Teknologi Smartphone Android dan Aplikasinya sebagai Pengendali Pintu Air Daerah Aliran Sungai (DAS)

Pengoperasian pintu air pada aliran sungai saat ini masih menggunakan sistem manual dengan menggunakan campur tangan tenaga manusia untuk pengendali buka tutupnya. Hal ini mendorong peneliti untuk melakukan penelitian dengan sistem kendali berbasis smartphone berbasis android. Dalam penelitian ini penulis menggunakan smartphone android sebagai sarana untuk kendali pintu air. Smartphone dipilih oleh penulis karena saat ini menjadi alat komunikasi sehari-hari yang mobile di semua kalangan masyarakat sedangkan andriod merupakan sistem operasi yang sebagian besar dipakai pada smartphone tersebut. Smartphone berbasis android akan secara langsung mengendalikan buka tutup pintu Daerah Aliran Sungai (DAS) dengan menggunakan program aplikasi. Masukan dari aplikasi akan memberikan informasi perintah yang diberikan, selanjutnya akan diterima oleh sistem kendali yang terhubung pada mekanisme gerakan mekanik pintu air sungai. Peralatan kendali menggunakan perangkat Arduino Uno yang mampu mengubah signal digital menjadi gerakan mekanik dalam mengoperasikan pintu DAS. Hasil penelitian yang diperoleh, penggunaan perangkat kendali Arduino Uno tidak menyediakan ruang dalam pengelolaan database secara online, maka dibutuhkan software pendukung lainnya untuk mengatasi hal tersebut. Sebagai pengendali dan sistem android merupakan media penghubung informasi saling terkait merupakan sumber informasi yang terbuka

Inverse model based adaptive control of magnetic levitation system

This paper presents, an adaptive finite impulse response (FIR) filter based controller used for the tracking of a ferric ball under the influence of magnetic force. The adaptive filter is designed online as approximate inverse system. To stabilize the open-loop unstable and highly nonlinear magnetic levitation system, PID controller is designed using polynomial approach. To improve the stability, an adaptive FIR filter is added along side the PID controller while the use of the proposed controller has improved tracking. Since adaptive FIR filters are inherently stable so the controller remains stable. Experimental results are included to highlight the excellent position tracking performance

Utilization Pattern of Vancomycin in a University Teaching Hospital in Oman: Comparison with International Guidelines

Purpose: To assess the prescribing and utilization pattern of vancomycin in Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) in Oman.Methods: A retrospective study that included in-patients at SQUH who had used vancomycin from January 1 2009 to December 31 2009 was conducted to determine the utilization patterns of the drug vis a vis to the Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) guidelines and the North American Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Consensus (NATDMC) recommendations. Information regarding patient characteristics and vancomycin therapy were obtained from patients’ medical records.Statistical analyses were performed using descriptive statistics.Results: Out of 478 prescriptions for 365 patients, 79.1 % were considered inappropriate, based on HICPAC guidelines. This was mainly due to the continuous use of vancomycin following negative microbiological cultures for â-lactam-resistant Gram-positive microorganisms. Vancomycin wasprescribed mostly for treatment of sepsis (27.1 %), followed by prophylaxis against various clinical conditions (20.8 %). Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) practices at SQUH did not comply with NATDMC recommendations on the use of trough concentration in the specified range as a guide for monitoring of therapy.Conclusion: Irrational use of vancomycin was recorded in this study. The need for a restrictive policy and a revision of the current TDM in the setting are recommended..Keywords: Vancomycin, Drug utilization, Therapeutic drug monitoring, Infectio

Variability in lipid profile in patients with acute myocardial infarction from two tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan

