ALBERT

Description: IJERPH, Vol. 15, Pages 1495: Nurses’ Attitudes toward, and Needs for Online Learning: Differences between Rural and Urban Hospitals in Shanghai, East China International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph15071495 Authors: Weijie Xing Linjun Ao Huiting Xiao Li Cheng Yan Liang Junqiao Wang Health professionals need continuing education to maintain their qualifications and competency. Online learning increases the accessibility and flexibility of continuing education. Assessment of nurses’ attitudes toward, and needs for, online learning can provide suggestions regarding learning program design and delivery. This study aimed to evaluate Chinese nurses’ attitudes toward, and needs for, online learning, and to explore the differences in attitudes and needs between nurses working in rural and urban hospitals. This work is a secondary analysis of a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in Shanghai in 2015 (n = 550). Multiple regression techniques were used to determine the factors associated with nurses’ attitudes toward, and needs for, online learning. Results showed that nurses in rural hospitals had more positive attitudes toward online learning (102.7 ± 14.2) than those in urban hospitals (98.3 ± 12.9) (p < 0.001). For rural hospitals, nurses who could use computers and access the internet in their workplace reported more positive attitudes than those who could not. For urban hospitals, nurse educators showed significantly more positive attitudes than others. Communication skills (86.5%) and patient education (86.3%) were the most commonly-reported learning needs for nurses regardless of their working settings. Chinese nurses were willing to adopt online learning as a continuing education method. Nurses working in rural hospitals displayed more positive attitudes toward, and needs for, online learning than those working in urban hospitals. Nursing educators and managers should develop online learning programs and provide appropriate support to fulfill nurses’ learning needs, especially for those working in rural healthcare settings.

Description: Energies, Vol. 11, Pages 1875: The Geometry Effect of Cathode/Anode Areas Ratio on Electrochemical Performance of Button Fuel Cell Using Mixed Conducting Materials Energies doi: 10.3390/en11071875 Authors: Daifen Chen Biao Hu Kai Ding Cheng Yan Liu Lu Intermediate temperature (IT) fuel cells using mixed conducting materials have been reported by many researchers by adopting different compositions, microstructures, manufacture processes and testing conditions. Most iop-Vop relationships of these button electrochemical devices are experimentally achieved based on anode or cathode surface area (i.e., Aan≠Aca). In this paper, a 3D multi-physics model for a typical IT solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that carefully considers detail electrochemical reaction, electric leakage, and e−, ion and gas transporting coupling processes has been developed and verified to study the effect of Aca/Aan on button cell iop-Vop performance. The result shows that the over zone of the larger electrode can enhance charges and gas transport capacities within a limited scale of only 0.03 cm. The over electrode zone exceed this width would be inactive. Thus, the active zone of button fuel cell is restricted within the smaller electrode area min(Aan, Aca) due to the relative large disc radius and thin component layer. For a specified Vop, evaluating the responded iop by dividing output current Iop with min(Aan, Aca) for a larger value is reasonable to present real performance in the current device scale of cm. However, while the geometry of button cells or other electrochemical devices approach the scale less than 100 μm, the effect of over electrode zone on electrochemical performance should not be ignored.

Description: Objective: Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. However, few data on occupational and environmental risk factors of asthma are available, particularly in Asian adults. Based on a national cross-sectional survey, we assessed the prevalence and risk factors of asthma in Chinese adults. Methods: A total of 9974 participants aged 15 years and over in seven Chinese cities were selected using a stratified four-stage random sampling. All participants were interviewed face-to-face in their homes using a standardized self-administered questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were adopted to determine various risk factors for asthma. Results: The prevalence of self-reported lifetime asthma was 2.46% among the entire adult population, 3.02% among males and 1.93% among females. The prevalence varied by age group, ethnicity, marital status, education, and floor space per person (p 〈 0.05). After adjusting for socio-demographic variables and smoking, we found independent occupational and environmental determinants of asthma, including a clearance-related job (OR = 2.28, 95%CI: 1.07–4.89), occupational exposure to industrial or occupational poisonous gas (OR = 4.21, 95%CI: 2.43–7.30), having large amounts of carpet in the workplace (OR = 2.61, 95%CI: 1.20–5.69) and using coal for cooking (OR = 2.65, 95%CI: 1.26–5.57). Conclusions: Asthma is a serious public health problem in China. Our study provides important updated information on the prevalence of asthma and its associated risk factors, which may help us better understand the epidemiology of asthma and prevent this disorder.

