The most common cause avascular osteonecrosis (AVN) is corticosteroid medication. However, the impact of pulse steroid therapy on AVN development is not known properly. We intended to investigate the effect of this therapy on AVN development in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. MS patients without AVN, chronic alcoholism, thrombophilia, sickle cell anemia, inflammatory bowel disease, cytotoxic drug usage history participated in the study. All of the patients were ambulatory (EDSS < 4). Thirty-three MS patients who received pulse steroid therapy at least 10 g or at least 15 g during the course of the whole disease, were the treatment group and 27 MS patients who did not receive any steroid therapy were the control group. There was no statistical difference between groups for age, sex and disease duration. Bilateral femoral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed to the both groups. In the treatment group, five patients (15.5%) had AVN whilst no AVN was found in the control group. In conclusion, it is interesting to find AVN at such a high rate in the MS patients who received pulse steroid therapy without any AVN history or complaint. The neurologists have to be more careful about AVN which early diagnosis is important to prevent the complications.
The use of robots has typically improved workers’ health and safety and increased productivity and quality in manufacturing. Current advances in robotic and computer technology, combined with BIM, have led to new applications in construction. However, there is no general framework to guide the implementation of robots under current construction working schemes. Many questions and challenges need to be answered and overcome before robots can be economically and safely introduced to construction sites. Some questions include: 1) How does it affect the planning and workflow of related activities? 2) What are the implications regarding health & safety, and quality? 3) What is the best way to assess the viability of introducing robots onsite? 4) What are the organizational implications of using such systems?
Still, there is plenty of work to do when considering common project management elements when using robots. To assist with that, this paper presents a case study in which ALEC used the Jaibot robot by Hilti for the overhead drilling work related to installing the MEP systems at the One Za’abeel project in Dubai. In addition to the traditional analyses for changes to workflow, productivity, health & safety, and quality, as well as the implications to the schedule and cost of the tasks carried on by the robotic system, this study proposes a project management framework to help contractors better prepare for the introduction of robotic systems into their projects when similar scenarios arise. In addition, this study gives an insight into human-robot interaction experiences in real construction projects.
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