Location Of Suitable Sites For Wind Farms Using Tools Of Spatial Information.

The rapid increase in the global population and fast depleting reserves of fossils fuel and increasing environmental pollution have encouraged the search for alternative source of environmental friendly renewable energy

Stochastic Generation Of Hourly Wind Speed Time Series.

In the present study hourly wind speed data of Kuala Terengganu in Peninsular Malaysia are simulated by using transition matrix approach of Markovian process. The wind speed time series is divided into various states based on certain criteria

Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average Model(Arima)For Forecasting Wind Speed.

For proper planning and efficient utilization of wind energy, wind speed predictions are important. In the present study the hourly wind speed data from 1995 to 2001 at three meteorological stations at a height of 14 m above the ground level have been analysed for fitting autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models

Patient-Specific Pre-Treatment VMAT Plan Verification Using Gamma Passing Rates

Continuous gantry motion, continuous beam modulation, and variable dose rate are used in volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) to obtain highly conformal radiation therapy dose distributions. Several errors during daily radiation therapy treatment can be sources of uncertainties in dose delivery. These errors include monitor unit calculation errors and other human mistakes. Due to the uncertainties in the excessively modulated VMAT plan, the intended dose distribution is not delivered perfectly, leading to a mismatch between the measured and planned dose distributions. This necessitates an extensive and effective quality assurance (QA) program for both machine and patient. In this study, VMAT QA plan verification of 62 head and neck (HN) and 19 prostate cases was done using Octavius 4D setup with its associating VeriSoft gamma analysis software. The plans showed a maximum 3D gamma passing rate with 4 mm/3 % gamma acceptance criteria, i.e., 99.7 % for the HN cancer cases and 99.5 % for the prostate cancer cases. Local gamma analysis was also performed for both regions. Furthermore, 2D and volumetric gamma analyses were also carried out. Gamma analysis with respect to different axis was also carried out. It was known that the transversal axis showed    the highest gamma passing rate in both HN and prostate cases, i.e., 99.17 % and 98.3 %, respectively. The transverse axis came to be a better fit for the planned dose distribution

Paramedic-conducted Mental Health Counselling for Abused Women in Rural Bangladesh: An Evaluation from the Perspective of Participants

This paper reports on evaluation of an initiative to use paramedics as the first-level mental health counsellors of abused women in rural Bangladesh (2003–2004) from the perspective of the abused women who participated in one or more counselling sessions. Thirty in-depth interviews, followed by a survey (n=372), targeted to cover all participants, were conducted in 2006. Overall, the arrangement, management of ethical issues, and skills of paramedics were rated favourably. Most (89%) abused women (n=372) considered the session useful; one-fourth of these women considered it very useful; and only a few abused women considered the session useless. Usefulness of the session was expressed mostly in terms of relief attained after talking about the issue. Most (87%) women reported being encouraged to be self-confident. In a context characterized by low self-confidence of women, lack of opportunity to talk about violence, and absence of professional mental health counselling services, this initiative is sufficiently promising to warrant further testing

Association of pesticides and kidney function among adults in the US population 2001–2010

Chronic kidney disease of unknown cause is prevalent in a range of communities; however, its etiology remains unclear. We examined the association between pesticide exposures and the risk of kidney function loss using four waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to identify a pathological pathway. We pooled data from four cross-sectional waves of NHANES, with 41,847 participants in total. Exposure to malathion increased the risk of low kidney function (aOR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.01–1.56) in the adjusted model. Increased risk of low kidney function was not found among those exposed to 2,4-D (aOR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.72–1.09), 3,5,6-trichloropyridinol (aOR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.83–1.12), and 3-PBA (aOR = 1.03, 95% CI = 0.94–1.13). Our findings provide evidence of altered kidney function in people exposed to malathion, highlighting the potential of organophosphate pesticides’ role in renal injury

First Order Phase Transformation in Amorphous Ge25Se75 – xSbx Glasses

Non-isothermal Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique was used to study the kinetics of first order phase transformation in Ge25Se75 – xSbx glasses. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique was employed to investigate the amorphous and crystalline phases in Ge25Se75 – xSbx glasses. From the heating rate dependences of crystallization temperature; the activation energy for crystallization and other kinetics parameters were derived. The temperature difference (Tc – Tg) and Tc is highest for the samples with 6 % of Sb. Hence, Ge25Se69Sb6 glass is most stable. The enthalpy released is found to be less for Ge25Se69Sb6 glass which further confirms its maximum stability. The activation energy of crystallization (Ec) is found to vary with compositions indicating a structural change due to the addition of Sb. The crystallization data are interpreted in terms of recent analyses developed for non-isothermal conditions. The present investigation indicates that both the glass transition and the crystallization processes occur in a single stage. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3101

Synthetic aperture radar and optical remote sensing image fusion for flood monitoring in the Vietnam lower Mekong basin: a prototype application for the Vietnam Open Data Cube

Flood monitoring systems are crucial for flood management and consequence mitigation in flood prone regions. Different remote sensing techniques are increasingly used for this purpose. However, the different approaches suffer various limitations, including cloud and weather effects (optical data), and low spatial resolution and poor colour presentation (synthetic aperture radar data). This study fuses two data types (Landsat and Sentinel-1) to overcome these limitations and produce better quality images for a prototype flood application in the Vietnam Open Data Cube (VODC). Visual and quantitative evaluation of fused image quality revealed improvement in the images compared with the original scenes. Ground-truth data was used to develop the study flood extraction algorithm and we found a good agreement between our results and SERVIR Mekong (a joint initiative by the US agency for International Development (USAID), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) maps. While the algorithm is run on a personal computer (PC), it has a clear potential to be developed for application on a big data system

Paramedic-Conducted Mental Health Counselling for Abused Women in Rural Bangladesh: An Evaluation from the Perspective of Participants

This paper reports on evaluation of an initiative to use paramedics as the first-level mental health counsellors of abused women in rural Bangladesh (2003-2004) from the perspective of the abused women who participated in one or more counselling sessions. Thirty in-depth interviews, followed by a survey (n=372), targeted to cover all participants, were conducted in 2006. Overall, the arrangement, management of ethical issues, and skills of paramedics were rated favourably. Most (89%) abused women (n=372) considered the session useful; one-fourth of these women considered it very useful; and only a few abused women considered the session useless. Usefulness of the session was expressed mostly in terms of relief attained after talking about the issue. Most (87%) women reported being encouraged to be self-confident. In a context characterized by low self-confidence of women, lack of opportunity to talk about violence, and absence of professional mental health counselling services, this initiative is sufficiently promising to warrant further testing