Improving the Process of Preventive Maintenance for Critical Telecommunications Stations in Qatar

Critical public safety telecommunications networks in Qatar shall be secure, reliable, and fast response networks. These networks are serving the security teams and forces of Qatar. As a result, these networks shall be maintained on the highest standards in order to meet the basic requirements of providing an available and reliable Mission Critical Communications Networks (MCCN). Hence, the goal of this project is to improve the process of preventive maintenance by the Field Maintenance Teams (FMT) in the Ministry of Interior (MOI). Several limitations and challenges are facing these teams while planning and performing the Preventive Maintenance (PM) tasks. This project shall be used to increase the productivity of the FMT by improving the current practices of performing PM activities. A detailed literature review on the areas of lean thinking and scheduling maintenance tasks has been conducted. Then, it was decided to use the VSM (one of the lean thinking tools) to enhance and improve the current PM execution system. There were multiple non-value adding activities that can be planned for and executed before each day of preforming the PM tasks. These activities have been identified and then eliminated, and hence a future state was proposed in this project. This future state system will be implemented directly by the FMT management as it can save almost 40.3% of the total lead time of the system (192 minutes improvement from current to the future system)

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association analyses improve resolution of genes and pathways influencing lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk

Lung-function impairment underlies chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and predicts mortality. In the largest multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of lung function to date, comprising 580,869 participants, we identified 1,020 independent association signals implicating 559 genes supported by ≥2 criteria from a systematic variant-to-gene mapping framework. These genes were enriched in 29 pathways. Individual variants showed heterogeneity across ancestries, age and smoking groups, and collectively as a genetic risk score showed strong association with COPD across ancestry groups. We undertook phenome-wide association studies for selected associated variants as well as trait and pathway-specific genetic risk scores to infer possible consequences of intervening in pathways underlying lung function. We highlight new putative causal variants, genes, proteins and pathways, including those targeted by existing drugs. These findings bring us closer to understanding the mechanisms underlying lung function and COPD, and should inform functional genomics experiments and potentially future COPD therapies

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association analyses improve resolution of genes and pathways influencing lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk

Funder: British Lung Foundation (BLF); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000351Funder: DH | National Institute for Health Research (NIHR); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000272AbstractLung-function impairment underlies chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and predicts mortality. In the largest multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of lung function to date, comprising 580,869 participants, we identified 1,020 independent association signals implicating 559 genes supported by ≥2 criteria from a systematic variant-to-gene mapping framework. These genes were enriched in 29 pathways. Individual variants showed heterogeneity across ancestries, age and smoking groups, and collectively as a genetic risk score showed strong association with COPD across ancestry groups. We undertook phenome-wide association studies for selected associated variants as well as trait and pathway-specific genetic risk scores to infer possible consequences of intervening in pathways underlying lung function. We highlight new putative causal variants, genes, proteins and pathways, including those targeted by existing drugs. These findings bring us closer to understanding the mechanisms underlying lung function and COPD, and should inform functional genomics experiments and potentially future COPD therapies.</jats:p