Validation of the Dynamic Amplification Factor in Case of Historic Railway Steel Bridges with Short and Medium Spans

AbstractOne of the significant parameters in design as well as fatigue assessment of railway bridges is the dynamic factor. The dynamic factor, also called dynamic amplification factor (DAF), must be applied to the static load model in order to take account of dynamic magnification of stresses and vibration effects in the bridge. The dynamic factor which actually enhances the static load effects depends on many parameters that are difficult to take into account with reasonable accuracy. The maximum bridge-span, train speed, self-weight, expansion joints if any is placed in bridge, the type of bridge supports and finally soil–structure interaction are among these parameters. This paper studies the variations of the analytical and experimental observations on steel railway bridge dynamics. For this purpose the measured stresses due to passing a locomotive through a historical steel railway bridge in Germany are compared with the calculated stresses contemplating the dynamic factor proposed by EN1991-2 [1] applied to the static load model of the same locomotive

Cross-Country Study of Institutionalizing Social Participation in Health Policymaking: A Realist Analysis

Strong evidence suggests that interventions based on community participation have a positive effect on a range of health outcomes in different settings. Community participation contributes significantly to the promotion of health at the local level, especially among the more disadvantaged groups of the society. The main goal of social participation mechanisms is to fill the gap between the views of the policymakers and the experiences and needs of the communities. An important point is that institutionalization of social participation in the development of health policies and its continuity over time are essential requirements. The question here is how participation should be institutionalized in the systems that have started this process. We conducted a realistic evaluation of a multicase study of public participation in health system policymaking. Countries including France, Chile, Iran, Thailand, and Tunisia were selected. The study objective was to determine interventions and mechanisms used by these countries for community participation in health policymaking and institutionalizing it. The data were extracted via a literature review for each country using a realistic approach analysis also known as context, intervention, mechanism, and outcome (CIMO) configurations. Thailand and France, which have applied a set of interventions such as supportive legislations, evidence production structures for informed decision making and interactions, accountability and transparency, and providing a context for development of civil society organizations, have succeeded in institutionalizing community participation in health policymaking. Iran, Tunisia, and Chile have been successful in this regard, but they are still far from institutionalizing community participation. Success in the institutionalization of participatory health governance requires a political will and commitment at the highest level in order to minimize the conflicts between economic and political interests of different stakeholders and to implement a set of interventions to maximize social participation in health policymaking

Sustainable political commitment is necessary for institutionalizing community participation in health policy-making: Insights from Iran.

Background: Community participation is currently utilized as a national strategy to promote public health and mitigate health inequalities across the world. While community participation is acknowledged as a civic right in the Constitution of Iran and other related upstream documents, the government has typically failed in translating, integrating and implementing community participation in health system policy. The present study was conducted to determine the level of public voice consideration within the health policy in Iran and address fundamental interventions required to promote the public voice in the context of Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). This study has originality because there is no study that addresses the requirements of institutionalizing community participation especially in low-middle-income countries, so Iran’s experience can be useful for other countries. Methods: Methodologically, this study utilized a multi-method and multi-strand sequential research design, including qualitative, comparative and documentary studies. In the first phase, the current level of community participation in the health policy cycle of Iran was identified using the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) spectrum. In the second phase, a comparative study was designed to identify relevant interventions to promote the community participation level in the selected countries under study. In the third phase, a qualitative study was conducted to address the barriers, facilitators and strategies for improving the level of public participation. Accordingly, appropriate interventions and policy options were recommended. Interventions were reviewed in a policy dialogue with policy-makers and community representatives, and their effectiveness, applicability and practical feasibility were evaluated. Results: Based on the IAP2 spectrum, the level of community participation in the health policy-making process is non-participation, while empowerment is set at the highest level in the upstream documents. Moreover, capacity-building, demand, mobilization of the local population, provision of resources and setting a specific structure were found to be among the key interventions to improve the level of community participation in Iran’s health sector. More importantly, “political will for action” was identified as the driving force for implementing the necessary health interventions. Conclusions: To sum up, a paradigm shift in the governing social, economic and political philosophy; establishing a real-world and moral dialogue and communication between the government and the society; identifying and managing the conflicts of interest in the leading stockholders of the healthcare system; and, more importantly, maintaining a stable political will for action are integral to promote and institutionalize participatory governance in the health sector of Iran. All of the above will lead us to scheme, implement and institutionalize suitable interventions for participatory governance in health and medicine

Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles (MISEV2023): From basic to advanced approaches

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), through their complex cargo, can reflect the state of their cell of origin and change the functions and phenotypes of other cells. These features indicate strong biomarker and therapeutic potential and have generated broad interest, as evidenced by the steady year-on-year increase in the numbers of scientific publications about EVs. Important advances have been made in EV metrology and in understanding and applying EV biology. However, hurdles remain to realising the potential of EVs in domains ranging from basic biology to clinical applications due to challenges in EV nomenclature, separation from non-vesicular extracellular particles, characterisation and functional studies. To address the challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving field, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) updates its 'Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles', which was first published in 2014 and then in 2018 as MISEV2014 and MISEV2018, respectively. The goal of the current document, MISEV2023, is to provide researchers with an updated snapshot of available approaches and their advantages and limitations for production, separation and characterisation of EVs from multiple sources, including cell culture, body fluids and solid tissues. In addition to presenting the latest state of the art in basic principles of EV research, this document also covers advanced techniques and approaches that are currently expanding the boundaries of the field. MISEV2023 also includes new sections on EV release and uptake and a brief discussion of in vivo approaches to study EVs. Compiling feedback from ISEV expert task forces and more than 1000 researchers, this document conveys the current state of EV research to facilitate robust scientific discoveries and move the field forward even more rapidly

Energy Analysis of Molten-Salt Storage Integrated with Air-Based Brayton Cycle:Case Study of a Wind Farm in Denmark

Renewable energy sources like wind farms and solar farms have become very important in recent years. There are various methods for storing energy from these renewable sources. Molten Salt (MS) storage is a novel way to store excess electric power as high-Temperature thermal energy from which it can be converted to any form of energy. In the present study, the excess power of a wind farm is stored in the MS storage as heat. This heat is converted to power using an Air-Based Regenerative Brayton power cycle (A-BRB) when needed. Also, some of this heat could be utilized to heat water for the district heating (DH) application. A numerical model is presented for a power storage system using transient data from a real wind farm in Denmark. The energy analysis is applied to the proposed hybrid system. The results concluded that the energy efficiency of the proposed system is about 26.1%. The total amount of MS that could be stored in the storage is about 1267 kg. also, the proposed system could produce about 140 MW during the discharging time of 3.5 hours. In addition, the system could produce 143 kg/s of hot water during the discharging mode.</p