Search

Introduction: To survive is the first concern of people after disasters. The ability to keep performing and offering services in hospitals at the same time as appropriate responding to the medical needs of disaster victims, matters tremendously. An effective element in this regard is having appropriate safety level in hospitals. The aim of this study was to specify the safety index of hospitals covered by Alborz University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This descriptive-provisional study was conducted between 2014 and 2015 in Alborz province. Nine public hospitals, affiliated with Alborz University of Medical Sciences, were chosen by the means of census method. The data collection tool was the standard tool of hospital safety index, WHO / PAHO, through which the level of hospital safety (in three structural, non-structural and functional areas) were determined. Data were analyzed through Excel software. The outcomes were rated between zero to one, and accordingly, in terms of safety, hospitals were classified as either A, B or C. Results: Based on the results of this study, most of the examined hospitals were at B level of safety. Although the group B hospitals can put up with disasters in time but, their vital equipment and services will be put at jeopardy. Conclusion: Measuring the safety index of hospitals as well as determining their level of safety, it can be figured out how much a hospital can preserve its organization and function in disasters. This index will be helpful for decision makers and policymakers, when it comes to prioritizing management and civil interventions.

This paper aims to assess the demand elasticities and competitive conditions in container liner shipping (henceforth: CLS) market. Using a dynamic model, the regression results reveal that the degree of competition measured by Panzar-Rosse (P-R) H statistic varies from 0.37 to 0.97 for the period of 2009 to 2014. It implies that CLS market can be described as displaying monopolistic competitive behaviour. The conclusion is consistent with previous studies conducted for earlier periods; moreover, the increasing trend of P-R H statistic value implies increasing degree of competition in the industry. The findings contribute to the understanding of theoretical explanation of competitive condition in latest CLS market. Unlike other studies, this paper establishes a dynamic model that makes it possible to measure both short-run and long-run effects.

Negative environmental impacts caused by the over-extraction of sand have arisen due to the high demand of global concrete production. Subsequently, the need to find an adequate replacement for sand in concrete production is paramount. Additionally, the mismanagement of plastic waste in Southeast Asia has resulted in large quantities being sent to landfill. This could otherwise be used as a viable alternative. Several studies have investigated the effect of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) aggregate as a partial replacement for sand on the mechanical, durability and physical properties of concrete. Nevertheless, due to the broad number of variables affecting the properties of concrete, gaps remain in the literature suggesting the necessity for a more comprehensive approach. The aim of this research was therefore to investigate the impact on strength when using Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) flakes in concrete. The effects of substituting 10 % and 20 % of sand by volume with recycled PET flakes were investigated, with the results compared to reference mix samples. 20 cube samples, of sizes 100 mm3 and 150 mm3, were cast for compressive strength tests; 20 cylinder samples, of sizes 100 ømm x 150 mm and 150 ømm x 300 mm, were manufactured for splitting tensile strength tests; and 9 prism samples, of size 100 mm x 100 mm x 500 mm were cured for flexural strength and modulus of elasticity tests. All 49 samples were tested for dry density. A constant curing age of 28 days and a water-to-cement ratio of 0.5 were applied to this experiment. The size of the PET flakes used in the concrete mixes were between 0 and 10 mm. The results indicated that an initial decrease in the compressive strength and modulus of elasticity for 10% replacement level was seen before an increase in strength for 20% replacement. Contrastingly, an initial increase in flexural strength for 10% replacement was exhibited, before a decrease in strength for 20% replacement. The splitting tensile strength and hardened density showed a growing decrease in values for increasing replacement percentage. The conventional reference concrete mixes underwent brittle failure; whereas ductile behaviour was shown by the mixes containing PET flakes. Accordingly, it was concluded that there is significant potential for the use of up to 20 % replacement of PET in a suitable mix design for structural and non-structural applications.

