Core Housing Strategy for Improved Urban Low-Cost Public Housing Delivery in Anambra State, Nigeria

Anambra state of Nigeria experiences acute housing shortage for urban low-income population owing to inefficient public housing delivery system principled on conventional full-provision house types. Insufficiency of funds for housing development is a major cause. Increased rate and scale of housing production and volume of housing stock have been stalled. Low-income households are adversely affected, being priced out of the limited stock. Core housing, a partial-provision strategy believed to require less financial resources has been neglected. This research focused on the potentials of core housing strategy in financial cost-saving and other aspects of public housing products’ performance. Components of public housing products’ performance and the measuring variables were first outlined; followed by a review of the relationship between core housing and the variables, which was apt and revealing. This study has widened knowledge and prepared grounds for empirical studies of core housing performance in Anambra State public housing sector.

Use of recycled aggregates from civil construction in self-compacting mortar

abstract: The utilization of wastes from demolition in civil construction in self compacting concrete (SCM) has the potential to reduce both the environmental impact and financial cost. In this context, this article aims to verify the behavior of the incorporation of recycled aggregates of civil construction in the mix designs of self-compacting mortar (SCM) in replacing cement, presenting as an interesting alternative to natural raw materials. This study used the EMMA® software to optimize the choice of percentages of fine recycled aggregates when replacing cement. The proportions chosen were 0%, 5%, 15%, and 25%, through the analysis of the granular packing curve of the respective mix designs. The proportion of 0% has in its composition cement, metakaolin, sand, superplasticizer (SP) and water. The parameters obtained, through tests in the fresh state of the mini-slump and mini-funnel V, certified the samples as SCM. The compressive strength and flexural tensile strength tests in the hardened state demonstrated a reduction in mechanical properties of the material with cement replacement. It is concluded that the waste used brick and ceramic can be added in replacement to the cement in SCM without significant loss of properties in the fresh and hardened state.

Effect of Kota Stone Slurry Powder in Fresh and Hardened Concrete: A Review

Concrete is highly used construction material with cement being its major ingredient. Also, the demand for good quality of concrete is increasing because of the fast-growing urbanization. But there are certain problems associated with the manufacturing of cement. One of the major problems being production of carbon dioxide causing pollution in environment, the manufacturing of cement is quite expensive and it also leads to the depletion of resources. In order to curtail the consumption of cement, it has become inevitable to replace cement by certain amount with substituent materials that are cheaper to produce in order to lower down the financial cost of concrete production by some extent. The review paper, elaborates many properties of concrete by the inclusion of Kota stone slurry after evaluating several research papers. The following paper discusses numerous properties of concrete including workability, compressive strength, split tensile strength, water absorption and modulus of elasticity. The paper demonstrates that when used appropriately, inclusion of Kota stone slurry in concrete had a positive impact on concrete by increasing the strength and durability.

Evaluating Federated Learning Scenarios in a Tumor Classification Application

Federated Learning is a new area of distributed Machine Learning (ML) that emerged to deal with data privacy concerns. In this approach, each client has access to a local and private dataset. They only exchange the model weights and updates. This paper presents a Federated Learning (FL) approach to a cloud Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TIL) application. The results show that the FL approach outperformed the centralized one in all evaluated ML metrics. It also reduced the execution time although the financial cost has increased.

Piety and Privilege

During the period 1922–1967 the Catholic Church in Ireland opposed any notion of joint responsibility between laity and clergy for secondary school education. The State also permitted the Church to pursue its major interest in education in secondary schools. Unhindered, the Church thus was able to promote within the schools sets of practices aimed at ‘the salvation of souls’ and at the reproduction of a loyal middle class along with priests, brothers, and nuns to maintain and expand the institution. The State for its part supported that arrangement as the Church also acted on its behalf in aiming to produce a literate and numerate citizenry, in pursuing nation building and in ensuring the preparation of an adequate number of secondary school graduates to address the needs of the public service and the professions. All of that took place at a financial cost much lower than the provision of a totally State-funded system of schooling would have entailed.

