Amber SCIRP - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Amber SCIRP
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ABSTRACT The concept of facial impact protection mask for cyclists is proposed in response to in... more ABSTRACT
The concept of facial impact protection mask for cyclists is proposed in response to increased participation in cycling and the need for injury prevention. The research aims to develop an approach for design of facial impact protection gear to reduce the risk of severe injury. Impact test equipment and procedure, face surrogate and protection material performance criteria are developed. Three groups of protective materials – rigid crushable, semi rigid, and soft cushion foams are tested and assessed according to criteria. The criteria are linked to measures of the risk of facial and brain injuries: HIC (Head Injury Criterion), peak deceleration, Face-bone damage and energy absorption. The impact energy is simulated by a drop test using a 48 mm-radius-steel hemispherical impactor, with a weight of 4.63 kg similar to that of headform J specified in AS/NZS standard. The drop-height is 1500 mm, and the linear deceleration force of the impactor is recorded and used to establish the performance of the materials. The HIC is used to predict the risk of brain injury, whereas the developed face surrogate is used to assess facial bone injury. A 5.4 m/s facial impact to the unprotected-face of a cyclist can result in the risk of severe facial bone fracture and mild brain injury. The impact test results for rigid foam protection of 40 mm thickness shows no densification (bottom out) and absorbs the impact energy without damage to the Foam-bone of the face surrogate. At 20 mm thickness, rigid polyurethane foams performed best with Foam-bone damage ranging from 15.1% to 20.5%. Other materials with thicknesses of 20 to 28 mm showed Foam-bone damage between 21.8% and 35.1%. The HIC values ranged from 267 to 522, with memory foams and expanded polystyrene foam having the lowest values. Peak deceleration ranged from 71 g to 105 g for the materials tested. It is concluded that the impact energy can be dissipated by the protection material thereby reducing the risk of severe facial injury to the protected area.
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ABSTRACT The radioactivity measurements in food crops and their diet derivatives and farm soil s... more ABSTRACT
The radioactivity measurements in food crops and their diet derivatives and farm soil samples from Abeokuta, one of the elevated background radiation areas in Nigeria have been carried out in order to determine the concentration levels of natural radionuclides (40K, 226Ra and 232Th). The activity concentrations of the natural radionuclides in the samples were determined via gamma-ray spectrometry using a 76 mm × 76 mm NaI(Tl) detector. Different common food crops representing the major sources of dietary requirements to the local population were collected for the measurements. The collected food crops were prepared into their different derivable composite diets using preparation techniques locale to the population. Using available food consumption data and the activity concentrations of the radionuclides, the ingestion effective doses were evaluated for the food crops and diet types per preparation techniques. For the tuberous food crop samples, the annual ingestion effective doses in the raw and different composite diets were 0.02 - 0.04 µSv and cumulatively 0.04 - 0.05 µSv while in the non-tuberous crops the doses were 0.44 - 0.70 µSv and cumulatively greater than 1 µSv respectively. Results of the study indicate that method of diet preparation is seen to play a major role in population ingestion dose reduction especially for tuberous crops than in non-tuberous crops. The study also showed that more ingestion dose could be incurred in diets prepared by roasting techniques. The result of the study will serve as a useful radiometric data for future epidemiological studies in the area and for food safety regulations and policy implementations in the country.
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ABSTRACT The main objective of this paper is to analyze the current status of high-level nuclear... more ABSTRACT
The main objective of this paper is to analyze the current status of high-level nuclear waste disposal along with presentation of practical perspectives about the environmental issues involved. Present disposal designs and concepts are analyzed on a scientific basis and modifications to existing designs are proposed from the perspective of environmental safety. A new concept of a chemical heat sink is introduced for the removal of heat emitted due to radioactive decay in the spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste, and thermal spikes produced by radiation in containment materials. Mainly, UO2 and metallic U are used as fuels in nuclear reactors. Spent nuclear fuel contains fission products and transuranium elements which would remain radioactive for 104 to 108years. Essential concepts and engineering strategies for spent nuclear fuel disposal are described. Conceptual designs are described and discussed considering the long-term radiation and thermal activity of spent nuclear fuel. Notions of physical and chemical barriers to contain nuclear waste are highlighted. A timeframe for nuclear waste disposal is proposed and time-line nuclear waste disposal plan or policy is described and discussed.
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ABSTRACT Background: It was the intention of the authors to generate a list of the top diseases ... more ABSTRACT
Background: It was the intention of the authors to generate a list of the top diseases responsible for the greatest financial expense in the United States. This listing would then inform policymakers as to the highest priority target conditions. With such information available, funding for the NIH could be accomplished based upon factual criteria rather than political clout or uninformed consensus. Method: The first step was a literature review to explore articles and reports which were published about the cost of illness (COI) up to December 2009. Therefore the source of the data used in this investigation was obtained from this retrospective search approach. Results: With reference to total cost for disease, first was HCVD with 475.3 billion US dollars, followed by alcohol abuse and substance at 300.6 billion US dollars, digestive diseases at 259.6 billion US dollars, cancer at 239.5 billion US dollars and mental disease at 216,6 billion US dollars. Conclusion: As has been seen, the total societal costs of the diseases do not synch with the degree of attention paid to these various disease states. Several of the diseases have very powerful and vocal support organizations that encourage attention and clinical research support. On the other hand we hear very little about efforts against allergic rhinitis or infectious and parasitic diseases.
