Delevolpment of semi active suspension system

The suspension of the car plays a very important role in the safety and the comfort of the vehicle and for absorbing the shock waves and give comfort for the driver and passenger. There are different classifications of suspension, which are passive, semi-active and active suspension. There is potential for improve the model of the shock absorber, by developing electronically controllable semi active shock absorber. However, semi-active absorber been chosen for modification due better efficiency and providing different characteristic of damping ratio when compares to the passive shock absorber and low cost when compare with active shock absorber. Therefore, a controller was developed to be attached with the absorber to the control the degree of softness and hardness. The level of softness and hardness of shock absorbers play an important role in giving comfort to the driver and passengers while driving. The level of hardness can be changed by controlling the flow of hydraulic oil flow in the shock absorbers between piston during the process of compression and rebound. There will be a control unit to control the damping ratio. It adjusted to 4 different levels of hardness. The modifications on inner parts of the shock absorber was done to meet the requirements of the design. Several test procedures have been chosen to evaluate the dynamic behavior of the vehicle. The tests were done bumpy, straight line and roundabout road, these tests used to make objective measurements for evaluation of the acceleration and ride quality performance. Data was analyzed in effectiveness on vehicle acceleration. Ride quality and comfort was considered as well. the result shows the range is fallen in area of little uncomfortable

Supportive Strategies Regarding Accidents Prevention for Mothers of Children Under Five Years Old

Accidental injuries are a major health problem in children. They are the most common cause of death in children under five years of age. Every year they leave many thousands permanently disabled or disfigured. Most of cases at risk from a home accident are the 0-4 year’s age group.  Most of these accidents are preventable through increased awareness, improvements in the home environment and greater product safety. A pre/post quasi experimental design was adopted in the current study. A convenient sample of 100 mothers was included in this study. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of supportive strategies regarding accident prevention on mothers’ knowledge and practice of their children under five years old. The study was conducted in Cairo University Specialized Pediatric Hospital and Benha University Hospital from the pediatric out patients departments. Tools of data collection were socio-demographic data sheet for mothers and their children, history of accidents, questionnaire sheet regarding to mothers’ knowledge about accidents as well as mothers’ reported practices regarding accidents. The study's results revealed that more than half of the children (55%) were male. There were significant differences between pre and post supportive strategy in mothers’ knowledge and reported practices. Mothers’ knowledge and practices in prevention of falling and drowning, electrical shock, burn, and   suffocation, was affected by their age and education, and child’s age (P value is 0.00, 0. 05). The study recommended that supportive strategies for accidents prevention should be applied in all pediatric care settings.  Health promotion programs should be directed to prevent and control of accidents among children. Key words: Accidents Prevention; Children under Five Years;   Supportive Strategie

Mothers attributes and supervision behaviors relevant to child injury

Background: Home injuries are a major health problem in children. They are the most common cause of death in children under 5 years of age. Every year they leave many thousands permanently disabled. Most of these accidents are preventable through increased awareness and improvements in the home environment.Objectives: To assess mothers attitude about home related injuries among children younger than 5 years of age.Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study included 330 mothers conducted in health unit of Safour Village, Diarb Negm District, Sharqia Governorate. A predesigned validated questionnaire was administered to mothers who have children equal or less than five years old to assess the parent supervision attributes profile.Results: the result revealed that mothers have satisfactory score as regard subscale of protectiveness, risk tolerance and supervision beliefs respectively (84.8%, 74.5% and 72.2%).Conclusion: Mothers in Diarb Negm district have satisfactory supervision attribute as regards home injuries of their under five years children

Congenital Anomalies among Children: Knowledge and Attitude of Egyptian and Saudi Mothers

