Evaluation of equipment used in Ex atmospheres - interdisciplinary field

The risk of explosion becomes significant when, in the industrial field, flammable substances such as gases, vapours, mists, dusts, lint and fibres may be present. If they are present in sufficient quantity, the risk of explosion is imminent. On the other hand, the measure of shutting down the technical equipment, in the context of the presence of explosive atmospheres, is not an acceptable measure in all situations. As examples are the parts of installations that have safety functions: ventilation installations, installations for monitoring the concentration of flammable substances and other safety parameters. Explosion protection of technical equipment shall be evaluated and tested in order to validate it. The testing process of the technical equipment for the purpose of explosion protection certification is situated at the confluence of several engineering fields: mechanical, electrical, chemical, etc. The first part of the paper deals with the risk of explosion and presents the explosion protection of the technical equipment. The systematized presentation of the technical equipment tests is performed in the second part of the paper. Among the conclusions it is mentioned that although the field of tests in explosion atmospheres is an interdisciplinary one, its coherence is ensured by the specific standards.

Honey Adulterated with Glucose Syrup: Rheological Modeling

Honey's reputation for its various both nutritional and medicinal benefits and pleasant taste ensures a sustained high demand for the product all over the world. However, honey supply is quite limited and seldom meets the demand, and consequently the product commands a relatively high price and is exposed to adulteration and imitation. Honey was adulterated with glucose syrup weight of 10%, 50%, 70% and 90%, and each sample was analysed. Pure honey at ambient temperatures exhibits peculiar non-Newtonian rheological behaviour. Adulteration with glucose syrup (a Newtonian fluid) drags its viscosity towards Newtonian flow behaviour. Malcolm Cross and Ostwald-de Waele Power-Law models were used to fit the rheological data, and the former fitted better than the latter. The behaviour indices in both models increased with increasing adulteration of honey with glucose syrup. Chromatographic characterizations of honey which provides an acceptable measure of honey quality corroborated the conclusions derived from the rheological characterization of this study.

AYURVEDIC MANAGEMENT OF PAKSHAGHATA (CEREBROVASCULAR ACCIDENT) A CASE STUDY

Stroke represents the third most common cause of death in developed nations and is one of the leading causes of death and disability in India. Stroke is dened as the rapid onset of focal neurological decit resulting from cerebral vasculature and its contents. This disease has posed a great problem to the medical eld as far as its treatment is concerned. There is a wealth of information available on the cause, prevention, risk, and treatment of stroke. Even then much, less is known about the treatment of the stroke, there is no any satisfactory and widely acceptable measure for the stroke. The present article deals with the diagnosed case of hemorrhagic stroke presenting with right sided hemiplegia, Right basal ganglia bleed with epsilateral minimal midline shift. The Ayurvedic diagnosis of vama pakshaghata and managed with Virechana Karma (Detoxication therapy), Manjishtadi khseera basti (Administration of a medicated colloidal solution through rectum), Pratimarsha Nasya (Instillation of medicated oil through nasal route). Assessment was made before and after the treatment using National Institute of Health Score Scale (NIH-SS). Maximum improvement was noticed in the symptoms of aphasia and dysarthria. There was also improvement in the left upper and lower extremity functions. At the end of the treatment patient could walk without support. Panchakarma play a pivotal role in the management of stroke/ Pakshaghata. The recuperation was assuring and worth documenting.

Completeness and quality of low back pain prevalence data in the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

IntroductionCompleteness of Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study data is acknowledged as a limitation. To date, no study has evaluated this issue for low back pain, a leading contributor to disease burden globally.MethodsWe retrieved reports, in any language, based on citation details from the GBD 2017 study website. Pairs of raters independently extracted the following data: number of prevalence reports tallied across countries, age groups, gender and years from 1987 to 2017. We also considered if studies enrolled a representative sample and/or used an acceptable measure of low back pain.ResultsWe retrieved 488 country-level reports that provide prevalence data for 103 of 204 countries (50.5%), with most prevalence reports (61%) being for high-income countries. Only 16 countries (7.8%) have prevalence reports for each of the three decades of the GBD. Most of the reports (79%) did not use an acceptable measure of low back pain when estimating prevalence.ConclusionWe found incomplete coverage across countries and time, and limitations in the primary prevalence studies included in the GBD 2017 study. This means there is considerable uncertainty about GBD estimates of low back pain prevalence and the disease burden metrics derived from prevalence.

Green retrofit of existing residential buildings in China: An investigation on residents’ perceptions

Green retrofit of existing residential buildings is a sustainable way to improve the energy efficiency. However, such implementation faces some challenges due to the different willingness of residents involved. There is a lack of comparative study on residents’ preceptions of green retrofit in China, which is of great concern to the government. Therefore, this study investigates residents’ housing conditions and their perceptions of a green retrofit, based on the feedbacks from 9936 questionnaires which are collected from urban and rural residents throughout China. The Chi-squared test is employed to identify the key influencing factors, including demographic and housing characteristics. The results show that more than 90% of the respondents are willing to adopt retrofit, and installing a zoned temperature control system of individual rooms is a generally acceptable measure. The retrofit subsidy is a topic of high concern, and the respondents are more likely to undertake unified free retrofit, compared with separate retrofit supported by a partial subsidy. Besides, household income, city of residence, housing type and housing problems will cause significant differences in residents’ perceptions. After evaluating the retrofit potential of different resident groups, some suggestions are proposed for policymakers. The findings from this study can help develop differentiated strategies for residents, to promote green retrofit of existing residential buildings in China.