Objective: To investigate changes in total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol and triglycerides in serum of Pakistani patients with AMI due to age, gender, body mass index (BMI), diabetes, hypertension, and smoking, and also find out the prevalence of hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL-cholesterol and isolated low-HDL cholesterol in them.Patients and Methods: Serum samples from 451 consecutive AMI patients (250 from National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Karachi and 201 from Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi) were analyzed for total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides using kit methods. LDL-cholesterol was determined using the Friedewald formula.Results: Mean serum concentrations of total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides in AMI patients were found to be 181 +/- 50 mg/dl, 35.7 +/- 11.3 mg/dl, 110 +/- 47 mg/dl and 177 +/- 127 mg/dl, respectively. Mean levels of total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol were not significantly affected by age, gender, BMI, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and smoking. Mean LDL-cholesterol concentration, however, was found to be significantly increased in diabetes mellitus (p=0.047), while age, gender, BMI, hypertension and smoking had no significant effect on the levels of this lipoprotein. Mean levels of triglycerides were significantly decreased in older patients (\u3e50 years) compared to younger (\u3c50 \u3eyears) ones (p=0.019). Gender, BMI, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and smoking, however, had no effect on triglyceride levels The frequencies of hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL-cholesterol and isolated low-HDL-cholesterol were found to be 30.6%, 30.1%, 48.6% and 34.1%, respectively.Conclusion: High prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL-cholesterol (which constitute a component of metabolic syndrome) in Pakistani AMI patients is suggestive that these two lipid abnormalities could be playing a major role in the development of atherosclerosis in Pakistani population

Effect of Moringa oleifera (Lam.) pods as feed additive on egg antioxidants, chemical composition and performance of commercial layers

The present study was designed to investigate the influence of Moringa oleifera (Lam.) pod meal (MPM) on production, immunity, and functional food index of chicken eggs. Two hundred HyLine W36 layer birds aged 50 weeks, 1469 ± 46.63 g, were assigned to four treatments in a completely randomized design, with five replicates and ten birds each. Diets A, B, C, and D were formulated with the same caloric and protein levels, but with differing MPM dose levels of 0, 5, 10, and 15g MPM/kg finisher diet, respectively. Data for production performance, quality, and chemical composition of eggs were analysed by one-way ANOVA, and means were compared with Duncan’s multiple range test. As a result of this study, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and egg mass (EM) were significantly decreased and recorded lowest in Group B, which was offered 5 g/kg above the basal diet. Bioactives such as β-carotene, quercetin, and selenium levels were increased (540, 121, & 72.21μg/100g of yolk, respectively), whereas cholesterol levels in egg yolk and serum were decreased significantly, that is, 201.87 mg/100g and 8.47 mg/dl, respectively. Serum biochemical indicators, including serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), glucose, creatinine and cholesterol levels, were lowered significantly. Proximate analysis of egg yolk showed that moisture and ether extract were decreased, whereas crude protein (CP), ash and minerals, sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and phosphorus (P) contents were increased. The outcomes of this study showed that MPM supplementation affects EM, serum biochemistry and bioactive compounds of the egg yolk positively. Keywords: Antibody titers, β-carotene, cholesterol, egg quality, quercetin, seleniu

Development of palm biomass briquettes with polyethylene plastic waste addition

High global energy demand scenario has driven towards transformation from sole dependence on fossil fuels to utilization of inexhaustible renewable energy sources such as hydro, biomass, solar and wind. Renewable energy sources are abundant in Malaysia, especially palm biomass residues that are produced during the oil extraction process of fresh fruit bunch. Therefore, it is inevitable to harness these bioenergy sources, in order to prevent waste accumulation at adjacent to palm mills. Briquetting of palm biomass such as empty fruit bunch (EFB) with polyethylene (PE) plastics waste addition is expected not only could maximize the utilization of energy resources, but also could become as a potential solution for residue and municipal plastics waste disposal. In the present study, the physical and combustion properties of palm biomass briquettes that contain novel mixture of pulverized EFB and PE plastics waste were investigated experimentally. The briquettes were produced with different mixing ratio of EFB and PE plastics (weight ratios of 95:5, 90:10 and 85:15), under various heating temperatures (130-190°C) and at constant compaction pressure of 7 MPa. Based on the results, it can be said that heating temperature plays a significant role in affecting physical properties such as relaxed density and compressive strength. The values of relaxed density and compressive strength are within the range of 1100 to 1300 kg/m3 and 0.8 to 1.2 MPa, respectively. Meanwhile, mixing ratio does affect relaxed density and gross calorific value. All values of gross calorific (17900 to 21000 kJ/kg) and moisture content (7% to 9%) are found to fulfill the requirement for commercialization as stated by DIN51731 (gross calorific value>17500 kJ/kg and moisture content<10%). Even though the values of ash content (3% to 4%) exceed the limitation as stated by the standard (<0.7%), it is still considered very competitive if compared to the commonly used local briquette that contains mesocarp fibre and shell (5.8%). Finally, it can be concluded that the best quality of briquette can be achieved when highest composition of PE plastics (weight percentage of 15%) is used and the briquetting process is performed at the highest temperature (190℃)

