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Background Due to its unique pharmacologic properties, efficacy as an analgesic, and role as a first-line medication for the treatment of opioid use disorder, sublingual buprenorphine has emerged as a treatment for patients with concurrent chronic pain and opioid use disorders. One challenge to utilizing buprenorphine is that precipitated opioid withdrawal can result if this medication is initiated in the presence of other opiates with lesser binding affinities. Micro-dosing induction regimens utilize a slower titration to avoid the need for a period of abstinence from other opiates and decrease the risk of precipitated withdrawal. Aims The aim of this article is to present a case where a standardized micro-dosing induction regimen was used to transition a patient from other opiate analgesia to a sublingual formulation of buprenorphine/naloxone. Methods This case took place on an inpatient neurosurgical unit of a Canadian tertiary-care city hospital. Written informed consent was collected prior to a detailed chart review. Results Here we present a case of a postoperative neurosurgical inpatient who was referred to our team for pain management in the context of chronic pain and a past history of opioid use disorder. She was successfully transitioned to buprenorphine/naloxone, replacing all other opioid analgesia, without a period of opioid withdrawal using a micro-dosing induction regimen. Conclusions Sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone can be safe and effective for treatment of chronic pain, particularly for those with past or current opioid use disorder. Micro-dosing provides a preferable induction strategy for patients who are not able to tolerate the requirement for moderate opioid withdrawal prior to initiation with existing regimens.

Low-Cost Flat Housing is the housing for low income group.. It began with a flat which has two bedrooms in each unit, then it was increased three bedrooms. The three bedrooms flat has to fit the floor area of 650 square feet, in which was later revised to 700 square feet. Small overall floor area which comes with small budget allocated for its construction, could lead to poor indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in low-cost flat, if not properly designed. This paper discusses on the occupants’ satisfaction perception of IEQ of a low cost flat in Kampung Teras Jernang, Selangor. The methodologies used in this study are site observation and questionnaire survey. This study concludes that the IEQ in the selected low-cost flat has acceptably fulfilled the needs and quality required by the occupants. However, there is a factor that the building occupants have expressed poor perception, which is the noise pollution.

One of the early objectives of high-density low-cost flat housing is to overcome the squatter problems in urban areas such as in Kuala Lumpur. As the country progresses towards being a developed nation, the quality and standard of living of its people have also improved. Low-cost flat housing initiative has also gone through changes to provide better living quality. This paper discusses on the occupants’ satisfaction perception of outdoor environmental quality (OEQ) of a selected high-density low-cost flat housing located in the state of Selangor in Malaysia. The objective of the paper is to obtain the level of perception by the occupants of low-cost flats on the OEQ. The methodologies used in this study are site observation and questionnaire survey. This study found that the OEQ in the low-cost flat has generally fulfilled the five out of 6 elements of OEQ. The only element that found to have poor perception is the level of safety.

The implementation of green roofs or vegetated roof as a sustainable tool to mitigate the Urban Heat Island effect is relatively new in Malaysia. Although it has not been tested on an urban scale, many research findings have indicated that green roofs can contribute towards enhancing the environmental and aesthetical quality of the built environment. It was hypothesized that the low application of green roofs in the Malaysian construction industry is due to the lack of awareness, understanding and experience in its benefits especially among building practitioners. As a result, this research was initiated to determine the perception and understanding of Malaysian architects in green roofs implementation issues, as well as to identify their level of acceptance and readiness. This paper reviews practices and different research approaches in understanding the factors that influence architect’s perception towards the implementation of green roofs in the Malaysian construction industry. Architects were chosen as the only respondents due to their intensive involvement in the conceptualisation, planning, design and construction stage of a built environment project. Extensive literature review was conducted to explore past experiences in green roof implementation and to develop the theoretical framework for this research.

Welded stainless steel components used in power plants and chemical industries are subjected to mechanical load cycles at elevated temperatures which result in early fatigue failures. The presence of weld makes the component to be liable to failure in view of residual stresses at the weld region or in the neighboring heat affected zone apart from weld defects. Austenitic stainless steels are often welded using Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) process. In case of single pass welding, there is a reduced weld penetration which results in a low depth-to-width ratio of weld bead). If the number of passes is increased (Multi-Pass TIG welding), it results in weld distortion and subsequent residual stress generation. The activated flux TIG welding, a variant of TIG welding developed by E.O. Paton Institute, is found to reduce the limitation of conventional TIG welding, resulting in a higher depth of penetration using a single pass, reduced weld distortion and higher welding speeds. This paper presents the fatigue crack growth rate characteristics at 823 K temperature in type 316LN stainless steel plates joined by conventional multi-pass TIG (MP-TIG) and Activated TIG (A-TIG) welding process. Fatigue tests were conducted to characterize the crack growth rates of base metal, HAZ and Weld Metal for A-TIG and MP-TIG configurations. Micro structural evaluation of 316LN base metal suggests a primary austenite phase, whereas, A-TIG weld joints show an equiaxed grain distribution along the weld center and complete penetration during welding (Fig. 1). MP-TIG microstructure shows a highly inhomogeneous microstructure, with grain orientation changing along the interface of each pass. This results in tortuous crack growth in case of MP-TIG welded specimens. Scanning electron microscopy studies have helped to better understand the fatigue crack propagation modes during high temperature testing.