Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-12-12Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:17:08Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 lamb_igm_me_assis.pdf: 3326803 bytes, checksum: ac71d4d09889b1cfe32df4d84234a652 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho de pesquisa analisou a dispensação de psicofármacos prescritos na rede extra-hospitalar do SUS, de 2002 a 2006, em uma Região de Saúde do Estado de São Paulo. Essa prescrição de psicofármacos é entendida, aqui, enquanto componente do dispositivo de medicalização, na concepção de Illich e Foucault e enquanto parte de um mesmo paradigma, o PPHM, conforme proposto por Costa-Rosa. A alta prevalência de transtornos psíquicos, em função de fatores complexos, mais agravados na atualidade, e as alardeadas taxas de medicalização do sofrimento psíquico indicam a grande relevância de investigar o fenômeno com profundidade, considerando que, de acordo com dados obtidos até 2006, em 25 municípios do referido Estado, as prescrições de psicofármacos foram significativas. Utilizou-se o método epidemiológico, baseado em dados secundários fornecidos pelo Farmanet, para o Programa Estadual (SP) de Assistência Farmacêutica na área de Saúde Mental. Os dados referentes aos psicofármacos dispensados foram expressos em DDD (Dose Diária Definida) por mil habitantes/dia, para cada classe terapêutica. As classes terapêuticas mais dispensadas foram antidepressivos, estabilizadores de humor e ansiolíticos, enquanto os antipsicóticos mantiveram dispensação estável, no mesmo período. O estudo realizado apontou grande possibilidade de ocorrência da medicalização do sofrimento psíquico, com suas consequências iatrogênicas. Esta análise pretende fornecer contribuições, neste momento difícil em que as políticas e as práticas próprias do Paradigma Psicossocial tanto lutam para se firmar, em todo o país, como alternativa teórico-técnica e ética ao Paradigma Psiquiátrico Hospitalocêntrico Medicalizador (PPHM). / This research analysis the dispensation of psychopharmacs prescribed in the extrahospitalar network of SUS, from 2002 to 2006, in a health region of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. This prescription of psychopharmacs, is understood here, while the component of medicalization disposition, according to Illich and Foucault and while comes from the some pattern, the PPHM, according to Costa-Rosa. The high prevalency of psychic disturbance, because of complex factors, more aggravated nowadays, and boasted toxes of psychei suffering medicalization indicate the great importance to investigate this phenomenon deeper, considering that, according to obtained data until 2006, in 25 cities of the refered State, the presciptions of psychopharmacs were meaningful. It is utilized the epidemiologyc method, with secundary data supplied by the Farmanet, for the State wide Program (SP) of Pharmaceutical Assistence in the Mental Health field. The refering data of exempted psychopharmacs were expressed in DDD (Daily Dosage Definite) by a thousand in habitants per day, for each therapeutic class. The most exempted classes were antidepressives, humor stabilizers and ansioulitics, while the antipsychots maintained stable exemptation, in the some period. The realized study indicated great possibility of medicalization occurance od psychic suffering, with their iatrogenic consequences. This analysis intends to supply contribution, in this hard time, where politics and owen acts of the Psychosocial Patern fight to be solid, in the whole country as a tecnique theorical and ethical alternative to the Medicalizatior Hospitalocentric Psychiatric Pattern (PPHM).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-29T11:12:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_9202_Dissertação Final - Maria da Penha Gouvea.pdf: 1655308 bytes, checksum: 68252fddd2af85089b91a6ead8c5b738 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-11 / Alterações importantes têm ocorrido no quadro de morbimortalidade do Brasil. A transição epidemiológica e demográfica apresenta-se como um desafio à Gestão da Saúde Pública, uma vez que Doenças Crônicas Não Transmissíveis (DNCT) passam a ter maior incidência na população demandando mudanças nos serviços de saúde. Diante deste cenário surgem os Cuidados Paliativos (CP), uma abordagem terapêutica para pacientes com doenças ameaçadoras da vida que busca aplacar a dor e amenizar o sofrimento do paciente e de seus familiares. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi identificar pacientes potenciais aos cuidados paliativos criando um diagnóstico situacional da internação no Hospital Universitário Cassiano Antônio Moraes (HUCAM) (Hospital das Clínicas). Para tanto, uma pesquisa documental e quantitativa foi desenvolvida utilizando dados dos prontuários seguida pela aplicação da Escala de Performance Paliativa (PPS). Dentre os pacientes identificados, a maioria era portadora de Câncer e tinha idade acima dos 60 anos; o sexo masculino foi grupo majoritário bem como os pacientes com internações prévias na instituição. De acordo com a PPS, a maioria dos pacientes possuía escores que os classificava no grupo de necessidade imediata dos CP. Esta pesquisa aponta para a urgência da implementação dos cuidados paliativos no HUCAM ao revelar o significante grupo de pacientes enfrentando doenças ameaçadoras da vida, alguns já em processo de morte iminente. A presente pesquisa supriu também uma lacuna no conhecimento sobre o perfil de uma população específica dentre os internados no HUCAM, o que pode levar a um atendimento de excelência ao paciente sem prognóstico e sua família, além de buscar a otimização da utilização de leitos hospitalares de média e alta complexidade / Major changes have occurred in Brazil`s mortality scenery. The epidemiological and demographic transition presents a challenge to the management of public health since No communicable Diseases Chronic (NCDs) have now the highest incidence in the population demanding changes in health services. In this scenario arises Palliative Care (PC), a therapeutic approach for patients with life-threatening diseases that seeks to mitigate the pain and alleviate the suffering of patients and their families. The objective of this research was to identify potential patients to palliative care by creating a situational diagnosis of admitted patients at the University Hospital Cassiano Antônio Moraes - HUCAM (Hospital das Clinicas). To this end, documentary and quantitative research was conducted using data from medical records followed by application of the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS). Among the identified patients, most of them had cancer and were aged over 60 years. Also, the majority of the group were male and patients with prior hospitalizations in the institution. According to the PPS, most patients had scores that classified them in immediate need of PC. The result of this research points to the urgency of palliative care´s implementation at HUCAM as it revealed a significant group of patients facing life-threatening diseases, some already in imminent death process. This survey also supplied a gap that existed in knowledge about the profile of a specific population among patients of HUCAM leading to the excellence in health service as well as seeking to optimize the use of hospital beds of medium and high complexity

Pfeffermann, Krieger e Rinott (1998) apresentaram uma metodologia para modelar processos de amostragem que pode ser utilizada para avaliar se este processo de amostragem é informativo. Neste cenário, as probabilidades de seleção da amostra são aproximadas por uma função polinomial dependendo das variáveis resposta e concomitantes. Nesta abordagem, nossa principal proposta é investigar a aplicação do teste de significância FBST (Full Bayesian Significance Test), apresentado por Pereira e Stern (1999), como uma ferramenta para testar a ignorabilidade amostral, isto é, para avaliar uma relação de significância entre as probabilidades de seleção da amostra e a variável resposta. A performance desta modelagem estatística é testada com alguns experimentos computacionais. / Pfeffermann, Krieger and Rinott (1998) introduced a framework for modeling sampling processes that can be used to assess if a sampling process is informative. In this setting, sample selection probabilities are approximated by a polynomial function depending on outcome and auxiliary variables. Within this framework, our main purpose is to investigate the application of the Full Bayesian Significance Test (FBST), introduced by Pereira and Stern (1999), as a tool for testing sampling ignorability, that is, to detect a significant relation between the sample selection probabilities and the outcome variable. The performance of this statistical modelling framework is tested with some simulation experiments.

