An Analysis of Domestic Sprinkler Systems for use in New Zealand

This report evaluates the economics of domestic sprinkler systems in New Zealand. It includes a literature search, review and comparison of sprinkler codes around the world, costs and benefits of a domestic sprinkler system, and case studies for two single dwellings in Christchurch, followed by three cost-benefit scenarios. The study concludes that domestic sprinkler systems have tremendous potential for saving life and property

Air pollution in Iran: The current status and potential solutions

YesAir pollution has been integrated into global challenges over the last few years due to its negative impact on the health of human beings, increasing socio-economic risks and its contribution to climate change. This study attempts to evaluate the current status of Iran's air pollution with regard to the sources of emissions, control policies, as well as the health and climate consequences that have resulted through available data from monitoring stations reported in the literature, official documents and previous published papers. Many large cities in Iran surpass the permissible concentration of air pollutants, particularly particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, black carbon and ozone. Although regulations and policies are in place and enormous efforts are being made to address air pollution issues in the country, implementation and enforcement are not as effective as they could be. The significant challenges may be regarded as the inefficiency of regulation and supervision systems, the lack of air quality monitoring systems and technology, particularly in industrial cities rather than Tehran as well as the lack of continual feedback and investigations on the efficiency of regulation. Providing such an up-to-date report can bring opportunities for international collaboration, which is essential in addressing the air pollution worldwide. We suggest that a way forward could be more focused on conducting systematic reviews using scientometric methods to show an accurate picture and trend in air pollution and its association in Iran, implementing an integrated approach for both climate change and air pollution issues, collaborating with international counterparts to share knowledge, tools, and techniques

Knowledge-based trust and citizens' social commerce: the moderating role of citizens' purchase attitude

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Social commerce is a subset of electronic commerce and refers to transactions that are conducted through social commerce media. Social commerce creates new channels for consumers that improve not only their purchasing decisions but also their shopping experiences. The attitude of consumers is one of the factors that influence the behavioral intention of consumers. As long as the customer does not have confidence in the social business, he does not want to buy, and the trust that the buyer gains is based on the information, knowledge, transparency and capabilities that social business provide to customers. So, this paper aims to investigate the moderating role of attitude toward purchasing in the relationship between knowledge-based trust and citizens' social commerce and for this purpose, citizens of the east and southeast of Iran are considered as the case of study.METHODS: In terms of purpose, the present study is applied and based on the nature and method, it is descriptive-survey. The statistical population of the present study consisted of 361 citizens of the east and southeast of Iran who use social network and were selected by random sampling. Required data were collected by a questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed and analyzed by structural equation modeling and partial least squares method. FINDINGS: Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability and Spearman correlation coefficients were greater than 0.7 and Communality was greater than 0.5, which indicated the high reliability of variables in the model. Also, the Average Variance Extracted square root of all variables was greater than the correlation of them with other variables. So, Discriminant validity of the model was appropriate. Average Variance Extracted was more than 0.5, which indicated the appropriate convergent validity of the variables. According to T-value, knowledge-based trust had a significant and direct effect (0.745) on citizens' social commerce. Knowledge-based trust explained 55.5% of changes in citizens' social commerce. According to T-Value, the attitude toward purchasing had a positive (+0.106) reciprocal role in the relationship of knowledge-based trust and social commerce.CONCLUSION: The findings showed that knowledge-based trust plays a positive role in social commerce; So, strengthening knowledge-based trust can lead to improved social commerce. Also, the attitude toward purchasing is positive moderator in the relationship between knowledge-based trust and social commerce; So, in order to change from a weak attitude to a strong attitude toward purchasing, the relationship between knowledge-based trust and citizens' social commerce is strengthened

The forgotten girls: the state of evidence for health interventions for pregnant adolescents and their newborns in low-income and middle-income countries

Every year, an estimated 21 million girls aged 15–19 years become pregnant in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Policy responses have focused on reducing the adolescent birth rate whereas efforts to support pregnant adolescents have developed more slowly. We did a systematic review of interventions addressing any health-related outcome for pregnant adolescents and their newborn babies in LMICs and mapped its results to a framework describing high-quality health systems for pregnant adolescents. Although we identified some promising interventions, such as micronutrient supplementation, conditional cash transfers, and well facilitated group care, most studies were at high risk of bias and there were substantial gaps in evidence. These included major gaps in delivery, abortion, and postnatal care, and mental health, violence, and substance misuse-related outcomes. We recommend that the fields of adolescent, maternal, and sexual and reproductive health collaborate to develop more adolescent-inclusive maternal health care and research, and specific interventions for pregnant adolescents. We outline steps to develop high-quality, evidence-based care for the millions of pregnant adolescents and their newborns who currently do not receive this

