La coppia allo specchio: donne e uomini in relazione

Màster en Estudis de la Llibertat Femenina, Universitat de Barcelona. DUODA, Centre de recerca de dones, curs: 2011-2012, Tutora: Dra. Laura Biricolt

The potentials for corporatization of public hospitals: The case of Egypt

With changing health landscape across the globe, increasing burden of chronic diseases, increasing citizens expectations that accompanied by cost limitations, health reform becomes inevitable for Egyptian health system to maximize benefits and overcome challenges. Reform might include healthcare service provision, health policies, workforce planning or public health programs strategies. New Public Management concepts and principles represent the basis for many of reform plans since its emerging in the early 1990s. Many countries have used New Public Management guiding principles to shape its health reform program. Egypt is undergoing a reform plan across the whole sectors through Egypt 2030 plan announced by Ministry of Planning and Administrative reform. The reform plan has identified a set of goals for the health sector to achieve and another set of indicators to measure the progress and level of achievement. This paper presents corporatization of public hospital as a tool that can fit into the new reform program. With the execution of universal health coverage, the autonomy of hospitals will help to achieve the targeted level of performance, efficiency, and quality of services. The main challenge facing implementation is the high percentage of poverty in Egypt and their dependency on the government hospitals to get healthcare services. Transforming these hospitals into revenue generating organization will affect accessibility except there is a social insurance scheme that can protect poor against the commercialization of healthcare services. Research question: is corporatization improving performance, increasing accessibility and enhancing the quality of healthcare services? Methodology: qualitative research where semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare professional and system experts locally and globally to get their views on the feasibility of implementation of such reform in Egypt. Conclusion: corporatization of public hospitals in Egypt represents a fair organizational reform strategy for Egyptian health system to increase efficiency and satisfaction. Yet, a rigorous readiness assessment of the system components (regulations, providers, payers, and beneficiaries) should be executed to measure the readiness for implementation

Vessel-to-Rail Intermodal Connectivity Analysis for The Port of Houston

Freight transportation is a crucial element of the economy and development of regions. Still, its dramatic growth in the road sector is rapidly offsetting the benefits through such impacts as congestion, noise, pollution, and environmental damage. Alternative transportation solutions such as a combined transportation network can help to reduce these impacts. Container rail-water intermodal transportation broadly means with the premise of rail transportation and water transportation as the primary, compatible with other modes of transportation to accomplish the complete transfer of the containers. As a fast-growing port, the Port of Houston Authority has grown to be very important because of its large tonnage handling capacity and its impact on the nation\u27s economy. With the growth in the economy which results in increased port activities, the port of Houston is gradually approaching capacity and sees the need for expansion of infrastructure needed for service efficiency provided. This study aims to identify the critical components of a vessel-rail intermodal system, analyze the significance of each of them, compare the competitiveness of the Port of Houston among the similar ports, pinpoint the gap between the existing condition and state of the art practices. The report will also focus on the feasibility of the Rail Intermodal System compared to the truck freight of the Port of Houston. Based on the existing intermodal system of the Port of Houston, the report will help identify critical factors and recommend processes that will promote the competitiveness of the system in handling and servicing future economic growth

Fuzzy Logic Based Motor Control

This report presents the detailed design of both Type-1 Fuzzy logic PI controller and Type-2 Fuzzy Logic PI controller to control the speed of a DC servomotor. Both controllers are explored extensively in terms of number and type of membership functions and the defuzzification technique used. Rise time, Settling time, Percent overshoot and Integral Absolute error are used to judge between controllers during a unity step response, load disturbance and noise disturbance. Using Simulink Matlab, simulation to show the behavior of the DC servomotor will be carried; to compare type-2 fuzzy logic against conventional type-1. Moreover, explain the advantages and disadvantages of fuzzy logic over conventional PID controllers. A DC servo motor model was built and the performance of a PID controlled system was simulated. Afterwards, type-1 fuzzy logic controller was simulated to determine the system performance. Moreover, both types of controllers were compared against each other to determine the advantages and disadvantages of both. Furthermore, type-1 fuzzy logic controller was explored further where judgment of the performance of the system was carried by varying the number of membership functions, type of membership functions and defuzzification methods. Afterwards, type-2 fuzzy logic controller was simulated and explored in the same manner as type- 1 fuzzy logic controller. Both controllers were compared to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each. A comparative analysis with the conventional type-lfuzzy logic PI controller shows that overall, type-2 showed much improved results. This improvement is evident when it comes to handling ofload disturbance and noise added to the system

Tidal supplementary control schemes-based load frequency regulation of a fully sustainable marine microgrid

