Do We Really Need Hazard Prevention at the Expense of Safeguarding Death Dignity in COVID-19?

To date, little is known regarding the transmission risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection for subjects involved in handling, transporting, and examining deceased persons with known or suspected COVID-19 positivity at the time of death. This experimental study aims to define if and/or how long SARS-CoV-2 persists with replication capacity in the tissues of individuals who died with/from COVID-19, thereby generating infectious hazards. Sixteen patients who died with/from COVID-19 who underwent autopsy between April 2020 and April 2021 were included in this study. Based on PMI, all samples were subdivided into two groups: ‘short PMI’ group (eight subjects who were autopsied between 12 to 72 h after death); ‘long PMI’ (eight subjects who were autopsied between 24 to 78 days after death). All patients tested positive for RT-PCR at nasopharyngeal swab both before death and on samples collected during post-mortem investigation. Moreover, a lung specimen was collected and frozen at −80 °C in order to perform viral culture. The result was defined based on the cytopathic effect (subjective reading) combined with the positivity of the RT-PCR test (objective reading) in the supernatant. Only in one sample (PMI 12 h), virus vitality was demonstrated. This study, supported by a literature review, suggests that the risk of cadaveric infection in cases of a person who died from/with COVID-19 is extremely low in the first hours after death, becoming null after 12 h after death, confirming the World Health Organization (WHO) assumed in March 2020 and suggesting that the corpse of a subject who died from/with COVID-19 should be generally considered not infectious.

A Cross Sectional Study to Assess Agility Skills of Kumite Karate Players Aged 15-20 Years in Mumbai Suburban Area

Background: Karate is one of the most popular martial arts, and it describes the fact that it involves the use of kicks, punches, and blocking techniques. Kumite is the term used for sparring with an opponent. Agility is defined as combination of speed of the movements with quick changes in the directions along with good body control. Agility tests are best used for diagnostic purpose to determine which karate athlete is the most agile, and which one requires more additional practice to perform better. Hence, the aim of this study was to evaluate agility in kumite karate players using Illinois Agility Test and T-drill test. Objective: To evaluate speed of movement, zigzag crossing of kumite karate players, speed, lateral movement and coordination using Illinois agility test and T-drill test respectively. Materials and Methods: 100 kumite karate players (60 males; 40 females) were selected on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria and consent was taken. Subjective details and demographic data were obtained prior to the agility testing. Illinois agility test and T-drill test were performed. The data was obtained and statistically analysed. Result: Data was collected and then mean and standard deviation was analysed for demographic data such as age (17.43±1.74 years), height (1.65±5.46 cm), weight (53.91±6.04 kg), BMI (19.80±1.36 kg/m²), IAT score (17.58±1.44 seconds) and T-drill test score (10.50±0.92 seconds). Correlation values of BMI and IAT is 0.866 & that of BMI and T-drill is 0.904. Conclusion: Agility was better in male players than females because male players have more strength, power, more muscle mass and less body fat. Key words: Agility, Karate, Kumite, Illinois agility test, T-drill test.

Predictive Maintenance and Sensitivity Analysis for Equipment with Multiple Quality States

This paper discusses the predictive maintenance (PM) problem of a single equipment system. It is assumed that the equipment has deteriorating quality states as it operates, resulting in multiple yield levels represented as system observation states. We cast the equipment deterioration as discrete-state and continuous-time semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) model and solve the SMDP problem in reinforcement learning (RL) framework using the strategy-based method. In doing so, the goal is to maximize the system average reward rate (SARR) and generate the optimal maintenance strategy for given observation states. Further, the PM time is capable of being produced by a simulation method. In order to prove the advantage of our proposed method, we introduce the standard sequential preventive maintenance algorithm with unequal time interval. Our proposed method is compared with the sequential preventive maintenance algorithm in a test objective of SARR, and the results tell us that our proposed method can outperform the sequential preventive maintenance algorithm. In the end, the sensitivity analysis of some parameters on the PM time is given.

