Search

Aiming at the problem of high failure rate and inconvenient maintenance of wind turbine gearboxes, this paper establishes a stochastic differential equation model that can be used to fit the change of gearbox oil temperature and adopts an iterative computational method and Markov-based modified optimization to fit the prediction sequence in order to realize the accurate prediction of gearbox oil temperature. The model divides the oil temperature change of the gearbox into two parts, internal aging and external random perturbation, adopts the approximation theorem to establish the internal aging model, and uses Brownian motion to simulate the external random perturbation. The model parameters were calculated by the Newton–Raphson iterative method based on the gearbox oil temperature monitoring data. Iterative calculations and Markov-based corrections were performed on the model prediction data. The gearbox oil temperature variations were simulated in MATLAB, and the fitting and testing errors were calculated before and after the iterations. By comparing the fitting and testing errors with the ordinary differential equations and the stochastic differential equations before iteration, the iterated model can better reflect the gear oil temperature trend and predict the oil temperature at a specific time. The accuracy of the iterated model in terms of fitting and prediction is important for the development of preventive maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese patients face higher risks of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers and greater cancer-related deaths than Canadian-born patients. The older population encounters barriers to quality healthcare, impacting their well-being and survival. Previous studies highlighted Chinese immigrant perceptions of not requiring healthcare support. During the COVID-19 pandemic, their underutilization of healthcare services garnered attention. The present study explores the experiences of older Chinese cancer patients to improve culturally sensitive cancer care. A total of twenty interviews carried out in Cantonese and Mandarin were conducted with Chinese immigrants, aged 60 or above, diagnosed with Stage 3 or 4 GI cancer. These interviews were transcribed verbatim, translated, and subjected to qualitative descriptive analysis. Among older Chinese immigrant patients, a phenomenon termed "Premature Acceptance: Normalizing Death and Dying" was observed. This involved four key themes: 1. acceptance and letting go, 2. family first, 3. self-sufficiency, and 4. barriers to supportive care. Participants displayed an early acceptance of their own mortality, prioritizing family prosperity over their own quality of life. Older Chinese patients normalize the reality of facing death amidst cancer. They adopt a pragmatic outlook, acknowledging life-saving treatments while willingly sacrificing their own support needs to ease family burdens. Efforts to enhance health literacy require culturally sensitive programs tailored to address language barriers and differing values among this population. A strengths-based approach emphasizing family support and practical aspects of care may help build resilience and improve symptom management, thereby enhancing their engagement with healthcare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling of the separation of catalyst particles from gas using two devices, a cyclone and a novel separator with arc-shaped elements, was performed for fluidized-bed dehydrogenation of C4–C5 paraffins to isoolefins as an example. The proposed dust collector allows one to reduce erosive wear by several times (~6.5-fold) in identical regimes and at identical parameters of the process. The effect of particle size on erosive wear was analyzed under near-industrial conditions; the regions most susceptible to wear in the analyzed devices were identified, as well as the functions describing the dependence between the erosive wear rate and particle diameter for the cyclone and separator with arc-shaped elements, making it possible to predict wear in the devices were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The amount of wear is one of the most important indicators for assessing the wear resistance of materials, controlling product quality and studying the mechanisms of frictional wear of materials. Due to the limitations of the friction and wear test equipment currently in use for measuring material wear resistance, it is not possible to accurately compare the wear resistance of two different materials. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a new type of friction and wear tester. With the newly designed friction and wear tester, it is possible to perform friction tests and in situ measurements of wear on two different materials at the same time. This will significantly reduce the measurement errors of currently used friction and wear test equipment that requires adjustment in order to measure the amount of wear; it is particularly suitable for accurately comparing the wear resistance of two different materials. The newly designed friction and wear tester can be used extensively to test and analyse the wear resistance of solid materials such as metals, ceramic materials and engineering plastics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective method to control the non-linear shrinkage of micro-injection molded small-module plastic gears by combining multi-objective optimization with Moldflow simulation is proposed. The accuracy of the simulation model was verified in a micro-injection molding experiment using reference process parameters. The