Advances in Research

Since the past two decades, there has been a constant increase in upper quadrant body pain among people of different age groups. Taking view of the effectiveness of heat therapy in curing pain, the present study was undertaken to develop reheatable thermo jackets using heating gel packs. A functional design consisting of pockets for insertion of gel packs in thermo jacket was created digitally. The jacket was developed using casement and PVC fabrics. Two jackets, one for male and female respectively were developed with variation in colours. To study the effectiveness of the developed jackets on the basis of functionality and cost, ten respondents suffering from upper quadrant pain were selected purposively and jacket was given to each one of them to use for five days. The results revealed that 60 percent male and 80 percent female respondents found the jacket to be extremely comfortable and relieved them off their pain even while at work. Majority of the respondents did not face any problem in heating and placing gel packs in the jacket and more than 60 percent of them were highly relieved from their pain and found the jackets to be functionally and cost effective. The jacket was highly appreciated by respondents as it proved to be a multi pain relaxer for them while the selected experts opined that jackets retained the heat of gel packs for a longer duration as compared to other commercially available substitutes.

In this study, the possibilities of drying the spices in Kahramanmaraş at the scale of the Red Pepper on a scale with plastic-covered high tunnel greenhouse type dryer were investigated. For this purpose, the red pepper was cut into two pieces, the seed house was removed and the shelves were placed in the vertical direction with 30 cm intervals in which the shelves were arranged at intervals of 2, 3, 4 and 5 kg / m² density of the shelves in the greenhouse were layered in thin layers. The drying was continued until a fifth of the mass of the material laid on the shelves was reduced. This time corresponds to the first five to six hours of drying. The ambient temperature rises to 55-65°C during the whole day. The products are dried in 26-27 hours in drying trials in first and second. Products which dried in the greenhouse have been exposed to approximately 2-4% more moisture loss than the products that are dried on a shelf 50 cm high from the ground. It has been determined that the optimum loading capacity can be increased to 187.5 kg in terms of technical and economic performance criteria taken into consideration in the red pepper drying study carried out in 3 different periods. If the floor area and height of the plastic tunnel are evaluated effectively and furthermore, this figure will increase in a commercial tunnel of plastic. On the other hand, according to the results obtained in the first period with the optimum loading capacity calculated, it is determined that the plastic tunnel dryer can meet the first investment, operation and fixed expenses in a season and it is a profitable investment.

In this paper, closed forms of the summation formulas for generalized Fibonacci and Gaussian generalized Fibonacci numbers are presented. Then, some previous results are recovered as particular cases of the present results. As special cases, we give summation formulas of Fibonacci, Lucas, Pell, Pell-Lucas, Jacobsthal, Jacobsthal-Lucas numbers and Gaussian Fibonacci, Gaussian Lucas, Gaussian Pell, Gaussian Pell-Lucas, Gaussian Jacobsthal, Gaussian Jacobsthal-Lucas numbers.

Background: Hypertension is a worldwide public-health challenge and one of a leading modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease and death.

Aims: The aim of this study was compare parameter estimations using both Bayesian and classical approaches and to detect out potential factors that affects survival probability of hypertension patient’s under follow up.

Materials and Methods: A simple random sampling technique was used to select 430 patients among a total of 2126 hypertension patients who had been under follow up at Yekatit-12 Hospital in Ethiopia from January 2013 to January 2019. Parametric distributions: Exponential, Weibull, Lognormal and loglogistic are studied to analysis survival probabilities of the patients in both Bayesian and classical approaches. The model selection criteria are employed to identify the model with best fit to the data. Bayesian estimation approach was smaller deviance information criteria as compare to classical estimation approaches for the current data set.

Results and Conclusion: The analysis Bayesian Weibull results indicate that the baseline age of the patient, gender, family history of hypertension, tobacco use, alcohol use, khat intake, blood cholesterol level of the patient, hypertension disease stage, adherence to the treatment and related disease were significantly associated with survival time of hypertension patients. Patients with raised blood Cholesterol level at baseline tend to have shorter survival time as compare to one with normal blood cholesterol level at baseline. Society and all stakeholders should be aware of the consequences of these factors which can influence the survival time of hypertension patients.

Radiometric survey of the granitic quarry site at Ishiagu and its environment was done using two radiation monitors and geographical positioning system (GPS) for GIS mapping. In-situ measurement of exposure rate was carried out following the international standard organizational standard between May 2018 and June 2019. The measured average exposure rates ranged from 0.010± 0.002 to 0.038 ± 0.003 mRh^-1 with mean value of 0.026 ±0.005 mRh^-1. The estimated outdoor absorbed dose rate ranged from 87.0 to 330.6 nGyh^-1 with mean value of 228.38 nGyh^-1. The equivalent dose rate ranges from 0.84 to 3.20 mSvy^-1 with mean value of 2.21 mSvy^-1. The mean annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE) calculated was 0.28 mSvy^-1 while the mean excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) was 0.98 x 10^-3. The estimated annual effective dose to different organs showed that the testes have the highest annual effective  dose of 0.191 mSvy^-1 followed by ovaries and kidney of 0.135 and 0.139 mSvy^-1 respectively while the liver has the lowest annual effective  dose of 0.103 mSvy^-1. The radiation contour map of the area showed the distribution of radiation of high and low areas. The result showed that the radiation exposure rate and its associated radiological risk parameters exceeded the safe limits prescribed by ICRP and also the values reported in literatures. However, these values may not constitute acute health risk but long term exposure of residents and workers may be detrimental to their health. Therefore adequate monitoring of this quarry site is necessary to checkmate the exposure rate and provide some protective measures for quarry workers.