A congenital anomaly is defined as any abnormality of physical structure found at birth or during the first few weeks of life; or any irreversible condition exiting in a child before birth. The aim of the current study was to assess Egyptian and Saudi mothers' knowledge and attitude regarding congenital anomalies among children as well as to detect the differences between Egyptian and Saudi mothers' knowledge and attitude. A descriptive comparative research design was utilized in the study. A convenient sample of 100 Egyptian and 100 Saudi mothers wasparticipated in the study. The study was conductedin the pediatric surgical wards and pediatric surgery outpatients' clinics in both Cairo University Specialized Pediatric Hospital and King Fahad University Hospital in Al Khobar,in Saudi Arabia.The data were collected using structured interview schedule developed by the researchers it contained three parts; the first one related to sociodemographic characteristics of mothers and their children; the second one composed of mothers’ knowledge about congenital anomalies and the third one concerned with mothers’ attitude. The study's results revealed that more than three quarters of Egyptian mothers had satisfactory level of knowledge regarding congenital anomalies among children compared to fifty one percent of Saudi mothers. The highest percentages of both Egyptian and Saudi Mothers expressed negative attitude regarding congenital anomalies among children.There was highly statistically significant difference between Egyptian and Saudi mothers’ level of knowledge regarding congenital anomalies among children. While, there was no statistically significant difference between Egyptian and Saudi mothers’ general attitude regarding congenital anomalies among children. The study results recommended that health promotion programs should be directed to premarital counseling and preconception reproductive health and primary prevention of congenital anomalies. Key words:Congenital anomalies - Egyptian and Saudi mothers- knowledge and attitud

Effect of Breathing Exercise on Respiratory Efficiency and Pain Intensity among Children Receiving Chemotherapy

Breathing exercises can be used to strengthen respiratory muscles, but they can also be used to create energy. It also combats stress as it stimulates the release of epinephrine. Multidisciplinary management may be needed, with a team including social workers, physiotherapists, play therapists, and music therapists. Cancer pain should always be measured using validated pain assessment tools. The aim of the current study is to determine the effect of breathing Exercise on respiratory efficiency and pain intensity among children under chemotherapy.  A convenient sample of 70 children older than 3 years old,   with cancer and treated by chemotherapy; were included in the study. A quasi-experimental research design was used to conduct the study. The study was conducted in the National Cancer Institute (N.C. I) in the pediatric  wards.   Data was collected using a structured interview schedule it was developed by the researchers the first one was for children’ sociodemographic data and cancer history, the second was to assess the respiratory efficiency and the third was the pediatric facial pain scale. The study’s results revealed that more than half of the studied children were male, less than two thirds of the studied children had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), The majority of the studied children had pain as an associated problem from cancer and its treatment. All the children had easy fatigability, loss of weight, and feeding problems. There were significance differences between pre and post breathing exercises in relation to vital signs, O2 saturation and pain intensity. Multiple efforts from pediatric oncology team are needed to prepare children with cancer prior conducting cancer treatment as well their mothers or care givers. Further researches are needed on a larger sample for generalization of the reached results. Keywords: Breathing Exercise- chemotherapy - respiratory efficiency – pai

Evaluation of Coronary Artery Bypass by CT Coronary Angiography

Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is an accurate method for graft imaging and assessment than invasive coronary angiography (ICA). CTA has excellent sensitivity and specificity. The chapter describes the role of CTA in evaluation of coronary bypass graft. It covers the appropriate indications for performing CTA after bypass operation, patient preparation, as well as protocol and technique of CTA. The chapter describes the post-examination processing of the images and how to interpret CTA images for detection of graft patency or dysfunction as occlusion, partial thrombosis, poor blood flow, and stealing flow from native artery. According to the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Radiology, and the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging, graft patency assessment with CTA is an appropriate approach in symptomatic patients at risk for graft stenosis/occlusion. Cardiac CT can be used to assess the patency of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) with high diagnostic accuracy compared with ICA and even with a better performance compared to the assessment of native coronaries

