Capital Budgeting: An Empirical Approach to a Probabilistic Problem

Engineerin

Association of blood lead levels and working memory ability of primary school children in Ranau , Sabah

A cross sectional study on the association of Blood Lead Levels (BLL) and Working Memory (WM) ability of primary school children in Ranau, Sabah was conducted from September 2012 till October 2013 • One hundred schools children were selected from 5 schools which consisted of three from Ranau (Study Population, n=50), one each from Pitas and Sipitang (Control Population, n=50). The objectives were to study the association of BLL and WM ability of Primary School Children in Ranau Sabah, to identify the difference in BLL and WM Ability between sex and type of populations, the correlation between respondent background and BLL's, to determine the level of WM ability and the correlation of BLL and WM. Blood samples were taken by venous blood draw using disposable syringes and collected in plastic sterile tube mixed with K2EDTA. The samples were maintained at 40C and transported to Universiti Malaysia Sabah laboratory. BLL was tested using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) Perkin-Elmer. WM ability was measured by extraction of McCarthy Intelligent Quotient (IQ) Index Test and known as WM Index Cummulative Score (WMICS). Demographic background obtained from the distributed questionnaires. One sample T Test show, p-value > 0.05 for BLL at 4.90 j.lg/dL - 5.28 j.lg/dL lower than BLL for 'action level' at 10 j.lg/dL (ATSDR, 2007). The independent Samples T test of mean show BLL was higher in boys compared to girls (p 0.05). ANOVA tests for BLL and race/ethnicity (p > 0.05), BLL and mode of transportation to school (p >0.05), BLL and religion (p > 0.05), BLL and education level (p > 0.05). The WM ability of school children was high, 76% scored 78% -100% of WMICS. Mann Whitney U Test show type of populations influenced the WMICS (p 0.05). Pearson Correlation Test show a negative association for BLL and WMICS (r= -0.621) at medium level where r = (-0.51) - (-0.70». The research result was a reinstatement of negative associations of BLL and WM ability among school children. However, since the study results are not considered representing the whole problem of BLL of school children in Sabah. Further research is needed such as to carry out a comprehensive and complete lead study and monitoring programme which involves all areas and parameters, such as age, environmental samples, biomarkers, nutritional factors, KAP's and complete IQ test together with continuous health promotion and education programmes with inter-agency collaboration. Such comprehensive programme will ensure the lead elimination programme become a reality in Sabah

Endovascular Treatment of Symptomatic Intracranial Atherosclerotic Disease

Symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) is responsible for approximately 10% of all ischemic strokes in the United States. The risk of recurrent stroke may be as high as 35% in patient with critical stenosis >70% in diameter narrowing. Recent advances in medical and endovascular therapy have placed ICAD at the forefront of clinical stroke research to optimize the best medical and endovascular approach to treat this important underlying stroke etiology. Analysis of symptomatic ICAD studies lead to the question that whether angioplasty and/or stenting is a safe, suitable, and efficacious therapeutic strategy in patients with critical stenoses that are deemed refractory to medical management. Most of the currently available data in support of angioplasty and/or stenting in high risk patients with severe symptomatic ICAD is in the form of case series and randomized trial results of endovascular therapy versus medical treatment are awaited. This is a comprehensive review of the state of the art in the endovascular approach with angioplasty and/or stenting of symptomatic ICAD

CNS tuberculosis and stroke, burden, management challenges and future needs for care and research

An estimated 10 million cases of Tuberculosis (TB) and 1.6 million deaths due to this disease occurred worldwide in 2017 (1). About 1.7 billion people, 23% of the world’s population are estimated to have latent TB infection and are thus at risk of developing active TB disease during their life time. TB is mostly common in developing countries and Pakistan ranks 5th among 30 high-burden countries and 5th for Drug Resistant TB (DRTB). The incidence of TB in Pakistan is 267 per 100,000 (1) with an estimated 525,000 cases in 2017 including 57,000 cases among those who were less than 15 years of age

Importance and Challenges of SMEs: A Case of Pakistani SMEs

This paper attempt to highlight the importance and challenges that SMEs facing now a days. The small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) regarded as a key contributor in progression of an economy and main pillar of GDP of any country. SMEs are the major source in generating employment. Generally, the large firms are often thought as the larger contributors towards the economic development and foreign exchange earnings but now this point of view has been changed because countries like Korea, Taiwan, and Japan have developed and boosted their economies through the Small and Medium Enterprises businesses

Predictors of Occult Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation in Cryptogenic Strokes Detected by Long-Term Noninvasive Cardiac Monitoring

Background and Purpose. Paroxysmal Atrial fibrillation/Flutter (PAF) detection rates in cryptogenic strokes have been variable. We sought to determine the percentage of patients with cryptogenic stroke who had PAF on prolonged non-invasive cardiac monitoring. Methods and Results. Sixty-two consecutive patients with stroke and TIA in a single center with a mean age of 61 (+/− 14) years were analyzed. PAF was detected in 15 (24%) patients. Only one patient reported symptoms of shortness of breath during the episode of PAF while on monitoring, and 71 (97%) of these 73 episodes were asymptomatic. A regression analysis revealed that the presence of PVCs (ventricular premature beats) lasting more than 2 minutes (OR 6.3, 95% CI, 1.11–18.92; P = .042) and strokes (high signal on Diffusion Weighted Imaging) (OR 4.3, 95% CI, 5–36.3; P = .041) predicted PAF. Patients with multiple DWI signals were more likely than solitary signals to have PAF (OR 11.1, 95% CI, 2.5–48.5, P < .01). Conclusion. Occult PAF is common in cryptogenic strokes, and is often asymptomatic. Our data suggests that up to one in five patients with suspected cryptogenic strokes and TIAs have PAF, especially if they have PVCs and multiple high DWI signals on MRI