Die Anforderungen des Marktes in Bezug auf Flexibilität und Geschwindigkeit, welchen sich Produktionsunternehmen stellen müssen, nehmen immer weiter zu. Die Kunden wollen in jeder Hinsicht individuell bedient werden. Sie wollen das Produkt nach ihren Vorstellungen konfigurieren können, es in kurzer Zeit zur Verfügung gestellt bekommen und trotzdem bei Bedarf individuelle Änderungen integrieren können. Aus diesem Grund muss ein Produktionsunternehmen sowohl in der Planungs- als auch in der Ausführungsphase flexibel auf Änderungen, die vom Kunden ausgelöst werden oder durch interne Ereignisse erforderlich sind, reagieren können. Studien unter produzierenden Unternehmen haben gezeigt, dass im Fall der Notwendigkeit nachträglicher Änderungen das Produktionsplanungs- und steuerungssystem oft nicht miteinbezogen wird, insbesondere dann, wenn die Änderungen sehr prozessnah stattfinden. Da Änderungen jedoch heutzutage keine Seltenheit mehr sind, führt dies dazu, dass die im System gehaltenen Daten häufig von dem tatsächlichen Produkti-onsablauf abweichen. Eine im Rahmen der Arbeit durchgeführte Analyse führender ERP-Systeme und MES hat gezeigt, dass dieses Problem auf Systemunzulänglichkeiten zurückzuführen ist. Auf Basis der Systemuntersuchung schlägt die Arbeit deshalb ein Konzept für ein flexibles Produktionspla-nungs- und -steuerungssystem vor: das PPS II-System. Dieses System soll gewährleisten, dass nachträgliche Änderungen, die durch interne oder externe Ereignisse ausgelöst werden, in die Produktionsplanung integriert werden können. Die Architektur des PPS II-Systems basiert auf der Idee, die starre Trennung zwischen den Planungs- und Steuerungssystemen der Fertigung aufzulösen. Um dies zu gewährleisten, besteht das PPS II-System aus lose gekoppelten Services, deren Zusammenwirken das Verhalten des Systems beschreibt. Die Funktionalität des PPS II-Systems orientiert sich am Konzept der prozessnahen Gestaltungsentscheidung, welches die Ausführungszeit, die zu verwendenden Materialien und die einzusetzenden Ressourcen auf Basis verschiedener Abstraktionen erst unmittelbar vor Produktionsbeginn bestimmt. Eine umfangreiche theoretische und praktische Evaluierung bestätigt, dass das PPS II-System auf diese Weise sehr flexibel auf Änderungen reagieren kann. / Today, production companies face big challenges, in particular with regards to flexibility and speed. Their customers want to be served individually in every respect. They want to configure the product individually and receive it as fast as possible. However, they also want to be able to integrate late changes. For this reason, a production company must be able to react to changes in the planning phase as well as in the production phase in a very flexible way. Such changes might be initiated by the customers or they might be necessary due to internal events. Surveys, which analyzed the processes of production companies, have revealed that their production planning and control systems are often not involved if late changes are necessary. This is particularly true, if the changes occur shortly before the production starts. Therefore, system data deviate from the real production procedure often already in the planning phase. An analysis of leading ERP systems and MES carried out in this thesis has shown that the reason for the problems is the limited flexibility of these systems. On the basis of the analysis, this thesis proposes a new concept for a flexible production and control system: the PPC II system. This system should ensure that late changes triggered by internal or external events can be integrated in the production schedule. The architecture of the PPC II system is based on the idea to eliminate the separation between the planning system and the control system. To reach this goal, the system consists of loosely coupled services that are flexibly orches-trated to control production processes. The PPC II system realizes the concept of late order freeze. Process-relevant decisions for the execution time, the used materials, and the resources are made shortly before production starts. A comprehensive theoretical and practical evaluation verifies that the PPC II system is able to react flexible to changes.

Poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS), an engineering thermoplastic with excellent mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties, was gelled for the first time using 1,3-diphenylacetone (DPA) as the gelation solvent in a thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) process. PPS was dissolved in DPA at high temperatures to form a homogeneous solution. The solution was cooled, initiating phase separation and eventually forming a solidified PPS network around DPA-rich domains. Evacuation of DPA from the gel network creates monolithic PPS aerogels, one of few physically crosslinked polymer aerogel systems comprised of a high-performance thermoplastic. In this work, specific properties of PPS aerogels were controlled through the manipulation of various processing parameters, such as polymer concentration, post-process annealing conditions, mode of manufacturing (casting versus additive manufacturing), dissolution temperature, and drying method. The ultimate goal was to elucidate key process-morphology-property relationships in PPS aerogels, to ultimately improve aerogel performance and applicability. The phase diagram of PPS/DPA was first elucidated to determine the phase separation mechanism of the system, which guides all future processing decisions. The phase diagram indicated that the system undergoes solid-liquid phase separation, typical for solutions with relatively favorable polymer-solvent interactions. This assignment was validated by the calculation of the Flory-Huggins interaction parameter through two independent methods - Hansen solubility parameters and fitting melting point depression data. The influence of polymer composition on PPS aerogel properties was then characterized. As polymer concentration increased, aerogel density and mechanical properties increases, and porosity decreased. The particular morphology of PPS aerogels from DPA was that of a fibrillar network, where these axialitic (pre-spherulitic) fibrils are comprised of stacks of PPS crystalline lamellae, as suggested by x-ray scattering and electron microscopy. These interconnected microstructures responded more favorably to compressive load than similar globular PEEK aerogels, highlighting the importance of aerogel microstructure on its mechanical response. Upon solvent extraction, PPS aerogels were annealed in air environments to improve their mechanical behavior. Annealing did not dramatically shrink the aerogels, nor did it appear to affect the micron-scale morphology of PPS aerogels as observed by electron microscopy. The resistance to densification of PPS aerogels was mainly a product of their interconnected fibrillar morphologies, aided by subtle microstructural changes that occurred upon annealing. Exposure to a high temperature oxidative environment (160 – 240 oC) increased the degree of crystallinity of the aerogels, and also promoted chemical crosslinking within the amorphous PPS regions, both of which may have helped to prevent severe densification. With enhanced physical and chemical crosslinking, annealed PPS aerogels displayed improved compressive properties over unannealed analogues. Additionally, the thermal conductivity of both annealed and unannealed aerogel specimens was below that of air (~ 0.026 W/mK) and did not display a dependence on polymer composition nor on annealing condition. Generally, these experiments demonstrate that annealing PPS aerogels improved their mechanical performance without negatively affecting their inherent fibrillar morphology, low density, or low thermal conductivity. To fabricate aerogels with geometric flexibility and hierarchical porosity, PPS/DPA solutions were printed through material extrusion (MEX) and TIPS using a custom-built heated extruder. In this process, solid solvated gels were first re-dissolved in a heated extruder and solutions were deposited in a layer-wise fashion onto a room-temperature substrate. The large temperature gradient between nozzle and substrate rapidly initiated phase separation, solidified the deposited layers and formed a printed part. Subsequent solvent exchange and drying created printed PPS aerogels. The morphology of printed aerogels was compositionally-dependent, where the high extrusion temperature required to dissolve highly-concentrated inks (50 wt % PPS) also destroyed self-nuclei in solution, yielding printed aerogels with spherulitic microstructures. In contrast, aerogels printed from 30 wt % solutions were deposited at lower temperatures and demonstrated fibrillar microstructures, similar to those observed in 30 wt % cast aerogel analogues. Despite these microstructural differences, all printed aerogels demonstrated densities, porosities, and crystallinities similar to their cast aerogel counterparts. However, printed aerogel mechanical properties were microstructurally-dependent, and the spherulitic 50 wt % aerogels were much more brittle compared to the fibrillar cast 50 wt % analogues. This work introduces a widely-applicable framework for printing polymer aerogels using MEX and TIPS. Intrigued by the compositional morphological dependence of the printed PPS aerogels, the dissolution temperature (Tdis), and thus