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ABSTRACT A law has been passed in Germany (paragraph 174c StGB), which prohibits therapists from... more ABSTRACT
A law has been passed in Germany (paragraph 174c StGB), which prohibits therapists from having sexual contact with their patients. This provides the background for a follow-up survey to the previous study completed by Becker- Fischer and Fischer in 1995. The results of this survey are discussed here on the basis of the current status of research concerning preva- lence and risk factors of sexual assaults in therapeutic relationships. The focus of the re- search lies in determining the specific condi- tions of sexual assaults in psychotherapy and psychiatry, risk variables of the therapists and patients, the effects it has on the patients as well as the legal consequences it results in. To en- sure the comparability of the data, an online version of the Questionnaire about Sexual Con- tacts in Psychotherapy and Psychiatry (SKPP; Becker-Fischer, Fischer & Jerouschek) was cre- ated and a survey of N = 77 affected patients was conducted. The majority of the participants in the study reported a serious decline in their overall well being following the incident. How- ever only very few undertook legal steps - only in three cases did it come to a legal procedure. The assumption that sexual contacts in psy- chotherapy result in extremely damaging con- sequences to patients, was affirmed. Despite the changed legal situation, therapists in Ger- many are still not held legally responsible more often than they were 10 years ago. Based on these results a more intensive education of the patients concerning their legal rights is recom- mended.
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ABSTRACT The consumption of soft drinks has increased considerably during the last decades. Amon... more ABSTRACT
The consumption of soft drinks has increased considerably during the last decades. Among them, the cola-based preparations are possibly the refreshments with the largest sales worldwide. During the previous years, important concerns have been raised about the effects of colas on human health. In this review, we introduce the cola effects on reproduction including pregnancy miscarriages, ovulatory and menstrual disorders, and reduced semen quality. Although caffeine intoxication may be thought to play the most important role, a component of cola other than caffeine, or in combination with caffeine, may be associated with increased risk of reproductive hazards in heavy cola (> 1 L per day)-consumers. Cola discontinuation usually leads to an uneventful recovery in the most cases suggesting justification of limitations in the maximum recommended daily dose of these soft drinks. Cola is not an essential beverage, and abstaining from drinking more than 1 L per day is a minor intrusion in one’s personal life. Despite these uncertainties, this growing know- ledge may alarm the fertility risk of chronic cola intake in peoples of childbearing age.
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ABSTRACT Cutting or self inflicted epidermal damage (derma-abuse) describes a number of blood- l... more ABSTRACT
Cutting or self inflicted epidermal damage (derma-abuse) describes a number of blood- letting behaviours among adolescents. Unlike suicidal behaviour, it is associated with low lethality and the absence of suicidal attempts. The purpose of this study is two-fold: Firstly, to present and discuss vignettes of four young adolescents and secondly, to study the dynamics and characteristics of six derma-abusers who have attended Dual Group Therapy (DGT) concurrently with their parents for a six month period. Our findings suggest that patients involved in derma-abuse are generally non-suicidal but engage in comfort cutting for the psychological release of pain, tension reduction and anger management. There is a preponderance of females (80%) with an over-representation of mixed origin and borderline cultural states. In this small group, males amounted to 20% and were more bizarre, gruesome and brutal in their self-abuse. Of the total sample, 10% were of African origin, 60% were of Indian descent and 30% were of mixed ancestry. Psy- chodynamic factors explored in Dual Group Therapy (DGT) are the emphasis on non-suicidal intent, association with tension reduction, reclaiming power and mastery over self and others, life and death instincts, the significance of bloodletting in a socio-cultural context, trans- generational conflicts, dysfunctional family dynamics frequently with parental separation and sexual abuse and early sexual induction.
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ABSTRACT Health literature in the Caribbean, and in particular Jamaica, has continued to use obj... more ABSTRACT
Health literature in the Caribbean, and in particular Jamaica, has continued to use objective indices such as mortality and morbidity to examine children’s health. The current study uses subjective indices such as parent-reported health conditions and health status to evaluate the health of children instead of traditional objective indices. The study seeks 1) to examine the health and health care-seeking behaviour of the sample from the parents’ viewpoints; and 2) to compute the mean age of the sample with a particular illness and describe whether there is an epidemiological shift in these conditions. Two nationally representative cross-sectional surveys were used for this study (2002 and 2007). The sample for the current study is 3,062 respondents aged less than 5 years. For 2002, the study extracted a sample of 2,448 under 5 year olds from the national survey of 25,018 respondents, and 614 under 5 year olds were extracted from the 2007 survey of 6,728 respondents. Parents-reported information was used to measure issues on children under 5 years old. In 2007, 43.4% of the sample had very good health status; 46.7% good health status; 2.5% poor health and 0.3% very poor health status. Almost 15% of children had illnesses in 2002, and 6% more had illnesses in 2007 over 2002. In 2002, the percentage of the sample with particular chronic illnesses was: diabetes mellitus (0.6%); hypertension (0.3%) and arthritis (0.3%). However, none was recorded in 2007. The mean age of children less than 5 years old with acute health conditions (i.e. diarrhoea, respiratory diseases and influenza) increased over 2002. In 2007, 43.4% of children less than 5 years old had very good health status; 46.7% good health status; 7.1% fair health status; 2.5% poor and 0.3% very poor health status. The association between health status and parent- reported illness was –x2 (df = 4) = 57.494, P< 0.001-with the relationship being a weak one, correlation coefficient=0.297. A cross-tabulation between health status and parent-reported diagnosed illness found that a significant statistical correlation existed between the two variables –x2 (df = 16) = 26.621, P < 0.05, cc = 0.422, – with the association being a moderate one, correlation coefficient = 0.422. A cross tabulation between health status and health care- seeking behaviour found a significant statistical association between the two variables –x2 (df = 4) = 10.513, P < 0.033-with the correlation being a weak one-correlation coefficient = 0.281. Rural children had the least health status. The health disparity that existed between rural and urban less than 5 year olds showed that this will not be removed simply because of the abolition of health care utilization fees.
