Search Results (7)

Construction work sites and the surrounding built environments are notable contributors to atmosphere dust particulate matter (PM) emissions. PM produced in construction processes contain a range of chemically hazardous substances, posing significant health risks (HR) to individuals. As such, the evaluation of occupational HR in construction has become a focal point of interest internationally. Initiated in the early 2000s, there has been a growing demand within the construction research community for the creation of a unified PM database that encapsulates a wide array of construction activities. Previous studies have endeavored to establish a PM database for various construction contexts, yet they have fallen short in thoroughly addressing the diversity of construction materials and the levels of toxic substances (TS) within the PM. This research introduced a comprehensive PM and TS dataset and conducted a case study to measure the HR associated with diverse construction processes. This was accomplished by implementing a semi-automated Building Information Modeling (BIM) version 2020-based plugin, which streamlines the assessment of occupational HR in construction projects. This system provides construction supervisors with a tool to visually assess the HR of daily operations, thereby facilitating the adoption of preemptive measures to protect the health of construction workers. Full article

Younger-onset dementia (YOD) refers to onset before 65 years of age and may be associated with a genetic cause. Family communication surrounding any genetic risk is complex, and this process may be further complicated in a YOD context due to its effects on cognition, behaviour, and associated psychosocial consequences. This study aimed to investigate how individuals experience family communication about potential genetic risk and testing for YOD. Thematic analysis was performed on verbatim transcripts of nine semi-structured interviews undertaken with family members who attended a neurogenetics clinic due to a relative diagnosed with YOD. The interviews explored the participants’ experiences of learning that YOD might be inherited and the ensuing family communication about genetic testing. Four key themes emerged: (1) a clinical diagnostic odyssey was common and could be a motivator for genomic testing, (2) pre-existing family tension and/or disconnection was a common barrier, (3) family members’ autonomy was considered, and (4) avoidant coping strategies influenced communication. Communication regarding potential YOD genetic risk is a complicated process and may be influenced by pre-existing family dynamics, individual coping mechanisms, and a desire to promote autonomy in relatives. To promote effective risk communication, genetic counsellors should pre-emptively address family tensions that may be exacerbated in the context of genetic testing for YOD, with awareness that family strain during a preceding period of diagnostic odyssey is common. Genetic counsellors can offer psychosocial support to facilitate coping with this tension in an adaptive way. The findings also indicated the importance of extending genetic counselling support to relatives. Full article

Climate change has caused aridification which can alter habitat vegetation, soil and precipitation profiles potentially affecting resident species. Vegetation and soil profiles are important for subterranean mole-rats as increasing aridity causes soils to become harder and geophytes less evenly distributed, and the inter-geophyte distance increases. Mole-rats obtain all water and dietary requirements from geophytes, and thus digging in harder soils may amplify stressors (hyperthermia, dehydration- or exercise-induced damage). This study assessed the oxidative status of the wild common mole-rat along an aridity gradient (arid, semi-arid and mesic). Kidney and liver oxidative markers, including total oxidant status (TOS), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), oxidative stress index (OSI), malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured. Liver oxidative status did not demonstrate any significance with the degree of the aridity gradient. Aridity affected the TAC and OSI of the kidney, with individuals in the most arid habitats possessing the highest TAC. The evolution of increased group size to promote survival in African mole-rats in arid habitats may have resulted in the additional benefit of reduced oxidative stress in the kidneys. The SOD activity of the kidneys was higher than that of the liver with lower oxidative damage, suggesting this species pre-emptively protects its kidneys as these are important for water balance and retention. Full article

During an infectious disease pandemic, patients may experience various psychological issues. Few studies have focused on survivors’ experiences in Hong Kong. This study aimed to assess the psychological impacts of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on survivors during admission to and discharge from COVID-19 wards using a descriptive phenomenological design. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 20 participants aged 30–77 years recently discharged from an isolation ward at an acute care facility and transferred to a community center specializing in pulmonary rehabilitation. Sampling was performed from 1 March 2022 to 3 April 2022. Semi-structured in-person interviews were conducted and transcribed verbatim; data analysis was performed using Colaizzi’s approach. The patients experienced two exclusive psychological phases during and after admission. The analysis of the patients’ experiences revealed three themes: (i) navigating uncertainties with mixed feelings and emotions during admission, (ii) adjusting to normal daily life after discharge, and (iii) self-growth after discharge. Our findings may provide empirical evidence for formulating pre-emptive strategies to mitigate the long-term psychological impacts of COVID-19. This investigation is timely and internationally relevant, and policymakers can use these findings to make informed decisions when developing guidelines for structuring the care of patients with COVID-19 during and after hospitalization. Based on our findings, we recommended that psychological support, particularly the provision of time to address patients’ concerns, may be integrated into the care of patients with COVID-19. Additionally, the structure of care may extend beyond the biomedical aspects of the illness to encompass the emotional and social dimension of the patients. To reduce stigmatization, we advise that public health authorities release clear information timely to clarify the misconceptions of the local community. Full article

