Science Exploration Press

A large amount of medical equipment is now extensively utilized in healthcare institutions to assist clinical practitioners in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. And the applications of such advanced and sophisticated medical equipment have greatly improved the quality of patient care, significantly alleviated the sufferings of patients, and facilitated their rehabilitation. Nevertheless, failures and malfunctions of medical equipment have compromised its reliability and effectiveness as well as jeopardizing the safety of patients and clinical staffs. And a majority of the failures can be attributed to the insufficient and inappropriate maintenance. Therefore, it is imperative to implement effective maintenance management to ensure that medical equipment is in its optimal function, and thereby mitigating the clinical risk resulted by adverse events. The presented review mainly discussed the maintenance strategies of medical equipment including corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance. In order to replace the fixed-interval of preventive maintenance, we systematically discussed methods to adjust the maintenance period. Additionally, two strategies to predicting future failures of medical equipment through processing and analyzing the maintenance data obtained from the historical maintenance logs and condition data collected by the embedded sensors are elaborated. Besides, the classification and life cycle of medical equipment are also summarized.

The escalating demand for energy and resources in the construction industry, together with poor energy performance of existing buildings, pose challenges for sustainability. Despite the incorporation of advanced technologies in modern construction to reduce energy consumption, a significant number of buildings are yet to adopt sustainable practices, owing to lack of awareness about potential technologies, and the considerations for selection. To this end, the current study aims to survey commercial buildings to explore the technologies implemented together with the basis that influenced the implementation. A detailed survey including semi-structured interviews with professionals engaged in the selected non-domestic buildings were conducted. The selected buildings comprise three (3) certified retrofit, eight (8) certified new and seven (7) non-certified green. The findings show that the buildings have incorporated 54 different technologies under the main sustainability criteria of water efficiency, lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, indoor environmental quality, and sustainable site. Advanced technologies, such as free cooling appliances, on-site wastewater treatments, and water-efficient climate-tolerant plantings, were predominantly found in green-certified buildings, while non-certified buildings tend to adopt more universally applicable and accessible technologies, like LED lighting, compact fluorescent lamps, and low-flow plumbing fixtures. The paper presents a detailed analysis on use of technologies with different building function, green rating levels, and challenges faced. Hence, the study findings would facilitate technology adaptation for a given context by providing insights into the availability and adaptability of green retrofit technologies in the Sri Lankan context for non-domestic buildings.

Construction organizations in developing nations constantly lag in embracing changes in innovation, environmental sustainability, and safety, amongst others. Their contributions to environmental degradation, resulting in health-related consequences for construction stakeholders, are also alarming. Implementing environmental management tools such as environmental management systems (EMS) is often advocated to address the negative environmental impacts of construction organizations. Construction firms in developed nations have embraced EMS and implemented it to enhance construction business, environmental performance, and construction workers’ health, while similar evidence is not recorded in developing nations. Therefore, this study investigated the barriers to EMS implementation through a survey of construction professionals in the Nigerian construction industry. 106 valid data were analyzed using factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha test, and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE). The results of the factor analysis revealed four groups of barriers to EMS implementation, which are prioritized in the order of knowledge-related, stakeholders-related, process-related, and cultural-related barriers with FSE. The relationships between the four classes of barriers were determined using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) in which “knowledge-related barriers” are indicated as the core barrier to EMS implementation. To address the barriers to EMS implementation, organizing training, providing the needed resources for environmental education, collaborating with construction stakeholders, providing a reward system, and others were recommended. This study contributes theoretically and practically to environmental-related discourses in the construction industry. Theoretically, utilizing FSE provides an interesting insight that acknowledges the unique challenges of developing nations in the domain. Practically, this study gives an actionable focus for construction stakeholders to domesticate EMS within the local construction environment, thereby improving knowledge of the importance of environmental sustainability and pro-environmental behaviors.

Continuous improvement in industrial processes has made efficient internal material transportation critical. This study presents a decision support system for tracking internal transportation vehicles and providing effective inner logistics management. The proposed model includes a barcoding based transportation vehicle tracking system, a forecasting model for daily transportation demands of different buildings and presents a predictive demand-vehicle assignment mathematical model. Results show that the model reduces the operational costs due to vehicle search and vehicle transportation, and material damage costs due to vehicle-material mismatch at a great extent.

This study evaluates the economic efficiency and viability of optimizing hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) for zero-energy buildings (ZEBs) in remote communities, with a specific focus on Ankara, Turkey, in response to the increasing demand for renewable energy driven by concerns over fossil fuel scarcity, environmental sustainability, and rising conventional energy costs. Using the Hybrid Optimization Model for Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) program, known for its advanced algorithms that accurately model and optimize hybrid systems by considering factors such as weather data, load profiles, and equipment specifications, we perform a comprehensive techno-economic analysis. We explore five different HRES configurations, combining photovoltaic (PV) panels, wind turbines (WT), diesel generators (DG), and battery storage systems, to determine the most cost-effective and reliable solution for powering approximately 30 rural households. The analysis reveals that the optimal configuration includes 107 kW of PV, three 10 kW WT, a 10 kW DG, and 45 units of 7.15 kWh batteries, demonstrating a net present cost (NPC) of $568,431 and a cost of energy (COE) of $0.257/kWh. This setup achieves significant annual energy production of 165,068 kWh from PV, 96,329 kWh from WT, and 27,100 kWh from DG. This configuration maintains a high state of charge (SoC) in the battery storage, ensuring system stability and extending the battery lifespan. The system's ability to consistently meet load demands with minimal reliance on the DG highlights its superior techno-economic synergy compared to other scenarios. Sensitivity analysis reveals that a doubling of fuel prices increases COE by 14% and NPC by 13%, while a 40% reduction in PV and WT capital costs decreases COE and NPC by approximately 16% and 18%, respectively. Furthermore, declining expenses associated with PV and WT installations emphasize the ongoing affordability of renewable energy solutions. These results provide valuable insights for the deployment of cost-effective and reliable HRES in similar remote locations, contributing to the broader goal of sustainable energy solutions for ZEBs.

Where previously the thermal indoor climate in a Dutch office was mainly assessed on the basis of sedentary activities, one must now also take into account activities associated with a higher metabolic rate to improve health by reducing sitting. This subject is receiving attention in the Netherlands; so in the context of the Well certification of buildings for instance. Several studies show that the deviation between the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and the experimental results increases as the temperature and/or the activity increases. This technical note is a proposal to modify the calculation of the PMV for metabolisms up to 2.1 met, on the warm side of the thermal sensation scale, in the same way as Fanger describes in his thesis, using research results as they are currently available in the literature, excluding the adaptive thermal comfort aspect.