the self-nuclei content, of cast PPS/DPA solutions was systematically varied to understand its influence on aerogel morphology and properties. As Tdis increased, the length and diameter of axialites increased while aerogel density and porosity were relatively unaffected. Thus, the isolated influence of axialite dimensions (analogous to pore size and pore concentration) on aerogel properties could be studied independent of density. At low relative densities (below 0.3, aerogels of 10 – 30 wt %), compressive modulus and offset yield strength tended to decrease with Tdis, due to an increase in axialite length (akin to pore size) and number of axialites (akin to number of pores). At higher relative densities (above 0.3, 40 and 50 wt %), axialitic aerogels were so dense that changes in pore dimensions did not result in systematic changes in mechanical response. All spherulitic aerogels fabricated at the highest Tdis¬ demonstrated reduced mechanical properties due to poor interspherulitic connectivity. The thermal conductivity of all aerogels increased with polymer composition but demonstrated no clear trend with Tdis. A model for thermal conductivity was used to deconvolute calculated conductivity into solid, gaseous, and radiative components to help rationalize the measured conductivity data. This work demonstrates the importance of nucleation density control in TIPS aerogel fabrication, especially at low polymer concentrations. The specific method used to dry an aerogel generally has a great influence on its microstructure and density. Vacuum or ambient drying is the most industrially-attractive technique due to low cost and low energy usage; however, it is typically the most destructive process due to high capillary forces acting on the delicate aerogel microstructure. Three drying methods, vacuum drying, freeze drying, and supercritical CO2 drying, were used to evacuate PPS gels fabricated at three PPS concentrations (10, 15, and 20 wt %). Almost all aerogel specimens displayed excellent resilience against shrinkage as a function of the drying method, besides the 10 wt % vacuum dried sample which shrunk almost 40%. While the micron-scale aerogel morphology captured by electron microscopy appeared to be unaffected by the drying method, other properties such as aerogel surface area, mesoporous volume, and mechanical properties were effectively functions of the degree of aerogel shrinkage. Aerogel thermal conductivity was low for all samples, and in particular, vacuum dried aerogels demonstrated slightly lower conductivities than other ambiently-dried aerogel systems such as silica and carbon. In general, vacuum drying appears to be industrially viable for PPS aerogels at concentrations above 10 wt %. / Doctor of Philosophy / Polymer aerogels are nanoporous solid networks of low density. These materials are used in applications such as thermal insulation, absorbance/filtration, drug delivery, biomedical scaffolds, solid state batteries, and others. One method of creating polymeric aerogels is through thermally induced phase separation (TIPS), where a polymer is first dissolved in a high boiling point solvent at a high temperature. Next, the solution is cooled, inducing phase separation and gelation. Extraction of the gelation solvent transforms the solvated gel into an aerogel. To create polymeric aerogels with good properties and wide-ranging applicability, one should use a high-performance polymer. In this work, aerogels are for the first time made from poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS), an engineering thermoplastic with good mechanical properties, thermal stability, and chemical resistance. PPS aerogels are fabricated using TIPS over a wide compositional range, and their microstructures, physical properties, thermal properties, and compressive properties are fully characterized. To further enhance aerogel performance, the fabrication process can be optimized to precisely control the aerogel morphology and thus the resulting properties. The influence of processing variables such as the polymer concentration, the post-fabrication aerogel annealing conditions, the method of manufacturing (traditional casting versus additive manufacturing), the dissolution temperature (temperature at which the polymer dissolves in solution prior to gelation), and the drying method on the aerogel behavior is investigated. Generally, results suggest that understanding critical process-morphology-property relationships allows for precise control over the nature of PPS aerogels.

This thesis discusses about using the worldwide satellite system GPS for time and frequency synchronization. This thesis presents study about basic principles of the GPS system, its segments and ways of using this system. Some GPS receivers suitable for receiving the time marks (pulses) used for time synchronization are described. Thesis contents designing of the circuit that will receive time marks and it will digitalize and record external signal and send it with precision time information to PC for displaying and post processing. Thesis also discusses about both hardware and software development of the synchronization module and software used in PC.

