published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Medicine / Master / Doctor of Medicine

Esse estudo tem por objetivo geral propor um mapa espacial de doses como ferramenta auxiliar na avaliação da necessidade de otimização de ambientes em serviços de medicina nuclear e, por objetivos específicos, avaliar as dosimetrias individuais dos trabalhadores; analisar a estrutura física dos serviços de medicina nuclear; avaliar as taxas de dose do ambiente. A pesquisa realizada se caracteriza como um estudo de caso, de natureza exploratória e explicativa, em três Serviços de Medicina Nuclear estabelecidos na região Noroeste do Estado do Paraná. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que as taxas de dose avaliadas e a dosimetria dos trabalhadores, em todas as dependências dos serviços pesquisados, respeitam os limites de doses anuais, mas algumas excedem os limites de investigações preconizados na norma NN-CNEN 3.01 (2014). Concluiu-se que o mapa espacial de dose é uma ferramenta importante para os serviços de medicina nuclear, pois facilita a visualização das áreas com maior concentração de radiação, bem como a revisão contínua de tais medidas e recursos para identificar quaisquer falhas e deficiências na sua aplicação, corrigi-las e evitar suas repetições, além de verificar regularmente se os objetivos de proteção radiológica estão sendo alcançados. / This study has as general aim to propose a spatial map of doses as an auxiliary tool in assessing the need for optimization of the workplace in nuclear medicine services. As specific aims, we assessed the workers individual dosimetry; we analyzed the facilities of the nuclear medicine services; and we evaluated environment exposure rates. The research is characterized as a case study, with an exploratory and explanatory nature. It was conducted in three Nuclear Medicine Services, all established in the Northwest of the Paraná State. Results indicated that the evaluated dose rates and workers dosimetry, in all the dependencies of the surveyed services, are within the limits of annual doses. However some exceeded the limits recommended in the standard CNEN-NN 3:01 (2014). It was concluded that the spatial map dose is an important tool for nuclear medicine services because it facilitates the visualization of areas with highest concentration of radiation, and also helps in the constant review of these measures and resources, aiding in the identification of any failures and shortcomings, providing resources to correct any issues and prevent their repetition. The spatial map dose is also important for the regular inspection, evaluating if the radiation protection objectives are being met.

Esse estudo tem por objetivo geral propor um mapa espacial de doses como ferramenta auxiliar na avaliação da necessidade de otimização de ambientes em serviços de medicina nuclear e, por objetivos específicos, avaliar as dosimetrias individuais dos trabalhadores; analisar a estrutura física dos serviços de medicina nuclear; avaliar as taxas de dose do ambiente. A pesquisa realizada se caracteriza como um estudo de caso, de natureza exploratória e explicativa, em três Serviços de Medicina Nuclear estabelecidos na região Noroeste do Estado do Paraná. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que as taxas de dose avaliadas e a dosimetria dos trabalhadores, em todas as dependências dos serviços pesquisados, respeitam os limites de doses anuais, mas algumas excedem os limites de investigações preconizados na norma NN-CNEN 3.01 (2014). Concluiu-se que o mapa espacial de dose é uma ferramenta importante para os serviços de medicina nuclear, pois facilita a visualização das áreas com maior concentração de radiação, bem como a revisão contínua de tais medidas e recursos para identificar quaisquer falhas e deficiências na sua aplicação, corrigi-las e evitar suas repetições, além de verificar regularmente se os objetivos de proteção radiológica estão sendo alcançados. / This study has as general aim to propose a spatial map of doses as an auxiliary tool in assessing the need for optimization of the workplace in nuclear medicine services. As specific aims, we assessed the workers individual dosimetry; we analyzed the facilities of the nuclear medicine services; and we evaluated environment exposure rates. The research is characterized as a case study, with an exploratory and explanatory nature. It was conducted in three Nuclear Medicine Services, all established in the Northwest of the Paraná State. Results indicated that the evaluated dose rates and workers dosimetry, in all the dependencies of the surveyed services, are within the limits of annual doses. However some exceeded the limits recommended in the standard CNEN-NN 3:01 (2014). It was concluded that the spatial map dose is an important tool for nuclear medicine services because it facilitates the visualization of areas with highest concentration of radiation, and also helps in the constant review of these measures and resources, aiding in the identification of any failures and shortcomings, providing resources to correct any issues and prevent their repetition. The spatial map dose is also important for the regular inspection, evaluating if the radiation protection objectives are being met.

