An Effective and Way Forward Approach for Road Safety Acquisition of Knowledge - Correlative Study for Pakistan

It is an unfortunate fact that two major issues including health and safety are not given as much importance as the issue persists. In this context road safety is also another important agenda for the developing countries and the situation has become worsened particularly in Pakistan. Under the umbrella of Pakistan, various metropolitan cities are lying that are facing the common problems of road safety. All modes of transportation and eventually all users including rider, pillion rider, drivers, passengers and pedestrians are the common players of road environment in Karachi City (a metropolitan city of Pakistan). Apart from that the majority of the population travels in public transport. As per the statistics, approximately 30% to 45% people are associated with the existing public transport network and in the same way the list of problems grasping traffic crashes is concerned with this network as well. According to a study, three E's of transportation including Education, Engineering and Enforcement should be correlated with each other for an effective, efficient and balanced system. The road users are not well aware of the basic, standard and updated road safety knowledge that ultimately brings no prolonging effect on the Engineering and Enforcement subsidiary. The least important parameter should be more enhanced and accomplished which is basically the education of road safety knowledge. The paper reveals the collected information based on the designed questionnaire capturing the features of limited road safety knowledge of drivers and riders in continuation with the traffic crash dependent factors. Based on the analytical facts and figures, the research study focused on major recommendations transferring the acquisition of engineering and enforcement measures with the initiation of fundamental understanding of prevention of crashes. The system should not be designed in a manner that gives the lesson of enforcement only; it needs a balanced approach which is only possible by featuring the existing and available approaches of the city

Experimental investigaton of dielectric strength of polymer films.

This study investigates the dielectric strength of various polymers at different temperatures. The results achieved are interpreted in terms of probabilities of failures to allow validation of dielectric strength values where they can be safely used in a field application. We have used the Weibull distribution as the analysis technique in conjunction with a computer program developed to calculate the scale and shape parameters with confidence limits for this distribution. The experimental setup used provides a controlled test environment for the subject materials minimizing the variation in external factors and also reducing the duration of time required in duplicating and varying test conditions as desired in our investigation. We have chosen to study thin film polymer materials namely, Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with 50 mum thickness, Kapton with 125 mum thickness and Nomex-Polyester-Nomex, with 150 mum thickness, due to the increase in demand and popularity for application in industrial uses for these materials. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 40-03, page: 0755. Adviser: G. R. Govinda Raju. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2001

Studies Related to the Design and Implementation of a Magnetic Suspension and Balance System

This thesis presents studies related to the magnetic suspension and balance system (MSBS) of the Princeton/ONR High Reynolds Number Testing Facility (HRTF). The main motivation for developing the MSBS is to provide interference free aero/hydrodynamic testing of submersible models, which will lead to more accurate measurements. From the controls point of view, the main specification of the MSBS is to robustly control the position of a submersible model in five degrees of freedom (DOF), including three translational as well as pitching and yawing positions. The MSBS should not only regulate the submersible model\u27s position but should also allow for small motions around the specified 5 DOF position in the presence of aerodynamic wind tunnel disturbances. The MSBS consists of ten electromagnets, a cooling system for the coils, power amplifiers, a dSpace real-time controller hardware, and laser sensors. The MSBS software consists of a graphical user interface (GUI) developed using tools from Matlab/Simulink and dSpace control system software. A unique feature of this MSBS is that the electromagnets are placed outside a two inches thick stainless steel pipe. This arrangement, required for economic reasons, imposes limitations on the achievable performance by limiting the magnetic field and introducing eddy currents in the stainless steel pipe. These limitations are included in the design of the controller. A linear quadratic multiple input multiple output (MIMO) LQ compensator is designed using loop transfer recovery (LTR) techniques to stabilize and regulate the model inside the test section of the HTRF. Procedures for tuning of the MIMO controller are developed. Practical concerns, i.e., amplifier dynamics, eddy current effects, disturbances due to aerodynamic forces and torques, and B-coefficient uncertainties, are taken into account during the design phase of the controller. The stability robustness of the LQG/LTR compensator is validated by time domain analysis of the closed-loop system consisting of the controller and a complete nonlinear model of the MSBS. An interactive graphical user interface is developed for operation and maintenance of the HTRF-MSBS. Important system components, including hardware interfacing, software workbench, protection interlocking, operational modes, and operational procedures, are defined and implemented. The design and implementation of a I DOF system that was used to validate the hardware and software is also presented. A classical linear lead-lag controller and a sliding mode controller are designed, analyzed, and implemented for the I DOF magnetic suspension and balance system

