Application of experimental and analytical approaches in characterizing coronary stents

Coronary artery disease (CAD) affects every fifth person in the world. The gold-standard treatment for CAD is stent implantation, however, the existing therapy is not sufficient due to many reasons. For instance, in-stent restenosis, biocompatibility, controlled degradation rate, protein adsorption, and adequate endothelialization are still the main concerns. In the last two decades, the field of stent technology has been grown rapidly and many new stent types and in vitro testing methods for stent characterization have been developed to minimize the aforementioned issues. In this vicinity, there are still many unaddressed issues: i) the quantitative analysis of corrosion is conducted with simpler samples made of stent material instead of stents, in most cases due to the absence of a mathematical model to calculate the entire stent surface area (ESSA); ii) in vitro stent testing in environments that are very far from actual physiological environments; iii) Evaluation of the influence of in-vitro test conditions on coated metallic stents; iv) absence of flow-induced shear stress (FISS) corrosion model, to mention a few. This thesis presents the novel ESSA model, the fluid dynamic experimental setup with the integration of various sensors and pH control, the influence of in vitro degradation behavior of the titanium oxynitride (TiOxNy) coated stainless steel stents and anodized AZ31 samples, and the FISS corrosion model. The results show some important contributions in this field, however, there is still a huge potential for the development of promising stent characterization solutions.Die koronare Herzkrankheit (KHK) betrifft jeden fünften Menschen auf der Welt. Der Goldstandard bei der Behandlung von KHK ist die Stent-Implantation, doch die bestehende Therapie ist aus vielen Gründen nicht ausreichend. So sind beispielsweise die Restenose im Stent, die Biokompatibilität, die kontrollierte Abbaugeschwindigkeit, die Proteinadsorption und die angemessene Endothelialisierung nach wie vor die Hauptprobleme. In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten hat sich die Stenttechnologie rasant weiterentwickelt, und es wurden viele neue Stenttypen und In-vitro-Testmethoden zur Stentcharakterisierung entwickelt, um die oben genannten Probleme zu minimieren. In dieser Umgebung gibt es noch viele ungelöste Probleme: i) die quantitative Analyse der Korrosion wird mit einfacheren Proben aus Stentmaterial anstelle von Stents durchgeführt, in den meisten Fällen aufgrund des Fehlens eines mathematischen Modells zur Berechnung der gesamten Stentoberfläche (ESSA); ii) In-vitro-Stent-Tests in Umgebungen, die sehr weit von der tatsächlichen physiologischen Umgebung entfernt sind; iii) Bewertung des Einflusses von In-vitro-Testbedingungen auf beschichtete metallische Stents; iv) Fehlen eines FISS-Korrosionsmodells (flow-induced shear stress), um nur einige zu nennen. In dieser Arbeit werden das neuartige ESSA-Modell, der strömungsdynamische Versuchsaufbau mit der Integration verschiedener Sensoren und pH-Kontrolle, der Einfluss des In-vitro-Degradationsverhaltens der mit Titanoxynitrid (TiOxNy) beschichteten Edelstahlstents und anodisierten AZ31-Proben sowie das FISS-Korrosionsmodell vorgestellt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einige wichtige Beiträge in diesem Bereich, jedoch gibt es noch ein großes Potenzial für die Entwicklung von vielversprechenden Lösungen zur Charakterisierung von Stents

