Awareness and perspectives of audiologists on assessment and management of misophonia in India

Background:The assessment and management of misophonia need a team approach,and audiologists are essential team members.However,the role of an audiologist in this condition is not well understood,and there is a lack of awareness even among professionals about their role in the assessment and management of misophonia.Purpose:The main aim of our study is to document the present level of awareness and knowledge about misophonia assessment and management among audiologists in India.Methods:A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among audiologists from all over India.Descriptive statistical procedures were measured based on the type of questions being addressed,and a non-parametric chi-square test was done to see the association among variables.Results:The results show a lack of knowledge about misophonia even among audiologists,as only 15.3%of the audiologist reported being confident in handling cases with misophonia.Conclusion:Although the exact assessment and management of misophonia is still the topic of debate,it is clear that audiologists are the team's key members.However,the results clearly show a lack of confidence in handling cases of misophonia among audiologists in India.This result shows the future need for Research in misophonia from an audiological perspective.

The comparison and integration analysis of Strategic Performance Management assessment tool

Performance appraisal is one of the commonly used modern human resource management tools. Many companies which developed to a certain stage began to introduce performance management. But a lot of friends in human resources circles always hold a controversy on the effectiveness of performance management. In fact, there are problems on the methods and assessment scales. I personally think that a lot of companies use performance appraisal problem mainly occurs due to the presence misunderstanding the purpose of business resulting from the introduction of performance appraisal. For example： taking the wrong assessment methods, there is no breakdown of the work in advance, nor performed posts and responsibilities ; performance appraisal way to take a negative incentive, the employees complained of performance ; lack of strategic height of human resource management, performance appraisal that can not be linked with the actual situation. The following analysis of several performance evaluation methods and its influence is from the perspective of human resources. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and also has different emphases. I want to share it with everyone and hope everyone can learn something from it.

System for the Management of the Continuity of Use of Medical Devices in Hospitals

The Technical Services and the Medical Administration of the Hospitals of Trieste have been working for years to ensure the optimal functioning of the Surgery, Intensive Care, Diagnostics and Research Services offered to the Patients and to the University in an 800-bed hospital complex, transforming and innovating the buildings and support installations. We have dedicated special attention to the technologies necessary to guarantee the continuity of the power supply to the electromedical devices, increasingly numerous in highly specialized hospitals. We report the power of the generator sets and the UPS and our opinion that their power must be related to the overall consumption of the hospital, with a reserve margin.

Coastal geomorphic evolution at the Denglou Cape, the Leizhou Peninsula

The Denglou Cape, southwest of the Leizhou Peninsula, is the most typical tropical coast in the continent of China.The coastal geomorphic development basics of the geology and Quaternary environment change are discussed. Aerial photograph interpretation with fieldwork is applied to draw the outlines of geomorphic types. Based on the investigative data, the exogenic forces and marine organism conditions concerning tropical coast development in the area are expounded, and coastal dynamo-deposition geomorphic bodies are analysed, mainly with sea cliff-abrasion platform,barrier-lagoon system, modern beach, coral reef and mangrove tidal flat, and the general process of coastal evolution at this area, as well as coastline changes since middle Holocene transgression.

Assessment and management of the performance risk of a pilot reclaimed water disinfection process

Chlorination disinfection has been widely used in reclaimed water treatment plants to ensure water quality. In order to assess the downstream quality risk of a running reclaimed water disinfection process, a set of dynamic equations was developed to simulate reactions in the disinfection process concerning variables of bacteria, chemical oxygen demand （COD）, ammonia and monochloramine. The model was calibrated by the observations obtained from a pilot disinfection process which was designed to simulate the actual process in a reclaimed water treatment plant. A Monte Carlo algorithm was applied to calculate the predictive effluent quality distributions that were used in the established hierarchical assessment system for the downstream quality risk, and the key factors affecting the downstream quality risk were defined using the Regional Sensitivity Analysis method. The results showed that the seasonal upstream quality variation caused considerable downstream quality risk; the effluent ammonia was significantly influenced by its upstream concentration; the upstream COD was a key factor determining the process effluent risk of bacterial, COD and residual disinfectant indexes; and lower COD and ammonia concentrations in the infiuent would mean better downstream quality.

Areas vulnerable to natural disasters and damage estimation of infrastructure in Busan, Korea

Since the damages caused by disasters associated with climate anomalies and the diversification of the social structure increase every year, an efficient management system associated with a damage assessment of the areas vulnerable to disasters is demanded to prevent or mitigate the damages to infrastructure. The areas vulnerable to disasters in Busan, located at southeastern part of Korea, were estimated based on historical records of damages and a risk assessment of the infrastructure was performed to provide fundamental information prior to the establishment of the real-time monitoring system for infrastructure and establish disaster management system. The results are illustrated by using geographical information system(GIS) and provide the importance of the roadmap for comprehensive and specific strategy to manage natural disasters.

A Water Line Network Failure Application of Network Design Problems

This study investigated a water supply recovery problem involving municipal water service piping. The problem consisted in recovering full service after network failure, in order to rapidly satisfy all urgent citywide demands. The optimal recovery solution was achieved through the application of so-called network design problems （NDPs）, which are a form of combinatorial optimization problem. However, a conventional NDP is not suitable for addressing urgent situations because （1） it does not utilize the non-failure arcs in the network, and （2） it is solely concerned with stable costs such as flow costs. Therefore, to adapt the technique to such urgent situations, the conventional NDP is here modified to deal with the specified water supply problem. In addition, a numerical illustration using the Sendai water network is presented.

