Preliminary study on decision making factors to replace medical equipment in hospital

Maintaining medical equipment in hospital is a cost-deprived process yet is a crucial process that needs to be looked into. Maintaining is an ongoing process that starts with installation and ended up with disposed. The cost for maintaining equipment is often held a large portion in life cycle costing and huge amount of money need to be allocated to complete this process. The cost invested on maintaining the medical equipment should be worth the value without comprising the safety requirement and regulations. However, there are circumstances where hospitals are unable to decide when to dispose the equipment especially when the equipment reach the end of its life, incur high repairing cost, aging, and frequent failed to function. Management of hospital come into dead end solution as there are lack of proper guidelines on maintaining medical equipment and therefore the equipment may be over maintained or under maintained. This paper provides a review of 100 papers from credible sources on maintaining activities of equipment to identify factors that are important for decision making to replace the medical equipment

Decision-Making Framework for Medical Equipment Maintenance and Replacement in Private Hospitals

The process for medical equipment maintenance and replacement in hospitals is a challenging and demanding procedure. Further, the topic of making decisions to maintain or replace or upgrade medical equipment has been debated for a long time since errors equipment maintenance will increase equipment failure at undesirable times; or if early equipment replacement will result in high investment costs and premature disposal. Therefore, standard operating procedures or guidelines need to be in place to help healthcare facilities conduct a more organized and planned maintenance and replacement process. Many hospitals may already have established replacement guidelines or have implemented asset monitoring systems for this purpose. However, the effectiveness of this system has not yet been systematically evaluated. Several studies have been conducted on the same research topic, but most of the findings emphasize the replacement method rather than the criteria that contributed to the decision. Criteria for replacing medical equipment play an important role in ensuring that the equipment can be used cost-effectively. Thus, this research aims to identify important criteria that need to be considered for medical equipment maintenance and replacement focusing on private hospitals. This research was conducted in three phases: (1) a structured literature review; (2) semi-structured interviews with eleven (11) healthcare experts; and (3) a pairwise comparison survey with 50 biomedical engineers. A decision-making framework was developed based on the findings of these three research phases. The framework developed will provide guidelines for practitioners and academics to understand and make better decisions for medical equipment maintenance and replacement in the context of private hospitals

Structured Literature Reviews (SLR) of urban farming for improving economic status of urban residents

The increasing of urban population demands the development of new technologies that provide sustainable living. This issue might debilitate the quality life of urban residents though city life always associated with national economic growth engine and social progress. Many initiatives have been commenced in elevating the economic status of urban residents including urban farming activities. In Malaysia, several stakeholders have pushed the potential of urban farming activities that help to create job, increase income, and serve as an urban garbage sink. Nonetheless, research that investigated urban farming activities could improve the economic status of urban residents still very lacking. Thus, this research aims to explore potential urban farming activities through structured literature reviews (SLR). It searched all the selected databases and found 851 papers: 378 from ScienceDirect, 17 from Web of Science and 456 from Scopus. These databases comprised comprehensive literature that concentrate on urban farming activities in Southeast Asia. Subsequently, the process of filtering was achieved based on intelligent processes. The process consists of three iterations of filtering, excluding duplicate articles, filtering titles and abstracts and reading full text articles. About 90 articles has been derived for the final classification of urban farming sub-topics. The details of the key features of topics will be discussed in the research which include the following aspects: the motivation towards urban farming activities, the advantages of urban farming especially for increasing the economic status of urban residents. The finding from this research could be used for future researchers to understand several sub-topics that related with urban farming urban residents that remain unexplored

A Conceptual Framework to determine Medical Equipment Maintenance in Hospital Using RCM Method

Maintenance services are performed to ensure the equipment is operating according to manufacturer standard and maintained at a desired level of quality. The implementation of maintenance services may prevent unexpected breakdown and disruption of operations in a hospital. However, there were numbers of cases reported on the frequent breakdown of medical equipment even though the maintenance program is in place and practised. Therefore, the reliability of the maintenance services was questioned especially when the breakdowns occurred after the maintenance services being performed. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to determine the accurate maintenance program for medical equipment in the hospital using Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) method. The recommendation from the RCM will assist to identify the root cause of the breakdown and minimize the number of breakdown for medical equipment in the hospital. RCM process is known as one of the most effective maintenance approaches to reduce the number of maintenance activities and hence minimizing the cost of maintenance incurred

Zinc Oxide, Organoclay And Silica In Crosslinked Polyethylene Composite For Cable Insulation