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ABSTRACT Objectives: To establish the prevalence, clinical features, and outcomes of the recentl... more ABSTRACT
Objectives: To establish the prevalence, clinical features, and outcomes of the recently recog- nized stress cardiomyopathy whose physiopathology is still not completely clarified. Material and methods: The prevalence and clinical findings of stress cardiomyopathy were assessed in a group of 378 patients undergoing cinecoronariography for acute coronary syndromes dur- ing a 7-year period. The inclusion criteria were severe chest pain, ischemic electrocardiogra- phic changes, reversible left ventricular dys- hypokinesia, and normal coronary arteries. Eight patients, 7 female (2.1% of all patients and 5.0% of the women), with a mean age of 65.3 ± 8.5 years fulfilled the requirements. Results: The precipitating factor was severe stress in all of them. Cardiac enzymes were slightly raised. There was apical left ventricular dyskinesia in 6 patients, midventricular in another, and diffuse hypokinesia in the remaining. One patient showed moderate mitral regurgitation. The response to con- ventional treatment and patient outcomes were favorable in all cases with prompt reversal of the left ventricular dyskinesia as assessed by echocardiography. There were 4 recurrences, 2 requiring readmission to hospital, despite continuous treatment with combined alfa and beta adrenergic blockers and calcium antagonists. Conclusions: In our hospital, stress cardiomyo- pathy had a prevalence of 2.1% in all patients with acute coronary syndromes and 5.1% in women and should be considered in their differential diagnosis, especially in middle aged female patients with a history of severe previous stress. There was a favorable outcome but recurrences may occur despite uninterrupted me- dical treatment following discharge.
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ABSTRACT To have an effective customer relationship management, it is essential to have informat... more ABSTRACT
To have an effective customer relationship management, it is essential to have information about the different segments of the customers and predict the future profit of them. For this reason companies can use customer lifetime value that consists of three factors-current value of customers, potential value, and customer churn. Potential value of customers focuses on the cross-selling opportunities for current customers. Therefore, cross selling models are built on the total customers of the database that is not interesting. To overcome this, we presented a framework that estimates the current value and churn probability for the customers and then segmented them base on these two elements and select the most profitable segment for the cross-selling models. In this study we predict the customer churn base on logistic regression as a case study on the insurance database.
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ABSTRACT Petroleum companies have great interest in developing their countries through improving... more ABSTRACT
Petroleum companies have great interest in developing their countries through improving their resources to be more competitive. They are also trying to maintain a high level of responsiveness to achieve agility and to remain competitive in the global marketplace especially after instability of oil prices and global financial crisis. Agile systems (AS) is con-sidered as the next industrial revolution. Agile systems are considered as production and/or management philosophies that integrate the available technology, people, production strategies, and organization management systems. Although agility is the set of capabilities and competences that the petroleum companies need to thrive and prosper in a continu-ously changing and unpredictable business environment, measuring the level of agility in these companies is still unex-plored according to the capabilities and competences. There are limited number of scientific papers have mentioned agility measurements in industrial organizations as a general concept and in oil industry as a specific concern. In this paper, a conceptual model will be proposed to measure the agility level of the petroleum companies based on existing technologies, level of qualifying human resources, production strategies, and organization management systems. Sev-eral case studies will be presented to demonstrate the proposed issues and technique through an agility questionnaire which is used for assessing the agility level of these companies. These studies provide the readers with an insight into the companies and their agility levels.
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ABSTRACT Using ICT in the form of e-governance could yield great benefits in the reform and mode... more ABSTRACT
Using ICT in the form of e-governance could yield great benefits in the reform and modernization of the public sector. The experience of e-governance in a number of developed and developing countries has shown that ICT can be a tool for greater service delivery with the goal of improving service quality. E-governance can also promote ‘good govern-ance’, that is, greater civic engagement can increase opportunities for direct representation and voice, and support for increased democracy. This paper discusses and presents the survey findings that seek to test the role of e-governance in improving service delivery by altering the principal-agent relationship. It further seeks to elucidate the quality aspects of public service. Policy recommendations to achieve the benefits of e-governance in Fiji are presented. Strong leadership is required to implement e-governance to capture and internalize the benefits of quality services and satisfied customers.
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ABSTRACT The rapidly changing social situation in the latter part of the 20th century, such as r... more ABSTRACT
The rapidly changing social situation in the latter part of the 20th century, such as revolutionary movement for women’s equal rights, significantly affects the women consumer behaviors as well as improves their social status. The awakening of female consumer’s consciousness during the recent years leads to alteration of consumer behavior, and influences the women’s usual conception for pursuing fashion and cosmetics application, in fact, the makeup practice has already been regarded as a social politeness and necessary requirement for interpersonal activities. By employing the Means-End Chain theory, this study intends to explore the attribute, result, and value attached importance by female consumer towards cosmetic products, in order to realize consumer’s cosmetics application process. The female consumers in Hsinchu are taken as research targets for this study to conduct variable analysis of their lifestyle and demographic statistics. Totally 550 questionnaires were released and 390 copies are effective among the retrieved ones. Methods as factor analysis and ANOVA are applied for examining various study hypotheses. Moreover, the implementation of Means-End Chain theory allows cosmetics industry to better understand the signification of product attribute valued by consumers so as to anticipate the details of consumer result and value recognition experienced by consumers.
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ABSTRACT Theoretically economic growth could have negative effects over the growing economy when... more ABSTRACT
Theoretically economic growth could have negative effects over the growing economy when production expands for products the world demand for which is inelastic. If growth occurs in sectors and for products the world demand for which is elastic it could be expected that total revenues to domestic producers and exporters increase. Our goal is to prove that growth would be immiserizing only for products for which world demand is inelastic and expansion leads to a sizable worsening of the terms of trade. We show that there are few such commodities, namely food products and natural resources such as oil. Studying econometrically the demand function for Brazilian coffee as an example, we compare our estimation of the elasticity of demand for Brazil’s exports of green coffee with other research on the world elasticity of demand for green coffee. We conclude that for manufactured products the demand for which is highly elastic it is unlikely that exporting countries fall into immiserization, therefore, growth and further participation in global trade turn out to be quite beneficial. Our conclusion is that too much emphasis is put in economic theory and trade policy on the concept of immiserizing growth which is more of a theoretical possibility than a real-life problem.
