Off-site Approach Research Articles

Evolving practice in global healthcare: Remote physics support for low- and middle-income countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted traditional onsite support for radiotherapy clinics in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Clinics there have struggled to commission new techniques and receive onsite training for their staff. We sought to evaluate whether an offsite approach could fill this gap at a clinic in Jordan by requesting a clinical audit and attempting to commission volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). Over 13 months, a consultant provided remote support for a radiotherapy center that had already obtained treatment equipment and licenses. The consultant began by conducting a virtual audit, using a remote login to the center's R&V and TPS, to identify any gaps in the clinical workflow. Suggestions for improving the clinical workflow were proposed, and change implementation was tracked through emails, social media apps, and video conferencing. An extensive table outlined the commissioning process, including all measurements to be done. Social media apps and shared documents were used to track measurements and analysis. The lack of person-to-person interaction in this new remote-support ecosystem created conflicts; we have highlighted some of these, as well as their resolution and the lessons learned from them. The virtual audit identified gaps categorized as machine QA, treatment plan review, and treatment delivery processes. Following the implementation of the proposals, motion management was added, and machine QA became more comprehensive. VMAT was commissioned using the reports of the AAPM and the IAEA. The main challenges for remote support were time difference, establishing an appropriate form and frequency of communication, tone of voice used in messages, and buy-in from local staff. This evolving practice will enable medical physicists to use modern, multimodal remote communication pathways to effectively transfer knowledge to centers in LMICs. The audit-proposal-improvement pathway for remote support can be incorporated to help others while avoiding the pitfalls we faced.

Paleosols and ancient societies: from early humans to the industrial revolution

Paleopedology, the study of soils developed on ancient landscapes (Yaalon, 1971), was born in Russia through the efforts of Boris B. Polynov (1927), but considering the previous work done by Vasilli V. Dokuchaev in 1883 (Dokuchaev, 1967) and later with the support of Constantin C. Nikiforoff (1943). The Commission on Paleopedology was established in 1965, in Denver, USA, by Dan Yaalon and Hans van Baren (Retallack, 2013) during the 7th Congress of the International Association for Quaternary Research (INQUA) and later, in 1968, the Commission was affiliated to the International Union of Soil Science (IUSS). After the Denver conference, the Commission published a volume with research papers focused on the recognition and classification of paleosols, methods of dating, and soil stratigraphy (Yaalon, 1971). This volume was the beginning of an extensive series of the Commission publications in different special issues of international and national scientific media. Two of these collections were published in open-access Mexican geological journals: Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas v. 20 no. 3 (2003) and v. 21 no. 1 (2004), and Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana, v. 64 no. 1 and 64 no. 2 (2012). The current issue is a continuation of this series. There are two concepts necessary for understanding paleosols. The first is the use of the uniformitarian principle, which suggests that past geologic processes are similar to those acting today on the Earth’s surface. In other words, the basis of modern soil geography and soil genesis is used as directly analogous to reconstruct ancient environments and landscapes. This approach is more precise when applied to Quaternary paleosols and more limited to pre-Cambrian or Paleozoic paleosols, as the environmental conditions under which they were formed are pretty different from the modern ones (Retallack, 2001). The second concept is “soil memory” (Targulian and Goriachkin, 2004), related to a set of properties that can remember ancient environmental conditions. These properties result from pedogenetic processes and soil-forming factors and are time-resistant to environmental changes remaining stable during extended periods (Targulian and Goriachkin, 2004). In recent years, paleopedology has extended its applications to reconstruct past climates, establish variations in the atmospheric composition, trace the ecosystem evolution, and identify geomorphological changes (e.g., Cerling, 1991; Retallack, 1998, 2009; Goudi, 1990; Klinge et al., 2022). Some efforts have also been made to develop models to quantify pedogenetic trends associated with environmental change (e.g., Yaalon, 1975; Sheldon and Tabor, 2009). An essential application of paleopedology has been devoted to solving archaeological problems, as soils can be considered repositories of human activities: agriculture, forestry, material for construction or ceramic production, dwelling and householding (Holliday, 2009; Costa et al., 2021; Yalçın et al., 2021). The impact of past anthropogenic activities has been recorded in the soil memory through time: since the first hunter and gatherers groups to the industrial societies. However, the relationship between humans and their environment (and vice versa) is complex and demands the application of different methodologies and the study of in-site and off-site approaches (Butzer, 2008), which integrates the information directly recovered in the archaeological excavation and that from the surrounding areas. In this sense, the paleosol-archaeological investigation has a more solid interpretation. In June 2021, the Paleopedology Commission of the IUSS, the Paleopedology Working Group of the INQUA, and the Institute of Geology of the UNAM organized a three-day online meeting with scientific sessions. The meeting topics related to the link between paleosols, the history of human interactions, and the environment. This special issue was launched as a result of this meeting. The articles included here aim to improve our understanding of the materials used for ancient constructions also past human interactions with the environment.