Review on recent development micro gas turbine -trigeneration system and photovoltaic based hybrid energy system

Research on distributed power generation as an alternative method to the conventional power generation system continue to be developed to improve its commercialization capabilities. The cogeneration system and trigeneration system are technological improved alternatives in distributed generation where they offer enhancement and reliability in term of efficiency, emission performances and economic benefits. However, it is more feasible to implement the trigeneration system for most commercial and domestic distributed generations as the cooling demand is deliberately high compared to heating demand especially in hot and humid climate locations. Moreover, micro gas turbine is observed to be a beneficial prime mover in cogeneration and trigeneration system based on several criteria such as ability on acquiring high heat to power ratio characteristic as well as lower greenhouse gas emission. On the other hand, the role photovoltaic in building integrated system provides opportunities for renewable energy system engagement in trigeneration based distributed generation systems. This paper emphasize on summarizing the research work perform on cogeneration system or trigeneration system in hybrid mode with photovoltaic. There are also preceding sections on overviewing the state of art of cogeneration system and the trigeneration system as well as photovoltaic technologies in power generation

Aerobic exercise interventions reduce blood pressure in patients after stroke or transient ischaemic attack: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: Secondary vascular risk reduction is critical to preventing recurrent stroke. We aimed to evaluate the effect of exercise interventions on vascular risk factors and recurrent ischaemic events after stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). Design: Intervention systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources: OVID MEDLINE, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, TRIP Database, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, UK Clinical Trials Gateway and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched from 1966 to October 2017. Eligibility criteria: Randomised controlled trials evaluating aerobic or resistance exercise interventions on vascular risk factors and recurrent ischaemic events among patients with stroke or TIA, compared with control. Results: Twenty studies (n=1031) were included. Exercise interventions resulted in significant reductions in systolic blood pressure (SBP) −4.30 mm Hg (95% CI −6.77 to −1.83) and diastolic blood pressure −2.58 mm Hg (95% CI −4.7 to −0.46) compared with control. Reduction in SBP was most pronounced among studies initiating exercise within 6 months of stroke or TIA (−8.46 mm Hg, 95% CI −12.18 to −4.75 vs −2.33 mm Hg, 95% CI −3.94 to −0.72), and in those incorporating an educational component (−7.81 mm Hg, 95% CI −14.34 to −1.28 vs −2.78 mm Hg, 95% CI −4.33 to −1.23). Exercise was also associated with reductions in total cholesterol (−0.27 mmol/L, 95% CI −0.54 to 0.00), but not fasting glucose or body mass index. One trial reported reductions in secondary vascular events with exercise, but was insufficiently powered. Summary: Exercise interventions can result in clinically meaningful blood pressure reductions, particularly if initiated early and alongside education

Impact of initialization of a modified particle swarm optimization on cooperative source searching

Swarm robotic is well known for its flexibility, scalability and robustness that make it suitable for solving many real-world problems. Source searching which is characterized by complex operation due to the spatial characteristic of the source intensity distribution, uncertain searching environments and rigid searching constraints is an example of application where swarm robotics can be applied. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is one of the famous algorithms have been used for source searching where its effectiveness depends on several factors. Improper parameter selection may lead to a premature convergence and thus robots will fail (i.e., low success rate) to locate the source within the given searching constraints. Additionally, target overshooting and improper initialization strategies may lead to a nonoptimal (i.e., take longer time to converge) target searching. In this study, a modified PSO and three different initializations strategies (i.e., random, equidistant and centralized) were proposed. The findings shown that the proposed PSO model successfully reduce the target overshooting by choosing optimal PSO parameters and has better convergence rate and success rate compared to the benchmark algorithms. Additionally, the findings also indicate that the random initialization give better searching success compared to equidistant and centralize initialization

Responsive surging, heading and diving controls of autonomous underwater vehicle based on brute forcing and smoothing of controllers

There are many types of controllers had been used to control Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) such as Proportional Integral Derivative (PID), Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), state feedback linearization, integrator back-stepping, and Sliding-Mode Control (SMC). However, for PID and SMC in particular, it is difficult to determine the optimal control design parameters. The objective of this study is to design and develop a responsive motion control system with optimal parameters for an AUV. The contribution of this paper is in term of introducing a filter to smooth reference signal and proposing a brute forcing technique to find optimal controller parameters. The methodology starts with modeling the AUV, estimating the unknown parameters from a real AUV model, designing a control system based on PI and SMC methods, and finally optimizing the controller parameters. The controller design was onto controlling surge speed using PI, heading using SMC, and diving using SMC. Simulation-wise, the developed control system has an average value of 93.89 % of responsiveness to track desired trajectory while 82.33 % of responsiveness without using the smoothing filter. The tested input signals were unit step, ramp, parabolic, and sinusoidal