China's economic success has helped it become one of the largest markets in the world. As a result, the demand for agricultural commodities in China has experienced a significant increase. Increasingly affluent Chinese people are paying increasing attention to food safety and quality instead of just quantity. Understanding how meat demands and prices are related to food safety and quality in Beijing will provide guidance for industry and policymakers interested in the Chinese meat market. The purpose of this study is to develop two models to analyze meat demand and prices associated with food safety and quality respectively. First, An Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) is used to investigate the effects of food safety on meat consumption. To address the potential bias of zero consumption in the estimation procedures, a simulated maximum likelihood (SML) estimation is applied in the regression. Second, we analyze the implicit price of meat with the intrinsic and extrinsic attributes using a hedonic price model. Five meat categories are regressed on several intrinsic and extrinsic attributes in the model using household survey data collected in Beijing in 2007. The key results of this research have two major outcomes. First, food safety has a significant and positive influence on meat consumption for Beijing residents. Second, the quality-related attributes or characteristics such as meat appearance, supermarket, meat brand, and processed meat as well as demographic variables such as household head's income have a significantly positive influence on the price of meat, which suggest that the consumers in Beijing are willing to pay a price premium to guarantee the quality and safety of meat.

A before-and-after analysis was performed at eleven intersections where a bike box was installed in Portland, Oregon to explore the safety effects of the treatment. Video data were gathered prior to installation at 14 intersections where a bike box installation was planned by the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Cameras were set up to capture three full twenty-four hour days (72 hours) of data for each intersection from Tuesday through Thursday. Of the 14 original selected intersections, 11 intersections actually received the bike box treatment. Video data were again gathered for these intersections after the installation of the bike box for another three full twenty-four hour days (72 hours) between Tuesday and Thursday. One day of data (24 hours) was selected for observation from both the before and after periods in the analysis for each study intersection during midweek. Safety effects were evaluated by three metrics: 1) observed conflicts; 2) observed cyclist behavior for all conflicts as measured by head or shoulder checks; and 3) reported crash data. To develop the conflict data, a log was created of each motor vehicle and bicycle passing through the intersection for approximately 528 hours of video. All conflicts that were observed during the period were further reviewed by an expert panel that scored conflicts by severity. Following this review, a total of 18 conflicts were observed during the before period. The total exposure in the before period was 39,497 motor vehicles in the vehicle lane adjacent to the bike lane (10,454 of which were right-turning) and 7,849 bicycles. A total of 19 conflicts were observed during the after period. Total exposure was 42,381 motor vehicles in the vehicle lane adjacent to the bike lane (11,053 of which were right-turning) and 5,852 bicycles. The sample size of observed conflicts was insufficient to draw statistically significant conclusions for any of the specific intersections that were treated. When taking in account the total amount of conflicts, the limited data suggest a slight increase in the rate of conflicts when normalized against a product of right-turning vehicles and bicycles observed in the intersection. The data also suggest that the installation of a bike box at an intersection reduces the rate of conflicts per hundred motor vehicles and increases the rate of conflicts per hundred bicyclists. Data regarding head-checks from the bicyclist shows an increase in bicyclists observing the possibility of conflicts approaching from behind as they pass through the intersection. A review or crash data at each of the intersections shows an increase at three of the observed intersections and a decrease at the remaining five.

