Chinese Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy (PATE) scale: translation and psychometric evaluation

None of the quantitative scale for public attitudes toward epilepsy was translated to Chinese language. This study aimed to translate and test the validity and reliability of a Chinese version of the Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy (PATE) scale. Methods: The translation was performed according to standard principles and tested in 140 Chinese-speaking adults aged more than 18 years for psychometric validation. Results: The items in each domain had similar standard deviations (equal item variance), ranged from 0.85-0.95 in personal domain and 0.75-1.04 in general domain. The correlation between an item and its domain was 0.4 and above for all, and higher than the correlation with the other domain. Multitrait analysis showed the Chinese PATE had a similar variance, floor and ceiling effects, and relative relationship between the domains, as the original PATE. The Chinese PATE scale showed a similar correlation with almost all demographic variable except age. Item means were generally clustered in the factor analysis as hypothesized. The Cronbach’s α values was within acceptable range (0.773) in the personal domain and satisfactory range (0.693) in the general domain. Conclusion: The Chinese PATE scale is a validated and reliable translated version in measuring the public attitudes toward epilepsy

Towards Comfortable Cycling: A Practical Approach to Monitor the Conditions in Cycling Paths

This is a no brainer. Using bicycles to commute is the most sustainable form of transport, is the least expensive to use and are pollution-free. Towns and cities have to be made bicycle-friendly to encourage their wide usage. Therefore, cycling paths should be more convenient, comfortable, and safe to ride. This paper investigates a smartphone application, which passively monitors the road conditions during cyclists ride. To overcome the problems of monitoring roads, we present novel algorithms that sense the rough cycling paths and locate road bumps. Each event is detected in real time to improve the user friendliness of the application. Cyclists may keep their smartphones at any random orientation and placement. Moreover, different smartphones sense the same incident dissimilarly and hence report discrepant sensor values. We further address the aforementioned difficulties that limit such crowd-sourcing application. We evaluate our sensing application on cycling paths in Singapore, and show that it can successfully detect such bad road conditions.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Accepted by IEEE 4th World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT) 201

Persistence of hepatic hepatitis B virus after serological clearance of HBsAG with autologous peripheral stem cell transplantation

Delayed clearance of hepatitis B surface antigen was previously reported in a 38 year old woman after high dose chemotherapy with autologous peripheral blood stem cell rescue. Sixteen months later, this patient remained hepatitis B surface antigen negative, hepatitis B surface anti-body positive, and serum hepatitis B DNA negative by polymerase chain reaction. Serial liver biopsies (one at hepatitis B e antigen positive stage, one at hepatitis B e antibody positive stage, and one at hepatitis B surface antigen negative and hepatitis B surface antibody positive stage) showed a gradual resolution of the inflammatory activity with loss of hepatitis B e antigen and then hepatitis B surface antigen in the serum. However, the degree of fibrosis, though mild, remained the same. With the serological clearance of hepatitis B surface antigen, a small amount of hepatitis B virus DNA was still detectable in the nuclei of liver cells.published_or_final_versio

AERO|ASTRO Architecture: the hybridizing frontier of emergent industries

Architectural designers often need to strike an uneasy balance between idealism and reality. Under most circumstances, architects are restricted by clients, budgets, and available technologies. However, divorced from traditional constraints, visionary concepts of new dwellings, new cities, and new “worlds” will spark greater forms of innovation and drive creativity for future generations. The exploration of new spatial boundaries and conceptual environments for design will irrevocably alter the human experience while adapting new challenging roles for future architects. Architecture can be understood in part as the art of organizing spaces through the manipulation of materials and forms. Designed spaces are arranged to provide unique sensory reactions for their occupants while emotionally and physically orientating them on Earth. As a catalyst towards the awareness of one’s surroundings, architecture has always had to contend with the many limiting factors imposed by the forces on Earth. These include, but are not limited to, gravity and climate. On Earth, structurally sound construction is limited by the forces of gravity as it influences design capabilities by standardizing forms, functions, and structural elements of architectural spaces. New design challenges and opportunities arrive when we look to create structures outside of Earth’s boundaries. This thesis proposes a futuristic model of an efficient and unique passenger transport system that connects Earth-based hybrid air/space ports with an outer space orbital infrastructural hub. This modern intervention will allow for new outer space industries, such as transit, tourism, and hospitality, which will provide unique opportunities for the future of humanity. Additionally, the thesis studies the positive architectural and experiential potentials for the future living occupancy of outer space. In recognizing the financial and logistical limitations of current space constructions, such as the International Space Station, the thesis looks beyond the limitations of current technologies and towards designs that are driven by the fulfillment of human experiences in space. Life in space, the thesis envisions, will spark new human experiences and rituals while necessitating new forms and designs in architecture. Weightlessness and its related spatial disorientations, in addition to the many other unique conditions in this unfamiliar territory, will inspire a new conceptual language for architecture and human cultures. The thesis will demonstrate that spaces designed for extraterrestrial experiences can be innovatively dynamic as they respond to new cultures and activities that evolve as a reaction to extreme conditions. Introducing humans to the environs of orbital space will be the initial stage in a long-term phasing tactic to colonize and commercialize beyond the expanse of Earth, eventually extending humanity to the remote neighbouring planets of the universe

