Proposed Model to Study Effect of Lighting Parameters on Construction Sites

Inadequate lighting plans for the operations performed at night on construction sites can affect the quality of the implemented work, labor productivity, safety, as well as the project\u27s overall cost. Accordingly, to avoid inadequate lighting conditions, the location of the luminaries utilized to illuminate the chosen construction area and its configuration, including luminaire height and luminary angle, are crucial choices in the design of the lighting plan. Besides making sure that the chosen installation pattern is cost-effective and as much as possible meets the lighting levels needed for each point according to the nature of the implemented work and safety considerations, In this way, a maximal coverage location model using LINGO software is developed in order to investigate the best locations of luminaires, taking into account gradual and cooperative covering. The objective is to ensure that the selected allocation of luminaires minimizes the summation of the received illuminance by the points that exceed the demand and the received illuminance that is below the demand. The optimized results refer to that smaller luminary angles lead to large coverage and minimizes the objective function. Making sure that the selected luminaire height leads to the desired illuminance levels according to the inverse relationship between the height and the illuminance

Proposed Model to Study Effect of Lighting Parameters on Construction Sites

Inadequate lighting plans for the operations performed at night on construction sites can affect the quality of the implemented work, labor productivity, safety, as well as the project\u27s overall cost. Accordingly, to avoid inadequate lighting conditions, the location of the luminaries utilized to illuminate the chosen construction area and its configuration, including luminaire height and luminary angle, are crucial choices in the design of the lighting plan. Besides making sure that the chosen installation pattern is cost-effective and as much as possible meets the lighting levels needed for each point according to the nature of the implemented work and safety considerations, In this way, a maximal coverage location model using LINGO software is developed in order to investigate the best locations of luminaires, taking into account gradual and cooperative covering. The objective is to ensure that the selected allocation of luminaires minimizes the summation of the received illuminance by the points that exceed the demand and the received illuminance that is below the demand. The optimized results refer to that smaller luminary angles lead to large coverage and minimizes the objective function. Making sure that the selected luminaire height leads to the desired illuminance levels according to the inverse relationship between the height and the illuminance

Healthcare analytics—A literature review and proposed research agenda

This research addresses the demanding need for research in healthcare analytics, by explaining how previous studies have used big data, AI, and machine learning to identify, address, or solve healthcare problems. Healthcare science methods are combined with contemporary data science techniques to examine the literature, identify research gaps, and propose a research agenda for researchers, academic institutions, and governmental healthcare organizations. The study contributes to the body of literature by providing a state-of-the-art review of healthcare analytics as well as proposing a research agenda to advance the knowledge in this area. The results of this research can be beneficial for both healthcare science and data science researchers as well as practitioners in the field

Wearable artificial intelligence for anxiety and depression: A scoping review

Background: Anxiety and depression are the most common mental disorders worldwide. Owing to the lack of psychiatrists around the world, the incorporation of AI and wearable devices (wearable artificial intelligence (AI)) have been exploited to provide mental health services. Objective: The current review aimed to explore the features of wearable AI used for anxiety and depression to identify application areas and open research issues. Methods: We searched 8 electronic databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Scopus, and Google Scholar). Then, we checked studies that cited the included studies, and screened studies that were cited by the included studies. Study selection and data extraction were carried out by two reviewers independently. The extracted data were aggregated and summarized using the narrative synthesis. Results: Of the 1203 citations identified, 69 studies were included in this review. About two thirds of the studies used wearable AI for depression while the remaining studies used it for anxiety. The most frequent application of wearable AI was diagnosing anxiety and depression while no studies used it for treatment purposes. The majority of studies targeted individuals between the ages of 18 and 65. The most common wearable devices used in the studies were Actiwatch AW4. The wrist-worn devices were most common in the studies. The most commonly used data for model development were physical activity data, sleep data, and heart rate data. The most frequently used dataset from open sources was Depresjon. The most commonly used algorithms were Random Forest (RF) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). Conclusions: Wearable AI can offer great promise in providing mental health services related to anxiety and depression. Wearable AI can be used by individuals as a pre-screening assessment of anxiety and depression. Further reviews are needed to statistically synthesize studies’ results related to the performance and effectiveness of wearable AI. Given its potential, tech companies should invest more in wearable AI for treatment purposes for anxiety and depression

Knowledge and Attitude among Doctors towards Use of Prophylactic Vitamin K in Neonatal Bleeding Disorders in Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology: Experience from Haj El-Safi Hospital, Sudan

Background: Vitamin K is crucial for neonates to prevent bleeding disorders. Raising awareness of vitamin K use would show positive outcomes. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of prophylactic use of vitamin K for bleeding disorders in neonates among doctors working in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Haj El-Safi Hospital, Sudan.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in February 2019, involving 36 doctors selected by convenience sampling. Data were collected by an interview-based questionnaire designed to measure the knowledge level of doctors toward vitamin K deficiency classification and interactions, guidelines availability and adherence, and parents counseling. Data were analyzed and presented in tables. Results: The doctors involved in this study were 36, including 7 registrars, 6 medical officers, 23 house officers, mostly aged 20–25 years (n=29), and female (n=27). The level of knowledge about the classification of vitamin K deficiency and the interaction of vitamin K with other drugs among doctors was mostly good (n=14 and n=15, respectively). Registrars were the most in the good category (n=6, and n=7, respectively). Most doctors (n=23) were aware of vitamin K guidelines, while only 15 have continuous adherence, 16 of doctors counseled parents about the importance of prophylactic vitamin K.Conclusion: The level of knowledge towards prophylactic vitamin K use in neonatal bleeding disorders among doctors in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Haj El-Safi Hospital is good

