An Embedded Based Electric Shock Prevention for Human Safety

An electric shock is the effect of passing an electric current through the body. The minimum current a human can feel is thought to be about 1 milliampere (mA). The effect can range from minor tingling to muscle spasms, tissue damage, fibrillation of the heart, loss of consciousness, and even death. These effects depend on a variety of factors, including the strength of the current, duration of the current, the area of the body through which the current passes, and whether the person is grounded or insulated from the ground. Death caused by an electric shock is referred to as electrocution.

Flexural Behavior of Reactive Powder Concrete with Hybrid Section T- Beams

Reactive powder concrete (RPC) is unique of the present and greatest significant improvements in constructions field, it has usual excessive kindness happening current duration in the world owing toward its higher concrete properties, great ductility, durability, shrinkage, great opposition to corrosion and abrasion. In this experimental investigation is carried out on the way to revision the RPC flexural activity with Hybrid Segment T- Beams and the mechanical characteristics of this building material. In order to analyze the belongings of steel fiber volumetric ratio, silica fume ratio, tensile steel ratio, hybrid section on RPC T-beam flexural efficiency, the experimental program included testing five beams. The study was focused on determining the load-deflection behavior, letdown mode, strain supply across the depth of the beams and crack pattern at failure. The results of the volumetric ratio of steel fibers and the silica fume ratio were also considered in studying the mechanical properties of RPC mixes. Moreover, a study of hybrid beams showed that use of RPC web and normal concrete in flange efficiently improves the performance of T-beams compared to normal concrete T-beams with a percentage rise of 12 percent and hybrid beams have also shown that the use of RPC flange and normal concrete in web efficiently improves the display of T-beams associated to regular concrete T-beams with percentages increase of 28%.

Car/Motorbike Drivers’ Willingness to Use and to Pay for Alcohol Interlock in Taiwan

This study explored the important factors affecting drunk car/motorbike drivers’ willingness to use and pay for alcohol interlocks. Data were obtained through a survey upon choice-based sampling conducted in central Taiwan. Questionnaires were distributed to the participants of drunk driving and road safety education courses from 17 August to 26 October 2020. All drunk drivers whose driver’s licenses are revoked for drunk driving are mandated to participate in this course. Prior to the survey, the researchers explained the questionnaires, instructed the participants to complete the questionnaires, and then collected all the questionnaires. The socioeconomic characteristics of drunk drivers, awareness of alcohol interlocks and drunk driving, drinking patterns and health self-assessment before and after drunk driving ban enforcement, and changes in the number of trips were investigated. This study applied the double-hurdle model for data analysis to estimate the variables affecting drunk car/motorbike drivers. Results indicate that the respondents who were classified by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test as high-risk drinkers before and after drunk driving ban enforcement were more willing to use alcohol interlocks and to pay higher prices. Additionally, the respondents with declined health self-assessments were also more willing to use alcohol interlocks and pay higher prices. This study suggests offering subsidies for alcohol interlocks to families with financial difficulties, in order to increase the alcohol interlock installation rate. Moreover, since the current duration of license suspension and withdrawal is considerably long, drunk drivers avoid using and installing alcohol interlocks by reducing the number of trips. In other words, the willingness to install alcohol interlocks may be increased by reducing the duration of license suspension and withdrawal.

Association of daily composition of physical activity and sedentary behaviour with incidence of cardiovascular disease in older adults