Description: Sensors, Vol. 17, Pages 2429: Fiber-Optic Point-Based Sensor Using Specklegram Measurement Sensors doi: 10.3390/s17102429 Authors: Jiao-Jiao Wang Shao-Cheng Yan Ya-Ping Ruan Fei Xu Yan-Qing Lu Here, we report a fiber-optic point-based sensor to measure temperature and weight based on correlated specklegrams induced by spatial multimode interference. The device is realized simply by splicing a multimode fiber (MMF) to a single-mode fiber (SMF) with a core offset. A series of experiments demonstrates the approximately linear relation between the correlation coefficient and variation. Furthermore, we show the potential applications of the refractive index sensing of our device by disconnecting the splicing point of MMF and SMF. A modification of the algorithm in order to improve the sensitivity of the sensor is also discussed at the end of the paper.

Description: IJERPH, Vol. 15, Pages 1241: Burden of Common Childhood Diseases in Relation to Improved Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) among Nigerian Children International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph15061241 Authors: Zhifei He Ghose Bishwajit Dongsheng Zou Sanni Yaya Zhaohui Cheng Yan Zhou Having access to improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities constitute a key component of healthy living and quality of life. Prolonged exposure to insanitary living conditions can significantly enhance the burden of infectious diseases among children and affect nutritional status and growth. In this study we examined the prevalence of some common infectious diseases/disease symptoms of childhood among under-five children in Nigeria, and the association between the occurrence of these diseases with household’s access to WASH facilities. Types of diseases used as outcome variables included diarrheal, and acute respiratory infections (fever and cough). Access to WASH facilities were defined by WHO classification. The association between diarrhoea, fever and chronic cough with sanitation, and hygiene was analyzed by logistic regression techniques. Results showed that the prevalence of diarrhoea, fever and cough was respectively 10.5% (95% CI = 9.7–2.0), 13.4% (95% CI = 11.9–14.8), and 10.4% (95% CI = 9.2–11.5). In the regression analysis, children in the households that lacked all three types of facilities were found to have respectively 1.32 [AOR = 1.329, 95% CI = 1.046–1.947], 1.24 [AOR = 1.242, 95% CI = 1.050–1.468] and 1.43 [AOR = 1.432, 95% CI = 1.113–2.902] times higher odds of suffering from diarrhea, fever and cough. The study concludes that unimproved WASH conditions is an important contributor to ARIs and diarrheal morbidities among Nigerian children. In light of these findings, it is recommended that programs targeting to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality from common infectious diseases should leverage equitable provision of WASH interventions.

Description: A new wave energy flow (WEF) map concept was proposed in this work. Based on it, an improved technique incorporating the laser scanning method and Betti’s reciprocal theorem was developed to evaluate the shape and size of damage as well as to realize visualization of wave propagation. In this technique, a simple signal processing algorithm was proposed to construct the WEF map when waves propagate through an inspection region, and multiple lead zirconate titanate (PZT) sensors were employed to improve inspection reliability. Various damages in aluminum and carbon fiber reinforced plastic laminated plates were experimentally and numerically evaluated to validate this technique. The results show that it can effectively evaluate the shape and size of damage from wave field variations around the damage in the WEF map.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1151: Improved Inverse Modeling by Separating Model Structural and Observational Errors Water doi: 10.3390/w10091151 Authors: Qin-Bo Cheng Xi Chen Dan-Dan Cheng Yan-Yan Wu Yong-Yu Xie A practical formal likelihood function (L) is developed to separate model structure errors and observation errors by the separation of correlated and uncorrelated model residuals. L overcomes the time-consuming problem of likelihood functions proposed by previous studies, and combines the Mean Square Error (MSE) and first-order Auto-Regression (AR(1)) models. For comparison of the effect of different error models, MSE, AR(1), and L are used as efficiency criteria to calibrate the three-dimensional variably saturated ground-water flow model (MF2K-VSF) based on the soil tank seepages of rainfall–runoff experiments. Results of L are nearly the same as those of AR(1) due to negligible observational errors. Although all calibrated models well mimic the seepage discharges, MF2K-VSF with MSE cannot capture the groundwater level and soil suction processes because of the considerable autocorrelation of model residuals owing to model inadequacies (e.g., neglect of the soil moisture hysteresis), which obviously violates the statistical assumption of MSE. By contrast, L accounts for the model structural errors and thus enhances the reliability of hydrological simulations.