Hybrid Modelling for Vineyard Harvesting Operations

Hiring workers under seasonal recruiting contracts causes significant variation of workers skills in the vineyards. This leads to inconsistent workers performance, reduction in harvesting efficiency, and increasing in grape losses rates. The objective of this research is to investigate how the variation in workers experience could impact vineyard harvesting productivity and operational cost. The complexity of the problem means that it is difficult to analyze the system parameters and their relationships using individual analytical model. Hence, a hybrid model integrating discrete event simulation (DES) and agent based modeling (ABM) is developed and applied on a vineyard to achieve research objective. DES models harvesting operation and simulates process performance, while ABM addresses the seasonal workers heterogeneous characteristics, particularly experience variations and disparity of working days in the vineyard. The model is used to evaluate two seasonal recruiting policies against vineyard productivity, grape losses quantities, and total operational cost

Investigation of adjustable valve of semi-active damper for improving ride comfort in a passenger car

The suspension of a car is considered as an essential element in the vehicle. The primary function of the suspension system is to isolate the vehicle structure from shocks and vibration due to the irregularities of the road surface. Two primary objectives need to be satisfied which are ride comfort and road handling. Ride comfort is inversely proportional to the absolute acceleration of the vehicle body, while the road handling is linked to the relative displacement between the vehicle body and the tires. The thesis attempted to realize the damping force in twin and monotube by developing a mathematical model. The models show similar trends, while different forces are recorded, due to the pressure in the compression chamber increases during rebound in twin tube damper and a monotube damper the gas chamber is always connected to the compression chamber. Shock dyno testing is carried out to validate the model of twin tube with experiment data. A prototype of electronically adjustable semi-active shock absorber from available twin tube is developed, this achieved by attaching stepper motor for each shock absorber which helps in adjusting the bleed orifice to a particular position that alternates the hydraulic oil flow in the shock absorber between piston’s chamber during the process of compression and rebound. To evaluate the effect of the developed semi-active shock absorber on the dynamic behavior of the vehicle, several tests were carried out on different types of road condition (bumpy, straight-line and roundabout). These tests were used to evaluate the acceleration and ride quality. There is a great range in response when the bleed orifice is opened reached up to 35% between the stiff and soft setting. The value of root means square acceleration (RMS) was calculated and compared with the standard of human exposure to whole-body vibration, which shows an error of 6% slightly. The result shows the effect of the electronically controllable shock absorber on a vehicle’s dynamic behavior. The advantage of electronics to improve the performance of ride comfort and reduced the harms due to undesired vibration. To evaluate force generated by the developed model of the semi-active monotube damper on the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle, the model was analyzed and compared with the passive and On/Off sky-hook control strategy in the quarter car using two different types of road (random excitation, bumpy) as input to the quarter car model. Force hysteresis loop with different sets of orifice diameter was generated. PID controller design approach has been examined with CVD to evaluate semi active damper performance, where the combination shows a reduction in both body acceleration and vertical displacement contrasting with passive and On/Off sky-hook 73.4% and 53.8% respectively and also the selling time by 79% and 59% for a bumpy road. This considered an improvement toward the ride comfort and vehicle stability

Seasonal recruiting policies for table grape packing operations: A hybrid simulation modelling study

The packing process is a critical post-harvesting activity in table grape industry. Workers in packing stations are hired under seasonal contracts because of product seasonality and operations labor intensity. Seasonal workers, however, are usually characterized by inconsistent performance, high turnover and experience variation which leads to low productivity and high waste. Few mathematical models were used for evaluating fresh products packing operations, but in a deterministic nature which hinders the complexity and dynamics of the business processes. Hence, a hybrid Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) are employed to evaluate a set of seasonal recruiting policies in a large grape packing station. The paper aims to investigate the impact of workers experience on packing operations efficiency. The model outcomes demonstrate the improvement in operations efficiency and total running cost (about 20% savings) that can be achieved when applying optimal recruiting policies that reduce labors variations