Importance of sensory evaluation in assessment of egg quality

The sensory evaluation is a scientific discipline used to evoke, measure, analyze and interpret reactions to stimuli perceived through senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Sensory evaluation applies principles of experimental design and statistical analysis to the use of human senses aiming to isolate the sensory properties of foods themselves and provide important and useful information to product developers, food scientists, and managers about the sensory characteristics of food products. To achieve the scientific control of the sensory evaluation test, good laboratory practice should be applied. It includes defining the test objective and test type, selection of right assessors, ensuring right test area, handling and preparing the sample in appropriate way, paying attention to test set-up and storing the test data safe in logical order. Regarding eggs, sensory characteristics are usually evaluated on eggs enriched with bioactive compounds. Sensory studies are often conducted either with trained (in accordance with international reference standards) or untrained panelists. Sensory evaluation of eggs after addition of different compounds is of great importance because sensory attributes such as aroma, flavor, aftertaste and overall acceptability of enriched eggs are very important to consumers.

Security Policies a Formal Environment for a Test Cases Generation

Specifying a security policy (SP) is a challenging task in the development of secure communication systems since it is the bedrock of any security strategy. Paradoxically, this specification is error prone and can lead to an inadequate SP regarding the security needs. Therefore, it seems necessary to define an environment allowing one to “trust” the implemented SP. A testing task aims verifying whether an implementation is conforming to its specification. Test is generally achieved by generating and executing test cases. Some automated testing tools can be used from which model checkers. In fact, given a system modeling and a test objective, the model checker can generate a counterexample from which test cases can be deduced. The main proposition of this chapter is then a formal environment for SP test cases generation based on a system modeling, a SP specification (test purpose), and the use of a model checker. Once generated, these test cases must be improved in order to quantify their effectiveness to detect SP flaws. This is made through the generation of mutants.

Performance of the Pentagon Drawing test for the screening of older adults with Alzheimer's dementia

ABSTRACT The Pentagon Drawing Test (PDT) is a common cognitive screening test. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate performance properties of a specific PDT scoring scale in older adults with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and healthy controls. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 390 elderly patients, aged 60 years or older with at least two years of education was conducted. All participants completed clinical and neuropsychological evaluations, including the Cambridge Cognitive Examination, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Clock Drawing Test. All PDT were blindly scored with the scale of Bourke et al. Results: PDT analyses of the binary score on the MMSE (0 or 1 point) did not discriminate AD from controls (p = 0.839). However, when PDT was analyzed using the Bourke et al. scale, the two groups could be distinguished (p <0.001). PDT was not affected by education, showed sensitivity of 85.5% and specificity of 66.9%, discriminated different clinical stages of dementia, and correlated with the other cognitive tests (p <0.001). A 1-point difference on the Bourke et al. scale was associated with an odds ratio of 3.46 for AD. Conclusion: PDT can be used as a cognitive screen for suspected cases of dementia, especially AD, irrespective of educational level.

Investigating the Content Validity of the Junior Middle School Entrance English Testing

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the content validity of the Junior Middle School Entrance English Testing. To understand the extent to which the test is consistent with the National Curriculum Standards, the qualitative and quantitative methods were implemented in this study, through the comparative analysis of the whole article’s items, and combined with the characteristic of the communicative language task to seek out whether the test content is relevant to the test objective, and to what extent it is representative. The most important thing is to find out whether the test content is suitable for the test object and to what extent. The results showed that the Junior Middle School Entrance English Test to some extent matches the syllabus, meanwhile, there are still some issues to exist. Finally, some suggestions were put forward by the author.

Characterization of Different Adhesives for Bonding Thermal Protection System (TPS) on a Space Crew Capsule

This paper demonstrates a unique application of DIC wherein the structural performance and structural integrity have been evaluated together almost in real-time. The results obtained from the ground level tests, simulating the bonding between the TPS to the base structure of a space crew module, are reported to find the adequacy of two different adhesives prior to actual bonding. The test objective was to characterize the adhesives based on the structural performance (deflection and strain behavior) of the TPS and conduct health monitoring in real-time (i.e. abort the test whenever the TPS fails). The dual objective could be met using DIC in a full-field and non-contact manner, which was essential due to the limitations of the contacting type measurements.