maximum shrinkage ( Y 1 ), volume shrinkage ( Y 2 ), addendum diameter shrinkage ( Y 3 ), and root circle diameter shrinkage ( Y 4 ) were utilized as optimization objectives to characterize the non-linear shrinkage of the studied gear. An analysis of the relationship between key process parameters and the optimization objectives was undertaken using a second-order response surface model (RSM-Quadratic). Finally, multi-objective optimization was carried out using the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II). The error rates for the key shrinkage dimensions were all below 2%. The simulation results showed that the gear shrinkage variables, Y 1 , Y 2 , Y 3 , and Y 4 , were reduced by 5.60%, 8.23%, 11.71%, and 11.39%, respectively. Moreover, the tooth profile inclination deviation ( f H α T ), the profile deviation ( f f α T ), and the total tooth profile deviation ( F α T ) were reduced by 47.57%, 23.43%, and 49.96%, respectively. Consequently, the proposed method has considerable potential for application in the high-precision and high-efficiency manufacture of small-module plastic gears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanical properties of different polymer matrix composites are discussed in this research study. These composites are multiphase materials in which reinforcing elements and a polymer matrix are suitably combined. The mechanical properties of 18 PMCs, including nylon 66 reinforced with 5, 15, and 25% wt% silicon carbide (SiC) and nylon 66 reinforced with 5, 15, and 25% wt% boron carbide (B4C), were evaluated using an injection moulding technique at three different injection pressures in this study. The optimization of process parameters like reinforcement material, reinforcement quantity, and injection pressure to maximize the tensile and impact strength of nylon 66 composites are the main focus of this study. It is observed that the specimens 25% SiC with an injection pressure of 90 MPa has optimised tensile strength, while the specimen 5% B4C with an injection pressure of 90 MPa has optimised impact strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational safety and health (OSH) aspects are key issues that organizations need to be given attention. Negligence in implementing OSH aspects will have a negative impact on workers and organizations. An increase in accidents at work, growing degrees of absenteeism, as well as higher levels of sickness and stress at work seem to indicate that even more urgent action is required. Previous studies have also indicated that ergonomics plays a significant role with respect to OSH problems, especially in the manufacturing sector. The implementation of certain initiatives based on ergonomics might well provide an avenue for solving, or at least alleviating, safety and health-related problems at work. This study will attempt to answer the question on does ergonomic work system (EWS) affects OSH performance? A total of 843 respondents from several companies and states in Malaysia were surveyed and analyzed. The results of the study show that the majority of employees are not aware of the problems related to ergonomics in the workplace. A study of the successes found the significant relationship between the dimensions of ergonomic work systems and the occupational safety and health performance in the manufacturing industry. Therefore, several initiatives should be taken by organisation to enhance workers' performance, especially in regards to implementation of ergonomics aspects as well as safety and health elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a growing interest among the developing countries on advance care planning (ACP) due to the reported benefits of planning ahead in the developed countries. Validated instruments in various languages have been developed to facilitate study on the views of public prior to its implementation. However, instrument to explore the views on ACP in Malay has not been developed and validated yet, even though Malay is spoken extensively by approximately 220 million people in the Malay Archipelago. There is also a need for instrument in Malay language to facilitate the assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of Malaysians regarding ACP. Therefore, the aim of this study was to validate the psychometric properties of the Malay Advance Care Planning Questionnaire (ACPQ-M). Methods: The ACPQ was translated according to international guidelines. This validation study was conducted from January to June 2018. Participants who were ≥ 21 years old, and able to understand Malay were recruited from an urban primary care clinic and a tertiary education institution in Malaysia. A researcher administered the ACPQ-M to participants via a face-to-face interview at baseline and 2 weeks later. Each interview took approximately 10–20 min. Results: A total of 222/232 participants agreed to participate (response rate = 96.0%). Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis found that the ACPQ-M was a 4-factor model. The Cronbach's α values for the four domains ranged from 0.674–0.947. Only 157/222 participants completed the test-retest (response rate = 71%). At test-retest, quadratic weighted kappa values for all domains ranged from 0.340–0.674, except for two domains which ranged from − 0.200-0.467. Conclusions: The ACPQ-M was found to be a 4-factor model, and a valid and reliable instrument to assess the KAP regarding ACP. This instrument can contribute to profound understanding of the KAP of Malaysians regarding ACP, and assist policy makers in determining the readiness for legislation of ACP in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production scheduling is attracting considerable scientific interest. Effective scheduling of production jobs is a critical element of smooth organization of the work in an enterprise and, therefore, a key issue in production. The investigations focus on improving job scheduling effectiveness and methodology. Due to simplifying assumptions, most of the current solutions are not fit for industrial applications. Disruptions are inherent elements of the production process and yet, for reasons of simplicity, they tend to be rarely considered in the current scheduling models. This work presents the framework of a predictive job scheduling technique for application in the job-shop environment under the machine failure constraint. The prediction methods implemented in our work examine the nature of the machine failure uncertainty factor. The first section of this paper presents robust scheduling of production processes and reviews current solutions in the field of technological machine failure analysis. Next, elements of the Markov processes theory and ARIMA (auto-regressive integrated moving average) models are introduced to describe the parameters of machine failures. The effectiveness of our solutions is verified against real production data. The data derived from the strategic machine failure prediction model, employed at the preliminary stage, serve to develop the robust schedules using selected dispatching rules. The key stage of the verification process concerns the simulation testing that allows us to assess the execution of the production schedules obtained from the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Maintenance & Reliability / Eksploatacja i Niezawodność is the property of Polish Scientific & Technical Society Consumables, Polish Maintenance Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Engineering Research (2307-1877) is the property of Kuwait University, Academic Publication Council and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: The purposes of this study are first, to analyze why the process capability index (Cpk) for drop impact resistance (DIR) does not meet the specification or less than 1.33, and second, to find out what improvements should be made to make it meet the specification. Methodology/Approach: The methodology used was Statistical Process Control (SPC) through the PDCA cycle, supporting with Cause and Effect Diagram (CED), Nominal Group Technique (NGT) and "why, what, where, when and how (5W1H)" method. Findings: With the above methods, the result of the study was given a positive impact on the company. The average of DIR was increased from 20.40 cm to 25.76 cm, increased by 26.27% and the standard deviation was reduced from 1.80 to 1.48, and then the Cpk index was increased from 0.48 to 1.79 it means the process is in control and capable. Research Limitation/implication: This research was limited only on the twopiece can aluminum cans manufacturing process, no for three-piece cans manufacturing. SPC through PDCA cycle is an interesting method for continuous improvement of process capability in the cans manufacturing industry. Originality/Value of paper: This study highlights the area of future research SPC through the PDCA cycle to analyze and optimize process capability. Therefore, this research is considered to promote and adopt high-valued methodologies for supporting industry to achieve global competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Existing productivity improvements activities such as inventory buffer, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and total productive maintenance (TPM) do not associate the throughput shortage with the process parameters. The paper aims to develop and validate an integrated model to recover the throughput shortage through adjustment of process parameters in a semiconductor assembly setting. Design/methodology/approach: The mathematical model of planned throughput as a function of process parameters in an integrated multiple-process line is developed. When the actual throughput does not meet the planned throughput, throughput shortage occurs. The planned throughput for the next day is summed with the throughput shortage from the previous day, and mathematical programming is used to search the adjusted values of the process parameters. Findings: The throughput shortage can be restored at the following day with the reconfigured process parameters. If throughput shortage still exists, the additional throughput shortage will be carried forward to the subsequent day of planning where mathematical programming is repeated to search the adjusted values of the process parameters. The proposed optimisation model is essentially a parametric model, where actual data of process parameters are fitted into distribution and is translated into a range of allowable values within the 95% confidence interval. Research limitations/implications: The process parameters subject to adjustment in this model are the cycle time of Die Attach, Wire Bond and Pre-Cap Inspection. Downtime and setup time are not subjected to adjustments because these parameters require more extensive efforts to be changed. Practical implications: The mathematical programming computes adjusted values of process parameters to restore the throughput shortage, where it quantitatively correlates the process parameters and throughput shortage, rather than the conventional method of production improvement activities that do not quantitatively correlate with the throughput shortage. Originality/value: The research addresses the adjustment of process parameters