[ES] Dado que el mundo geopolítico ya no está polarizado, la competitividad del mercado aumenta como nunca antes para sobrevivir como organización industrial, es clave ser competitivo. Es decir, reduciendo costos y tiempos de producción entre otras necesidades. Los robots móviles son recursos que consiguen aliviar esas necesidades ya que pueden sustituir a los humanos y tener un mejor rendimiento. Esto provoca una caída casuística de los problemas humanos, la reasignación de recursos humanos a puestos de trabajo más creativos que no pueden ser reemplazados por robots, y una mayor eficiencia a largo plazo. El estado del arte del uso de los robots móviles se basa en el hecho de que estamos hablando no sólo de un único robot móvil, sino de una flota de ellos que funciona de forma inteligente y coordinada. Estos dispositivos pueden integrarse en la cadena de suministro para poder transportar cargas útiles sin necesidad de intervención humana. Además, esta integración permite una gran flexibilidad, ya que los robots móviles industriales inteligentes pueden adaptarse a nuevas condiciones, parámetros impuestos y obstáculos que no estaban previstos. Para cualquier robot móvil autónomo, es necesario un conocimiento previo de su entorno antes de realizar una navegación autónoma, es decir, tener un mapa previo. La cartografía suele ser una tarea intervenida por el hombre que lleva tiempo, especialmente en el caso de las grandes instalaciones. Este trabajo propone una forma de mapear autónomamente, de la manera más eficiente, un ambiente interior 2D utilizando el enfoque de Árboles aleatorios de exploración rápida, ya que está sesgado hacia regiones desconocidas. Además, este trabajo propone la discriminación de objetos durante el mapeo. Con el enfoque convencional, durante el proceso de mapeo, los escáneres láser leen la presencia de todos los obstáculos en el entorno. Este hecho es indeseable, ya que algunos de estos obstáculos escaneados son escaneados sólo por causalidad durante la exploración (por ejemplo, el personal, los equipos móviles industriales, etc.). Estos datos no deseados registrados en el mapa suponen ruido y no representan el entorno real a largo plazo. La implementación de la eliminación de este tipo de ruido se gestiona mediante la combinación de dos módulos. Por un lado, mediante el uso de herramientas de aprendizaje profundo de última generación para lograr la detección de objetos en tiempo real. Por otro lado, un filtro al escáner láser para que sea ciego ante tales detecciones durante la exploración, por lo que nunca se registran en el mapa. Los resultados muestran un gran potencial de resultados de alta calidad que están intrínsecamente asociados con el módulo detector de objetos. Dado que este módulo es de última generación, la tecnología está en constante desarrollo y mejora no sólo en cuanto a rendimiento, sino también en cuanto a flexibilidad y capacidades. Este trabajo es un nuevo y potencial enfoque de alta fidelidad, además del enfoque convencional, para llevar a cabo la exploración con robots móviles., [EN] Since the geopolitical world is not polarized anymore, the market competitivity is increasing as never before so in order to survive as an industrial organization, it is key to be competitive. That is, reducing costs and production times among other needs. Mobile robots are resources that manage to get those needs relieved since they can substitute humans and perform better. This causes human issues casuistic drop, human resources re-allocation in more creative job positions which cannot replaced by robots, and more long-term efficiency. The state-of-the-art of the use of mobile robots remains on the fact that we are talking about not just a single mobile robot but a fleet of them which performs in a smart and coordinated way. These devices can be integrated in the supply-chain so that can transport payloads without the need of any human intervention. In addition, such integration allows a huge flexibility since smart industrial mobile robots can adapt to new conditions, imposed parameters and obstacles that were not predicted. For any autonomous mobile robot, a prior knowledge about its environment is necessary before performing autonomous navigation, that is to have a previous map. Mapping usually is a human intervened task which takes time, especially for large facilities. This work proposes a way to map autonomously, in the most efficient way, an indoor 2D environment by using the Rapidly-exploring Random Trees approach since it is biased towards unknown regions. In addition, this work proposes object discrimination during mapping. With the conventional approach, during the mapping process laser scanners read the presence of all the obstacles in the environment. This fact is undesired since some of such scanned obstacles are scanned just by causality during the exploration (e.g. personnel, industrial mobile equipment ). Such undesired registered data in the map suppose noise and does not represent the actual long-term environment. The implementation of removing such noise is managed by the combination of two modules. On one hand, by using state-of-the-art deep learning tools in order to achieve real-time object detection. On the other hand, a filter to the laser scanner so that it is blind towards such detections during the exploration, so they are never registered on the map. The results show quite potential high-quality results which are intrinsically associated with the object detector module. Since such module is state-of-the-art, the technology involved is constantly developing and improving not just the performance but also flexibility and capabilities. This work is a potential new high-fidelity approach besides the conventional approach in order to perform mobile robot exploration.

The 3'-ends of the genomes (9538 bp) of two wild-type respiratory bovine coronavirus (RBCV) isolates LSU and OK were obtained by cDNA sequencing. In addition, the 3'-end of the genome (9545) of the wild-type enteric bovine coronavirus (EBCV) strain LY-138 was assembled from available sequences and by cDNA sequencing of unknown genomic regions. Comparative analyses of RBCV and EBCV nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences revealed that RBCV-specific nucleotide and amino acid differences were disproportionally concentrated within the S gene and the genomic region between the S and E genes. Comparisons among virulent and avirulent BCV strains revealed that virulence-specific nucleotide and amino acid changes were located within the S and E genes, and the 32 kDa open reading frame.