Background Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is proposed as key for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) prevention. At older ages, the role of sedentary behaviour (SB) and light intensity physical activity (LIPA) remains unclear. Evidence so far is based on studies examining movement behaviours as independent entities ignoring their co-dependency. This study examines the association between daily composition of objectively-assessed movement behaviours (MVPA, LIPA, SB) and incident CVD in older adults. Methods Whitehall II accelerometer sub-study participants free of CVD at baseline (N = 3319, 26.7% women, mean age = 68.9 years in 2012–2013) wore a wrist-accelerometer from which times in SB, LIPA, and MVPA during waking period were extracted over 7 days. Compositional Cox regression was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) for incident CVD for daily compositions of movement behaviours characterized by 10 (20 or 30) minutes greater duration in one movement behaviour accompanied by decrease in another behaviour, while keeping the third behaviour constant, compared to reference composition. Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic, lifestyle, cardiometabolic risk factors and multimorbidity index. Results Of the 3319 participants, 299 had an incident CVD over a mean (SD) follow-up of 6.2 (1.3) years. Compared to daily movement behaviour composition with MVPA at recommended 21 min per day (150 min/week), composition with additional 10 min of MVPA and 10 min less SB was associated with smaller risk reduction – 8% (HR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.87–0.99) – than the 14% increase in risk associated with a composition of similarly reduced time in MVPA and more time in SB (HR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.02–1.27). For a given MVPA duration, the CVD risk did not differ as a function of LIPA and SB durations. Conclusions Among older adults, an increase in MVPA duration at the expense of time in either SB or LIPA was found associated with lower incidence of CVD. This study lends support to public health guidelines encouraging increase in MVPA or at least maintain MVPA at current duration.

Serial Dependence in Temporal Perception Reveals the Dynamics of Constructing an Internal Reference Frame

Temporal perception is crucial to cognitive functions. To better estimate temporal durations, the observers need to construct an internal reference frame based on past experience and apply it to guide future perception. However, how this internal reference frame is constructed remains largely unclear. Here we showed the dynamics of the internal reference construction from the perspective of serial dependence in temporal reproduction tasks. We found the current duration estimation is biased towards both perceived and reproduced durations in previous trials. Moreover, this effect is regulated by the variability of sample durations. The influence of previous trials was stronger when the observers were exposed to context with more variable durations, which is inconsistent with previous theories that the similarity between successive stimuli induces serial dependence. We proposed a Bayesian model with an adaptive reference updated continuously after each observation, which can better explain the serial dependence observed in temporal perception.

CN tower lightning flash characteristics based on high-speed imaging

The thesis emphasizes the analysis of fifty-eight flashes that struck the CN Tower during the last five years (2013-2017), based on video records of Phantom v5.0 digital high-speed imaging system, operating at 1 ms resolution. (A Sony HDR PJ790VB digital camera, operating at 16.67 ms resolution, provided a continuous recording of each CN Tower lightning storm.) It was observed that every recorded flash contained initial-stage current, confirming that all analyzed flashes were upward initiated. It was also observed that only 27 flashes out of the 58 contained return strokes. The number of strokes per flash varied between 1 and 9, with an average multiplicity of 2.16. The time variation of the channel luminosity of each flash was precisely analyzed for the characterization of flash components. A yearly statistical comparison regarding CN Tower lightning macroscopic (number of flashes, inter-flash times and flash durations) and microscopic (initial-stage current durations, number of the return strokes per flash, M-components and inter-stroke times) characteristics was conducted. The analysis of these extensive data (2013-2017) clearly showed that the 50% cumulative probability distribution (CPD) of flash duration in in 2017 was found to be the largest in comparison with other data (2013-2016). Whereas, the 50% CPD of inter-flash time duration in 2015 was the shortest. Furthermore, the 2014 data showed the longest 50% CPD of the initial-stage current duration as well as the inter-stroke time duration. In 2016, one flash was found to contain the highest number of return strokes. 2015 was distinguished by having the longest 50% CPD of the continuing current duration. It was also noted that two significantly major storms were captured during the nights of September 5, 2014 and September 4, 2017. During the storm of September 5, 2014, the CN Tower imaging systems recorded 13 flashes. The storm lasted for 111.4 minutes, resulting on average a flash to the tower every 9.28 minutes. Whereas, the September 4, 2017 storm continued for 49.35 minutes, producing 11 flashes for the tower every 4.9 minutes. The characterisation of CN Tower lightning is pivotal to the protection of tall structures against lightning hazards. It’s worth mentioning that flashes with longer flash duration, containing high number of return strokes and have shorter inter-stroke time durations pose severe threats to tall structures, electrical and communication systems