Determination of methane emissions from biogas plants, using different quantification methods

Reliable and comparable quantification methods are needed for assessing the effectiveness of the biogas production and utilisation process in mitigating methane (CH4) emissions as well as improving the database for emission inventories. The objective of this study was to compare and validate CH4 emissions quantified at two agricultural biogas plants, for up to three days, using diverse on-site (two teams) and off-site methods (three teams), including differential absorption lidar (DIAL), tracer gas dispersion (TDM) and inverse dispersion modelling (IDM). For plant 1, with a constant combined heat and power (CHP) load, the average emission factor varied from 0.3% CH4 (on-site approaches) to 1.2% CH4 (off-site approaches). On-site approaches underestimated overall emissions due to many small (unquantified) CH4 leakages. All methods observed comparable average emission factors for plant 2, ranging between 1.9 and 2.2% CH4. In this case, the majority of emissions emanated from just a few sources. However, correcting the significant influence of the varying CHP load during the measurement campaign revealed significant differences between TDM and IDM (DIAL did not participate). It was demonstrated that TDM and IDM could recover the emission rate from a known point source (controlled release of CH4 via a small diffuser) within an accuracy of 93 ± 15% (TDM) and 92 ± 17% (IDM) under favourable and similar conditions.

CALIBRATION AND VALIDATION OF A STEREO CAMERA SYSTEM AUGMENTED WITH A LONG-WAVE INFRARED MODULE TO MONITOR ULTRASONIC WELDING OF THERMOPLASTICS

Abstract. Ultrasonic welding of thermoplastics has become an important industrial manufacturing process in the fields of aerospace and transportation. High quality standards are demanded and a reliable quality assessment routine is fundamental. Most on-site and off-site approaches are time consuming or require additional active illumination. Especially temperature models have proven to be good indicators for welding quality. We present a methodology to measure the surface temperature in real-time and visualize it simultaneously as a 3D model. Through augmenting a stereo camera system with an additional passive thermal infrared camera, we are able to map the heat data of multiple successive welds of large, free-form structures into a common 3D data representation. A challenging calibration approach is used to derive the inner and exterior orientation for the trifocal camera system. Geometric and radiometric improvements for an aluminium chessboard allow the usage of wide-angle optics for the thermal infrared camera. Consequently, we verify the quality of each camera by means of their resolving power. Therefore, a Siemens star test pattern is used for the thermal camera as well. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methodology on a robot-guided ultrasonic welding tool.

Process Waste Analysis for Offsite Production Methods for House Construction: A Case Study of Factory Wall Panel Production

AbstractThere is growing interest in the use of offsite manufacturing (OSM) in the construction industry despite criticism that some offsite approaches used by housebuilders do not offer real impro...

Issue Highlights

Issue Highlights

Perception and Awareness of Leaking for Toilet in Pre-cast Concrete Structure

Current practice adopting in-situ concrete in pre-cast concrete structure (PCS) is to solve leaking problem. This defeat the concept of off-site approach. Better understanding and perception on the leaking problem can lead to the innovative approach in toilet construction. This paper gauges the perception on innovative toilet construction and awareness of leaking problems from stakeholders through case study, questionnaires and interviews. In conclusion, stakeholders are aware on leaking causes and Prefabricated Toilet Unit (PTU) is a good solution for the leaking problem with some improvement to increase peoples’ perceptions.

Gifted Education in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Despite its close geographical, economic, and political ties with mainland China, Hong Kong has not followed the same trajectory on gifted education but instead has preferred to adopt a more Western approach to the definitions and provision for gifted learners (Shi & Zixiu, 2000; Zou, Yang, & Greene, 2007). Hong Kong is, on most measures of international achievement, one of the highest performing educational jurisdictions in the world yet, paradoxically, it is a relatively recent convert to gifted education (GE). Not surprisingly, Hong Kong shares a common cultural tradition with China, especially in terms of the cultural capital derived from Confucianism, which encourages a strong work ethic and in which educational policy sits. This article traces the development of thinking in GE from 1990 and outlines the framework for delivery using the three-tier implementation model. It describes the current GE landscape in terms of its school-based and off-site approaches to GE provision within this model, and it briefly reviews the main strands of research on GE in recent years.

