Recent Changes to INDOT Sign Specs

This presentation highlights recent changes to INDOT\u27s standard specifications and standard drawings regarding traffic signs and structures

E-marketing strategies exploiting social media for Islamic banking

The concept of e-marketing is one which has gained increasing interest within Islamic businesses in recent years. Amin [3] asserts that one of the most critical issues to consider is the legal and moral aspects of e- marketing and the extent to which they fit comfortably within principle notions of Islam and Sharia law. He states that "e-business is a permissible means of doing business provided it is performed in the boundary of Shariah Islamiyyah”. By this he means that any form of e- marketing must clearly demonstrate the key principles of Islam, meaning that marketing must be devoid of any contentious or exaggerated claims and there must be no excessive risk. Of course, one of the principal features of marketing as noted by Kotler and Keller [46] is that marketing is known for accentuating the benefits and features of products and services, and downplaying the negative attributes which potentially could lead to a consumer making an informed decision on the basis of this unbalanced presentation. Arguably, this presents a form of risk which may be at odds with the fundamental tenets of Islam. This paper presents a critical literature review of alternative e-marketing approaches.peer-reviewe

Networked control system for electrohydraulic flow control positioner using Neural Controller and Collaborative Network

Electrohydraulic flow control valve is an essential element of an automated process industry where fluid control is applicable. The use of conventional controllers overan IP-communication network for controlling electrohydraulic flow control positioner to regulate mainline pressure and flow rate in pipeline transportation of petroleum products between two stations where downstream pressure of the pumping station fluctuates significantlyposes a problem of instability on the flowrate and the mainline pressure of the pipeline. Additionally, the effect of network induced, time-varying delay between the controller and the electrohydraulic flow control valves induces a problem of poor quality of control and inefficient system performance of the control loop. In this paper, we presented an application of neural network in processflow control using an electrohydraulic valve positionerand proposed a concept of collaborative network for networked control systems over IP-based networks.peer-reviewe

Phase-type survival trees and mixed distribution survival trees for clustering patients' hospital length of stay

Clinical investigators, health professionals and managers are often interested in developing criteria for clustering patients into clinically meaningful groups according to their expected length of stay. In this paper, we propose two novel types of survival trees; phase-type survival trees and mixed distribution survival trees, which extend previous work on exponential survival trees. The trees are used to cluster the patients with respect to length of stay where partitioning is based on covariates such as gender, age at the time of admission and primary diagnosis code. Likelihood ratio tests are used to determine optimal partitions. The approach is illustrated using nationwide data available from the English Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database on stroke-related patients, aged 65 years and over, who were discharged from English hospitals over a 1-year period.peer-reviewe

Tablets report

In January 2014, the Government of Malta launched the ‘One Tablet per Child’ pilot project whose aim is to foresee the introduction of computer tablets in primary schools. An expression of interest was also published in order to test different types of hardware and software solutions with the aim of collecting feedback from educators and students. As part of this initiative, the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology was requested to assist. In fact, an inter-departmental team was setup made up of academics from the Department of Intelligent Computer Systems and the Department of Computer Information Systems. These academics were entrusted with the task of analyzing the three major tablet platforms in order to create a coherent and impartial analysis, which can help during the selection of the ultimate platform. The result of this exercise is this document, which was presented to the committee responsible for the tablets project. Throughout this document, one can find a thorough discussion pertaining the positive and negative aspects of each platform; be it Android, iOS or Microsoft. Whilst praising the most positive features of each platform, the document also highlights the issues, which might arise when developing content for these operating systems (OSs) and the weaknesses, which currently exist. We also examined issues, which might arise when using these platforms. In particular, our analysis also takes into consideration the fact that the usage will happen in a primary classroom setting and thus, additional issues such as sturdiness of the device had to be considered. Even though we mentioned some examples, we did not really go into the merits of particular devices because the market is so fragmented that it would have been impossible to pinpoint specific models or brands. Being a highly volatile sector means that the information presented in this document can be considered correct at the time of writing however we are expecting major changes in the coming months which will definitely change the way in which we interact with computers forever. The document is well suited to help the committee get abreast with the latest offerings and future potential of each platform in order to allow them to take an informed decision. A decision, which will have a long lasting effect on the eventual success of the project and the ultimate wellbeing of our children.peer-reviewe