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ABSTRACT The study investigates the occurrence of childhood corporal punishment at home on a sam... more ABSTRACT
The study investigates the occurrence of childhood corporal punishment at home on a sample of participants who resided in the northeast of Malaysia, Kelantan. The Discipline Questionnaire (DQ) - a 32-item self-report instrument was completed by 196 medical students studying in fourth and fifth year at School of Medical Sciences Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The participants were asked about the type, frequency, and severity of parental corporal punishment they remembered to receive at home during childhood, in addition to their attitudes toward corporal punishment on children. Sixty three percent of participants remembered being corporally punished at home, as children. Only 3% of them reported that the punishment reaches an abusive level – which was defined as physical punishment that results in welts, bruises, bone fractures or breaks, or large/deep cuts. Pinching was the most commonly reported types of punishment used at home (35%), followed by slapping on the hand, arm or leg (31%), whipping using flexible material such as leather or rope (23%), and spanking/slapping on the buttocks with open hand (20%). The study indicates that on average the participants had a fairly favorable attitude towards corporal punishment. The findings suggest that majority of parents in Malaysia have been using corporal punishment on their children – primarily of mild types. Generally, the participants have had a fairly favorable attitude towards corporal punishment. Corporal punishment in this context is not perceived as an action of abusing a child, but rather one of many ways to teach the child a lesson in life.
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ABSTRACT The role of mental foramens in dolphin hearing was studied in the present work. To this... more ABSTRACT
The role of mental foramens in dolphin hearing was studied in the present work. To this effect the mental foramens’ morphology features which are essential from acoustical viewpoint have been studied. The patterns of relationship between the location of mental foramens and their sizes are found. The affinity of the mental foramens’ morphology and acoustics that the nature had created testify acoustical expediency of the mental foramens’ architecture. This natural inference in the main is confirmed in this work by the experimental data. The mean values of detection thresholds of short broadband stimuli with spectral maximum on frequencies 8, 16, 30 and 100 kHz at acoustical shielding the mental foramens increased on 30, 34, 40 and 50 dB, respectively. Results obtained testify that the mental foramens are the unique sound-conducting pathway into the fat body of the mandibular canal for the sounds of all frequencies used in the experiment, approximately 6?150 kHz (in view of stimuli broadbandness). The left and right row of the mental foramens together with respective mandibular canal plays the role of pinna and external auditory meatus if to use conventional terminology of a land mammal ear. But it is already qualitatively the new external ear implemented by the nature as the receive array and acoustical horn. The new external ear has apparently appeared in result of the dolphins’ ancestors’ adaptation to new environment conditions, as evolutionary adaptation of the ear to the water and as functional adaptation of the ear in order that to fulfill the new more sophisticated functions in the structure of sonar. The findings give good reason to suppose existence of the same external ear in Odontoceti.
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ABSTRACT Iron deficiency anemia represents a common nutritional problem which affects many socie... more ABSTRACT
Iron deficiency anemia represents a common nutritional problem which affects many societies allover the world and iron fortified diet has been suggested as one of possible tools to combat and solve such problem. Present study was designed to illustrate the effect of dietary iron intake on certain biochemical markers dealing with oxidative stress, inflammatory response and cellular alterations of testicular tissues. Adult male rats which were fed on biscuits fortified with iron (0.3% ferrous sulfate) daily for 10 weeks (iron group) showed increased serum iron, ferritin, tumor necrosis factoralpha (TNF-α), nitric oxide (NO) and decreased Testosterone level (p < 0.05). Testicular tissues content of Malondialdehyde (MDA), hydroxyproline (Hyp), iron showed significant increase (p < 0.05) and decreased glutathione (GSH) as compared to control group. Testicular tissues demonstrated massive iron distribution in sertoli interstial tissues and degeneration of germinal epithelial cells. Apparent reduction in number of sperms and spermatogenic cells were also observed. These symptoms may demonstrate that prolonged intake of Biscuit fortified with iron causes certain testicular damage through certain mechanism.
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ABSTRACT I calculate the classical effects induced by an isotropic mass loss of a body on the or... more ABSTRACT
I calculate the classical effects induced by an isotropic mass loss of a body on the orbital motion of a test particle around it; the present analysis is also valid for a variation of the Newtonian constant of gravitation. I perturbatively obtain negative secular rates for the osculating semimajor axis a, the eccentricity e and the mean anomaly , while the argument of pericenter ω does not undergo secular precession, like the longitude of the ascending node Ω and the inclination I. The anomalistic period is different from the Keplerian one, being larger than it. The true orbit, instead, expands, as shown by a numerical integration of the equations of motion in Cartesian coordinates; in fact, this is in agreement with the seemingly counter-intuitive decreasing of a and e because they only refer to the osculating Keplerian ellipses which approximate the trajectory at each instant. By assuming for the Sun it turns out that the Earth's perihelion position is displaced outward by 1.3 cm along the fixed line of apsides after each revolution. By applying our results to the phase in which the radius of the Sun, already moved to the Red Giant Branch of the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, will become as large as 1.20 AU in about 1 Myr, I find that the Earth's perihelion position on the fixed line of the apsides will increase by AU (for ); other researchers point towards an increase of AU. Mercury will be destroyed already at the end of the Main Sequence, while Venus should be engulfed in the initial phase of the Red Giant Branch phase; the orbits of the outer planets will increase by AU. Simultaneous long-term numerical integrations of the equations of motion of all the major bodies of the solar system, with the inclusion of a mass-loss term in the dynamical force models as well, are required to check if the mutual N-body interactions may substantially change the picture analytically outlined here, especially in the Red Giant Branch phase in which Mercury and Venus may be removed from the integration.