to recover the throughput shortage in integrated multiple-process line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elder maltreatment or abuse is an important issue to be addressed, especially in institutional care settings where most of the elders are vulnerable and dependent on others for their daily activities. With a rapidly growing older population and increasing rate of chronic and degenerative diseases, long term care system will be on high demand. Research suggests that staff's knowledge and attitude condoning elder abuse are the possible risk factor for executing abusive behaviors against residents in the institutions but have been studied infrequently. Hence, this paper focuses on the prevalence of elder maltreatment in aged care institutions in Selangor. Staff's knowledge, attitude and practice towards elder maltreatment in the aged care institution are discussed. This descriptive study utilized simple random sampling method to identify 110 care workers from 31 public and private aged care institutions in Selangor. Findings showed that majority of the respondents had a low level of knowledge concerning the management of elder maltreatment in a residential setting (M=16.3; SD=8.1), while more than two third (71.8%) were reported to have low level of positive attitude against elder maltreatment. Results also highlighted that majority of the respondents (90.9%) reflected an 'abusive' behavior towards elderly resident at least once during the past 6 months where the physical and psychological maltreatment related to caring activities were most common among them. Taking into account that demographic ageing is taking shape in Malaysia, more attention should be given on education and support towards institutional aged care setting as the primary preventive strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary goals of resuscitation are to preserve life, restore health, relieve suffering and limit disability. As nurses, executing the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to a patient experiencing cardio-pulmonary arrest is essential in preserving life. However nurses face a dilemma in the decision making to either preserve the patient's life or let the patient die naturally, if the patient's autonomy as well as his family's wish for a "do not resuscitate (DNR)" order. In this dilemma, the sanctity of life and the right to die is the main concern of this discussion. Islamic moral judgment, as the major concern here, should be studied as an alternative to analyse and provide a guideline that is in accordance with the Islamic teaching. Thus, this research is to provide the Islamic moral judgment on the resuscitation issue and its implication in nursing practices. The western ethics that represent the current practices on resuscitation is not included. The comparison was then made with the ultimate origin of Islamic teaching ie the Qur'an and Sunnah, as well as the notions of Muslim scholars on the subject. As the physician opines that CPR is to be beneficial to rescue a life, therefore refusing it may be considered as immoral. However, the DNR order is entirely acceptable if the doctor believes that CPR is futile and gives no benefit to the patient. The doctor has the authority to issue a DNR order if he is certain that the patient would not benefit from CPR without getting consent from the patient or his relative. Nursing implications: As nurses facilitate patients and family members in forming a decision about end of life hence engaging a comprehensive view of DNR based on Islamic teaching would provide an informed choice when advising a Muslim patient and family. The area to investigate would be on the degree of knowledge among nurses regarding the Islamic moral judgement on this matter is highly recommended for future management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are successful and less successful maintenance systems (MS). As a dynamic category, the success of the maintenance function must be taken into consideration both for the present day and the future. This is the reason why it is necessary to continuously evaluate, improve and redesign MS. Business process modelling is a good methodology for this purpose. A business process model basically encompasses a formal description of the concept of the system, evaluation methods and process improvement techniques. This paper presents a concept of MS evaluation by using statistical process control in connection with performance indicators and MS improvement by modelling and simulation system. The maintenance model is used for simulation and experimentation. The simulation helps to visualise, understand, analyse and improve processes. The proposed concept is extendable and could be applied in different MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy saving is an important issue for any industrial sector; in particular, for the process industry, it can help to minimize both energy costs and environmental impact. Maintenance optimization and operational procedures can offer margins to increase energy efficiency in process plants, even if they are seldom explicitly taken into account in the predictive models guiding the energy saving policies. To ensure that the plant achieves the desired performance, maintenance operations and maintenance results should be monitored, and the connection between the inputs and the outcomes of the maintenance process, in terms of total contribution to manufacturing performance, should be explicit. In this study, a model for the energy efficiency analysis was developed, based on cost and benefits balance. It is aimed at