Implementation of Value Engineering for strategy formulation (Case study: Fisheries sector)

This paper analyzes the results of implementing Value Engineering (VE) into SWOT methodology undertaken in Yazd province of Iran. This is the first time that these techniques have been undertaken for fisheries sector in Iran. The study mainly aims at applying Value Engineering and SWOT techniques to achieve the best out of decision-making, and also of management issues as a whole, through the consideration of creative ideas for improvement. The analyses use scientific trawl data and standardized analysis techniques. Based upon the analysis of fisheries issues, findings indicate that the optimized policy is to introduce new sea food chain restaurants into the studied province. Moreover, other suggestions could be as follows: advertising and good standard packaging for export, building facilities for processing and refrigeration by investors, producing Salmon for export in good packaging, producing crabs and other new species, encouraging people to consume more fish, paying great attention to research works, government supporting for transportation, loan, and subsidies, and finally encouraging investors

The effect of physical and psychosocial occupational factors on the chronicity of low back pain in the workers of Iranian metal industry: A cohort study

Background: Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common problems among the workers of different industries. The role of occupational factors in causing the LBP has been indicated previously. LBP has great socio-economic costs and most of its costs are related to the chronic LBP. The aim of this study was to identify the occupational risk factors that are related to the progression of the LBP from acute to chronic phase. Methods: This cohort study has been conducted on 185 workers with acute LBP. Information related to their occupational exposure at baseline has been measured with a valid questionnaire using the self-report approach. Patients follow up was done monthly for three months after the start of the pain. Those workers whose occupational exposure had not changed during the follow up were divided into two groups of chronic LBP (n = 49) and cured (n = 136) according to the duration of the pain period (more or less than 3 months), and their job exposures were compared. Results: Among the physical and psychosocial risk factors, social support (OR = 0.466, CI = 0.231-0.940) and job satisfaction (OR = 0.455, CI = 0.232-0.891), and lifting weights more than 15kg (OR = 2.482, CI = 1.274-4.834) indicated a significant relationship with the chronicity of the LBP. After putting the variables into the regression model, only lifting > 15kg remained statistically significant. Conclusion: According to the observed relationship between these occupational risk factors (social support, job satisfaction, lifting > 15kg) and the chronicity of the LBP, there is hope that eliminating these factors in the workers with acute LBP will prevent its progression to the chronic phase

High Resolution Surface Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage Objects Using Shape from Polarization Method

Nowadays, three-dimensional reconstruction is used in various fields like computer vision, computer graphics, mixed reality and digital twin. The three- dimensional reconstruction of cultural heritage objects is one of the most important applications in this area which is usually accomplished by close range photogrammetry. The problem here is that the images are often noisy, and the dense image matching method has significant limitations to reconstruct the geometric details of cultural heritage objects in practice. Therefore, displaying high-level details in three-dimensional models, especially for cultural heritage objects, is a severe challenge in this field. In this paper, the shape from polarization method has been investigated, a passive method with no drawbacks of active methods. In this method, the resolution of the depth maps can be dramatically increased using the information obtained from the polarization light by rotating a linear polarizing filter in front of a digital camera. Through these polarized images, the surface details of the object can be reconstructed locally with high accuracy. The fusion of polarization and photogrammetric methods is an appropriate solution for achieving high resolution three-dimensional reconstruction. The surface reconstruction assessments have been performed visually and quantitatively. The evaluations showed that the proposed method could significantly reconstruct the surfaces' details in the three-dimensional model compared to the photogrammetric method with 10 times higher depth resolution

Sustainable μECM machining process: indicators and assessment

Sustainability assessment of a manufacturing process is not an easy task and requires knowledge from inside of the process physics or chemistry as well as the overall process performance considering the effectiveness of the process and specific applications. Sustainability assessment is with increasing demand among the manufacturing companies. At present sustainability is considered only among the traditional manufacturing techniques and non-traditional processes do not receive enough attention in spite of the increasing demand for their use. Additionally micro and nano non-traditional manufacturing processes are nearly not considered in the studies for sustainability; and micro electrochemical machining (μECM) was not an exemption either. μECM is one of the promising non-conventional machining processes but its expensive structure, complex nature of the electrochemical reaction and process dependency on operator experiences has kept it back at research level. Securing a place for a new manufacturing process has to be done by proving its sustainability in comparison to the other existing processes. In this work, the aim is to establish a framework for assessment of the μECM sustainability based on five dimensions of the sustainability in order to justify its use and the initial investment cost. Indicators and measures for the effectiveness of the process are suggested as well as machining performance parameters are discussed. Routes for optimizing machining parameters is also explored. Finally the full picture sustainability assessment is generated.European Commission 3D electrochemical sharpening of medical needles (SHARP MEDIC); Innovate UK Pulsed-electrochemical machining process to manufacture powder metallurgy aerospace fastener punches