A method for body fat composition analysis in abdominal magnetic resonance images via self-organizing map neural network

Introduction: The present study aimed to suggest an unsupervised method for the segmentation of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) in axial magnetic resonance (MR) images of the abdomen. Materials and Methods: A self-organizing map (SOM) neural network was designed to segment the adipose tissue from other tissues in the MR images. The segmentation of SAT and VAT was accomplished using a new level set method called distance regularized level set evolution (DRLSE). To evaluate the suggested method, the whole-body abdominal MRI was performed on 23 subjects, and three slices were selected for each case. Results: The results of the automatic segmentation were compared with those of the manual segmentation and previous artificial intelligent methods. According to the results, there was a significant correlation between the automatic and manual segmentation results of VAT and SAT. Conclusion: As the findings indicated, the suggested method improved detection of body fat. In this study, a fully automated abdominal adipose tissue segmentation algorithm was suggested, which used the SOM neural network and DRLSE level set algorithm. The proposed methodology was concluded to be accurate and robust with a significant advantage over the manual and previous segmentation methods in terms of speed and accuracy. © 2018, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

3D printed elastic mould granulation

YesIn the pharmaceutical industry, enhanced process understanding resulting in superior control of product attributes, has the potential to save up to 20% of process engineering and product development costs during drug development. With the aim of achieving enhanced process understating, a novel approach for granulation of fine powders is presented. First, a mould with the desired particle shape and size is created using 3D printing followed by casting using elastomeric material. The formulation is prepared through wet massing and tested as a thin film on flat elastomeric membranes. The thin film itself can be a product but it also gives a good indication of coating performance before coating the patterned elastic membrane with the formulation i.e., 3D printed elastic mould granulation. Results show that following granulation and drying, granules of controlled size and shape (e.g. cubic and 500 μm), strength, friability and flowability can be formed. The method presented may allow for more robust process development in particle engineering.Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, December 2018

Biosensor for deconvolution of individual cell fate in response to ion beam irradiation

Clonogenic survival assay constitutes the gold standardmethod for quantifying radiobiological effects. However, it neglects cellular radiation response variability and heterogeneous energy deposition by ion beams on the microscopic scale. We introduce "Cell-Fit-HD4D'' a biosensor that enables a deconvolution of individual cell fate in response to the microscopic energy deposition as visualized by optical microscopy. Cell-Fit-HD4D enables single-cell dosimetry in clinically relevant complex radiation fields by correlating microscopic beam parameters with biological endpoints. Decrypting the ion beam's energy deposition and molecular effects at the single-cell level has the potential to improve our understanding of radiobiological dose concepts as well as radiobiological study approaches in general

A micropillar array-based microfluidic chip for label-free separation of circulating tumor cells: The best micropillar geometry?

Introduction The information derived from the number and characteristics of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), is crucial to ensure appropriate cancer treatment monitoring. Currently, diverse microfluidic platforms have been developed for isolating CTCs from blood, but it remains a challenge to develop a low-cost, practical, and efficient strategy. Objectives This study aimed to isolate CTCs from the blood of cancer patients via introducing a new and efficient micropillar array-based microfluidic chip (MPA-Chip), as well as providing prognostic information and monitoring the treatment efficacy in cancer patients. Methods We fabricated a microfluidic chip (MPA-Chip) containing arrays of micropillars with different geometries (lozenge, rectangle, circle, and triangle). We conducted numerical simulations to compare velocity and pressure profiles inside the micropillar arrays. Also, we experimentally evaluated the capture efficiency and purity of the geometries using breast and prostate cancer cell lines as well as a blood sample. Moreover, the device’s performance was validated on 12 patients with breast cancer (BC) in different states. Results The lozenge geometry was selected as the most effective and optimized micropillar design for CTCs isolation, providing high capture efficiency (>85 %), purity (>90 %), and viability (97 %). Furthermore, the lozenge MPA-chip was successfully validated by the detection of CTCs from 12 breast cancer (BC) patients, with non-metastatic (median number of 6 CTCs) and metastatic (median number of 25 CTCs) diseases, showing different prognoses. Also, increasing the chemotherapy period resulted in a decrease in the number of captured CTCs from 23 to 7 for the metastatic patient. The MPA-Chip size was only 0.25 cm2 and the throughput of a single chip was 0.5 ml/h, which can be increased by multiple MPA-Chips in parallel. Conclusion The lozenge MPA-Chip presented a novel micropillar geometry for on-chip CTC isolation, detection, and staining, and in the future, the possibilities can be extended to the culture of the CTCs