On the moments and the distribution of the cost of a semi Markov model for healthcare systems

In this paper we extend our previous semi-Markov reward model which attached costs to duration in states, by including costs of making a transition from one state to another. Theoretical results concerning the moments and consequently the distribution of interval costs for every member and of the total cost per unit period at any time and also through time intervals are obtained and provided in analytic form for the semi Markov reward model with discounting. The results are applied to an open healthcare system. In the healthcare domain such transition costs allow us to evaluate the overall costs of therapy or clinical intervention where an operation or other treatment may be an option. This model can be used for strategic approaches to planning and evaluating long-term patient care. The results demonstrate the potential of the model to demonstrate differential costs of different therapeutic strategies and explore optimal solutions.peer-reviewe

A systematic review of blockchain in healthcare : frameworks, prototypes, and implementations

Blockchain, a form of distributed ledger technology has attracted the interests of stakeholders across several sectors including healthcare. Its' potential in the multi-stakeholder operated sector like health has been responsible for several investments, studies, and implementations. Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems traditionally used for the exchange of health information amongst healthcare stakeholders have been criticised for centralising power, failures and attack-points with exchange data custodians. EHRs have struggled in the face of multi-stakeholder and system requirements while adhering to security, privacy, ethical and other regulatory constraints. Blockchain is promising amongst others to address the many EHR challenges, primarily trustless and secure exchange of health information amongst stakeholders. Many blockchain-in-healthcare frameworks have been proposed; some prototyped and/or implemented. This study leveraged the PRISMA framework to systematically search and evaluate the different models proposed; prototyped and/or implemented. The bibliometric and functional distribution of all 143 articles from this study were presented. This study evaluated 61 articles that discussed either prototypes or pilot or implementations. The technical and architectural analysis of these 61 articles for privacy, security, cost, and performance were detailed. Blockchain was found to solve the trust, security and privacy constraints of traditional EHRs often at significant performance, storage and cost trade-offs.peer-reviewe

High division of sciatic nerve

Background: The Sciatic nerve is the largest and thickest nerve in the human body with a long course in the inferior extremity. It divides into tibial and common peroneal nerves which can occur at any level from the sacral plexus to the inferior part of the popliteal space. Sciatic nerve variations are relatively common. These variations may contribute to clinical conditions ex sciatica, coccygodynia and piriformis syndrome and have important clinical implications in anaesthesiology, neurology, sports medicine and surgery.Methods:10 cadavers were dissected with no previous history of trauma/surgery to study the anatomical variations of sciatic nerve.Results:In all except two cadavers, the nerve divided at the apex of the popliteal fossa. In two cadavers the sciatic nerve divided bilaterally in the upper part of thigh.Conclusion: The high division presented in this study can make popliteal nerve blocks partially ineffective. The high division of sciatic nerve must always be borne in mind as they have important clinical implications

An anatomic variant caudate lobe in a cadaver

The liver can present a number of congenital anomalies. Most common among them are the irregularities in shape and the number of lobules. Less common variations include presence of accessory lobes or accessory fissures. The accessory lobe may be attached to the liver through a mesentery or a bridge of hepatic tissue and they are usually asymptomatic. An accessory liver lobe though a very rare occurrence but when it exists it becomes clinically important because of its rarity. We are reporting one such case of accessory caudate lobe of liver found during routine dissection of embalmed cadaver of a 60 year old male. It was separated from the caudate lobe by a well-defined fissure. The quadrate lobe and fissure for ligamentum teres were totally absent. Ligamentum teres was found embedded in the substance of the liver on its inferior surface. The presence of additional lobes and fissures or the absence of normal lobes and fissures might lead to confusion during surgery or clinical misdiagnosis. Knowledge and awareness of these anomalies is useful to the clinician to rule out diseases, surgeons during segmental resection of liver and radiologist when interpreting liver radiologic findings