Quality of life, Work ability and other important indicators of women's occupational health

Objectives: Work ability may be considered as an important aspect of well-being and health status. One of the most important factors in association with work ability is health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this study has been to determine the association between work ability, individual characteristics and HRQoL of female workers. Material and Methods: The design of this study has been cross-sectional. The work ability index (WAI) and Short-Form General Health Survey (SF-12) questionnaires were used to collect data. Three hundred and twenty female workers were selected from food supplier factories in Karaj. One-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation analysis, independent sample t-test and multiple linear regression methods were used to analyze data. Results: Mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) of the WAI stood at 35.02 and 5.57, respectively. The categories of the WAI for women being as follows: 8.8 poor, 62 moderate, 25.4 good and 3.7 excellent. Mean±SD for the physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) of quality of life was 58.84±11.12 and 57.45±9.94, respectively. There was a positive significant association between the PCS and MCS with the WAI (p = 0.0001). Workers with higher education had a better work ability (p = 0.002) and shift-work workers had a worse work ability (p = 0.03). Conclusions: Work ability of majority of women was moderate. Considering mean age of studied women (27.6 years old), this work ability is not satisfactory. Physical and mental components of the HRQoL were the important factors associated with work ability

Defining polypharmacy in the elderly: A systematic review protocol

Introduction: Ageing-along with its associated physiological and pathological changes-places individuals at a higher risk of multimorbidity and treatment-related complications. Today, polypharmacy, a common and important problem related to drug use, occurs subsequent to this multimorbidity in the elderly in all populations. In recent decades, several scientific investigations have studied polypharmacy and its correlates, using different approaches and definitions, and their results have been inconclusive. Differences in definitions and approaches in these studies form a barrier against reaching a conclusion regarding the risk factors and consequences of polypharmacy. It is therefore imperative to establish an appropriate definition of polypharmacy. Methods and analysis: A systematic review will be conducted using PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE, PsycINFO and AgeLine bibliographic databases, as well as the grey literature on polypharmacy in older adults to answer these two questions: What definitions in the literature are being used for polypharmacy in older people?, and Which definitions are more comprehensive and applicable? 2 independent reviewers will conduct the primary screening of the articles and data extraction, and eligible sources will be selected after discussing nonconformities. All extracted data from selected articles will be categorised based on the type of study participants, study design and setting, the methodological quality of primary studies and any other potential source of heterogeneity, and results will be summarised in a table, which will contain the levels of evidence and methodological quality of the included studies. The most comprehensive definition of polypharmacy will be selected from the final list of definitions through an international expert webinar. Ethics and Dissemination: This research is exempt from ethics approval because the work is carried out on published documents. We will disseminate this protocol in a related peer-reviewed journal

The need for national diagnostic reference levels: Entrance surface dose measurement in intraoral radiography

Background: Intraoral radiographies are the most frequent X-ray examinations in humans. According to International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP) recommendations, the selection of a diagnostic reference level (DRL) should be specific to a country or region. Critical organs such as thyroid gland are exposed to X-rays in intraoral radiography and these exposures should be kept as low as reasonably achievable. To assist the development of DRLs for intraoral radiography, a National Radiation Protection Department-sponsored pilot study was carried out. Materials and Methods: Thermoluminescent dosimetry (TLD) is widely acknowledged to be the recommended method for measuring entrance surface doses (ESD). In this study, ESD was measured using LiF thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD-100) on the skin (either mandibular or maxillary arcs) of 40 patients. Three TLD chips were placed on the skin of each patient. The doses were averaged for each radiography and mean ESD of all patients calculated. Results: The mean ± SD entrance surface dose at the center of the beam on the patients' skin in intraoral radiography was 1.173 ± 0.606 mGy (ranged from 0.01 to 0.40 mGy). The mean ESD for male and female patients were 1.380 ± 0.823, and 1.004 ± 0.258 respectively. No statistically significant difference was found between these means. Despite its necessity, in national level, there is no published data on the diagnostic reference levels for intraoral radiography. However, the results obtained in this study are lower than those reported by investigators in other countries. Conclusion: In IR Iran, due to lack of large scale studies, no diagnostic reference levels have been set for X-ray diagnostic procedures. Due to lack of national diagnostic reference levels, it is not possible to clarify whether in intraoral radiographies any dose reduction techniques are needed. We intend to perform similar nationwide studies to set the diagnostic reference level for intraoal radio graphy