Grazoprevir/elbasvir for the treatment of adults with chronic hepatitis C: a short review on the clinical evidence and place in therapy

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection impacts approximately 71 million people and approximately 400,000 deaths are attributed to HCV-related liver disease annually worldwide. Mainstay of treatment for over 25 years has been pegylated interferon until the advent of protease inhibitors, which has led to all-oral HCV treatment regimens that have changed the outlook of hepatitis C treatment. Grazoprevir/elbasvir provides high rates of efficacy and tolerability and is an all-oral once daily treatment option for HCV infection. Efficacy of grazoprevir/elbasvir has been proven in patients with cirrhosis, patients who have previously failed treatment with peginterferon and ribavirin (RBV), patients with end-stage renal disease and patients with HIV co-infection. Data have shown a high barrier to resistance despite the presence of resistance-associated substitutions. Grazoprevir/elbasvir represents a very promising regimen for treatment of HCV infection. This review provides a summary of pharmacology, efficacy, and safety of grazoprevir/elbasvir for the treatment of HCV infection

Multivisceral Transplant Prognosis and Complications In Patients With Metastatic Neuroendocrine Tumor

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are a rare subset of cancers that most commonly arise in the gastrointestinal tract, but can also arise in the pancreas, lungs, ovaries, thyroid, pituitary gland, and adrenal gland. When patients present with metastatic NETs, physicians have a variety of therapeutic options. Considering these options, transplant specialists are often involved due to the profound therapeutic effects of multi-organ transplantation. However, little information is available on prognosis/complications for patients that receive multi-organ transplants due to severe metastatic NETs. With the incidence of NETs in the United States trending in an upward direction, researchers and physicians must understand the prognosis and complications of these complex clinical cases. Therefore, the goal of this study is to analyze the health outcomes of four Henry Ford patients that received multi-organ transplants due to metastatic NETs. This will provide physicians with valuable information, not only regarding therapeutic decision-making, but also for educating patients on their current condition and what he/she can expect for their future

Virtual Runtime Application Partitions for Resource Management in Massively Parallel Architectures

This thesis presents a novel design paradigm, called Virtual Runtime Application Partitions (VRAP), to judiciously utilize the on-chip resources. As the dark silicon era approaches, where the power considerations will allow only a fraction chip to be powered on, judicious resource management will become a key consideration in future designs. Most of the works on resource management treat only the physical components (i.e. computation, communication, and memory blocks) as resources and manipulate the component to application mapping to optimize various parameters (e.g. energy efficiency). To further enhance the optimization potential, in addition to the physical resources we propose to manipulate abstract resources (i.e. voltage/frequency operating point, the fault-tolerance strength, the degree of parallelism, and the configuration architecture). The proposed framework (i.e. VRAP) encapsulates methods, algorithms, and hardware blocks to provide each application with the abstract resources tailored to its needs. To test the efficacy of this concept, we have developed three distinct self adaptive environments: (i) Private Operating Environment (POE), (ii) Private Reliability Environment (PRE), and (iii) Private Configuration Environment (PCE) that collectively ensure that each application meets its deadlines using minimal platform resources. In this work several novel architectural enhancements, algorithms and policies are presented to realize the virtual runtime application partitions efficiently. Considering the future design trends, we have chosen Coarse Grained Reconfigurable Architectures (CGRAs) and Network on Chips (NoCs) to test the feasibility of our approach. Specifically, we have chosen Dynamically Reconfigurable Resource Array (DRRA) and McNoC as the representative CGRA and NoC platforms. The proposed techniques are compared and evaluated using a variety of quantitative experiments. Synthesis and simulation results demonstrate VRAP significantly enhances the energy and power efficiency compared to state of the art.Siirretty Doriast