supporting the decision making in terms of technical and operational solutions for energy efficiency, through the optimization of maintenance interventions and operational procedures. A case study is here described: the effects on energy efficiency of technical and operational optimization measures for bituminous materials production process equipment. The idea of the Conservation Supply Curve (CSC) was used to capture both the cost effectiveness of the measures and the energy efficiency effectiveness. The optimization was thus based on the energy consumption data registered on-site: data collection and modelling of the relevant data were used as a base to implement a prognostic and health management (PHM) policy in the company. Based on the results from the analysis, efficiency measures for the industrial case study were proposed, also in relation to maintenance optimization and operating procedures. In the end, the impacts of the implementation of energy saving measures on the performance of the system, in terms of technical and economic feasibility, were demonstrated. The results showed that maintenance optimization could help in reaching an energy costs recovery equal to the 10% of the total costs for an electric motor system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional reliability demonstration test (RDT) based on statistical method is widely used in industry as it is simple and convenient to apply. But for products with high reliability and long life, this test method fails to satisfy the demand for short cycle and low cost, and is liable to cause the phenomenon of over-test and short-test. This paper gives a method to determine the accelerated stress profile for RDT under multiple stresses and mechanisms, making it faster to make decision of accept or reject. By raising the levels of sensitive stresses that the product would experience, the test time can be cut down remarkably. We can derive the overall acceleration factor based on the narrow reliability bounds theory. Then we choose the test plan referring to GJB 899A. Furthermore, combined with the reliability qualification test (RQT) profile, the accelerated test profile is acquired. An example is given to illustrate the superior performance of the proposed method over traditional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health Care Organizations are large consumers of energy resources. This is due to the large number of services they must offer continuously, the strict requirements of temperature and humidity for patients and comfort for all visitors. Facilities for thermal energy production are critical as they guarantee the proper working of care services by producing primary air, eliminating legionella, and providing air conditioning to theatres, emergency areas, ICUs, neonatology departments, etc. Nonetheless, despite the importance of thermal energy production systems, there is no prior literature analysing the best maintenance to be applied to these systems. This study describes an innovative multicriteria model designed with the Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH) approach and Markov chains, in choosing the best combination of maintenance policies to guarantee the best quality of care. The model was created with the co-operation of a decision group made up of those in charge of different areas of a Health Care Organization. This gives the current availability of the thermal energy production systems, and the availability that would be achieved by applying other alternatives. In the system that produces hot water for the air conditioning units, the best alternative is found to be corrective and preventive maintenance. In the cold-water production system for air conditioning, the model recommends the use of corrective, preventive and predictive maintenance, monitored by vibration analysis. For the systems producing hot domestic water and hot and cold water for other systems, corrective and preventive maintenance is recommended. In the legionella treatment system, it is best to apply corrective, preventive and periodic predictive maintenance (quarterly by combustion analysis). Finally, the implications for quality of care of changing the maintenance alternatives are considered. This research was carried out on thermal energy production systems currently operational in the University General Hospital of Ciudad Real (Spain). The methodology used in this study, together with the criteria, descriptors, weightings, etc., may serve as a standard for other Health Care Organizations, with the final goal of improving quality of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to perform a systematic review to assess the short-, middle- and long-term consequences of sarcopenia. Methods: Prospective studies assessing the consequences of sarcopenia were searched across different electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, EBM Reviews, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, EBM Reviews ACP Journal Club, EBM Reviews DARE and AMED). Only studies that used the definition of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People to diagnose sarcopenia were included. Study selection and data extraction were performed by two independent reviewers. For outcomes reported by three or more studies, a meta-analysis was performed. The study results are expressed as odds ratios (OR) with 95% CI. Results: Of the 772 references identified through the database search, 17 were included in this systematic review. The number of participants in the included studies ranged from 99 to 6658, and the duration of follow-up varied from 3 months to 