Safe Constructs Research Articles

Information Counselling Method and Family Counselling Among Mothers in Cross River State, Nigeria

This study was undertaken to investigate the Information counselling method and family planning method among mothers in Cross River State, Nigeria. Two research questions were drawn and two null hypotheses were generated to direct the variables under study. Also, relevant literature was reviewed in line with the research objectives with most of the literature supporting the theoretical framework. An ex-post facto design was adopted for the study. The selection was done through the sampling and purposive sampling techniques. The reliability estimate of the instrument was established through the Cronbach Alfa reliability method. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was the statistical analysis technique adopted to test the hypotheses under study. All hypotheses were subjected to testing at a .05 level of significance. From the data analysis, the researcher investigated the research and offered that in agreement with the study that pregnancy is one of the most critical and unique periods in a woman’s life cycle likewise, the researcher found that: Information counselling method and Family planning counselling methods are life-saving means for mothers to be safe during the course of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. The discussion revealed that information counselling methods and safe motherhood practices and use constructs from established counselling methods and safe motherhood practices on women of reproductive age.

Cultural Properties of Viruses and Design of Safe Recombinant Vaccines and Virus Gene Constructs on their Basis

Cultural Properties of Viruses and Design of Safe Recombinant Vaccines and Virus Gene Constructs on their Basis

Static stages for heterogeneous programming

Heterogeneous hardware is central to modern advances in performance and efficiency. Mainstream programming models for heterogeneous architectures, however, sacrifice safety and expressiveness in favor of low-level control over performance details. The interfaces between hardware units consist of verbose, unsafe APIs; hardware-specific languages make it difficult to move code between units; and brittle preprocessor macros complicate the task of specializing general code for efficient accelerated execution. We propose a unified low-level programming model for heterogeneous systems that offers control over performance, safe communication constructs, cross-device code portability, and hygienic metaprogramming for specialization. The language extends constructs from multi-stage programming to separate code for different hardware units, to communicate between them, and to express compile-time code optimization. We introduce static staging, a different take on multi-stage programming that lets the compiler generate all code and communication constructs ahead of time. To demonstrate our approach, we use static staging to implement BraidGL, a real-time graphics programming language for CPU-GPU systems. Current real-time graphics software in OpenGL uses stringly-typed APIs for communication and unsafe preprocessing to generate specialized GPU code variants. In BraidGL, programmers instead write hybrid CPU-GPU software in a unified language. The compiler statically generates target-specific code and guarantees safe communication between the CPU and the graphics pipeline stages. Example scenes demonstrate the language's productivity advantages: BraidGL eliminates the safety and expressiveness pitfalls of OpenGL and makes common specialization techniques easy to apply. The case study demonstrates how static staging can express core placement and specialization in general heterogeneous programming.

Shaping magnetic fields to direct therapy to ears and eyes.

Magnetic fields have the potential to noninvasively direct and focus therapy to disease targets. External magnets can apply forces on drug-coated magnetic nanoparticles, or on living cells that contain particles, and can be used to manipulate them in vivo. Significant progress has been made in developing and testing safe and therapeutic magnetic constructs that can be manipulated by magnetic fields. However, we do not yet have the magnet systems that can then direct those constructs to the right places, in vivo, over human patient distances. We do not yet know where to put the external magnets, how to shape them, or when to turn them on and off to direct particles or magnetized cells-in blood, through tissue, and across barriers-to disease locations. In this article, we consider ear and eye disease targets. Ear and eye targets are too deep and complex to be targeted by a single external magnet, but they are shallow enough that a combination of magnets may be able to direct therapy to them. We focus on how magnetic fields should be shaped (in space and time) to direct magnetic constructs to ear and eye targets.

A Novel Flexible Virtual Fixtures for Teleoperation

This paper proposed a novel spatial-motion-constraints virtual fixtures (VFs) method for the human-machine interface collaborative technique. In our method, two 3D flexible VFs have been presented: warning pipe and safe pipe. And a potential-collision-detection method based on two flexible VFs has been proposed. The safe pipe constructs the safe workspace dynamically for the robot, which makes it possible to detect the potential collision between the robot and the obstacles. By calculating the speed and the acceleration of the robot end-effecter (EE), the warning pipe can adjust its radius to detect the deviation from the EE to the reference path. These spatial constraints serve as constraint conditions for constrained robot control. The approach enables multiobstacle manipulation task of telerobot in precise interactive teleoperation environment. We illustrate our approach on a teleoperative manipulation task and analyze the performance results. The performance-comparison experimental results demonstrate that the control mode employing our method can assist the operator more precisely in teleoperative tasks. Due to the properties such as collision avoidance and safety, operators can complete the tasks more efficiently along with reduction in operating tension.

Spatial Motion Constraints Using Flexible Virtual Fixtures

To improve the performance of the multi-obstacle manipulation task of the telerobot in the precise interactive teleoperation environment, this paper proposes a novel spatial-motion-constraints virtual fixtures (VFs) method with two 3D flexible VFs, the warning pipe and the safe pipe, as well as a potential-collision-detection method based on these two flexible VFs. The safe pipe constructs the safe workspace dynamically for the robot while the warning one can detect the deviation from the EE to the reference path by adjusting the radius. Experiments show that the control mode employing our method can assist the operator more precisely in teleoperative tasks along with the reduction in the operating tension.