Setting optimal inventory policy for mold spare components in a medical device production facility

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-76).Inadequate inventory management policies utilized by the maintenance facility of a manufacturing plant result in the lack of spare components needed to carry out essential repairs on molds used in injection molding operations, thereby reducing the plant's effective production capacity. Thus, molds need to be run for longer periods to produce the same quantities of finished products, exposing them to a higher rate of wear and tear, ultimately incurring higher maintenance costs, utility costs and repair costs. This research creates a framework for properly categorizing the spare components based on their characteristics and applying relevant inventory models to each category to derive the inventory control parameters of reorder quantity, safety stock level and reorder point. Spare component inventory will be categorized by usage rates and their criticality to mold repairs while critical inventory parameters of safety stock, reorder point and reorder quantity are set to ensure a 97.5% service level while reducing total inventory costs by 9.1% or by $38.7K per year.by Lim Yuen Chun Gerard.M.Eng

Preparation of palm oil methyl esters for alkenyl succinic anhydride production

The fractions of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) i.e. crude palm oil methyl esters (CPOME), RBD palm olein methyl esters (RBD Palm Olein ME) and used frying oil methyl esters (UFOME) rich in unsaturated fatty esters were used to prepare alkenyl succinic anhydrides (ASA). The fractions were obtained via fractional distillation that separated the unsaturated fatty esters from the saturated fatty esters. The fractions with the highest content of unsaturated fatty esters were reacted with maleic anhydride (MA) for 8 hours at 240oC with the MA/FAME ratio of 1.5. The reaction was conducted without catalyst and solvent. The crude alkenyl succinic anhydride (ASA) obtained was purified by column chromatography. The purified compound was characterised by FTIR

ADTH: Bounded Nodal Delay for Better Performance in Wireless Ad-hoc Networks

© 2018 Delay is an unavoidable factor that occurs within networks and may be exacerbated by the nature of wireless ad-hoc networks. Maintaining a manageable level of delay may be required to provide satisfactory performance for each of the nodes that form the network. The variability of IoT devices, topologies and network conditions demand that a standalone and scalable scheme be used. ADTH is first shown to accomplish this through simulations with the NS-2 network simulator. The scheme was then used with testbed implementation with Gumstix devices and real-time traffic provided by an STC Traffic Generator. These demonstrated its effectiveness in managing flows of delay sensitive traffic, in addition to delivering superior bandwidth utilisation than standard policies

Global-local visual processing impacts risk taking behaviors, but only at first

We investigated the impact of early visual processing on decision-making during unpredictable, risky situations. Participants undertook Navon’s (1977) task and attended to either global letters or local letters only, following which they completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). It was observed that global-focused individuals made more balloon pumps during the BART (i.e., took more risk), whereas local-focused individuals took less risk, albeit only initially. The theory of predictive and reactive control systems (PARCS) provides an excellent account of the data. Implications and future directions are discussed

The need for a definition of big data for nursing science: A case study of disaster preparedness

© 2016 by the author; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The rapid development of technology has made enormous volumes of data available and achievable anytime and anywhere around the world. Data scientists call this change a data era and have introduced the term âBig Dataâ, which has drawn the attention of nursing scholars. Nevertheless, the concept of Big Data is quite fuzzy and there is no agreement on its definition among researchers of different disciplines. Without a clear consensus on this issue, nursing scholars who are relatively new to the concept may consider Big Data to be merely a dataset of a bigger size. Having a suitable definition for nurse researchers in their context of research and practice is essential for the advancement of nursing research. In view of the need for a better understanding on what Big Data is, the aim in this paper is to explore and discuss the concept. Furthermore, an example of a Big Data research study on disaster nursing preparedness involving six million patient records is used for discussion. The example demonstrates that a Big Data analysis can be conducted from many more perspectives than would be possible in traditional sampling, and is superior to traditional sampling. Experience gained from the process of using Big Data in this study will shed light on future opportunities for conducting evidence-based nursing research to achieve competence in disaster nursing.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Do green practices really attract customers? The sharing economy from sustainable supply chain management perspective

The notion of the sharing economy has been introduced in many sectors and provided significant benefits to consumers and asset owners. Despite the remarkable improvement of the sharing economy in recent years, its relationship with sustainability remains insufficiently researched. This study adopts a sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) perspective. A large-scale survey with 420 participants showed that investment recovery (IR) practices and corporate social responsibility (CSR) conducted by sharing economy platforms significantly and positively affect customers’ intention to use sharing economy-based services/products, whereas internal green management (IGM), supplier green management (SGM), eco-design (ECD) and customer green management (CGM) practices do not. A follow-up qualitative study with ten participants provided further explanations and supported the findings of the survey. This study links the sharing economy and sustainability by testing the effectiveness of sharing economy platforms’ sustainable practices and proposes the best practices for sharing economy platforms to maintain a long-term sustainable marketplace