9.8 years. Eleven out of 12 studies assessed the impact of sarcopenia on mortality. The results showed a higher rate of mortality among sarcopenic subjects (pooled OR of 3.596 (95% CI 2.96–4.37)). The effect was higher in people aged 79 years or older compared with younger subjects (p = 0.02). Sarcopenia is also associated with functional decline (pooled OR of 6 studies 3.03 (95% CI 1.80–5.12)), a higher rate of falls (2/2 studies found a significant association) and a higher incidence of hospitalizations (1/1 study). The impact of sarcopenia on the incidence of fractures and the length of hospital stay was less clear (only 1/2 studies showed an association for both outcomes). Conclusion: Sarcopenia is associated with several harmful outcomes, making this geriatric syndrome a real public health burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preventive maintenance (PM) is a predetermined task that constitutes any maintenance actions performed before the quantity or quality of product equipment deteriorates. PM is primarily aimed at protecting assets, improving system reliability, and decreasing system downtime. Recently, the implementation of PM is becoming more challenging due to the increase in complexity of manufacturing systems. A case study on the effect of different parameters from a maintenance perspective on industrial shop floor performance is presented. The parameters include number of technicians, number of operations in each machine before maintenance actions, and volume of parts ordered by customers. This present research demonstrates the application of WITNESS simulation software to develop shop floor simulation model and the use of analysis of variance (ANOVA) to measure the significance of such parameters on performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Advance care planning is a voluntary process whereby individual preferences, values and beliefs are used to aid a person in planning for end-of-life care. Currently, there is no local instrument to assess an individual's awareness and attitude towards advance care planning. This study aimed to develop an Advance Care Planning Questionnaire and to determine its validity and reliability among older people in Malaysia. Methods: The Advance Care Planning Questionnaire was developed based on literature review. Face and content validity was verified by an expert panel, and piloted among 15 participants. Our study was conducted from October 2013 to February 2014, at an urban primary care clinic in Malaysia. Included were those aged >50 years, who could understand English. A retest was conducted 2 weeks after the first administration. Results: Participants from the pilot study did not encounter any problems in answering the Advance Care Planning Questionnaire. Hence, no further modifications were made. Flesch reading ease was 71. The final version of the Advance Care Planning Questionnaire consists of 66 items: 30 items were measured on a nominal scale, whilst 36 items were measured on a Likert-like scale; of which we were only able to validate 22 items, as the remaining 14 items were descriptive in nature. A total of 245 eligible participants were approached; of which 230 agreed to participate (response rate = 93.9 %). Factor analysis on the 22 items measured on a Likert-scale revealed four domains: "feelings regarding advance care planning", "justifications for advance care planning", "justifications for not having advance care planning: fate and religion", and "justifications for not having advance care planning: avoid thinking about death". The Cronbach's alpha values for items each domain ranged from 0.637-0.915. In test-retest, kappa values ranged from 0.738-0.947. Conclusions: The final Advance Care Planning Questionnaire consisted of 63 items and 4 domains. It was found to be a valid and reliable instrument to assess the awareness and attitude of older people in Malaysia towards advance care planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Advance care planning (ACP) is a process of shared decision-making about future health-care plans between patients, health care providers, and family members, should patients becomes incapable of participating in medical treatment decisions. ACP discussions enhance patient's autonomy, focus on patient's values and treatment preferences, and promote patient-centered care. ACP is integrated as part of clinical practice in Singapore and the United States. Aim: To assess the clinical impact of education provision on determining ACP decisions among end-stage renal disease patients on regularhemodialysis at University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC). To study the knowledge and attitude of patients toward ACP and end-of-life issues. Materials and Methods: Fifty-six patients were recruited from UMMC. About 43 questions pretest survey adapted from Lyon's ACP survey and Moss's cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) attitude survey was given to patients to answer. An educational brochure is then introduced to these patients, and a posttest survey carried out after that. The results were analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Results: Opinion on ACP, including CPR decisions, showed an upward trend on the importance percentage after the educational brochure exposure, but this was statistically not significant. Seventy-five percent of participants had never heard of ACP before, and only 3.6% had actually prepared a written advanced directive. Conclusion: The ACP educational brochure clinically impacts patients' preferences and decisions toward end-of-life care; however, this is