We are seeing a revolution in computing and artificial intelligence; intelligent machines have become ingrained in and improved every aspect of our lives. Despite the increasing number of intelligent devices and breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, we have yet to achieve truly intelligent environments. Audio is one of the most common sensing and actuation modalities used in intelligent devices. In this thesis, we focus on how we can more robustly integrate audio intelligence into a wide array of resource-constrained platforms that enable more intelligent environments. We present systems and methods for adaptive audio filtering that enables us to more robustly embed acoustic intelligence into a wide range of real time and resource-constrained mobile, embedded, and cyber-physical systems that are adaptable to a wide range of different applications, environments, and scenarios. First, we introduce methods for embedding audio intelligence into wearables, like headsets and helmets, to improve pedestrian safety in urban environments by using sound to detect vehicles, localize vehicles, and alert pedestrians well in advance to give them enough time to avoid a collision. We create a segmented architecture and data processing pipeline that partitions computation between embedded front-end platform and the smartphone platform. The embedded front-end hardware platform consists of a microcontroller and commercial-off-the shelf (COTS) components embedded into a headset and samples audio from an array of four MEMS microphones. Our embedded front-end platform computes a series of spatiotemporal features used to localize vehicles: relative delay, relative power, and zero crossing rate. These features are computed in the embedded front-end headset platform and transmitted wirelessly to the smartphone platform because there is not enough bandwidth to transmit more than two channels of raw audio with low latency using standard wireless communication protocols, like Bluetooth Low-Energy. The smartphone platform runs machine learning algorithms to detect vehicles, localize vehicles, and alert pedestrians. To help reduce power consumption, we integrate an application specific integrated circuit into our embedded front-end platform and create a new localization algorithm called angle via polygonal regression (AvPR) that combines the physics of audio waves, the geometry of a microphone array, and a data driven training and calibration process that enables us to estimate the high resolution direction of the vehicle while being robust to noise resulting from movements in the microphone array as we walk the streets. Second, we explore the challenges in adapting our platforms for pedestrian safety to more general and noisier scenarios, namely construction worker safety sounds of nearby power tools and machinery that are orders of magnitude greater than that of a distant vehicle. We introduce an adaptive noise filtering architecture that allows workers to filter out construction tool sounds and reveal low-energy vehicle sounds to better detect them. Our architecture combines the strengths of both the physics of audio waves and data-driven methods to more robustly filter out construction sounds while being able to run on a resource-limited mobile and embedded platform. In our adaptive filtering architecture, we introduce and incorporate a data-driven filtering algorithm, called probabilistic template matching (PTM), that leverages pre-trained statistical models of construction tools to perform content-based filtering. We demonstrate improvements that our adaptive filtering architecture brings to our audio-based urban safety wearable in real construction site scenarios and against state-of-art audio filtering algorithms, while having a minimal impact on the power consumption and latency of the overall system. We also explore how these methods can be used to improve audio privacy and remove privacy-sensitive speech from applications that have no need to detect and analyze speech. Finally, we introduce a common selective audio filtering platform that builds upon our adaptive filtering architecture for a wide range of real-time mobile, embedded, and cyber-physical applications. Our architecture can account for a wide range of different sounds, model types, and signal representations by integrating an algorithm we present called content-informed beamforming (CIBF). CIBF combines traditional beamforming (spatial filtering using the physics of audio waves) with data driven machine learning sound detectors and models that developers may already create for their own applications to enhance and filter out specified sounds and noises. Alternatively, developers can also select sounds and models from a library we provide. We demonstrate how our selective filtering architecture can improve the detection of specific target sounds and filter out noises in a wide range of application scenarios. Additionally, through two case studies, we demonstrate how our selective filtering architecture can easily integrate into and improve the performance of real mobile and embedded applications over existing state-of-art solutions, while having minimal impact on latency and power consumption. Ultimately, this selective filtering architecture enables developers and engineers to more easily embed robust audio intelligence into common objects found around us and resource-constrained systems to create more intelligent environments.

Thesis (M.Tech.:Civil Engineering)-Dept of Civil Engineering and Survey, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005 xiv, 134 leaves, Annexures A-C / Road fatalities claim more than one million lives annually worldwide. The emotional, social and economic impact of road traffic fatalities demands urgent attention globally. This epidemic of road traffic fatalities is plaguing everyone, especially the poorer nations. Some countries like Australia and Sweden have been more successful than others in combating this epidemic. South Africa is currently seeking strategies to combat this epidemic because South Africa’s road traffic fatalities have been increasing annually, with a substantial percentage of teenagers and young adults between the ages of 16 and 29 contributing to these statistics. This age group will become or already have become part of the economically active population and concern is mounting as to why this particular age group is vulnerable. This thesis provides an overview of the road safety problem globally, nationally, provincially and locally and also looks at the historical factors that have contributed to this problem. The Victorian model, which has been classified as the ‘world’s best practice’, has been reviewed. A pilot survey was conducted at the Mangosuthu Technikon and the focal survey was conducted at the tertiary institutions in the Durban area. Students from this sector were selected as they fall in the most vulnerable age group and data was collected from them on various aspects of road safety. On analysing the data, various problems were identified, in particular, lack of resources and limited education pertaining to road safety. A range of possible solutions is recommended and the focus areas are the 3E’s namely: education, enforcement and engineering. However, the focal recommendation is on education and looks at the possibility of introducing learner’s licence testing to the grade 12 syllabi.