Design and Construction of Wind Turbine-Solar Panel System Prototype for Water Supply Control

Water supply is a crucial for human lives, not only for daily activities but also for secondary purposes such as for watering garden, paddy fields etc. There are many efforts of human in fulfilling their water supply needs. Most of water supply is provided by using electric motor pumps which in certain cases might increase the financial cost. In this paper, wind energy is applied to pumping water mechanically whilst it combines with solar panel which works to pump water during less wind speed condition. The micro-controller Arduino-Uno is employed to manage the collaboration operation between wind and solar panel. The design concept and construction are presented and discussed. The operation results exhibit good operation performance and could be developed for the real application.

Detention as the Default: How Greece, with the support of the EU, is generalizing administrative detention of migrants

Putting migrants and asylum seekers into detention for administrative reasons is a common practice in Greece, despite this policy contravening human rights. Greek authorities are using detention and the new EU-funded closed compounds as a way to discourage people from seeking asylum in Europe. Detention, as outlined in Greek law, should only be used as a final resort and only then in specific instances. Detention carries with it not only a financial cost, but also a considerable moral cost. Detention without just cause violates basic human rights, such as freedom of movement, the right to health and the right to family life. Alternatives to detention exist and must be prioritized.

Socio-demographic Determinants of Attendance in Diabetes Education Centres: A Survey of Patients’ Views

Introduction: Diabetes is a global medical condition associated with a huge human and financial cost. However, early detection and appropriate pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, such as structured patient education, are useful measures to reduce its impact. Although the benefits of educational intervention are well recognised as a key component of empowerment, motivating attendance in diabetes education centres remains problematic, and this has a negative impact on healthcare finances. Objective: This survey study sought to identify the socio-demographic determinants of attendance at diabetes education centres. Methods: A questionnaire survey of 207 patients from four diabetes education centres was conducted. Results: In predicting attendance from demographic variables, the regression analysis showed that the participants that were living alone are less likely to attend, while participants who have a flexible working environment are more likely to attend the sessions.

665. Clinical and Financial Impact of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) in addition to Conventional Microbiology Testing in our Urban Referral Health Center

Background Clinical microbiology traditionally relies on culture methodology and serological testing, that have inherent limitations. Newer diagnostic techniques such as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) have shown promise to improve microbial identification. In select scenarios, we send clinical specimens to reference laboratories for NGS testing in addition to current standard of care (SOC) diagnostics. We wanted to determine how this diagnostic approach has impacted patient care. We also wanted to review the financial burden through cost-benefit analysis for these ‘send-out’ tests. Methods We performed a retrospective chart review of all cases over a 3-year period in which NGS was submitted. Data, including demographics, comorbidities, antimicrobial use, and diagnosis (by SOC and NGS) were gathered. We delineated how often there was concordance or discordance between SOC and NGS. We also obtained information on financial cost (direct and indirect) and turnaround time (TAT) for NGS results. Results A total of 33 clinical specimens from 25 patients were sent for NGS. The majority of specimens comprised joint tissue/fluid, organ tissue and CSF. Concordance occurred between SOC and NGS testing in 75.8% (25/33) of samples; of those, 88% excluded infection. NGS identified a pathogen in 20% (5/25) patients in which concomitant SOC testing was negative. A subsequent change in antimicrobial management occurred in 16% (4/25) of patients. The mean TAT was 14 days and average cost per specimen was &821.52 (range: &573-&1590). Table 1. Pathogens identified by NGS with negative traditional microbiological test results Figure 1. Distribution of specimen site (in %) sent for NGS Conclusion NGS can provide additional diagnostic sensitivity in infectious diseases, which at our institution identified a new pathogen in 20% and a resultant treatment change in 16% of our patients. This testing may also allow physicians to reaffirm the absence of an infection diagnosis. A larger NGS testing population may reveal more significant benefits. While the attributable cost of NGS was substantial, it should be measured against the costs of administration of unnecessary antibiotics, inaccurate diagnosis, and adverse patient outcomes that may result from SOC testing alone. Considering its financial cost and extended TAT, in-house NGS testing may be warranted to facilitate a higher volume of testing. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures