Reviewing the UK’s Action Levels for the Management of Dredged Material

Action Levels (ALs) are thresholds which are used to determine whether dredged material is suitable for disposal at sea by providing a proxy risk assessment for potential impacts to biological features such as fish and benthos. This project tested proposed scenarios for changes to the UK Action Levels to determine the likely implications for navigational dredge licensing in England and Wales. Approximately 3000 sample data records from 2009 to 2018 were collated with varying numbers of concentrations for contaminant parameters including trace metals, organotins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Initially, these data were assessed using current ALs to determine the percentages of the samples with levels below AL1 (generally acceptable for disposal), between AL1 and AL2 and those showing levels above AL2 (generally unacceptable for disposal). These results were then used to compare with the results of the proposed new AL scenarios for each contaminant type derived from literature reviews and historic data. The results indicate that there are changes to the ALs which could be made such as updating the current ALs with the revised ALs, as well as the introduction of ALs where there are currently none set. The benefits of changing the ALs include reducing contaminant disposal to the marine environment and increased transparency in decision making. Any proposed scenarios will need to be phased in carefully in full liaison with stakeholders.

Retrospective analysis of portal dosimetry pre-treatment quality assurance of intracranial SRS/SRT VMAT treatment plans

Background: The complexity associated with the treatment planning and delivery of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans which employs continuous dynamic modulation of dose rate, field aperture and gantry speed necessitates diligent pre-treatment patient-specific quality assurance (QA). Numerous techniques for pre-treatment VMAT treatment plans QA are currently available with the aid of several different devices including the electronic portal imager (EPID). Although several studies have provided recommendations for gamma criteria for VMAT pre-treatment QA, there are no specifics for SRS/SRT VMAT QA. Thus, we conducted a study to evaluate intracranial SRS/SRT VMAT QA to determine clinical action levels for gamma criteria based on the institutional estimated means and standard deviations. Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 118 EPID patient-specific pre-treatment QA dosimetric measurements of 47 brain SRS/SRT VMAT treatment plans using the integrated Varian solution (RapidArcTM planning, EPID and Portal dosimetry system) for planning, delivery and EPID QA analysis. We evaluated the maximum gamma (γmax), average gamma (γave) and percentage gamma passing rate (%GP) for different distance-to-agreement/dose difference (DTA/DD) criteria and low-dose thresholds. Results: The gamma index analysis shows that for patient-specific SRS/SRT VMAT QA with the portal dosimetry, the mean %GP is ≥98% for 2–3 mm/1–3% and Field+0%, +5% and +10% low-dose thresholds. When applying stricter spatial criteria of 1 mm, the mean %GP is >90% for DD of 2–3% and ≥88% for DD of 1%. The mean γmax ranges: 1·32 ± 1·33–2·63 ± 2·35 for 3 mm/1–3%, 1·57 ± 1·36–2·87 ± 2·29 for 2 mm/1–3% and 2·36 ± 1·83–3·58 ± 2·23 for 1 mm/1–3%. Similarly the mean γave ranges: 0·16 ± 0·06–0·19 ± 0·07 for 3 mm/1–3%, 0·21 ± 0·08–0·27 ± 0·10 for 2 mm/1–3% and 0·34 ± 0·14–0·49 ± 0·17 for 1 mm/1–3%. The mean γmax and mean γave increase with increased DTA and increased DD for all low-dose thresholds. Conclusions: The establishment of gamma criteria local action levels for SRS/SRT VMAT pre-treatment QA based on institutional resources is imperative as a useful tool for standardising the evaluation of EPID-based patient-specific SRS/SRT VMAT QA. Our data suggest that for intracranial SRS/SRT VMAT QA measured with the EPID, a stricter gamma criterion of 1 mm/2% or 1 mm/3% with ≥90% %GP could be used while still maintaining an in-control QA process with no extra burden on resources and time constraints.