Dynamic Wireless Information and Power Transfer Scheme for Nano-Empowered Vehicular Networks

In this paper, we investigate the wireless power transfer and energy-efficiency (EE) optimization problem for nano-centric vehicular networks operating over the terahertz band. The inbody nano-sensors harvest energy from a power station via radio-frequency signal and then use the harvested energy to transmit data to the sink node. By considering the properties of terahertz band (i.e., sensitivity to distance and frequency over the communication path), we adopt the Brownian motion model to develop a time-variant terahertz channel model and to describe the mobility of the nano-sensors. Thus, based on the channel model and energy resources, we further develop a long-term EE optimization problem. The EE optimization is further converted into a series of energy-efficient resource allocation problems over the time slots via equivalent transformation method. The resource allocation problem for each timeslot, which is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP), is solved based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method. In addition, a dynamic PSO-based EE optimization (DPEEO) algorithm is developed to obtain the sub-optimal solution for the EE optimization problem. By exploiting the special structure of the reformulated problem, an improved DPEEO algorithm, is presented which can handle the problem’s constraints quite well, decreases the research space, and greatly reduces the length of the convergence time. Simulation results validate the theoretical analysis of our system

Predicting 2-year survival in stage I-III non-small cell lung cancer: the development and validation of a scoring system from an Australian cohort

Background: There are limited data on survival prediction models in contemporary inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a survival prediction model in a cohort of inoperable stage I-III NSCLC patients treated with radiotherapy. Methods: Data from inoperable stage I-III NSCLC patients diagnosed from 1/1/2016 to 31/12/2017 were collected from three radiation oncology clinics. Patient, tumour and treatment-related variables were selected for model inclusion using univariate and multivariate analysis. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to develop a 2-year overall survival prediction model, the South West Sydney Model (SWSM) in one clinic (n = 117) and validated in the other clinics (n = 144). Model performance, assessed internally and on one independent dataset, was expressed as Harrell’s concordance index (c-index). Results: The SWSM contained five variables: Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide, histological diagnosis, tumour lobe and equivalent dose in 2 Gy fractions. The SWSM yielded a c-index of 0.70 on internal validation and 0.72 on external validation. Survival probability could be stratified into three groups using a risk score derived from the model. Conclusions: A 2-year survival model with good discrimination was developed. The model included tumour lobe as a novel variable and has the potential to guide treatment decisions. Further validation is needed in a larger patient cohort

Diagnostic accuracy of CRP & WCC in abdomino-pelvic diseases of non-traumatic acute abdomen by taking CT findings as gold standard

Acute abdomen is a common presentation to many emergency departments worldwide. It is important to differentiate self-limiting causes and serious surgical causes. Inflammatory markers such as WCC and CRP currently being used to determine the cause, assess severity and guide further investigation for acute abdomen. The aim of this study was to determine diagnostic accuracy of C - reactive protein and White Cell Count in abdomino-pelvic diseases of non-traumatic acute abdomen by taking CT scan findings as gold standard. We found that CRP levels of above 100 were highly sensitive (94%) and specific (92%) for an acute surgical abdomen. WCC was not as accurate at determining an acute surgical abdomen due to reasons such as neutropenic sepsis