Bad Design to Kitsch: Examples from Eastern Point of View

The design case is applied to make a difference in living and to facilitate people\u27s life, from product scale, architectural design to urban scale. A design practice should be able to respond to the user\u27s cognitive and behavioral needs. Today, design solutions that can not respond to these needs are confronted as bad design. Today, when the habits of consumer society and the low expectations of users are combined, it is inevitable to encounter kitsch phenomenon in design solutions. Kitsch is a term used to refer to banal, rugged, and boring design solutions made with sharps and commercial concerns. It is not easy to define Kitsch exactly, but we can recognize its representation as soon as we see it. It can also be said that the efficiency of design takes a thin line in terms of application results. The results below this line may be inadequate and bad designs, and those above may be overriding and kitsch. In this study, the examples which show the kitsch design from the bad design are put forward with the examples of product, architecture and urban scale in the eastern countries, especially taking the center of Europe

Seroprevalence of cytomegalovirus among some voluntary blood donors at the 37 military Hospital, Accra, Ghana

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is one of the most significant pathogens infecting immuno-suppressed individuals. CMV is transmissible through transfusion of blood components. Aim: The goal of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of antibodies to CMV among blood donors seen at the 37 Military Hospital Blood Transfusion Unit, (MHBTU) Accra, Ghana. Methods: The seroprevalence of antibodies spe-cific for CMV was tested using CMV IgG/IgM particle agglutination test kit and ELISA. Results: Of the 264 blood donors, 18 were nega-tive and 246 were positive for CMV IgG antibod-ies, giving an overall CMV prevalence rate of 93.2%. None of the 264 blood donors was posi-tive for CMV IgM antibodies. About 96% of the donors aged between 30 to 39 years were seroposi-tive for CMV, as against 91.9% in those aged 20-29 years, 88.6% in 40 to 49 years, 75.0% (3 out of 4) in 50 to 59 years, and 100% (1 out 1) in 60-69 years. There was no statistically significant differ-ence (P>0.05) in the CMV IgG status in different age groups. The blood donors comprised largely of male donors (236 out of 264), making sex com-parisons statistically undesirable. However, all the female (n=28) donors were positive for CMV IgG. Conclusion: Since about 93% of blood donors at the MHBTU are seropositive for CMV, it would be very useful to screen blood donors in Ghana for CMV to identify the very few CMV-seronegative blood donors, and maintain an inventory of them for use as donor

Metabolic Syndrome and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia/What Component of Metabolic Syndrome Is Related to Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia?

Objective:Our objective was to evaluate the association of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) with each component of metabolic syndrome (MS), and determine which component plays the major risk for developing BPH.Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional observational study was performed on 203 male patients aged over 50, who came to the internal medicine outpatient clinics just for a check-up with/without any known disease. Forty-three of them were healthy control patients and the rest had only 1 criterion of MS. They were searched for the presence of BPH.Results:BPH prevalence ranged between 45.5-65.6% in the subgroups, there was no statistically significant difference in the presence of BPH between these groups. There was a slight positive correlation between glucose level and prostate volume. Triglyceride levels were positively correlated with Qmax and negatively correlated with the grade of hypertrophy. There was also a slight positive correlation between systolic blood pressure and prostate volumes, grade of hypertrophy, and IPSS scores.Conclusion:BPH prevalence was not different between MS components. We concluded that none of the MS components increase the occurrence of BPH by itself but when those metabolic disorders come together and form a syndrome, the prevalence of BPH increases

A constitutive model for the in-plane mechanical behavior of nonwoven fabrics

A constitutive model is presented for the in-plane mechanical behavior of nonwoven fabrics. The model is developed within the context of the finite element method and provides the constitutive response for a mesodomain of the fabric corresponding to the area associated to a finite element. The model is built upon the ensemble of three blocks, namely fabric, fibers and damage. The continuum tensorial formulation of the fabric response rigorously takes into account the effect of fiber rotation for large strains and includes the nonlinear fiber behavior. In addition, the various damage mechanisms experimentally observed (bond and fiber fracture, interfiber friction and fiber pull-out) are included in a phenomenological way and the random nature of these materials is also taken into account by means of a Monte Carlo lottery to determine the damage thresholds. The model results are validated with recent experimental results on the tensile response of smooth and notched specimens of a polypropylene nonwoven fabric