Removal of diclofenac potassium from wastewater using clay-micelle complex

The presence of an ionized carboxyl group in the widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug diclofenac potassium results in a high mobility of diclofenac and in its low sorption under conditions of slow sand filtration or subsoil passage. No diclofenac degradation was detected in pure water or sludge during one month. Tertiary treatments of wastewater indicated that the effective removal of diclofenac was by reverse osmosis, but the removal by activated carbon was less satisfactory. This study presents an efficient method for the removal of diclofenac from water by micelle–clay composites that are positively charged, have a large surface area and include large hydrophobic domains. Adsorption of diclofenac in dispersion by charcoal and a composite micelle (otadecyltrimethylammonium [ODTMA] and clay [montmorillonite]) was investigated. Analysis by the Langmuir isotherm revealed that charcoal had a somewhat larger number of adsorption sites than the composite, but the latter had a significantly larger binding affinity for diclofenac. Filtration experiments on a solution containing 300 ppm diclofenac demonstrated poor removal by activated carbon, in contrast to very efficient removal by micelle–clay filters. In the latter case the weight of removed diclofenac exceeded half that of ODTMA in the filter. Filtration of diclofenac solutions at concentrations of 8 and 80 ppb yielded almost complete removal at flow rates of 30 and 60mLmin−1. One kilogram of ODTMA in the micelle–clay filter has been estimated to remove more than 99% of diclofenac from a solution of 100 ppb during passage of more than 100m3.Beit-Jala Pharmaceutical Co. is thanked for the supply of diclofenac potassium. Special thanks to Dr. Saleh Abu-Lafi for technical assistance. This work was supported by a grant from the USAID-MERC program

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Regarding Consumption of Carbonated Soft Drinks Among the Dental Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: To assess and evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding the consumption of carbonated drinks among dental students. Carbonated drinks are pervaded by carbon dioxide and have more adverse effects since they are acidic in nature. Nowadays, these are consumed more widely globally, causing many systemic diseases; diabetes and obesity are common. Material and Methods: This study includes 204 individuals belonging to the age group of 18-26 years. A self-structured objective type cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of dental students regarding carbonated drinks. The participants were instructed to mark the most appropriate correct answer from the given list of close-ended type questions. Results: Of 204 dental students, the study population includes 125 female and 79 male students. 98.5% of the students knew about carbonated drinks, while 1.5% were unaware. Conclusion:  Most participants preferred to have carbonated drinks even with their awareness about the ill effects of these drinks. Possible implications by the government authorities may probably increase awareness among the population

Uncovering responses of zooplankton community to CO2 acidification in Qatar coastal waters

The combustion of fossil fuels is pushing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) to unprecedented levels. This rapid increase in atmospheric CO2 is causing global changes, with noticeable increases in temperature, sea level rise and changes to marine carbon chemistry (i.e., Ocean Acidification - OA). The today average pH of ocean surface waters has already declined by 0.1 units from pre-industrial levels. According to the IPCC representative concentration pathways (RCPs), further declines in pH are predicted until the end of the century, varying between 0.14 units and 0.43 units. OA is irreversible on short time frames and previous studies have shown the potential impacts of ocean acidification on the physiology, reproduction, immunology and behavior of marine organisms, with effects already documented in multiple species and several regions of the world, although not in the Arabian Gulf. Nevertheless, the strong environmental variability of the Arabian Gulf presents good opportunities to study the potential impacts of future global change on marine ecosystems and to investigate the underlying mechanisms governing their resistance and adaptation to future environmental extremes. In this research we are targeting the response of zooplanktonic assemblages to OA, since these are commonly used as bioindicators of environmental and climate driven impact on marine ecosystems. The approach is mainly experimental, using controlled CO2 perturbation experiments, done aboard the Qatar University research vessel “Janan”. We are specifically investigating the response of zooplankton communities to relevant scenarios of seawater acidification by CO2, in terms of assemblage composition and structure; respiration rates; and egg production rates. The first round of experiments was conducted during a 3 day cruise offshore from Doha (June 3–5, 2016); complemented with a second cruise and round of experiments (November 17–19, 2016). Results provide insightful information about zooplankton communities’ responses to high CO2 levels in seawater of the Arabian Gulf and contribute to a better understanding about the biogeochemistry of coastal marine areas in Qatar, and more broadly in the Arabian Gulf.This study is funded by QNRF through the project “Zooplankton community responses to CO2 acidification in Qatar coastal waters (UREP18-177-1-021)