Bruning-Richardson, Anke/0000-0002-9862-9805; Mertens, Peter/0000-0002-3438-3738 WOS:000327877200004 PubMed: 24165208 Background: Bluetongue virus (BTV) is an arbovirus that is responsible for 'bluetongue', an economically important disease of livestock. Although BTV is well characterised at the protein level, less is known regarding its interaction with host cells. During studies of virus inclusion body formation we observed what appeared to be a large proportion of cells in mitosis. Although the modulation of the cell cycle is well established for many viruses, this was a novel observation for BTV. We therefore undertook a study to reveal in more depth the impact of BTV upon cell division. Methods: We used a confocal microscopy approach to investigate the localisation of BTV proteins in a cellular context with their respective position relative to cellular proteins. In addition, to quantitatively assess the frequency of aberrant mitosis induction by the viral non-structural protein (NS) 2 we utilised live cell imaging to monitor HeLa-mCherry tubulin cells transfected with a plasmid expressing NS2. Results: Our data showed that these 'aberrant mitoses' can be induced in multiple cell types and by different strains of BTV. Further study confirmed multiplication of the centrosomes, each resulting in a separate mitotic spindle during mitosis. Interestingly, the BTV NS1 protein was strongly localised to the centrosomal regions. In a separate, yet related observation, the BTV NS2 protein was co-localised with the condensed chromosomes to a region suggestive of the kinetochore. Live cell imaging revealed that expression of an EGFP-NS2 fusion protein in HeLa-mCherry tubulin cells also results in mitotic defects. Conclusions: We hypothesise that NS2 is a microtubule cargo protein that may inadvertently disrupt the interaction of microtubule tips with the kinetochores during mitosis. Furthermore, the BTV NS1 protein was distinctly localised to a region encompassing the centrosome and may therefore be, at least in part, responsible for the disruption of the centrosome as observed in BTV infected mammalian cells. BBSRC and DefraUK Research & Innovation (UKRI)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research CouncilUK Research & Innovation (UKRI)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) [BBS/E/I/00001720] Funding Source: researchfish The authors are grateful for the funding provided by the BBSRC and Defra.

The aim of this study was to develop a polymerase chain reaction for specific detection of influenza A, B, and C RNA genomes. Three primer sets were selected from conserved regions of the genome coding for the non-structural proteins and were tested on 61 influenza A (22 H1N1, 9 H2N2, and 30 H3N2), 11 influenza B, and three influenza C isolates. Specific amplified products were obtained with all these strains after electrophoresis on a 2% agarose gel. The specificity of the reaction was increased by hybridization with oligonucleotide probes. When nucleic acids from a variety of micro-organisms from the respiratory tract were subjected to the PCR with these primers, no specific amplified products were generated. The sensitivity of the technique was found to be at the subpicogram level. The RNA-PCR was applied to 21 clinical specimens from patients with a culture/IF proven influenza infection. Six influenza A positive patients and 13 influenza B positive patients could be confirmed in the RNA-PCR. In two cases, influenza B positive IF specimens were found negative by the PCR. No virus could be isolated on eggs or tissue culture from these samples. RNA-PCR is a specific and sensitive technique for the detection of influenza virus genomes.

Flaviviral NS3 is a multifunctional protein displaying N-terminal protease activity in addition to C-terminal helicase, nucleoside 5'-triphosphatase (NTPase), and 5'-terminal RNA triphosphatase (RTPase) activities. NS3 is held to support the separation of RNA daughter and template strands during viral replication. In addition, NS3 assists the initiation of replication by unwinding the RNA secondary structure in the 3' non-translated region (NTR). We report here the three-dimensional structure (at 3.1 angstrom resolution) of the NS3 helicase domain (residues 186-619; NS3:186-619) from Kunjin virus, an Australian variant of the West Nile virus. As for homologous helicases, NS3:186-619 is composed of three domains, two of which are structurally related and held to host the NTPase and RTPase active sites. The third domain (C-terminal) is involved in RNA binding/ recognition. The NS3:186-619 construct occurs as a dimer in solution and in the crystals. We show that NS3:186-619 displays both ATPase and RTPase activities, that it can unwind a double-stranded RNA substrate, being however inactive on a double-stranded DNA substrate. Analysis of different constructs shows that full length NS3 displays increased helicase activity, suggesting that the protease domain plays an assisting role in the RNA unwinding process. The structural interaction between the helicase and protease domain has been assessed using small angle X-ray scattering on full length NS3, disclosing that the protease and helicase domains build a rather elongated molecular assembly differing from that observed in the NS3 protein from hepatitis C virus. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.