize these adaptation measures. Effective legislation, knowledge transfer, and pertinent collaborations are necessary for their success

Case Report: COVID-19 and Lassa Fever Coinfection in an Ebola Suspected Patient in Guinea

ABSTRACT. In this case report, we describe a clinical presentation and therapeutic history of a unique case diagnosed with Lassa fever and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a 23-year-old man from Yomou prefecture in southeast Guinea identified with suspected Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the midst of an ongoing outbreak of that disease in the same region. On May 3, 2021, he was admitted to the Nzérékoré Epidemic disease treatment center where his clinical condition deteriorated significantly. Laboratory testing performed on the same day reveals a negative EVD polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Three days later, the patient was tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and Lassa fever by reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assays. Laboratory examination also indicated severe hematological and biochemical deteriorations in the patient. This case substantiates the need for systematic differential diagnosis during epidemic-prone disease outbreaks to better manage severely unwell patients.</jats:p

Resurgence of Ebola virus in 2021 in Guinea suggests a new paradigm for outbreaks

These authors contributed equally: Alpha K. Keita, Fara R. Koundouno, Martin Faye, Ariane Düx, Julia Hinzmann.International audienc

Freedom of belief at the crossroad of civilisations - an Islamic perspective and its impact on Africa : the cases of Egypt and Nigeria

"This study focuses on the impediment that suffers freedom of belief, which goes beyond religious belief and its manifestation, as a result of clashes of civilisations, and their consequences mainly on the horizontal level, on the African continent. The central thesis of the work is [to] see whether Islam is a monolith, or if there exist different standards of the freedom of belief in Islamic context from that guaranteed in international human rights instruments. ... This paper is constructed around five main chapters. The first contains the research question; the second the position of Islam towards people of other faiths through its main sources. The third chapter exposes how Islam is, [in] one way or the other, used to withstand freedom of belief in the international arena, and how, in some isolated cases, freedom of belief of Muslims was violated because of scepticism about Islam. The fourth chapter shows the negative impact of such clashes on the African continent illustrated by two countries: Egypt and Nigeria. And the last chapter is dedicated to the conclusion and recommendation." -- Introduction.Prepared under the supervision of Alejandro Lorite Escorihuela at the Faculty of Law, American University in CairoThesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2006.http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.htmlCentre for Human Right

Non-parametric analysis of Maintenance policies based on heterogeneous lifetimes data

Dans la littérature, plusieurs travaux ont été développés autour de la modélisation, l’analyse et la mise en place de politiques de maintenance pour les équipements sujets à des défaillances aléatoires. Ces travaux occultent souvent les réalités industrielles par des hypothèses telles que la connaissance a priori des distributions paramétriques des durées de vie et l’homogénéité des conditions d’exploitation des équipements. Ces hypothèses sont restrictives et constituent une source de biais parce qu’elles conditionnent l’analyse statistique des politiques de maintenance. Dans ce présent travail de thèse, de telles hypothèses sont relaxées pour permettre la prise en compte et la mise en valeurs des informations dérivant directement des données de durées vie issues de l’exploitation de l’équipement et ce sans passer par un modèle paramétrique intermédiaire. L’objectif de ce travail de thèse consiste alors en le développement de modèles statistiques et d’outils efficaces pour l’analyse des politiques de maintenance basées sur les données de durées de vie hétérogènes. Nous proposons en effet une démarche complète d’analyse de stratégies de maintenance en partant des données de durées de vie jusqu’à l’obtention des politiques optimales de maintenance en passant par une phase d’estimation des lois de probabilité. Les politiques de maintenance considérées sont appliques à des équipements usagés évoluant dans des environnements d’exploitation distingués par leur niveau de sévérité. Dans ce contexte, un modèle mathématique est proposé permettant d’évaluer et d’analyser théoriquement les coûts unitaires d’une stratégie de maintenance particulière dite de type âge. Cette analyse a permis d’établir les conditions nécessaires et suffisantes garantissant un âge optimal de remplacement préventif de l’équipement. Les coûts unitaires de maintenance sont complètement estimés par la méthode du Noyau de Parzen. Cette méthode d’estimation est non-paramétrique et définie par une fonction noyau et un paramètre de lissage. Il est également montré, dans nos travaux de recherche, que cet estimateur garantit une faible propagation des erreurs induites par le paramètre de lissage. Les résultats obtenus par la méthode du Noyau de Parzen sont proches des valeurs théoriques avec un faible coefficient de variation. Des extensions de la première politique de maintenance sont également proposées et étudiées. Ce travail de thèse s’achève par la proposition d’une approche permettant de mesurer et d’analyser le risque induit par le report d’une maintenance préventive. Ce risque est analysé à travers une fonction risque proposéeIn the reliability literature, several researches works have been developed to deal with modeling, analysis and implementation of maintenance policies for equipments subject to random failures. The majority of these works are based on common assumptions among which the distribution function of the equipment lifetimes is assumed to be known. Furthermore, the equipment is assumed to experience only one operating environment. Such assumptions are indeed restrictive and may introduce a bias in the statistical analysis of the distribution function of the equipment lifetimes which in turn impacts optimization of maintenance policies. In the present research work, these two particular assumptions are relaxed. This relaxation allows to take into account of information related to conditions where the equipment is being operating and to focus on the statistical analysis of maintenance policies without using an intermediate parametric lifetimes distribution. The objective of this thesis consists then on the development of efficient statistical models and tools for managing the maintenance of equipments whose lifetimes distribution is unknown and defined through the heterogeneous lifetimes data. Indeed, this thesis proposes a framework for maintenance strategies determination, from lifetimes data acquisition toward the computation of optimal maintenance policies. The maintenance policies considered are assumed to be performed on used equipments. These later are conduct to experience their missions within different environments each of which is characterized by a degree of severity. In this context, a first mathematical model is proposed to evaluate costs induced by maintenance strategies. The analysis of these costs helps to establish the necessary and sufficient conditions to ensure the existence of an optimal age to perform the preventive maintenance. The maintenance costs are fully estimated by using the Kernel method. This estimation method is non-parametric and defined by two parameters, namely the kernel function and the smoothing parameter. The variability of maintenance costs estimator is deeply analyzed according to the smoothing parameter of Kernel method. From these analyses, it is shown that Kernel estimator method ensures a weak propagation of the errors due to the computation of smoothing parameter. In addition, several simulations are made to estimate the optimal replacement age. These simulations figure out that the numerical results from the Kernel method are close to the theoretical values with a weak coefficient of variation. Two probabilistic extensions of the first mathematical model are proposed and theoretically discussed. To deal with the problem of delayed preventive maintenance, an approach is proposed and discussed. The proposed approach allows evaluating the risk that could induce the delay taken to perform a preventive maintenance at the required optimal date. This approach is based on risk analysis conduct on the basis of a proposed risk functio

Hyperthyroïdie induite par interféron alpha : rapport d'un cas et revue de la littérature

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