THE IMPACT OF INDIVIDUALIZING TASKS ON READING MOTIVATION AND PRACTICES OF UNIVERSITY-AGE VIETNAMESE NON-MAJORED EFL LEARNERS

The overarching purpose of this study was to measure how the sub-constructs of EFL reading motivation were influenced at both of their belief and action levels when the teacher gave more opportunity for the students to read and complete the tasks on their own purposes. Participants in this study were 70 students in 2 General English classes in a university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The research was conducted using the pretest-posttest design in quasi-experiment research. To collect data, a questionnaire and focus group interview topics was created based on the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ). Employing SPSS 25 software, the researcher ran Paired-sample T-test and One Way ANOVA to check the significant of the results from both of the control and experimental classes. It can be concluded that an increase in reading motivation and a more positive attitude toward reading have been confirmed. Noticeably, changes were observed to be developed at different degrees in all of the 8 constructs of the MRQ.

PERBAIKAN SISTEM KERJA BERDASARKAN ASPEK BIOMEKANIKA DI PT. CRESCO INDONESIA

PT. Cresco Indonesia is one of the companies that concerned in the Japanese slipper sandals industry in West Java, which was established in 1989. In order to responses to demanding costumer, PT. Cresco Indonesia applies ‘make to order’ strategy, so the production process will be carried out if there are any orders from consumers. The company has 13 departments. Based on observations has known that there are 4 departments that have a potential to cause an accidents work, they are the happo department, the shiage department, the quality control department and the packing department. The beginning measurements of RULA and REBA out of four departments show the results of high risk action levels. To improve the situation, work system improvements must be made. This study intends to improve the body's posture and work system currently, so that the design of tools for the movement of baskets in the shiage and quality control departments, grouping and labeling in baskets in the happo department as well as improve the order of the process of lifting goods in the packing department. Work system improvement is carried out using biomechanics theory. The final result of the design shows the value of RULA and REBA of operators is low risk, minimizes the value of defects in the happo department, reduces the activities of finding baskets in the happo department, minimizes the time of movement from the shiage department to the quality control department, improves the way of lifting goods in the packing department and fix up the posture of the operators

General Overview of Radon Studies in Health Hazard Perspectives

The adverse human health effects due to ionizing radiation are well known. Radon is the major source of background radiation among those that are of natural origin. It contributes about 55% of the natural radiation dose to humans. It is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless radioactive noble gas that comes from the natural radioactive decay series of uranium. Radon can be found everywhere in the atmosphere and become attached to aerosols in the air. The aerosols carrying radon and its progeny can be inhaled and deposited in different regions of the human respiratory tract. The deposited radioactive aerosols continue to decay and exposing the lung to ionizing radiation can destroy sensitive cells in the lung, causing a mutation that turns to be cancerous. Different countries and international and national organizations put their action levels to reduce radon lung cancer risk. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends 148 Bq/m3 as the action level. On the other hand, International Commission for Radiation Protection (ICRP) recommends 200 Bq/m3 as the action level. The main objective of this review is to focus on how radon is established as a health hazard, ways of radon detection and measurements, methods of reducing and controlling high indoor radon concentration, and what are the recommended international action levels of radon concentrations. It mainly focuses on the health perspective of radon studies because it is now a crucial and hot issue in the world. In most developing countries like our country Ethiopia, radon studies are not well investigated.

Variability of Pharmacogenomics Information in Drug Labels Approved by Different Agencies and Its Ethical Implications

Aims: The aim of this study was to determine if there are discrepancies among various agency-approved labels for the same active ingredient and where the labels approved by the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TMMDA) stand regarding the inclusion of PGx and discuss these ethical implications. Background: The efficacy and safety of drugs can be improved by rational prescription and personalization of medicine for each patient. Pharmacogenomics information (PGx) in drug labels (DL) is one of the important tools for the personalization of medications because genetic differences may affect both drug efficacy and safety. Providing adequate PGx to patients has ethical implications. Objective: To evaluate PGx in the DLs approved by TMMDA and other national agencies provided by the Pharmacogenomics Knowledgebase. Methods: DL annotations from the Pharmacogenomics Knowledgebase and DLs approved by the TMMDA were analyzed according to information and action levels, which are “testing required”, “testing recommended”, “actionable”, and “informative”. Results: There are 381 drugs listed in PharmGKB drug label annotations with pharmacogenomics information and 278 of these have biomarkers. A total of 242 (63.5%) drugs are approved and available in Turkey. Of these, 207 (85.5%) contain the same information as in or similar to that in the labels approved by the other agencies. The presence and level of information varied among the DLs approved by different agencies. The inconsistencies may have an important effect on the efficacy and the safety of drugs.