L'utilisation optimale, dans des applications spécifiques, des Détecteurs Silicium nécessite une connaissance approfondie des phénomènes physiques sous-jacents. Dans ce mémoire, cette idée conductrice est appliquée à deux types de détecteurs : (1) les SiPM et leurs applications en imagerie médicale (2) les détecteurs à pixels planaires (PPS) et leurs applications dans la mise-à-jour du détecteur interne d'ATLAS pour le LHC à haute luminosité. Mon travail personnel sur les SiPM a débuté il y a environ 10 ans. Ainsi la partie (A) de mon HDR rappelle tout d'abord le principe physique de la photodiode à avalanche en mode Geiger (GM-APD), qui constitue la cellule élémentaire d'un SiPM. Puis le fonctionnement du SiPM est développé, avec ses principales caractéristiques physiques, ainsi que les montages expérimentaux mis en œuvre et les mesures de ces paramètres sur les productions des principaux fabricants. La dépendance en température des paramètres des SiPM constitue un inconvénient majeur dans certaines applications, aussi mon travail personnel montre comment on peut en grande partie s'affranchir de cette dépendance, en contrôlant certains paramètres de fonctionnement. Les détecteurs à SiPM présentent des avantages très intéressants au plan électrique, optique, mécanique, etc ..., permettant des applications multiples dans des domaines où une grande surface de détection est requise. Ainsi, les matrices de SiPM sont des composants très attractifs pour des applications d'imagerie médicale. Mon travail dans deux applications de ce type est détaillé : PET à haute résolution pour des petits animaux, et détecteur de radiation portatif pour l'aide à la localisation in situ de tumeurs solides. En parallèle à l'activité SiPM, j'ai été impliquée ces dernières années dans la conception et la caractérisation de nouveaux détecteurs à pixel planaires pour "l'upgrade" de l'expérience ATLAS. La partie (B) de mon HDR expose ainsi les méthodes expérimentales, comme "Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS)" et "Spreading Resistance Profiling" (SRP), utilisées pour la mesure de profils de dopage pour le détecteurs PPS. Je démontre ainsi l'importance de ces mesures pour le contrôle du process de fabrication, et la calibration des simulations TCAD (Technology-Computed Aided Design). Les résultats des simulations prévoyant le comportement des nouveaux détecteurs planaires proposés, avec des caractéristiques géométriques et une résistance aux radiations améliorées, sont présentés.

Getrieben von einem weltweit zunehmenden Kostendruck sind insbesondere die produzierenden Unternehmen im kmU-Bereich angehalten, ihre Geschäftsprozesse insbesondere in der Fertigung, Montage und Logistik effizienter, flexibler und kürzer zu gestalten. Als wesentlicher Faktor dafür gilt die rationelle, schnelle und echtzeitnahe Erfassung, Aufbereitung, Weiterleitung und Speicherung der Ressource Information, insbesondere für eine operative Produktionsablaufsteuerung und - überwachung. Mit der Nutzung der Transpondertechnologie (bzw. RFIDTechnologie) zur Gestaltung eines hocheffektiven und kostengünstigen Informationsflusses in den Produktions- und Logistikabläufen besteht dafür ein hohes zukunftsträchtiges Potenzial, welches es praxisrelevant aufzubereiten und zu überführen gilt. Mit der Integration dieser Technologie in die Prozesssteuerung bzw. in ihre Abläufe wird die Eigenschaft genutzt, Zustands- und Prozessdaten zeitkonform zu erkennen, bewerten, aktualisieren und sie wieder an Objekte mit ausgestattetem Transponder zu übertragen, um operativ auf die Prozesse Einfluss nehmen zu können. Die wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse und die in hohem Maße gemeinsam mit der Praxis erzielten Forschungsinhalte entstanden aus einem gemeinsam mit dem Fachgebiet Logistik der Universität Dortmund (Prof. Dr.-Ing. R. Jansen, MSc St. Harms, Dipl.-Ing. M. Finger, Dipl.-Kfm. J. Schmidt, Dr.-Ing. B. Bohl ) erarbeiteten und von der Arbeitsgemeinschaft industrieller Forschungsvereinigungen (AiF) geförderten Vorhaben Integration der Transpondertechnologie zur Erhöhung der Leistungsfähigkeit der operativen Produktionssteuerung (ITELOP). Die AiF- Vorhaben- Nr. lautet: ZUTECH 65 ZBG / 1. Die Ergebnisse des Forschungsprojektes münden in einen internetbasierten Leitfaden, in welchem auf Basis der Planungsmethodik die Schritte zur Neuplanung eines RFID-Systems - wahlweise zur Produkt- oder Ladungsträgeridentifikation aufbereitet und gestaltet werden (http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/mb/InstBF/ITELOP).