CN tower lightning flash characteristics based on high-speed imaging

The thesis emphasizes the analysis of fifty-eight flashes that struck the CN Tower during the last five years (2013-2017), based on video records of Phantom v5.0 digital high-speed imaging system, operating at 1 ms resolution. (A Sony HDR PJ790VB digital camera, operating at 16.67 ms resolution, provided a continuous recording of each CN Tower lightning storm.) It was observed that every recorded flash contained initial-stage current, confirming that all analyzed flashes were upward initiated. It was also observed that only 27 flashes out of the 58 contained return strokes. The number of strokes per flash varied between 1 and 9, with an average multiplicity of 2.16. The time variation of the channel luminosity of each flash was precisely analyzed for the characterization of flash components. A yearly statistical comparison regarding CN Tower lightning macroscopic (number of flashes, inter-flash times and flash durations) and microscopic (initial-stage current durations, number of the return strokes per flash, M-components and inter-stroke times) characteristics was conducted. The analysis of these extensive data (2013-2017) clearly showed that the 50% cumulative probability distribution (CPD) of flash duration in in 2017 was found to be the largest in comparison with other data (2013-2016). Whereas, the 50% CPD of inter-flash time duration in 2015 was the shortest. Furthermore, the 2014 data showed the longest 50% CPD of the initial-stage current duration as well as the inter-stroke time duration. In 2016, one flash was found to contain the highest number of return strokes. 2015 was distinguished by having the longest 50% CPD of the continuing current duration. It was also noted that two significantly major storms were captured during the nights of September 5, 2014 and September 4, 2017. During the storm of September 5, 2014, the CN Tower imaging systems recorded 13 flashes. The storm lasted for 111.4 minutes, resulting on average a flash to the tower every 9.28 minutes. Whereas, the September 4, 2017 storm continued for 49.35 minutes, producing 11 flashes for the tower every 4.9 minutes. The characterisation of CN Tower lightning is pivotal to the protection of tall structures against lightning hazards. It’s worth mentioning that flashes with longer flash duration, containing high number of return strokes and have shorter inter-stroke time durations pose severe threats to tall structures, electrical and communication systems

An Exploratory Study on the Adequacy of Internship Program Duration in Medical Colleges of Bangladesh

The internship period provides the first level of postgraduate medical training and serves as one of the fundamental strides in every doctor’s career. An inadequate internship program in terms of duration, skills and quality may pose serious concerns on the overall healthcare sector. Hence, the aim of this study was to explore the adequacy of the duration of internship program in medical colleges of Bangladesh. Till date, any significant study has not been reported to address the issue. A cross-sectional descriptive study with pre-tested self-administered questionnaires was performed. The study was carried out in 8 medical colleges (4 public and 4 non-government; 4 inside Dhaka and 4 outside). 300 completed questionnaires (250 interns, 50 supervisors) were statistically analyzed with SPSSv20 software. Majority of the interns and teachers voiced that the current duration of One-year Internship Program was inadequate and they further suggested that the duration can be revised to at least a year and half. Further opinions were put forward to modify the community placement duration period from two weeks to at least three weeks as the current duration was also deficient. These findings thus can help the policy makers, medical practitioners and academicians to review the current structure and duration of the internship program in medical colleges of Bangladesh for the betterment of the undergraduate medical education as well as the overall healthcare system. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Education Vol.12(1) 2021: 32-39

Измерения эмиттанса газодинамического электронно-циклотронного резонансного источника ионов

Advantages of using a gasdynamic electron cyclotron ion source in a proton accelerator based compact neutron source DARIA are discussed. It is experimentally demonstrated that the gasdynamic proton source is able to provide ion beams with 100 mA current, duration from 100 microseconds and longer at repetition rate up to 1 kHz. Emittance of the ion beams produced by the gasdynamic ion source was measured using a “pepper-pot” method for two extraction electrodes geometries: “spherical” and flat parallel. It is shown that the normalized 4 rms emittance value for both electrode configurations in the range of extraction voltage from 41 t 48 kV does not exceed 2 mm mrad.