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ABSTRACT The concept of facial impact protection mask for cyclists is proposed in response to in... more ABSTRACT
The concept of facial impact protection mask for cyclists is proposed in response to increased participation in cycling and the need for injury prevention. The research aims to develop an approach for design of facial impact protection gear to reduce the risk of severe injury. Impact test equipment and procedure, face surrogate and protection material performance criteria are developed. Three groups of protective materials – rigid crushable, semi rigid, and soft cushion foams are tested and assessed according to criteria. The criteria are linked to measures of the risk of facial and brain injuries: HIC (Head Injury Criterion), peak deceleration, Face-bone damage and energy absorption. The impact energy is simulated by a drop test using a 48 mm-radius-steel hemispherical impactor, with a weight of 4.63 kg similar to that of headform J specified in AS/NZS standard. The drop-height is 1500 mm, and the linear deceleration force of the impactor is recorded and used to establish the performance of the materials. The HIC is used to predict the risk of brain injury, whereas the developed face surrogate is used to assess facial bone injury. A 5.4 m/s facial impact to the unprotected-face of a cyclist can result in the risk of severe facial bone fracture and mild brain injury. The impact test results for rigid foam protection of 40 mm thickness shows no densification (bottom out) and absorbs the impact energy without damage to the Foam-bone of the face surrogate. At 20 mm thickness, rigid polyurethane foams performed best with Foam-bone damage ranging from 15.1% to 20.5%. Other materials with thicknesses of 20 to 28 mm showed Foam-bone damage between 21.8% and 35.1%. The HIC values ranged from 267 to 522, with memory foams and expanded polystyrene foam having the lowest values. Peak deceleration ranged from 71 g to 105 g for the materials tested. It is concluded that the impact energy can be dissipated by the protection material thereby reducing the risk of severe facial injury to the protected area.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
ABSTRACT The radioactivity measurements in food crops and their diet derivatives and farm soil s... more ABSTRACT
The radioactivity measurements in food crops and their diet derivatives and farm soil samples from Abeokuta, one of the elevated background radiation areas in Nigeria have been carried out in order to determine the concentration levels of natural radionuclides (40K, 226Ra and 232Th). The activity concentrations of the natural radionuclides in the samples were determined via gamma-ray spectrometry using a 76 mm × 76 mm NaI(Tl) detector. Different common food crops representing the major sources of dietary requirements to the local population were collected for the measurements. The collected food crops were prepared into their different derivable composite diets using preparation techniques locale to the population. Using available food consumption data and the activity concentrations of the radionuclides, the ingestion effective doses were evaluated for the food crops and diet types per preparation techniques. For the tuberous food crop samples, the annual ingestion effective doses in the raw and different composite diets were 0.02 - 0.04 µSv and cumulatively 0.04 - 0.05 µSv while in the non-tuberous crops the doses were 0.44 - 0.70 µSv and cumulatively greater than 1 µSv respectively. Results of the study indicate that method of diet preparation is seen to play a major role in population ingestion dose reduction especially for tuberous crops than in non-tuberous crops. The study also showed that more ingestion dose could be incurred in diets prepared by roasting techniques. The result of the study will serve as a useful radiometric data for future epidemiological studies in the area and for food safety regulations and policy implementations in the country.
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ABSTRACT The main objective of this paper is to analyze the current status of high-level nuclear... more ABSTRACT
The main objective of this paper is to analyze the current status of high-level nuclear waste disposal along with presentation of practical perspectives about the environmental issues involved. Present disposal designs and concepts are analyzed on a scientific basis and modifications to existing designs are proposed from the perspective of environmental safety. A new concept of a chemical heat sink is introduced for the removal of heat emitted due to radioactive decay in the spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste, and thermal spikes produced by radiation in containment materials. Mainly, UO2 and metallic U are used as fuels in nuclear reactors. Spent nuclear fuel contains fission products and transuranium elements which would remain radioactive for 104 to 108years. Essential concepts and engineering strategies for spent nuclear fuel disposal are described. Conceptual designs are described and discussed considering the long-term radiation and thermal activity of spent nuclear fuel. Notions of physical and chemical barriers to contain nuclear waste are highlighted. A timeframe for nuclear waste disposal is proposed and time-line nuclear waste disposal plan or policy is described and discussed.
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ABSTRACT Background: It was the intention of the authors to generate a list of the top diseases ... more ABSTRACT
Background: It was the intention of the authors to generate a list of the top diseases responsible for the greatest financial expense in the United States. This listing would then inform policymakers as to the highest priority target conditions. With such information available, funding for the NIH could be accomplished based upon factual criteria rather than political clout or uninformed consensus. Method: The first step was a literature review to explore articles and reports which were published about the cost of illness (COI) up to December 2009. Therefore the source of the data used in this investigation was obtained from this retrospective search approach. Results: With reference to total cost for disease, first was HCVD with 475.3 billion US dollars, followed by alcohol abuse and substance at 300.6 billion US dollars, digestive diseases at 259.6 billion US dollars, cancer at 239.5 billion US dollars and mental disease at 216,6 billion US dollars. Conclusion: As has been seen, the total societal costs of the diseases do not synch with the degree of attention paid to these various disease states. Several of the diseases have very powerful and vocal support organizations that encourage attention and clinical research support. On the other hand we hear very little about efforts against allergic rhinitis or infectious and parasitic diseases.