statistically not significant. Majority of patients have poor knowledge on ACP. This study lays the foundation for execution of future larger scale clinical trials, and ultimately, the incorporation of ACP into clinical practice in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neglect the elderly is an increasingly serious social problem. This issue is closely related to the phenomenon of the aging population by the 21st century because of increased life expectancy and the elderly population drastically. Thus, the phenomenon indirectly affects care problems as well as cause neglect and abuse, particularly to elderly parents who are experiencing health problems, physical and mental disabilities. Blindness among elderly patients also pose a challenge to the social worker at the hospital due to changing lifestyles and patterns of family structure in modern times now, and lack of support systems for elderly caregivers have implications on the role of social workers in the hospital. Scenario neglect elderly patients concluded that the need for early intervention role of the social worker at the hospital to prevent an increase in blindness in the future. The discussion of this scenario is also based on a content analysis of journal articles and scientific books related to issues of neglect and needs of social work services in the field of health than previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic elder abuse is a social problem. In some countries, it had affected a large number of the elderly. Although this issue has gained prominence for over two decades, in Malaysia, the information on this is still scarce. Most of the elder abuse cases were not reported and concealed from public knowledge. Victims too, rarely report the abuses perpetrated by their own family members. This study aims to examine the experiences of the elderly in Malaysia who have sustained domestic abuse. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted on ten (10) people aged 60 year and above were residing in Rumah SeriKenangan (an old folks home) in Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan. Each interview took an average of 15 to 30 minutes and was stopped when the information reached a saturated level. Observation on the physical characteristics of the elderly was done during the interview. The findings showed that majority of the elderly had experienced one or more abuses. The most reported forms of abuse were emotional and financial abuse. The main perpetrators were the adult children or their spouses. Through observation, the study found that the victims had similar characteristics namely physical disability and one or more chronic illnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Injection molding is considered as an effective way to manufacture light guide plate (LGP) with microstructures. However, the determination of processing parameters has always been difficult pertaining to shrinkage and warpage, bringing about variations in quality of the injection molded product. This study proposed a procedure for solving the optimization problem utilizing reciprocal comparisons in data envelopment analysis. This method attempts to improve the comparisons of efficiency between different systems (CEBDS) which has been done in other works. The objectives are to make the depth and angle of the V-cut microstructures as close to the target values as possible, and make the residual stresses of light guide plate minimum. First, Taguchi method with orthogonal array $$\hbox {L}_{18}$$ was applied to reduce the number of experiments. Then, the significant factors which have profound effect to the quality characteristics were confirmed using the ANOVA and main effect analysis. Next, CEBDS and reciprocal comparisons were conducted to optimize the multi-parameter combination. The results were compared and investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The reproducibility of the experiment was verified by confirming a confidence interval of 95 %. It is inferred that the reciprocal comparisons approach is far superior to the CEBDS approach. The results also demonstrated improvements of LGP qualities compared to the best achieved in Taguchi orthogonal array experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While innovation from the systems engineer is desirable at every step in all phases of systems engineering, there must be a methodology to evaluate alternatives. A formal methodology, complete with verification and validation of the results, was developed in 1946 by Soviet engineer Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller and is known as "The theory of inventor's problem solving", or TRIZ. This approach improves the way a systems engineer's thinking progresses about a problem's solution from "what is" towards "what will be" in the innovative development of a solution. The original distinguishing features of systems used in TRIZ were derived from innovations addressing physical, mechanical system, and few of them apply to digital systems. This paper presents additional characteristics that should be considered in the Reduction phase when applying TRIZ to innovation in digital systems engineering and a redefinition of the principles. With the additions of these distinguishing features for digital systems, TRIZ will become an invaluable tool for the digital systems engineer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Albert. Hing (Wong), Loh. Chin, Tan. Ping, Ng. Peng, Lim. Kun Introduction: Advance care planning (ACP) is a process of shared decision-making about future health-care plans between patients, health [...]