Kajian ini menyiasat prestasi pengisi nano terhadap sifat morfologi, elektrik, mekanikal dan fizikal matriks polietilena bersambung silang (XLPE). Dalam kajian ini, zink oksida (ZnO) dan silikon dioksida (SiO2) digunakan sebagai pengisi nano tidak terawat, manakala pengisi nano terawat adalah ZnO terawat 3-aminopropiltrietoksilen (KH550-ZnO), SiO2 terawat 3-4-aminopropiltrietoksilen (KH550-SiO2) dan organoclay (OMMT). Pengisi nano dicampur dengan XLPE menggunakan pengadun dalaman, dan kemudian ditekan acuan pada 160 °C. Peratusan berat yang berlainan (1, 2, 3 dan 4 % bt.) dikompaunkan dalam pengisi nano tidak terawat, dan peratusan berat untuk pengisi nano terawat adalah 1 dan 2 % bt. Nisbah yang berbeza (75/25, 50/50 dan 25/75) dalam jumlah 2 % bt. pemuatan pengisi telah dikompaun dalam nanokomposit hibrid. Keputusan menunjukkan bahawa penambahan pengisi nano tidak terawat meningkatkan kekuatan pecah, kadar pembakaran dan sifat tegangan. Prestasi terbaik nanokomposit didapati pada 1 % bt. SiO2/ XLPE berdasarkan ciri-ciri yang paling menonjol. Pengubahsuaian permukaan pengisi nano meningkatkan hubungan antara pengisi dan matriks melalui ikatan kimia. Pengisi nano diubahsuai permukaannya juga telah meningkatkan kekuatan pecahan, kadar pembakaran dan sifat tegangan. Dalam kajian ini, 1 % bt. OMMT / XLPE menunjukkan prestasi yang lebih baik berdasarkan ciri-ciri yang paling menonjol jika dibandingkan dengan pengisi nano terawat yang lain. Dalam nanokomposit hibrid, nisbah pengisi terbaik adalah 25/75 ZnO / OMMT. Sebagai perbandingan dengan XLPE tanpa pengisi, peningkatan yang ketara telah dilihat dalam pemalar dielektrik (4 %), kekuatan pecahan (9 %), kadar pembakaran (13 %), kekuatan tegangan (57 %), pemanjangan putus (54 %) dan modulus Young (36 %). Oleh itu, ia sesuai digunakan untuk penebat kabel. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ This study investigates the performance of nanofillers on morphology, electrical, mechanical and physical properties of crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) matrix. In this study, zinc oxide (ZnO) and silicone dioxide (SiO2) were used as untreated nanofiller, while treated nanofiller were 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane treated ZnO (KH550-ZnO), 3-4-aminopropyltriethoxysilane treated SiO2 (KH550-SiO2) and organoclay (OMMT). The nanofillers were mixed with XLPE using internal mixer, and then, press-moulded at 160 °C. Different weight percentages (1, 2, 3 and 4 wt. %) were compounded in untreated nanofillers, and the weight percentages for treated were 1 and 2 wt. %. Different ratios (75/25, 50/50 and 25/75) in a total of 2 wt. % filler loading were compounded in hybrid nanocomposites. The results showed that the addition of untreated nanofillers improved breakdown strength, burning rate and tensile properties. The best performance of nanocomposite was found at 1 wt. % SiO2/XLPE based on the most prominence properties. The addition of surface modified nanofiller enhanced the interface interaction between the filler and the matrix via chemical bonding. The surface modified nanofiller also improved the breakdown strength, burning rate and tensile properties. In this study, 1 wt. % OMMT/XLPE showed better performance based on the most prominence properties compared to other treated nanofiller. In hybrid nanocomposites, the best filler ratio was 25/75 ZnO/OMMT. In comparison with unfilled XLPE, significant improvement is observed in dielectric constant (4 %), breakdown strength (9 %), burning rate (13 %), tensile strength (57 %), elongation at break (54 %) and Young’s modulus (36 %). Therefore, it is suitable for cable insulation

Nanoemulsion as a topical delivery system of antipsoriatic drugs

Psoriasis is one of the most common skin diseases, affecting 2–5% of the world's population. It is a skin autoimmune disorder, resulting in an excessive growth and aberrant differentiation of keratinocytes. Psoriasis is an incurable lifetime disease which can only be controlled and relieved through medication. Various approaches have been explored to treat the disease. Treatment of psoriasis includes topical therapy, systemic therapy and phototherapy. Topical therapy is the first line treatment and it is the most practical medication method for psoriasis patients. However, the conventional topical treatments such as gel and cream have low efficiency, poor cosmetic and aesthetic appeal, leading to poor patient compliance or adherence, while systemic and photo therapy produce significant adverse side effects. Nanoemulsion is defined as an emulsion system consisting of oil, surfactant, and water with an isotropic, transparent (or translucent) appearance. The emulsion droplet size is defined to be less than 200 nm. Nonetheless, if the emulsion has low surfactant content and is kinetically stable, a size of less than 500 nm can be accepted as nanoemulsion. A small droplet size would enhance the delivery and penetration of a drug through the psoriasis skin layer. There has been a growing interest in using nanoemulsions in topical applications, due to their high stability and their optical transparency or translucency, which make them good and very dermatologically attractive. A good selection of oils and surfactants would enhance the transdermal treatment efficacy. This review highlights the potential of drug-loaded nanoemulsions for the treatment of psoriasis towards achieving better efficacy and eliminating side effects

Urban Farming Activities in Southeast Asia: A Review and Future Research Direction

The activities of urban farming in Southeast are still limited and scattered. In order to give valuable insights into the urban agriculture of Southeast Asia and to support researchers, we need to know in details the available options and gaps in this research direction that will serve future researchers. Thus, in this study, a review is conducted to map the research landscape into a coherent taxonomy. The research procedure focuses on all these subject matters related to urban farming system activities, technology application and their use in the urban farms and smallholder farming activities in Southeast Asia. These studies selected from the three major digital databases, namely, the ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Scopus. The study selection process consists of research into literature sources, followed by three iterations of screening and filtering, excluded duplicate articles, screening the titles and abstracts and reading of the full-text articles. The final included result is 88 articles, which will be adopted on in this study. Further, a review in details of the layout of the research landscape of literature is conducted into a cohesive classification with its descriptive analysis. We also identify the essential characteristics of this emerging field in the following aspects: benefits of using urban farming activities in Southeast Asia, challenges hindering utilization, and recommendations to improve the acceptance and use of urban farming applications in literature

Optimization of newcastle disease virus production in t-flask

In this work, the propagation of Asplin F strain of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) in DF-1 cells was investigated. Experiments were carried out in T-flask to investigate the effects of serum concentration in the culture medium during virus replication phase and multiplicity of infection (MOI) on virus production. Virus infectivity titre of 6.62 x 107 TCID50/ml was achieved when serum concentration of 0.5% and MOI of 20 was used