The world is targeting fully renewable power generation by the middle of the century. Distributed generation is the way to increase the penetration level of renewable energies. This paper presents load frequency control of a hybrid tidal, wind, and wave microgrid to feed an isolated island. This research is a step towards 100% renewable energy communities in remote seas/oceans islands. The wave and tidal generation systems model are presented. The study presents load frequency control through three supplementary control strategies: conventional integrators, fractional order integrator, and non-linear fractional order integrator. All the controllers of the microgrid are designed by using a novel black widow optimization technique. The applied technique is compared to other existing state-of-the-art algorithms. The results show that the black widow non-linear fractional integrator has a better performance over other strategies. Coordination between the unloaded tidal system and blade pitch control of both wind and tidal systems are adopted in the microgrid to utilize the available reserve power for the frequency support. Simulation and optimization studies are performed using the MATLAB/SIMULINK 2017a software application

Start Small: Training Game Level Generators from Nothing by Learning at Multiple Sizes

A procedural level generator is a tool that generates levels from noise. One approach to build generators is using machine learning, but given the training data rarity, multiple methods have been proposed to train generators from nothing. However, level generation tasks tend to have sparse feedback, which is commonly mitigated using game-specific supplemental rewards. This paper proposes a novel approach to train generators from nothing by learning at multiple level sizes starting from a small size up to the desired sizes. This approach employs the observed phenomenon that feedback is denser at smaller sizes to avoid supplemental rewards. It also presents the benefit of training generators to output levels at various sizes. We apply this approach to train controllable generators using generative flow networks. We also modify diversity sampling to be compatible with generative flow networks and to expand the expressive range. The results show that our methods can generate high-quality diverse levels for Sokoban, Zelda and Danger Dave for a variety of sizes, after only 3h 29min up to 6h 11min (depending on the game) of training on a single commodity machine. Also, the results show that our generators can output levels for sizes that were unavailable during training.Comment: 26 pages, 7 tables, 7 figures. Code: https://github.com/yahiaetman/ms-level-ge

Eco-friendly UPLC method for determination of Levetiracetam and its toxic related substance

Nowadays, analytical chemistry society is aware of the hazardous influence of chemicals on both health and environment. Additionally, chemists are more interested in eco-friendly methods of analysis. Levetiracetam (LEV) is an antiepileptic drug with no significant interaction with other medications and so it is a safe treatment in elderly people. The toxic pyridine-2-ol is reported in British Pharmacopoeia to be LEV impurity C (IMP-C) and related substance. A highly sensitive eco-friendly UPLC method was introduced for the first time for analysis of LEV and its toxic IMP. Separation has been carried out on CN column using 0.1% aqueous sodium lauryl sulphate:acetonitrile (7:93, v:v) with UV scanning at 205 nm. USP recommendations for method validation have been followed with respect to linearity, accuracy, robustness and ruggedness. The developed method was successfully applied for quantitation of LEV in its tablets dosage form and statistical analysis with the reported method showed no significant difference at confidence limit of 95%. The short run time (<3 minutes) and high sensitivity are of the most advantageous of developed method over the reported one

Evaluation the Using of Local Aggregate in High Modulus Asphalt Concrete Layers

The performance of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) mixtures is greatly affected by the properties of the aggregate characteristics. The aggregate properties that significantly influence the performance of HMA mixtures are gradation, shape (angularity) and texture (roughness) .In 1990, the French Road Administration (LCPC) developed asphalt mixtures with a gradient "BBME", for the purpose of this new mixtures is to get a good resistance to rutting and good fatigue behavior. in Iraq, this type of the mixture is not used yet.The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of asphalt mixtures with "BBME" gradient and compare them with the conventional mixture for binder course. To achieve this aim, one type of asphalt grade (40-50) from  Al-Nasiriyah refinery and two types of  local aggregates were used. First type of Al-nibaie area and the second from an area of ​​Badra and Jassan with two types of texture rounded and fully fracture. Physical tests on asphalt binder and aggregate, indirect tensile strength and wheel truck testing have been made in this work. Three asphalt contents (optimum asphalt content , optimum asphalt content ± 0.5) were used in indirect tensile strength test with one asphalt content (optimum asphalt content) in wheel truck testing under 60° temperature. The results of experimental work showed that the Marshall stability for BBME mixture were more than that for conventional(SCRB) mixture by 3, 3, 4 percent for al-nibaie half fracture, Badra and Jassan fully fracture and Badra and Jassan fully rounded aggregate mixture, respectively. The Indirect Tensile Strength resistance of the BBME mixes were approximately equal with comparison to the conventional mixes for all aggregate types, and showed that the mixes contain optimum asphalt content have a resistance to indirect tensile strength more than that mixes contain (optimum asphalt content ± 0.5) for BBME and conventional mixtures. As result, the both conventional and BBME mixes were failed at the same number of passing but less at rutting depth for the mixtures with BBME gradation.The mixtures that contain al-nibaie aggregate have an excellent resistance to Indirect Tensile Strength and permanent deformation in comparison with other types of aggregate.Based on AFNOR specification with using K formula and values of rutting percent, it was found that the mixture used in this study, Class III, is the type used in the roads with higher traffic. Keywords: BBME gradation, Marshall stability, Indirect Tensile Strength, Wheel Truck Testing, Optimum Asphalt Content