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ABSTRACT A law has been passed in Germany (paragraph 174c StGB), which prohibits therapists from... more ABSTRACT
A law has been passed in Germany (paragraph 174c StGB), which prohibits therapists from having sexual contact with their patients. This provides the background for a follow-up survey to the previous study completed by Becker- Fischer and Fischer in 1995. The results of this survey are discussed here on the basis of the current status of research concerning preva- lence and risk factors of sexual assaults in therapeutic relationships. The focus of the re- search lies in determining the specific condi- tions of sexual assaults in psychotherapy and psychiatry, risk variables of the therapists and patients, the effects it has on the patients as well as the legal consequences it results in. To en- sure the comparability of the data, an online version of the Questionnaire about Sexual Con- tacts in Psychotherapy and Psychiatry (SKPP; Becker-Fischer, Fischer & Jerouschek) was cre- ated and a survey of N = 77 affected patients was conducted. The majority of the participants in the study reported a serious decline in their overall well being following the incident. How- ever only very few undertook legal steps - only in three cases did it come to a legal procedure. The assumption that sexual contacts in psy- chotherapy result in extremely damaging con- sequences to patients, was affirmed. Despite the changed legal situation, therapists in Ger- many are still not held legally responsible more often than they were 10 years ago. Based on these results a more intensive education of the patients concerning their legal rights is recom- mended.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
ABSTRACT The consumption of soft drinks has increased considerably during the last decades. Amon... more ABSTRACT
The consumption of soft drinks has increased considerably during the last decades. Among them, the cola-based preparations are possibly the refreshments with the largest sales worldwide. During the previous years, important concerns have been raised about the effects of colas on human health. In this review, we introduce the cola effects on reproduction including pregnancy miscarriages, ovulatory and menstrual disorders, and reduced semen quality. Although caffeine intoxication may be thought to play the most important role, a component of cola other than caffeine, or in combination with caffeine, may be associated with increased risk of reproductive hazards in heavy cola (> 1 L per day)-consumers. Cola discontinuation usually leads to an uneventful recovery in the most cases suggesting justification of limitations in the maximum recommended daily dose of these soft drinks. Cola is not an essential beverage, and abstaining from drinking more than 1 L per day is a minor intrusion in one’s personal life. Despite these uncertainties, this growing know- ledge may alarm the fertility risk of chronic cola intake in peoples of childbearing age.
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ABSTRACT Cutting or self inflicted epidermal damage (derma-abuse) describes a number of blood- l... more ABSTRACT
Cutting or self inflicted epidermal damage (derma-abuse) describes a number of blood- letting behaviours among adolescents. Unlike suicidal behaviour, it is associated with low lethality and the absence of suicidal attempts. The purpose of this study is two-fold: Firstly, to present and discuss vignettes of four young adolescents and secondly, to study the dynamics and characteristics of six derma-abusers who have attended Dual Group Therapy (DGT) concurrently with their parents for a six month period. Our findings suggest that patients involved in derma-abuse are generally non-suicidal but engage in comfort cutting for the psychological release of pain, tension reduction and anger management. There is a preponderance of females (80%) with an over-representation of mixed origin and borderline cultural states. In this small group, males amounted to 20% and were more bizarre, gruesome and brutal in their self-abuse. Of the total sample, 10% were of African origin, 60% were of Indian descent and 30% were of mixed ancestry. Psy- chodynamic factors explored in Dual Group Therapy (DGT) are the emphasis on non-suicidal intent, association with tension reduction, reclaiming power and mastery over self and others, life and death instincts, the significance of bloodletting in a socio-cultural context, trans- generational conflicts, dysfunctional family dynamics frequently with parental separation and sexual abuse and early sexual induction.
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ABSTRACT Health literature in the Caribbean, and in particular Jamaica, has continued to use obj... more ABSTRACT
Health literature in the Caribbean, and in particular Jamaica, has continued to use objective indices such as mortality and morbidity to examine children’s health. The current study uses subjective indices such as parent-reported health conditions and health status to evaluate the health of children instead of traditional objective indices. The study seeks 1) to examine the health and health care-seeking behaviour of the sample from the parents’ viewpoints; and 2) to compute the mean age of the sample with a particular illness and describe whether there is an epidemiological shift in these conditions. Two nationally representative cross-sectional surveys were used for this study (2002 and 2007). The sample for the current study is 3,062 respondents aged less than 5 years. For 2002, the study extracted a sample of 2,448 under 5 year olds from the national survey of 25,018 respondents, and 614 under 5 year olds were extracted from the 2007 survey of 6,728 respondents. Parents-reported information was used to measure issues on children under 5 years old. In 2007, 43.4% of the sample had very good health status; 46.7% good health status; 2.5% poor health and 0.3% very poor health status. Almost 15% of children had illnesses in 2002, and 6% more had illnesses in 2007 over 2002. In 2002, the percentage of the sample with particular chronic illnesses was: diabetes mellitus (0.6%); hypertension (0.3%) and arthritis (0.3%). However, none was recorded in 2007. The mean age of children less than 5 years old with acute health conditions (i.e. diarrhoea, respiratory diseases and influenza) increased over 2002. In 2007, 43.4% of children less than 5 years old had very good health status; 46.7% good health status; 7.1% fair health status; 2.5% poor and 0.3% very poor health status. The association between health status and parent- reported illness was –x2 (df = 4) = 57.494, P< 0.001-with the relationship being a weak one, correlation coefficient=0.297. A cross-tabulation between health status and parent-reported diagnosed illness found that a significant statistical correlation existed between the two variables –x2 (df = 16) = 26.621, P < 0.05, cc = 0.422, – with the association being a moderate one, correlation coefficient = 0.422. A cross tabulation between health status and health care- seeking behaviour found a significant statistical association between the two variables –x2 (df = 4) = 10.513, P < 0.033-with the correlation being a weak one-correlation coefficient = 0.281. Rural children had the least health status. The health disparity that existed between rural and urban less than 5 year olds showed that this will not be removed simply because of the abolition of health care utilization fees.