Towards an integrated risk analysis security framework according to a systematic analysis of existing proposals

The information society depends increasingly on risk assessment and management systems as means to adequately protect its key information assets.The availability of these systems is now vital for the protection and evolution of companies.However,several factors have led to an increasing need for more accurate risk analysis approaches.These are:the speed at which technologies evolve,their global impact and the growing requirement for companies to collaborate.Risk analysis processes must consequently adapt to these new circumstances and new technological paradigms.The objective of this paper is,therefore,to present the results of an exhaustive analysis of the techniques and methods offered by the scientific community with the aim of identifying their main weaknesses and providing a new risk assessment and management process.This analysis was carried out using the systematic review protocol and found that these proposals do not fully meet these new needs.The paper also presents a summary of MARISMA,the risk analysis and management framework designed by our research group.The basis of our framework is the main existing risk standards and proposals,and it seeks to address the weaknesses found in these proposals.MARISMA is in a process of continuous improvement,as is being applied by customers in several European and American countries.It consists of a risk data management module,a methodology for its systematic application and a tool that automates the process.

Travel time reliability with and without the dynamic use of hard shoulder:Field assessment from a French motorway

Traffic management aims to ensure a high quality of service for most users by decreasing congestion and increasing safety. However, uncertainty regarding travel time decreases the quality of service and leads end-users to change their routes and schedules even when the average travel time is low, Indicators describing travel time reliability are being developed and should be used in the future both for the optimization and the assessment of active traffic management operation. This paper describes a managed lane experience on a motorway weaving section in France - hard shoulder running operation in rush hours. The paper is focused on travel time reliability indicators and their use for reliability assessment. It provides some discussions about the advantages and drawbacks of reliability indicators under different traffic conditions. It particularly shows the difference between using buffer times and buffer indexes. The paper also discusses the difficulty of interpreting the skew of travel time distribution for travel reliability,

Forty hours with a traumatic carotid transection： A diagnostic caveat and review of the contemporary management of penetrating neck trauma

Although penetrating neck trauma （PNT） is uncommon, it is associated with the significant morbidity and mortality. The management of PNT has changed significantly over the past 50 years. A radiological assessment now is a vital part of the management with a traditional surgical exploration. A 22 years old male was assaulted by a screwdriver and sustained multiple penetrating neck injuries. A contrast CT scan revealed a focal pseudoaneurysm in the left common carotid artery bulb. There was no active bleeding or any other vascular injuries and the patient remained haemodynamically stable. In view of these findings, he was initially managed conservatively without an open surgical exploration. However, the patient was noted to have an acute drop in his hemoglobin count overnight post injury and the catheter directed angiography showed active bleeding from the pseudoaneurysm. Surgical exploration 40 hours following the initial injury revealed a penetrating injury through both arterial walls of the left carotid bulb which was repaired with a great saphenous vein patch. A percutaneous drain was inserted in the carotid tri- angle and a course of intravenous antibiotics for five days was commenced. The patient recovered well with no complications and remained asymptomatic at five months followup.

The effects of information platform-based nursing on preventing venous thromboembolism in patients with hip fractures

Purpose:Venous thromboembolism(VTE)is a major health issue among hip fracture patients.This study aimed to develop an information platform based on a mobile application and then evaluate whether information platform-based nursing could improve patient’’s drug compliance and reduce the incidence of VTE in hip fracture patients.Methods:This study retrospectively analyzed hip fracture patients who were treated with conventional prevention and intervention methods for VTE(control group)between January 2008 and November 2012,and prospectively analyzed hip fracture patients who were treated with nursing intervention based on the information platform(study group)between January 2016 and September 2017.All the patients included in the both groups were hip fracture patients who had an age over 50 years,treated with surgery,and hospitalized≥48 h.Patients were excluded if they admitted to hospital due to old fractures,had a severe bleeding after 72 h of admission,diagnosed with any type of VTE,or refused to participate in the study.The information platform was divided into medical,nursing,and patient interface.Based on the information platform,medical practitioners and nurses could perform risk assessments,monitoring management and early warnings,preventions and treatments,health educations,follow-up,and other aspects of nursing interventions for patients.This study compared essential characteristics,drug compliance,VTE occurrence,and mean length of hospitalization between the two groups.Besides,a subgroup analysis was performed in the study group according to different drug compliances.SPSS 18.0 software(IBM Corp.,NY,and USA)was used for statistical analysis.Results:Altogether 1177 patients were included in the control group,and 491 patients in the study group.Regarding baseline data,patients in the study group had more morbidities than those in the control group(p<0.05).The difference of drug compliance between the two groups was statistically significant(p<0.001):761(64.7%)of the patients in the control group and only 30(6.1%)patients in the study group had poor drug compliance.In terms of VTE,10.7%patients(126/1177)in the control group had VTE,and the rate in the study group was 7.1%(35/491),showing a statistically significant difference(p=0.02).Moreover,the average length of hospitalization in the study group was also significantly lower than that in the control group(10.4 daysvs.13.7 days,p<0.001).Subgroup analyses of the study group showed that the incidence of VTE in patients with poor,partial,and good compliances were 56.7%(17/30),5.8%(10/171),and 2.8%(8/290),respectively,revealing a significantly huge difference(p<0.001).Conclusions:Poor drug compliance leads to higher VTE occurrence.The information platform-based nursing can effectively improve the compliance of hip fracture patients and thus considerably reduce the incidence of VTE.The mobile application may be an effective tool to prevent VTE in hip fracture patients.