New Positive Inotropic Agents

Current therapy for heart failure remains inadequate. New positive inotropic agents that augment myocardial contractility have been introduced. The positive inotropic effects of these nonglycoside, nonsympathomimetic agents are due, at least in part, to inhibition of cardiac phosphodiesterase activity and hence to an increase in myocardial cyclic AMP levels. These agents also have vasodilator properties through their effects on the enzyme phosphodiesterase in the vascular smooth muscle. Recent developments in the preclinical pharmacology, mechanism of action, and clinical experience with these new inotrope vasodilators are presented in this review. The role these drugs will play in revising our therapeutic strategy in congestive heart failure remains to be defined

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Restoring Candidacy for Liver Transplant in Patients With Cirrhosis

Guidelines for preoperative workup for an orthotopic liver transplant often rule out patients with severe aortic stenosis as transplant candidates. This case illustrates the potential of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) as a bridge for liver transplants in cirrhotic patients with severe aortic stenosis. The 1-year and 2-year post-liver transplant follow-ups showed no complications in the patient\u27s prosthetic aortic valves, and graft survival was 100% with no evidence of rejection. Notable post-transplant recovery involved medical complications that were not related to the liver function or surgical procedure

A multicenter evaluation of the diagnosis, management and outcomes of adenovirus enteritis infection following intestine or multivisceral transplant

Introduction: Adenovirus Enteritis (AE) is a unique infection which can complicate patient course following intestine and multivisceral transplantation. Solid organ transplant patients have an increased risk for infection and intestine and multivisceral patients are unique in that they often develop inflammation from rejection in the intestine which might predispose to infection. Methods: We reviewed patients who received an intestine transplant at three academic transplant centers between 2010 and 2020 for demographic, laboratory and clinical data. Results: Five patients were identified with diagnosis of adenovirus enteritis. Three patients (60%) had isolated intestine transplant while two underwent multivisceral transplantation. Reason for transplant included trauma, volvulus, intestinal atresia and visceral neuropathy. All patients received induction with anti-thymocyte globulin (80%) or basiliximab. The initial diagnosis of infection occurred at a mean of 26.8 months following transplant (range 2-68 months). Diagnosis was by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) measurement in plasma (80%), intestine or stool. Cidofovir was used in 100% of cases as primary management. 40% of patients had reduction of immunosuppression at the time of diagnosis while the remainder did not. 60% of patients had rejection within a month prior to diagnosis. No patients had recurrent rejection in the month following treatment. Two patients had recurrent infection. No patients had graft loss or death within 6 months of infection. Two patients had enterectomy at a mean of 29.5 months after infection (range 22-37 months) Three patients died at a mean of 32 months following diagnosis (range 8-51 months). Conclusion: We present a series of five cases of adult patients with AE following intestinal and multivisceral transplant. AE may arise due to immunosuppression, vascular compromise of the transplanted organ, or a combination of factors. Our study supported rejection as a risk factor for infection. Graft loss or death was not seen within 6 months following infection

Modeling of impact dynamics of tennis ball with a flat surface

A two-mass model with a spring and a damper in the vertical direction, accounting for vertical translational motion and a torsional spring and a damper connecting the rotational motion of two masses is used to simulate the dynamics of a tennis ball as it comes into contact with a flat surface. The model is supposed to behave as a rigid body in the horizontal direction. The model is used to predict contact of the ball with the ground and applies from start of contact to end of contact. The springs and dampers for both the vertical and the rotational direction are linear. Differential equations of motion for the two-mass system are formulated in a plane. Two scenarios of contact are considered: Slip and no-slip. In the slip case, Coulomb??s law relates the tangential contact force acting on the outer mass with the normal contact force, whereas in the no-slip case, a kinematic constraint relates the horizontal coordinate of the center of mass of the system with the rotational coordinate of the outer mass. Incorporating these constraints in the differential equations of motion and applying initial conditions, the equations are solved for kinematics and kinetics of these two different scenarios by application of the methods for the solutions of second-order linear differential equations. Experimental data for incidence and rebound kinematics of the tennis ball with incidence zero spin, topspin and backspin is available. The incidence angles in the data range from 17 degrees up to 70 degrees. Simulations using the developed equations are performed and for some specific ratios of inner and outer mass and mass moments of inertia, along with the spring-damper coefficients, theoretical predictions for the kinematics of rebound agree well with the experimental data. In many cases of incidence, the simulations predict transition from sliding to rolling during the contact, which is in accordance with the results obtained from available experimental measurements conducted on tennis balls. Thus the two-mass model provides a satisfactory approximation of the tennis ball dynamics during contact