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ABSTRACT Objectives: To establish the prevalence, clinical features, and outcomes of the recentl... more ABSTRACT
Objectives: To establish the prevalence, clinical features, and outcomes of the recently recog- nized stress cardiomyopathy whose physiopathology is still not completely clarified. Material and methods: The prevalence and clinical findings of stress cardiomyopathy were assessed in a group of 378 patients undergoing cinecoronariography for acute coronary syndromes dur- ing a 7-year period. The inclusion criteria were severe chest pain, ischemic electrocardiogra- phic changes, reversible left ventricular dys- hypokinesia, and normal coronary arteries. Eight patients, 7 female (2.1% of all patients and 5.0% of the women), with a mean age of 65.3 ± 8.5 years fulfilled the requirements. Results: The precipitating factor was severe stress in all of them. Cardiac enzymes were slightly raised. There was apical left ventricular dyskinesia in 6 patients, midventricular in another, and diffuse hypokinesia in the remaining. One patient showed moderate mitral regurgitation. The response to con- ventional treatment and patient outcomes were favorable in all cases with prompt reversal of the left ventricular dyskinesia as assessed by echocardiography. There were 4 recurrences, 2 requiring readmission to hospital, despite continuous treatment with combined alfa and beta adrenergic blockers and calcium antagonists. Conclusions: In our hospital, stress cardiomyo- pathy had a prevalence of 2.1% in all patients with acute coronary syndromes and 5.1% in women and should be considered in their differential diagnosis, especially in middle aged female patients with a history of severe previous stress. There was a favorable outcome but recurrences may occur despite uninterrupted me- dical treatment following discharge.
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ABSTRACT To have an effective customer relationship management, it is essential to have informat... more ABSTRACT
To have an effective customer relationship management, it is essential to have information about the different segments of the customers and predict the future profit of them. For this reason companies can use customer lifetime value that consists of three factors-current value of customers, potential value, and customer churn. Potential value of customers focuses on the cross-selling opportunities for current customers. Therefore, cross selling models are built on the total customers of the database that is not interesting. To overcome this, we presented a framework that estimates the current value and churn probability for the customers and then segmented them base on these two elements and select the most profitable segment for the cross-selling models. In this study we predict the customer churn base on logistic regression as a case study on the insurance database.
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ABSTRACT Petroleum companies have great interest in developing their countries through improving... more ABSTRACT
Petroleum companies have great interest in developing their countries through improving their resources to be more competitive. They are also trying to maintain a high level of responsiveness to achieve agility and to remain competitive in the global marketplace especially after instability of oil prices and global financial crisis. Agile systems (AS) is con-sidered as the next industrial revolution. Agile systems are considered as production and/or management philosophies that integrate the available technology, people, production strategies, and organization management systems. Although agility is the set of capabilities and competences that the petroleum companies need to thrive and prosper in a continu-ously changing and unpredictable business environment, measuring the level of agility in these companies is still unex-plored according to the capabilities and competences. There are limited number of scientific papers have mentioned agility measurements in industrial organizations as a general concept and in oil industry as a specific concern. In this paper, a conceptual model will be proposed to measure the agility level of the petroleum companies based on existing technologies, level of qualifying human resources, production strategies, and organization management systems. Sev-eral case studies will be presented to demonstrate the proposed issues and technique through an agility questionnaire which is used for assessing the agility level of these companies. These studies provide the readers with an insight into the companies and their agility levels.
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ABSTRACT Using ICT in the form of e-governance could yield great benefits in the reform and mode... more ABSTRACT
Using ICT in the form of e-governance could yield great benefits in the reform and modernization of the public sector. The experience of e-governance in a number of developed and developing countries has shown that ICT can be a tool for greater service delivery with the goal of improving service quality. E-governance can also promote ‘good govern-ance’, that is, greater civic engagement can increase opportunities for direct representation and voice, and support for increased democracy. This paper discusses and presents the survey findings that seek to test the role of e-governance in improving service delivery by altering the principal-agent relationship. It further seeks to elucidate the quality aspects of public service. Policy recommendations to achieve the benefits of e-governance in Fiji are presented. Strong leadership is required to implement e-governance to capture and internalize the benefits of quality services and satisfied customers.
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ABSTRACT The rapidly changing social situation in the latter part of the 20th century, such as r... more ABSTRACT
The rapidly changing social situation in the latter part of the 20th century, such as revolutionary movement for women’s equal rights, significantly affects the women consumer behaviors as well as improves their social status. The awakening of female consumer’s consciousness during the recent years leads to alteration of consumer behavior, and influences the women’s usual conception for pursuing fashion and cosmetics application, in fact, the makeup practice has already been regarded as a social politeness and necessary requirement for interpersonal activities. By employing the Means-End Chain theory, this study intends to explore the attribute, result, and value attached importance by female consumer towards cosmetic products, in order to realize consumer’s cosmetics application process. The female consumers in Hsinchu are taken as research targets for this study to conduct variable analysis of their lifestyle and demographic statistics. Totally 550 questionnaires were released and 390 copies are effective among the retrieved ones. Methods as factor analysis and ANOVA are applied for examining various study hypotheses. Moreover, the implementation of Means-End Chain theory allows cosmetics industry to better understand the signification of product attribute valued by consumers so as to anticipate the details of consumer result and value recognition experienced by consumers.
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ABSTRACT Theoretically economic growth could have negative effects over the growing economy when... more ABSTRACT
Theoretically economic growth could have negative effects over the growing economy when production expands for products the world demand for which is inelastic. If growth occurs in sectors and for products the world demand for which is elastic it could be expected that total revenues to domestic producers and exporters increase. Our goal is to prove that growth would be immiserizing only for products for which world demand is inelastic and expansion leads to a sizable worsening of the terms of trade. We show that there are few such commodities, namely food products and natural resources such as oil. Studying econometrically the demand function for Brazilian coffee as an example, we compare our estimation of the elasticity of demand for Brazil’s exports of green coffee with other research on the world elasticity of demand for green coffee. We conclude that for manufactured products the demand for which is highly elastic it is unlikely that exporting countries fall into immiserization, therefore, growth and further participation in global trade turn out to be quite beneficial. Our conclusion is that too much emphasis is put in economic theory and trade policy on the concept of immiserizing growth which is more of a theoretical possibility than a real-life problem.