The prominence of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications in the future wide area communication networks place various challenges to the cellular technologies such as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, owing to the large number of M2M devices generating small bursts of infrequent data packets with a wide range of delay requirements. The channel structure and Quality of Service (QoS) framework of LTE networks fail to support M2M traffic with multiple burst sizes and QoS requirements while a bottleneck often arises from the limited control resources to communicate future uplink resource allocations to the M2M devices. Moreover, many of the M2M devices are battery-powered and require a low-power consuming wide area technology for wide-spread deployments. To alleviate these issues, in this article we propose an adaptive semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) scheme for the LTE uplink which caters for multi-service M2M traffic classes with variable burst sizes and delay tolerances. Instead of adhering to the rigid LTE QoS framework, the proposed algorithm supports variation of uplink allocation sizes based on queued data length yet does not require control signaling to inform those allocations to the respective devices. Both the eNodeB and the M2M devices can determine the precise uplink resource allocation related parameters based on their mutual knowledge, thus omitting the burden of regular control signaling exchanges. Based on a control parameter, the algorithm can offer different capacities and levels of QoS satisfaction to different traffic classes. We also introduce a pre-emptive feature by which the algorithm can prioritize new traffic with low delay tolerance over ongoing delay-tolerant traffic. We also build a model for incorporating the Discontinuous Reception (DRX) mechanism in synchronization with the adaptive SPS transmissions so that the UE power consumption can be significantly lowered, thereby extending their battery lives. The simulation and performance analysis of the proposed scheme shows significant improvement over the traditional LTE scheduler in terms of QoS satisfaction, channel utilization and low power requirements of multi-service M2M traffic. Full article

Studies of the IEEE 802.15.4 Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) scheme have been received considerable attention recently, with most of these studies focusing on homogeneous or saturated traffic. Two novel transmission schemes—OSTS/BSTS (One Service a Time Scheme/Bulk Service a Time Scheme)—are proposed in this paper to improve the behaviors of time-critical buffered networks with heterogeneous unsaturated traffic. First, we propose a model which contains two modified semi-Markov chains and a macro-Markov chain combined with the theory of M/G/1/K queues to evaluate the characteristics of these two improved CSMA/CA schemes, in which traffic arrivals and accessing packets are bestowed with non-preemptive priority over each other, instead of prioritization. Then, throughput, packet delay and energy consumption of unsaturated, unacknowledged IEEE 802.15.4 beacon-enabled networks are predicted based on the overall point of view which takes the dependent interactions of different types of nodes into account. Moreover, performance comparisons of these two schemes with other non-priority schemes are also proposed. Analysis and simulation results show that delay and fairness of our schemes are superior to those of other schemes, while throughput and energy efficiency are superior to others in more heterogeneous situations. Comprehensive simulations demonstrate that the analysis results of these models match well with the simulation results. Full article

In this paper, we integrate a grid system and a wireless network to present a convenient computational service system, called the Semi-Preemptive Computational Service system (SePCS for short), which provides users with a wireless access environment and through which a user can share his/her resources with others. In the SePCS, each node is dynamically given a score based on its CPU level, available memory size, current length of waiting queue, CPU utilization and bandwidth. With the scores, resource nodes are classified into three levels. User requests based on their time constraints are also classified into three types. Resources of higher levels are allocated to more tightly constrained requests so as to increase the total performance of the system. To achieve this, a resource broker with the Semi-Preemptive Algorithm (SPA) is also proposed. When the resource broker cannot find suitable resources for the requests of higher type, it preempts the resource that is now executing a lower type request so that the request of higher type can be executed immediately. The SePCS can be applied to a Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET), users of which can then exploit the convenient mobile network services and the wireless distributed computing. As a result, the performance of the system is higher than that of the tested schemes. Full article