Thesis (M.Tech.: Quality)-Dept. of Operations & Quality Management, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005 xiii, 68 leaves / The increasing awareness and demand of consumers for safe and high quality food have lead many companies to undertake a comprehensive evaluation and reorganisation of their food control systems in order to improve efficiency, rationalisation of human resources and to harmonise approaches. This evaluation in food control systems has resulted towards the necessity to shift from the traditional approach that relied heavily on end-product sampling and inspection and to move towards the implementation of a preventative safety and quality approach, based on risk analysis and on the principles of the hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) system. Yoghurt is the most popular fermented milk world-wide; the estimated annual consumption in South Africa amounts to nearly 67 million litres. The aim of this study was to implement a HACCP program in a commercial yoghurt factory and then to evaluate the program during certain critical stages of the manufacturing process.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Safety culture is a multi-layered dynamic concept, meaning that it is not only the aspects pertaining to compliance with compulsory legislation, but also many other non-compulsory safety management and leadership initiatives, which enhance the companies’ safety performance. Most of the available literature focuses on a safety climate, which is an aggregate measure of employee attitude and opinion regarding safety. This paper presents the zero harm safety culture, a common contextual framework, taking readers beyond the traditional safety climate metrics and presenting a variety of assessment and analytical tools for each level of the framework. Techniques used to transform the safety culture toward a state of zero harm are explored in this research report. Finally, 26-components exist in a zero harm safety framework, to illustrate the development and application of a zero harm safety culture in the mining industry. It is also worth mentioning that the most important element of clearly perceived leadership has been found to be neglected in the past and resulted in persistence of incidents leading to fatalities. This important factor, which requires constant leadership interaction, is what makes or breaks the zero harm safety culture framework. Hence, it is crucial that organisations appoint leaders in positions influencing direction of the safety culture, and that these individuals are committed to the drive towards zero harm. This would assist leaders in the mining industry, especially small mines where resources are scarce, to apply the zero harm framework in such a way that the drive towards a zero harm safety culture becomes a reality. When considering implementing the zero harm safety framework in any mining company, irrespective of its size, a successful safety culture can be accomplished realistically within three to five. This paper also provides a series of recommendations to help implement this framework.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The process safety culture maturity of Sasol Infrachem; namely, Infragas, the Water and Waste, Ammonia and Steam Stations plants, are assessed using human factors dimensions related to man-machine, employee job roles and organisational culture interfaces. Numerous global process safety incidents resulting in catastrophic consequences originating from human and organisational factors have encouraged the organisation to investigate the underlying human factors concerned, and to identify and manage key risks undermining process safety maturity. The research study construct utilises internationally recognised standards to assess process safety maturity which consists of human factors perception surveys supported by employee interviews, process safety sustainability audits, incident reporting effectiveness and assessing the underlying leadership behaviours. Perception surveys and interviews are used to find similarities or differences found in sustainability progress and incident reporting. Primary leadership drivers that hinder process safety maturity related to unwillingness to accept accountability, employee blame, fear and lack of trust are associated with ineffective process safety incident reporting and lack of organisational learning. Key human factors risks identified and assessed in the study are additional resources required to update operating procedures, the provision of employee competence assurance and ineffective safety communication related to equipment labelling that has caused occurrence of repeat process safety incidents. Three process safety maturity models are used to assess the four plants based on commitment towards continuous improvement; incident reporting effectiveness and examining interdependent team leadership behaviours through process safety balance scorecard metrics. The research results indicate the process safety maturity levels in decreasing order are Infragas, Ammonia, Water and Waste and Steam Stations plants. Suggestions are made to accelerate process safety maturity with the aim of effective interchange of knowledge, experience and behaviours related to man-machine, employee job roles, organisational culture and leadership dimensions.