A Healthy Economy Can Break Your Heart

Panel data methods are used to investigate how deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD) in the United States vary with macroeconomic conditions. A one-percentage-point reduction in unemployment is predicted to raise CHD mortality by 0.75%, corresponding to almost 3,900 additional fatalities. The increase in relative risk is similar across age groups, implying that senior citizens account for most of the extra deaths. Direct evidence is obtained of a role for decreases in medical interventions treating coronary problems. CHD mortality increases rapidly when the economy strengthens but returns to or near its baseline level within five years for most groups

Submerged plant survival strategies in relation to disturbance and stress in artificial channels of Britain and Argentina

The aim of this thesis was to make a functional analysis of submerged aquatic plants in relation to management and environmental factors in artificial systems of Britain and Argentina. In Britain, low-lying plains must have artificial drainage systems to avoid flooding and maintain optimum soil conditions. In Argentina, there are several irrigation districts for agricultural use and two of the most important are the Valle Inferior del Rio Colorado (VIRC) and the Valle inferior del Rio Negro (IDEVI). One of the main problems in these channel networks are the growth of submerged weeds which cause a great deal of damage by blocking the flow of water. The abundance of submerged weeds were surveyed during 1992 and 1993 in drainage channels located in geographically-distinct areas of Britain and in 1993/1994 in drainage and irrigation channels of VIRC and IDEVI. Environmental and management data were recorded and indices of disturbance and stress constructed from combined data for each site surveyed. In Britain, a species ordination using Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) showed that the combined disturbance variable explained more of the variability that did stress. Two main groups of species could be distinguished using cluster analysis (TWINSPAN: Two way indicator species analysis). The larger group appear to be those better-adapted to habitats with low disturbance constraints (e.g.. Myriophyllum spicatum and Potamogeton pectinatus). The smaller group comprised species which tended to occur in sites with higher disturbance (e.g.. regular cutting) such Callitriche stagnalis. In Argentina, the same analysis that above showed that each variable (disturbance and stress) explained about half of the constrained variation. Four TWINSPAN species groups were separate in VIRC and IDEVI showing different tolerance to disturbance and stress. Since the species groups were indicative of different combination of stress and disturbance, each plant community may be defined as different functional groups. When data from Britain and Argentina were analysed together, stress appears as an important factor in determining species variation in Argentina, Ruppia maritima being the species most tolerant, especially to water conductivity. Disturbance explained variation in both countries, Chara contraria, Potamogeton crispus, P. pusillus and the moss Rynchostegium riparioides being the most tolerant, especially to management, water velocity and water fluctuation. Plants were also classified in functional terms on the basis of plant morphological traits, and this study found a relationship between these attributes and the stress and disturbance variables. This suggests the possibility of determined functional groups in submerged vegetation from classic-standardised ecological measures as for example plant length or plant weight. The inverse relationship between shoot length and total PAR was found in plants of Potamogeton pectinatus growing in drainage and irrigation channels of VIRC and IDEVI, showing that the condition of light-limitation for plant growth is frequent in these channels. Specimens of P. pectinatus from the area of VIRC, were grown under laboratory conditions in order to determine its tolerance to disturbance (cutting) and stress (shade). Results suggest that the species has the stress element in its established-phase strategy, and an intermediate tolerance to disturbance. A field experiment was performed in the Solway drainage area, NW England, to examine the response of populations of Callitriche stagnalis and Potamogeton crispus to disturbance treatments (manual cutting and dredging) and stress treatments (shade). Results showed that, although the survival strategy of both plants is essentially similar (competitive-disturbance tolerators: CD) C. stagnalis was the more competitive of the two species, while P. crispus tolerated disturbance and stress better

Smart Sensors for Healthcare and Medical Applications

This book focuses on new sensing technologies, measurement techniques, and their applications in medicine and healthcare. Specifically, the book briefly describes the potential of smart sensors in the aforementioned applications, collecting 24 articles selected and published in the Special Issue “Smart Sensors for Healthcare and Medical Applications”. We proposed this topic, being aware of the pivotal role that smart sensors can play in the improvement of healthcare services in both acute and chronic conditions as well as in prevention for a healthy life and active aging. The articles selected in this book cover a variety of topics related to the design, validation, and application of smart sensors to healthcare

Simulating urban soil carbon decomposition using local weather input from a surface model

Non peer reviewe

Modeling and Simulation in Engineering

The Special Issue Modeling and Simulation in Engineering, belonging to the section Engineering Mathematics of the Journal Mathematics, publishes original research papers dealing with advanced simulation and modeling techniques. The present book, “Modeling and Simulation in Engineering I, 2022”, contains 14 papers accepted after peer review by recognized specialists in the field. The papers address different topics occurring in engineering, such as ferrofluid transport in magnetic fields, non-fractal signal analysis, fractional derivatives, applications of swarm algorithms and evolutionary algorithms (genetic algorithms), inverse methods for inverse problems, numerical analysis of heat and mass transfer, numerical solutions for fractional differential equations, Kriging modelling, theory of the modelling methodology, and artificial neural networks for fault diagnosis in electric circuits. It is hoped that the papers selected for this issue will attract a significant audience in the scientific community and will further stimulate research involving modelling and simulation in mathematical physics and in engineering

Full-scale monitoring of the wind-induced response of vertical slender structures, with fixed and rotating masses

Nowadays, structural monitoring is gaining more and more attention in the field of wind engineering. On the wake of these developments, the thesis develops and applies a comprehensive structural monitoring procedure tailored for the validation and investigation in full-scale of the wind-induced response of vertical slender structures, with fixed and rotating masses. All the main aspects of the monitoring practice are discussed, regarding the number, location and type of the sensors, the acquisition and the transmission of the full-scale data, as well as the management of the experimental database by following an encoded scheme. In addition, the thesis highlights a number of issues typical of the monitoring activity that are not addressed in literature, providing inspiration to solve them. The defined procedure finds application in two monitoring campaigns launched by the Wind Engineering group at the University of Genoa: one slender structure with fixed masses (a light tower) and one slender structure with rotating masses (a small vertical axis wind turbine). As regards the light tower, a reference calculation model of the wind-induced response of poles and towers is selected from literature and is validated in full-scale. The input parameters needed for the application of the model are identified from experimental surveys, intersecting wind tunnel tests and dynamic identification techniques. The results highlight the goodness of the selected model and the large uncertainties associated to the input parameters. As regards the wind turbine, the full-scale data are used to investigate the contribution of the rotating parts to the dynamic behavior. In addition, the fatigue damage of the supporting tower is calculated under stationary and non-stationary excitation due to wind, turbine rotation, emergency stop and start. The results highlight the importance of the detail modeling, the fundamental role played by the non-stationary conditions and the errors committed when using conventional models of the load

Smart Flow Control Processes in Micro Scale

In recent years, microfluidic devices with a large surface-to-volume ratio have witnessed rapid development, allowing them to be successfully utilized in many engineering applications. A smart control process has been proposed for many years, while many new innovations and enabling technologies have been developed for smart flow control, especially concerning “smart flow control” at the microscale. This Special Issue aims to highlight the current research trends related to this topic, presenting a collection of 33 papers from leading scholars in this field. Among these include studies and demonstrations of flow characteristics in pumps or valves as well as dynamic performance in roiling mill systems or jet systems to the optimal design of special components in smart control systems