Investigating young adults’ perceived effectiveness of textual information about food-related nudging

Purpose Perceived effectiveness of nudging has been established as one of the most reliable predictors of acceptance of nudging. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how source credibility and argument strength influence the perceived effectiveness of textual information about food-related nudging in order to provide a better understanding of how acceptance of nudging may be facilitated. Design/methodology/approach A 2 × 2 scenario-based between-subjects factorial experiment with source credibility (high vs low) and argument strength (high vs low) as factors was applied. Data on respondents’ level of involvement in food-related behaviour were also collected. Findings Argument strength had a positive main effect on the perceived effectiveness of nudging, and there was a significant positive interaction effect of source credibility × argument strength on the perceived effectiveness of nudging. Practical implications The findings of this paper provide policy makers and other decision makers with a better understanding of how information about nudging should be communicated to consumers in order to facilitate acceptance. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to investigate how information about nudging should be communicated to consumers in order for nudging to be perceived as an effective and thus acceptable measure to influence food-related behaviour.

Religiosidade e pós-modernidade: informação e formação

A secularização, que progride em boa parte do Ocidente, conseguiu fazer admitir que a separação das Igrejas e do Estado era uma medida não apenas aceitável para a democracia, mas também benéfica para a liberdade responsável das partes. Este ordenamento político não impede que a escola pública preveja ensino religioso, embora segundo uma distinção aqui justificada e desenvolvida, ilustrada com experiências de diversos países. Importa deixar às Igrejas e às outras denominações religiosas o cuidado pela formação religiosa baseada sobre uma fé, sob livre escolha da família (ou do jovem, se este for tido como competente) e opcional no ensino público. Cabe, entretanto, ao ensino público um ensino do Fato religioso como componente da cultura, sem menosprezar o cuidado por certa ética – uma necessidade social, qualquer que seja a opção religiosa.Abstract: Secularization, which has spread almost everywhere in the West, admitted the separation from Churches and State not only as an acceptable measure for democracy, but also as beneficial for the responsible freedom of both. This political regulation doesn’t prevent public school from adopting religious teaching, according to a distinction here justified and developed, illustrated with experiences of several countries. It is important to leave to the Churches and other religious denominations the care for religious education based on faith, leaving the choice for the family (or the young person, if she is considered competent), and optional for public schools. However, it is up to the public school to teach religious Facts as a component of culture, highlighting the importance of ethics – a social need, no matter the religious option.

Validity and Reliability of the Exercise Vital Sign Questionnaire in an Ethnically Diverse Group: A Pilot Study

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity and reliability of the Exercise Vital Sign (EVS) questionnaire in an ethnically diverse sample. Participants (N = 39) were asked to wear an accelerometer at the hip for at least 7 days and to complete the EVS at the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of the wear period. The EVS questionnaire validity was determined against accelerometry, and bias was calculated as the mean difference between measures. The sensitivity and specificity of the EVS questionnaire were also evaluated. The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between EVS responses at T1 and T2. The mean difference in EVS- and accelerometer-determined time in MVPA was 24 min/wk. The reliability for the questionnaire was excellent (ICC = 0.98). The EVS specificity and sensitivity at T2 were 56% and 78%, respectively. The EVS questionnaire may be an acceptable measure of weekly MVPA time compared to accelerometry in an ethnically diverse sample; however, further research is needed to confirm these findings.

Night-time confinement is an unacceptable hospital practice

SummaryNight-time confinement, currently imposed as a blanket restriction on all patients on wards in UK high secure hospitals, constitutes an arbitrary restriction of liberty, not being based on any therapeutic purpose for those so restricted, nor serving a need for the protection of others. Its imposition constitutes a form of ‘degrading’ treatment as well as an unjustified restriction of ‘residual’ liberty. Persons who are vulnerable, especially those who are involuntarily detained as in this case, are particularly at risk of suffering human rights abuses. A compelling case can be made, based on ethics, law and accepted practice standards, for ruling out night-time confinement as an acceptable measure.Declaration of interestNone.

Cross-cultural adaptation to Brazilian Portuguese of the Waterloo Footedness Questionnaire-Revised: WFQ-R-Brazil

ABSTRACT Post-stroke hemiparesis causes compensated postures, which can modify the footedness established before the impairment. Recently, a paresis severity-modulated dominance hypothesis stated that measures to detect footedness become crucial to float new ideas for neurorehabilitation strategies. The Waterloo Footedness Questionnaire-Revised (WFQ-R) represents the most acceptable measure but it had not yet been cross-culturally adapted for Portuguese spoken in Brazil. Our aim was to cross-culturally adapt the WFQ-R to Brazilian Portuguese, verifying its reliability. We completed the essential steps to cross-culturally adapt one version, tested in 12 patients with post-stroke hemiparesis and 12 able-bodied individuals, sampled by convenience, to verify reliability. Measurements were taken by two independent raters during the test and by one of them at the one-week retest. No great semantic, linguistic or cultural differences were found, and acceptable reliability was recorded. The WFQ-R-Brazil is reliable and ready for use in the Brazilian able-bodied and post-stroke hemiparesis population.