Background of the Study The aims of this study was to specifically investigate the differences in culture, attitude towards life and social networks between Australian and Taiwanese men and women in addition to determining the factors that predict midlife men and women's quality of life in both countries. Because individualism and collectivism are the two most thoroughly researched constructs in inter-cultural and cross-cultural studies we should look at how these construct affects societies. The theme for individualist cultures (such as Western cultures) is autonomy, while the theme for collectivist cultures (such as Asian cultures) is connection. Most literature available on individualism and collectivism note all cultures have different values that influence their society and ultimately a person's individual health outcome. Very little work has been undertaken in this domain in Australia or Taiwan, particularly in the area of midlife transition and from a cultural perspective. Methodology Data was collected from a cross-sectional, supervised self-administered survey using census data and a probability proportional sampling (PPS) strategy on a general population of men and women aged 40-59 years old who live permanently in Brisbane, Australia and Taipei, Taiwan. The study population was divided into 163 Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) in Brisbane, and 449 Local Government Communities (LGCs) in Taipei. Sixty clusters were randomly selected using probability proportional sampling (PPS) to obtain 30 Australian clusters and 30 Taiwanese clusters. In this study, the 30 (areas) by 7(people) method was used with an additional strategy. The variables were measured including: culture (vertical and horizontal individualism and collectivism), attitude towards life (the total score of optimism), social networks (the total score of emotional, informational, affectionate, tangible, and positive social interaction) and quality of life (physical, psychological, social, and environmental health), social demographical factors and religion and spiritualty. The data analysis procedure included descriptive, bivarite and multivariate multiple regressions and classifications and regression trees (CART). A comparison of the linear regression and regression tree results were discussed. All data analysis was performed by SPSS and S-Plus softwares. Results The overall response rate for the study was 84.2% for midlife Australian men and women and 88.4% for midlife Taiwanese men and women this resulted in 278 Australians (45.3% men) and 398 Taiwanese (35.4% men) providing data to be analysed. Findings in this study indicated country of residence has an overwhelming impact on quality of life with significant differences seen between midlife Australian and Taiwanese men and women (F4, 666= 59.31, P< .001). Results suggest midlife Australian men and women have a better quality of life than midlife Taiwanese men and women. In addition, a comparison of the linear regression and regression tree results reveals that two models identified the same major affect variable for different countries of residence: which was attitude towards life in midlife Australians and social networks in midlife Taiwanese. However, regression trees were able to capture important nonlinear effects as well as interactions between cultural attribute variables. This study demonstrated culture significantly involves multiple functions and interacts with attitude towards life, social networks and individual factors to influence a person's quality of life. The interaction of cultural circumstances and the internal and external factors involved, show less comparative attributes and increased equality attributes, defining the need for people to have a good social networks and a healthy positive disposition. Conclusion Because of the ever increasing flexibility of world travel and a global population, people have much more opportunity to interact with many other cultures which would create improvement in learning opportunities and better health management effectiveness for people the world over. This study has addressed and contributed to the assessment of multi-cultural quality of life research and has important implications for all health professions in addition to government departments and organisational policy makers of both countries. And finally, this study has identified that there needs to be a concerted effort to implement major policy shifts in the near future because of the changing fabric of modern societies. At the same time technology and globalisation have advanced rapidly and point to new opportunities within and across countries for more diverse approaches in research and the implementation of policy initiatives to occur. This study has highlighted that opportunities exist to reflect on current policies for Australian and Taiwanese societies to provide enhanced opportunities to care for the growing midlife populations.

With industries aiming at higher efficiencies, lightweight parts, and easier manufacturability there has been a recent trend of replacing the metallic materials with polymeric materials and its composites. Particularly in the automotive industry, there is a demand of replacing metallic material of bushes and bearings with polymer based materials (PBM). For these heavy performance requirements (as in automobiles), the commonly used industrial polymers like Acetal and Nylon fail to provide good mechanical and tribological performance. High-performance polymer like Polyphenylene Sulfide (PPS) is a relatively newer material and shows a potential of being a PBM alternative for metallic bearings in automobiles if their tribological performance can be improved.  One of the ways of improving the tribological performance of the polymer is by the addition of filler material, hence making a polymer composite. In this study, we used Short Carbon Fibre as micro-reinforcement material and Nano-diamonds and Graphene Oxide as nano-reinforcement material to make PPS composites. The varying mechanical and tribological behaviour of PPS composites with different weight percentage of reinforcement materials was investigated. The optimum composition of the reinforcement materials was identified, which resulted in significant improvement in mechanical and tribological properties of the base material.