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ABSTRACT The study investigates the occurrence of childhood corporal punishment at home on a sam... more ABSTRACT
The study investigates the occurrence of childhood corporal punishment at home on a sample of participants who resided in the northeast of Malaysia, Kelantan. The Discipline Questionnaire (DQ) - a 32-item self-report instrument was completed by 196 medical students studying in fourth and fifth year at School of Medical Sciences Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The participants were asked about the type, frequency, and severity of parental corporal punishment they remembered to receive at home during childhood, in addition to their attitudes toward corporal punishment on children. Sixty three percent of participants remembered being corporally punished at home, as children. Only 3% of them reported that the punishment reaches an abusive level – which was defined as physical punishment that results in welts, bruises, bone fractures or breaks, or large/deep cuts. Pinching was the most commonly reported types of punishment used at home (35%), followed by slapping on the hand, arm or leg (31%), whipping using flexible material such as leather or rope (23%), and spanking/slapping on the buttocks with open hand (20%). The study indicates that on average the participants had a fairly favorable attitude towards corporal punishment. The findings suggest that majority of parents in Malaysia have been using corporal punishment on their children – primarily of mild types. Generally, the participants have had a fairly favorable attitude towards corporal punishment. Corporal punishment in this context is not perceived as an action of abusing a child, but rather one of many ways to teach the child a lesson in life.
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ABSTRACT The role of mental foramens in dolphin hearing was studied in the present work. To this... more ABSTRACT
The role of mental foramens in dolphin hearing was studied in the present work. To this effect the mental foramens’ morphology features which are essential from acoustical viewpoint have been studied. The patterns of relationship between the location of mental foramens and their sizes are found. The affinity of the mental foramens’ morphology and acoustics that the nature had created testify acoustical expediency of the mental foramens’ architecture. This natural inference in the main is confirmed in this work by the experimental data. The mean values of detection thresholds of short broadband stimuli with spectral maximum on frequencies 8, 16, 30 and 100 kHz at acoustical shielding the mental foramens increased on 30, 34, 40 and 50 dB, respectively. Results obtained testify that the mental foramens are the unique sound-conducting pathway into the fat body of the mandibular canal for the sounds of all frequencies used in the experiment, approximately 6?150 kHz (in view of stimuli broadbandness). The left and right row of the mental foramens together with respective mandibular canal plays the role of pinna and external auditory meatus if to use conventional terminology of a land mammal ear. But it is already qualitatively the new external ear implemented by the nature as the receive array and acoustical horn. The new external ear has apparently appeared in result of the dolphins’ ancestors’ adaptation to new environment conditions, as evolutionary adaptation of the ear to the water and as functional adaptation of the ear in order that to fulfill the new more sophisticated functions in the structure of sonar. The findings give good reason to suppose existence of the same external ear in Odontoceti.
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ABSTRACT Iron deficiency anemia represents a common nutritional problem which affects many socie... more ABSTRACT
Iron deficiency anemia represents a common nutritional problem which affects many societies allover the world and iron fortified diet has been suggested as one of possible tools to combat and solve such problem. Present study was designed to illustrate the effect of dietary iron intake on certain biochemical markers dealing with oxidative stress, inflammatory response and cellular alterations of testicular tissues. Adult male rats which were fed on biscuits fortified with iron (0.3% ferrous sulfate) daily for 10 weeks (iron group) showed increased serum iron, ferritin, tumor necrosis factoralpha (TNF-α), nitric oxide (NO) and decreased Testosterone level (p < 0.05). Testicular tissues content of Malondialdehyde (MDA), hydroxyproline (Hyp), iron showed significant increase (p < 0.05) and decreased glutathione (GSH) as compared to control group. Testicular tissues demonstrated massive iron distribution in sertoli interstial tissues and degeneration of germinal epithelial cells. Apparent reduction in number of sperms and spermatogenic cells were also observed. These symptoms may demonstrate that prolonged intake of Biscuit fortified with iron causes certain testicular damage through certain mechanism.
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ABSTRACT I calculate the classical effects induced by an isotropic mass loss of a body on the or... more ABSTRACT
I calculate the classical effects induced by an isotropic mass loss of a body on the orbital motion of a test particle around it; the present analysis is also valid for a variation of the Newtonian constant of gravitation. I perturbatively obtain negative secular rates for the osculating semimajor axis a, the eccentricity e and the mean anomaly , while the argument of pericenter ω does not undergo secular precession, like the longitude of the ascending node Ω and the inclination I. The anomalistic period is different from the Keplerian one, being larger than it. The true orbit, instead, expands, as shown by a numerical integration of the equations of motion in Cartesian coordinates; in fact, this is in agreement with the seemingly counter-intuitive decreasing of a and e because they only refer to the osculating Keplerian ellipses which approximate the trajectory at each instant. By assuming for the Sun it turns out that the Earth's perihelion position is displaced outward by 1.3 cm along the fixed line of apsides after each revolution. By applying our results to the phase in which the radius of the Sun, already moved to the Red Giant Branch of the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, will become as large as 1.20 AU in about 1 Myr, I find that the Earth's perihelion position on the fixed line of the apsides will increase by AU (for ); other researchers point towards an increase of AU. Mercury will be destroyed already at the end of the Main Sequence, while Venus should be engulfed in the initial phase of the Red Giant Branch phase; the orbits of the outer planets will increase by AU. Simultaneous long-term numerical integrations of the equations of motion of all the major bodies of the solar system, with the inclusion of a mass-loss term in the dynamical force models as well, are required to check if the mutual N-body interactions may substantially change the picture analytically outlined here, especially in the Red Giant Branch phase in which Mercury and Venus may be removed from the integration.
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