The foundation for a successful career in academic medicine

After being exposed to all facets of medicine, I have found Obstetrics and Gynecology to be the most challenging, artistic and amazing field in medicine. The University of Iowa Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program shaped my personality to become a successful academic obstetrician and gynecologist. With the confidence built at the University of Iowa, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology I saw Fetal Surgery/ Maternal Fetal Medicine as an opportunity to combine these two passions and I did it, thanks to my residency program at Iowa

Apply QFD methodology to capture ‘unheard’ voices of UK care home residents and translate them into quality measurement targets for future improvement

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonIn the planning and delivery of services the voice and choice of consumers have appeared as the foremost key factors. For a large number of organisations the received feedback from customers about the quality of services, which are the criteria and indication of their level of satisfaction play a crucial role in the improvement of quality. Although across developed western communities, the importance of customers’ views has gained acceptance, few studies have been dedicated to the exploration of the voice of the residents in care homes. The review of the literature regarding residents’ satisfaction and quality in care homes revealed that the voices of residents in care homes are usually not heard or are absent. Moreover, the adoption of quality improvement tools in health care has lagged behind that in other industries and there is generally a failure to use an appropriate methodology in care homes, one based on residents’ voice, for improving quality. As a result, the main aim of this research is to investigate residents’ voice regarding improving their satisfaction in care homes. Further, the researcher seeks to obtain data by using an appropriate methodology to assist care home managers in enhancing the quality of the services they offer by assigning weights to quality indicators pertaining to improving quality and residents’ levels of satisfaction. For this purpose, this research employs both qualitative and quantitative approaches to develop a research process entailing: (1) a comprehensive literature review to recognise the phenomenon; (2) interviews with fifteen older people who lived in three different care homes in order to discover the most important residents’ needs and requirements in such homes; (3) a resident survey with one hundred and two residents in thirty five care homes. These were conducted to assess their preferences for the importance of demanded qualities; their satisfaction with provided services and the attributes of each demanded quality based on the Kano model, in order to identify the priority of improvement. Next, (4) there was the development of the House of Quality (HoQ) to optimize quality to assure residents’ satisfaction; and finally, (5) an evaluation study was conducted with thirteen service providers, in order to assess the accuracy and appropriateness of the methodology. This research has contributed towards a better understanding of the residents’ voice, and applying it for enhancing quality and residents’ satisfaction in care homes. For the first time residents’ requirements are prioritised and classified in this context through accurate methods. Moreover, an understanding of the attributes of care home residents’ needs in relation to a Kano model has been elicited. The novelty of this proposed methodology is in utilising the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in care homes to translate the voice of residents’ regarding their requirements into service planning. The research methodology and results facilitate care home managers with a hierarchy for improvement planning at both service and executive management levels

Laparoscopic Management of Chemical Peritonitis Caused by Dermoid Cyst Spillage

Early recognition and prompt treatment with removal of dermoid cyst content and peritoneal lavage can be successful in the management of‘ chemical peritonitis secondary to spillage of cyst content during surgery

Applying the genetic algorithm for determination electrospinning parameters of poly vinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nano fibers: theoretical & experimental analysis

Poly Vinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) because of its piezoelectric properties has been applied in different applications such as smart textiles, medical application and membranes for energy harvesting. It was declared that nanofibres diameters and electrospinning parameters could be enhanced the piezoelectric properties of these materials. The main objective of this paper is applying the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to determine the optimum condition of solution parameters and processing conditions based on the desired diameter size of PVDF fibers to produce the fibers without any structural faults. In this method, The Fitness function was determined by a simple analytical model presented by Fridrikh. Toward approving the GA results the experimental tests were done. the effect of four parameters such as flow rate of the polymer solution, electrospinning voltage, electrospinning distance and polymer concentration on the fiber formation and fiber diameter size of electrospun PVDF fibers have been explored by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to attest the accuracy of the model. Assessment of experimental and theoretical results show that electrospinning parameters determined by GA method leads to achieve desire fiber diameters. Because of time and energy consuming of electrospinning process, the GA method may be useful to achieve desired fiber diameter by determining electrospinning parameters for polymers prior to fiber production

Nanofibers-based piezoelectric energy harvester for self-powered wearable technologies

The demands for wearable technologies continue to grow and novel approaches for powering these devices are being enabled by the advent of new energy materials and novel manufacturing strategies. In addition, decreasing the energy consumption of portable electronic devices has created a huge demand for the development of cost-effective and environment friendly alternate energy sources. Energy harvesting materials including piezoelectric polymer with its special properties make this demand possible. Herein, we develop a flexible and lightweight nanogenerator package based on polyvinyledene fluoride (PVDF)/LiCl electrospun nanofibers. The piezoelectric performance of the developed nanogenator is investigated to evaluate effect of the thickness of the as-spun mat on the output voltage using a vibration and impact test. It is found that the output voltage increases from 1.3 V to 5 V by adding LiCl as additive into the spinning solution compared with pure PVDF. The prepared PVDF/LiCl nanogenerator is able to generate voltage and current output of 3 V and 0.5 µA with a power density output of 0.3 µW cm−2 at the frequency of 200 Hz. It is found also that the developed nanogenerator can be utilized as a sensor to measure temperature changes from 30◦C to 90◦C under static pressure. The developed electrospun temperature sensor showed sensitivity of 0.16%/◦C under 100 Pa pressure and 0.06%/◦C under 220 Pa pressure. The obtained results suggested the developed energy harvesting textiles have promising applications for various wearable self-powered electrical devices and systems

Fatigue Damage Identification and Remaining Useful Life Estimation of Composite Structures using Piezo Wafer Active Transducers

The prediction of fatigue damage accumulation is a crucial element in the estimation of the Remaining Useful Life of composite structures subjected to cyclic loading. In this paper, two Glass-Fibre Reinforced Plastics, a thin strip and a thick beam, are subjected to fatigue load while being monitored with Piezo Wafer Active Sensors. Two distinct methods, one based on Electro-Mechanical Impedance Spectroscopy (EMIS) and one based on the Reconstruction Algorithm for Probabilistic Identification of Damage (RAPID), are employed. Both methods are mostly used for damage detection, yet not for damage accumulation monitoring. The results presented in this paper show that damage accumulation can be followed during fatigue loading of the test objects. The trends shown in the damage accumulation graphs give an indication of the damage accumulation, and even a change in the damage evolution stage, yet a complete RUL estimation is not possible without further analysis of the experiments, possibly assisted by numerical modelling

Improving quality of care homes

This presentation was given as part of the Brunel Institute for Ageing Studies (BIAS) Annual Conference 2012 by Sanaz Shamshirsaz, a research student in the School of Health Sciences and Social Care at Brunel University. The 2nd annual conference was hosted at Brunel University on the 15th February 2012