Voice restoration following total laryngectomy by tracheoesophageal prosthesis: Effect on patients' quality of life and voice handicap in Jordan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Little has been reported about the impact of tracheoesophageal (TE) speech on individuals in the Middle East where the procedure has been gaining in popularity. After total laryngectomy, individuals in Europe and North America have rated their quality of life as being lower than non-laryngectomized individuals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in quality of life and degree of voice handicap reported by laryngectomized speakers from Jordan before and after establishment of TE speech.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twelve male Jordanian laryngectomees completed the University of Michigan Head & Neck Quality of Life instrument and the Voice Handicap Index pre- and post-TE puncture.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All subjects showed significant improvements in their quality of life following successful prosthetic voice restoration. In addition, voice handicap scores were significantly reduced from pre- to post-TE puncture.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Tracheoesophageal speech significantly improved the quality of life and limited the voice handicap imposed by total laryngectomy. This method of voice restoration has been used for a number of years in other countries and now appears to be a viable alternative within Jordan.</p

A techno-economic analysis of a hybrid energy storage system for EV off-grid charging

This paper presents the techno-economic advantages of a DC coupled li-ion and lead-acid hybrid energy storage systems used for EV off-grid charging using visitors arriving at Marwell Zoo car park as a case study. The analysis shows that the hybrid storage systems can reduce the overall system costs by using li-ion batteries for frequent cycling linked with lead-acid for longer, less aggressive cycles. On-site over generation of 600 % of the total load give sthe lowest total system cost. For the optimized overgeneration, hybrid storage system can further reduce the cost of the EV off grid charging system by up to 10 % when compared with a li-ion only energy store

Optimal sizing of stand-alone energy systems incorporating battery capacity fading

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are one of the key elements for designing a stand-alone system based on renewable energy generation. The capacity of these equipment, however, starts to fade due to charge cycling and ageing. In this paper, a planning scheme is presented for supplying electric vehicle (EV) charging stations by a stand-alone system composed of wind and PV generation, and batteries. The approach is based on a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation and a binary expansion method is utilized to tackle the nonlinearities of the problem. After quantifying the degradation behaviour of the battery by solving the optimization problem, its capacity is modified to be able to charge and discharge according to the output of the sizing program. The formulation is applied to a &#x1d43f;&#x1d456;&#x1d439;&#x1d452;&#x1d443;&#x1d442;4 (LFP) battery technology, and the results illustrate how the battery degradation is able to impact the final capacity and planning costs for the system. For a reliability level of 99%, a 139.78kWh with a total degradation of 18.74kWh is calculated. Also, for the reliability level of 90%, the calculated capacity and total degradation are 207.23kWh and 40.86kWh respectively