An Off-Site Approach to Late Iron Age and Roman Landscapes on the Northern Plateau, Spain

Since 2009, a large-scale archaeological field survey – the Ager Segisamonensis Survey Project – has been carried out on the Northern Plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, in the Burgos province (Castilla y León), Spain. The aim of this project is to understand the Iron Age/Roman transition in terms of settlement strategies and landscape exploitation. The field survey has been undertaken in the landscape surrounding an Iron Age settlement and the successive Roman city of Segisamo – modern Sasamón. The goal is not the discovery of new settlements, but the recognition of the so-called ‘dwelling landscape’ and its evolution. In this article, we highlight our field survey methodology based on hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) instruments and the creation of a recording system of ‘aggregation units'.

Strategies for Integrating the Use of Off-Site Production Technologies in House Building

Despite extensive research into attitudes and practice surrounding the uptake of off-site production technologies, there is limited understanding of how best to integrate their use into business processes at the organizational level. Drawing on an action-research case study with a leading U.K. house-building organization, this paper scrutinizes the processes through which off-site technologies were adopted and utilized. The use of off-site methods was fundamentally framed by the key stages and business milestone reviews of the house-building process, which together represented a complex and multilayered structure of business management. Five off-site reviews were aligned with the business processes. Strategies for integrating the use of off-site technologies are examined. It was crucial to establish an overall off-site strategy and integrate it into the process from land acquisition on. Organizational learning embraced the adoption of off-site methods, whereas extra reporting and management efforts introduced bureaucracy. Culture change was commonly perceived as difficult and painful. Earlier engagement with supply chains was advocated for favoring the off-site approach and improving business efficiency, whereas it also demanded greater commitment of the house builder to specific supply chains and therefore exposed the business to risks associated with planning and market changes. The strategies should facilitate building companies’ strategic management of off-site technology.

Establishing and Weighting Decision Criteria for Building System Selection in Housing Construction

A lack of value-based decision criteria leads to an inability to effectively compare prefabrication and off-site production with conventional construction, which inhibits the realization of benefits of off-site approaches. This paper develops value-based decision criteria and quantifies their relative importance for assessing building technologies systematically. The research employed a multimethodological strategy within a broad case-study-based design, with six large house-building organizations in the United Kingdom. These companies together accounted for more than one-tenth of new-build home completions in the United Kingdom. More than 50 criteria were developed, grouped under cost, time, quality, health and safety, sustainability, process, procurement, and regulatory and statutory acceptance. Cost was ranked most important, which, coupled with time and quality, predominated technology selection in these companies. Sustainability, process, and procurement were weighted lower, whereas health and safety and regulatory and statutory acceptance were deemed compulsory, hence offering no trade-off opportunity. A lack of incorporating innovative sustainable technology into corporate strategy was observed. The developed criteria and the systematic process should help house-building organizations manage technological innovation and hopefully achieve more informed corporate decisions.

Judging the fitness of on-site measurements by their uncertainty, including the contribution from sampling

Chemical measurements made on-site can be very effective in underpinning environmental decisions, but they are often mistrusted in favour of measurements made on samples removed off-site to a remote, usually accredited, laboratory. The uncertainty present in all measurements, wherever they are made, includes contributions from the sampling and sample preparation processes, and also from often unsuspected systematic errors. Once this total uncertainty has been estimated in a rigorous way under statistical control for each investigation, it is demonstrated using two case studies that on-site measurements can be fit for decision-making purposes. Uncertainty from sampling and sample preparation often dominates many measurement systems, whether they are based on-site or off-site, and makes the analytical contribution less critical for judging fitness. The value of this total uncertainty can be used to make a probabilistic, rather than deterministic, classification of the contamination. Uncertainty values can also be used to calculate how the measurement method can be modified to achieve an optimal value that it fit-for-purpose (e.g. using composite samples or measurements). The rapid availability of on-site measurements, together with known uncertainty, is shown to be capable of enabling equal reliability of decisions to the off-site approach, whilst minimising the cost of the decision making process. Challenges in estimating the uncertainty of on-site measurements are identified as (i) potential ambiguity in the true value that is being estimated (i.e. the measurand), and (ii) the fact that off-site lab measurements can have values of analytical precision that are larger than those quoted by the lab (e.g. 54% rather than 30% for TPH, at 95% confidence) and which make their use in the validation of on-site measurements problematic.