Solid Wastes Management and its Willingness to Pay in Mingora, Swat

Solid waste is one of the major environmental dilemmas of Pakistan which causes environmental degradation. There is no proper management system for the collection and disposal of solid wastes. The current study is design to highlight solid wastes and willingness to pay (WTP) for its management in Mingora Swat, Pakistan. The objective of the study is to identify factors effecting solid waste management (SWM) activities and to evaluate the relationship of income, house hold size and diseases with WTP for SWM. The study is based on primary and secondary data. The value of WTP is taken as dependent variable while income, house hold size and diseases are independent variables. Survey questionnaire incorporated the opinion of local people and Tehsil Municipal Administrators (TMA), about solid wastes as primary data. According to the current survey, the average household per day solid wastes is 1.55 Kg while the total solid wastes generated in Mingora are 45.59 Ton/day.  The study found out that lack of resources and landfills, least government/community interest and lack of awareness are the main factors contributes to solid wastes mismanagement in Mingora Swat.  The study also investigated that bank of river is used for disposal of solid wastes by the TMA while most people used near places as a storage for solid wastes. According to 85% of respondents, installation of solid wastes to energy plant is the most appropriate method for the management of solid wastes in Mingora Swat. According to the current survey 83% of the respondents are agree to pay for the improvement of solid wastes management system. About 44% of the respondents have willingness to pay 100 rupees per month for solid wastes management system. The statistical analysis shows 0.888 correlations between WTP and income per month. Key words: Solid wastes, Management of solid wastes, Willingness to Pay, Mingora Swat.

Indicators of Company Performance, Investors’ Expectation and Investment Risk in Predicting Stock Return at Indonesia Stock Exchange

The objective of this research is to identify the indicators that empirically are better  to measure company performance, investors’ expectation and investment risk in predicting the individual stock return, especially capital gain. There are many indicators available, but not all indicator are relevant to stock market empirically. In predicting stock return based on company performance, investors’ expectation and investment risk, the three factors are latent variable that value measured by their each indicators. Company performance indicators are Earnig per Share, Price-Earning Ratio, Book Value, Price-Book Value Ratio, Debt-Equity Ratio, Return on Assets, Return on Equity and Net Profit Margin (EPS, PER, BV, PBV, DER, ROA, ROE, NPM and OPM). Investors’ expectation indicators are Price Trend, Latest Return, Average Return, Return Trend, Latest Return Percentage, Average Return Percentage, and Return Trend Percentage (PT, LR, AR, RT, LR%, AR% and RT%). Investment risk indicators are Standard Deviation of return, Coefficient of Variation, and Coefficient Beta of stock (SD, CV and Beta). From all indicators only the good ones that used to predict future return. Therefore, it is necessary to select the proper indicators before use them.The type of this research are quantitative, ex post facto, associative, and positivistic by analyzing the relevancy of the indicators with measured variables. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Goodness of Fit Test analysis are used in this study.The conclusion of this study is to confirm that: Firstly, good indicators of company performance are ROA, ROE and NPM. Secondly, good indicators of investors’ expectation are PT and AR or LR and RT. Thirdly, good indicators of investment risk are SD and Beta. Keywords : Company performance, investor’s expectations, investment risk, EPS, PER, BV, PBV, DER, ROA, ROE, NPM, OPM, PT, LR, AR, RT, LR%, AR%, RT%, SD, CV and Bet

The Impact of Multiple Factors Including the Demography upon the College Teachers Regarding their Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is a multi-dimensional phenomenon as it is related to multiple factors, those which have certain profound impact upon the teacher community especially at college level. The foremost are the certain glaring factors those which strongly bracketed with the phenomenon of job satisfaction categorically which includes; work, pay, promotion, supervision, co-workers and work environment. The teacher`s demography has a strong bond with the concerned teacher who is satisfied or not due to the same. In our case, the Teacher`s demography can be elaborated in terms of his/her age, qualification, gender, marital status, length of service and the designation. The current research is an academic effort to investigate and analyze some persistent causes those which are consistently operating behind the satisfaction level of the Teachers regarding his/her job in the College

Determination of Crop Water Productivity of Different Soybean Varieties in District Swat of Pakistan