Comparison of Radiation Exposure in Lumbar Pedicle Screw Placement With Fluoroscopy Vs Computer-Assisted Image Guidance With Intraoperative Three-Dimensional Imaging

Background/objective: Little is known about the long-term effects of chronic exposure to ionizingradiation. Studies have shown that spine surgeons may be exposed to significantly more radiation than thatobserved in surgery on the appendicular skeleton. Computer-assisted image guidance systems have beenshown in preliminary studies to enable accurate instrumentation of the spine. Computer-assisted image guidance systems may havesignificant application to the surgical management of spinal trauma and deformity. The objective of this study was to compare C-arm fluoroscopy and computer-assisted imageguidance in terms of radiation exposure to the operative surgeon when placing pedicle screw-rod constructsin cadaver specimens.Methods: Twelve single-level (2 contiguous vertebral bodies) lumbar pedicle screw-rod constructs (48screws) in 4 fresh cadavers were placed using standard C-arm fluoroscopy and computer-assisted imageguidance (Stealth Station with lso-C3D ).Pedicle screw-rod constructs were placed at L1-L2, L3-L4, and L5-S1 in 4 fresh cadaver specimens. Imaging was alternated between C-arm fluoroscopy and computer-assistedimage guidance with Stealth Station lso-C3D. Radiation exposure was measured using ringand badge dosimeters to monitor the thyroid, torso, and index finger. Postprocedure CT scans were obtained to judge accuracy of screw placement.Results: Mean radiation exposure to the torso was 4.33 ± 2.66 mRemfor procedures performed with standard fluoroscopy and 0.33 ± 0.82 mRem for procedures performed with computer-assisted image guidance. This difference was statistically significant (P = 0.012). Radiation exposure to the index finger and thyroid was negligible for all procedures. The accuracy of screw placement was similar for both techniques.Conclusions: Computer-assisted image guidance systems allow for the safe and accurate placement ofpedicle screw-rod constructs with a significant reduction in exposure to ionizing radiation to the torso of theoperating surgeon.

Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes in Drug Design and Discovery

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been proposed and actively explored as multipurpose innovative carriers for drug delivery and diagnostic applications. Their versatile physicochemical features enable the covalent and noncovalent introduction of several pharmaceutically relevant entities and allow for rational design of novel candidate nanoscale constructs for drug development. CNTs can be functionalized with different functional groups to carry simultaneously several moieties for targeting, imaging, and therapy. Among the most interesting examples of such multimodal CNT constructs described in this Account is one carrying a fluorescein probe together with the antifungal drug amphotericin B or fluorescein and the antitumor agent methotrexate. The biological action of the drug in these cases is retained or, as in the case of amphotericin B constructs, enhanced, while CNTs are able to reduce the unwanted toxicity of the drug administered alone. Ammonium-functionalized CNTs can also be considered very promising vectors for gene-encoding nucleic acids. Indeed, we have formed stable complexes between cationic CNTs and plasmid DNA and demonstrated the enhancement of the gene therapeutic capacity in comparison to DNA alone. On the other hand, CNTs conjugated with antigenic peptides can be developed as a new and effective system for synthetic vaccine applications. What makes CNTs quite unique is their ability, first shown by our groups in 2004, to passively cross membranes of many different types of cells following a translocation mechanism that has been termed the nanoneedle mechanism. In that way, CNTs open innumerable possibilities for future drug discovery based on intracellular targets that have been hard to reach until today. Moreover, adequately functionalized CNTs as those shown in this Account can be rapidly eliminated from the body following systemic administration offering further encouragment for their development. CNT excretion rates and accumulation in organs and any reactivity with the immune system will determine the CNT safety profile and, consequently, any further pharmaceutical development. Caution is advised about the need for systematic data on the long-term fate of these very interesting and versatile nano-objects in correlation with the type of CNT material used. CNTs are gradually plyaing a bigger and more important role in the emerging field of nanomedicine; however, we need to guarantee that the great opportunities they offer will be translated into feasible and safe constructs to be included in drug discovery and development pipelines.

Safety Related Real Time Programming

Abstract Programs employed for purposes of safety critical control must be verified rigorously, i.e., subjected to formal safety licensing, which constitutes a very difficult and hitherto not satisfactorily solved problem. The essential issues and fundamental principles of safety related programs and computer applications are elaborated, and the importance of the human element in their development process is pointed out. At any time, utmost simplicity should be strived for, and self-discipline should be exercised. To each of the four safety integrity levels as defined by 1EC 61508-1 is assigned, respectively, a set of static and inherently safe language constructs, as well as a typical programming language or method, whose syntax enforces observation of the prevailing restrictions and rules. This is done in accordance with simplicity and comprehensibility of the verification methods available for the selected programming paradigms to meet the requirements of the individual safety integrity levels and, thus, the trustworthiness of the corresponding results. The programming methods cause/effect tables and function block diagrams on the basis of verified libraries assigned to the two upper safety integrity levels SIL 4 and SIL 3 are the only ones so far allowing, at the present state of the art, to verify automation software, which has to meet high safety requirements, in easy and economic ways. For the lower safety integrity levels, textual languages are introduced, viz., for SIL 2 a partial language enabling formal program verification, and for SIL 1 a static language with safe constructs for asynchronous multitasking. To formulate sequential function charts, an inherently safe language is defined.