“In Line” Combined Storm and Wastewater Treatment System for Tropical Urban Drainage Catchments

This paper presents a conceptualized combined storm and wastewater treatment system for typical low income, high density drainage catchment similar to the case of Manila City. In many developing and tropical port cities in low-lying floodplains, local and regional floods and non sewered communities compound in a problem that manifests in surface water pollution. This results in particularly difficult situation to introduce major sewerage infrastructure and a centralized wastewater treatment system. Thus, to initiate and invite discussions on different and possible solutions is necessary to address the need to provide appropriate treatment systems in rapidly growing cities and urban populations. This paper aims to contribute to such discussions by suggesting possible treatment processes achievable in limited, under exploited spaces in urban drainage networks. Also the paper mentions systematic estimations relevant to assess and theoretically simulate suggested treatment system. Following Hvitved-Jacobsen etal (2002) recognition of the role of sewers as bioreactors, the proposed system takes reviewed physical and biological techniques to be installed parallel to the track of drainage channels that provides neither on-site nor off-site approaches, but “inline” treatment. Essentially, the system integrates sewers or drains in the entire treatment system. The estimated primary and secondary information on both physical and socio-economic parameters in the study site, and the adapted “alternative” principles of decentralized, small scale systems yielded a multiple site designs including the following treatment processes and units: 1) inline fine and micro screening; 2) vegetated submerged beds (VSB); 3) rotating biological contactors (RBC); and 4) “biotowers”. All were designed to capture and reduce typical wastewater constituents (TSS, BOD, TKN and Coliforms) continuously during “dry” and “average wet” conditions until year 2025. The system embodies an effective and alternative wastewater treatment system for Philippine effluent standards, replicable in other tropical urban drainage catchments.

Onsite Rapid Antenatal Syphilis Screening With an Immunochromatographic Strip Improves Case Detection and Treatment in Rural South African Clinics

Congenital syphilis is a significant cause of adverse pregnancy outcomes. In South Africa, rural clinics perform antenatal screening offsite, but unreliable transport and poor client follow up impede effective treatment. We compared 3 syphilis screening strategies at rural clinics: on-site rapid plasma reagin (RPR), on-site treponemal immunochromatographic strip (ICS) test, and the standard practice offsite RPR with Treponema pallidum hemagglutination assay (RPR/TPHA). Eight rural clinics performed the on-site RPR and ICS tests and provided immediate treatment. Results were compared with RPR/TPHA at a reference laboratory. Chart reviews at 8 standard practice clinics established diagnosis and treatment rates for offsite RPR/TPHA. Seventy-nine (6.3%) of 1,250 women screened on-site had active syphilis according to the reference laboratory. The on-site ICS resulted in the highest percentage of pregnant women correctly diagnosed and treated for syphilis (89.4% ICS, 63.9% on-site RPR, 60.8% offsite RPR/TPHA). The on-site RPR had low sensitivity (71.4% for high-titer syphilis). The offsite approach suffered from poor client return rates. One percent of women screened with the ICS may have received penicillin unnecessarily. There were no adverse treatment outcomes. The on-site ICS test can reduce syphilis-related adverse outcomes of pregnancy through accurate diagnosis and immediate treatment of pregnant women with syphilis.

A Palaeoenvironmental Investigation of Sediments from the Prehistoric Mine of Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, mid-Wales

This paper investigates the use of mine sediments to reconstruct the vegetational changes and atmospheric pollution history associated with prehistoric and Mediaeval metal mining in the Ystwyth valley, Dyfed, mid-Wales. Pollen, charcoal, plant macrofossils, fossil insects and chemical analyses are presented from radiocarbon-dated sediments contained within a prehistoric mine situated on the upper slope of Copa Hill, close to the village of Cwmystwyth. The results provide additional support to the hypothesis that prehistoric mining had a negligible impact on woodland and that deforestation took place after Bronze Age mining ceased. Although high concentrations of Cu, Pb and Zn were determined from sediments of prehistoric and Roman Age, the patterns bear little resemblance to off site atmospheric pollution records and to the archaeological evidence for metal mining. Interpreting geochemical data from mine contexts is problematic as numerous factors influence the distribution and concentration of metals. However, an on-site and off-site approach to investigate human-environment interactions caused by metal mining is advocated.