A field study was conducted on clay loam soil at the Agriculture research institute, Swat during Kharif 2012. Main objective of the study was to determine the yield response factor on maximum, optimal and minimum irrigation levels of soybean varieties, using two varieties (swat 84 and malakand 96) having four replicates and four irrigation levels. Crop water prodcuctivity were were determined from crop yield divided Seasonal water applied. CWP was recorded minimum 0.58 kg m-3 for (swat 84) varieties V1 and maximum 0.82 kg m-3for V2 (malakand 96) varieties (Table 1). Mean of I40, I60, I80, I100 were 0.58,0.62, 0.71 and 0.75 respectively. Lower CWP values of V1 and highest value for V2 were determined.Hence it is concluded that among both the varieties V2 performed better on irrigation two (V2I4), therefore this strategy is recommended for irrigated areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Keywords: Deficit irrigation, Irrigation levels, water productivity, soybean

The Impact of Leadership Styles on Academicians’ Commitment in Higher Educational Institutions

Education is considered as a viable tool for developing human capacities and capabilities towards eliminating threats that may make the environment secured. The teacher as the implementer of the academic curriculum is central in achieving the aims and objectives of using education as a tool for inculcation into the learner, knowledge, skills and attitude that will lead to preserving the environment thereby ensuring security. Leadership has turned out to be an intriguing point for specialists. Various agents have concentrated on leadership styles in diverse societies, occupations, hierarchical settings. By and by, it was once in a while inspected among teaching faculty members of higher education institutes/universities. The early studies concentrated on the identities of the pioneers or on their conduct. Later studies are concentrating on a full scope of leadership styles, for example, transformational and transactional leadership styles. Keywords: Leadership Styles, Academicians, Commitment, Higher Educational Institutions

Study Regarding the Pakistan and Iran Relations

Pakistan enjoys good relations with Iran since the partition of sub-continent. Both the countries have successful agreements regarding the different socio-economic fields. Relations between Iran and Pakistan have spanned since the common prehistoric Indo-Iranian heritage. The Western region of Pakistan was one part of the easternmost satrap’s provinces of Persian Empire which included the areas of Satraps provinces of present-day Pakistan. Even as of today, many antique and historic buildings in Pakistan have classical Persian writings on manuscript of the buildings. After the establishment of Pakistan on August 1947, Iran has a unique distinction of being the first country to internationally recognize the status of Pakistan. As of current, each is the other's chief economic partner and large-scale tourism and migration between the two nations has increased rapport. This cooperation would continue throughout the Cold war with Iran supporting Pakistan in its conflicts with arch-rival, India. In return, Pakistan went on to support Iran militarily during the Iran–Iraq War in 1980s. Since 2000, the relations between each state have been normalized and economical and military collaboration has strengthened the relations ever since

Model Updating of a Full-Scale Building Structure Under Train Induced Vibration

Structure health monitoring (SHM) system is a method of monitoring and evaluation of structural health. Finite element method is extensively use to model the dynamics properties of a structure as it is believed to be an authentic tool for providing accurate results. To adopt a more precise dynamic properties of a structure, model updating technique involve updating a finite element model of a structure. However, due to many imaginary assumptions in the finite element (FE) model generation, the practical behaviour of full-scale structures contradicts the model results. It may be due to uncertain boundary conditions, poorly defined material properties of the structure or because of the simplified modeling of complicated structural systems. In this paper, six storey frame structure building has been investigated for dynamic model updating. The building was subjected to train induced excitation. Four accelerometers were employed to measure the response. Manual updating of building FEM model is carried out as per design parameters of the finite element model (elastic modulus and boundary constraints) to diminish the inconsistencies between the field measurement and the results of finite element model. For the subject building the supposition of semi-rigid joints (rotational area springs) can most precisely depict the dynamic properties of the subject building. The modified parameters obtained from the updated model are logical having meaningful interpretation

The Styles of Leadership: A Critical Review

Leadership is a personal relationship in which one person directs, coordinates and supervises other in the performance of a common task. The social contract of leadership is viewed as a myth that functions to reinforce existing social believes and structure about the necessity of hierarchy and leaders in organization. Leadership seems to be a matter of aligning people towards common goals and empowering them to take the actions needed to reach them. The ability to influence a individuals/group towards the achievement of common goals