A Plackett-Burman Design to Optimize Wood Chipper Settings

The wood-chipping process is affected by several factors, notably chipper settings and wood characteristics. It is often difficult to test all of these factors in a full factorial experimental plan, due to the large number of trials required. On the other hand, a screening design of the experiment makes it possible to manage a large number of variables in a small number of trials. Hence, this approach is used to test six factors, in order to optimize the productivity and chip quality of a drum wood-chipper. These factors are: feeding speed, screen size, PTO-speed, wood species, wood moisture content, and wood diameter. Productivity was significantly affected by screen size, while chip quality was related to feeding speed, screen size, PTO-speed, and wood species. The results suggest that the optimal configuration can be achieved by adjusting feeding speed, the PTO-speed, and the wood species, as these settings maximize chip quality. Screen size requires further analysis, as larger sizes increase productivity but reduce quality, while the opposite is true for smaller sizes. Thus, the optimal screen size requires a consideration of costs and benefits that may change according to the retail price of premium and regular wood chips, and production costs

GOLD guidelines adherence impact on the NHS budget

OBJECTIVE: Aim of this study was the evaluation of the adherence level to GOLD guidelines for the COPD patients’ treatment in the Italian GPs setting, observing the time trend on ICS therapies’ pharmacoutilization, specifically in mild and moderate COPD patients, which is considered inappropriate by GOLD guidelines. Moreover, a pharmacoeconomic analysis has been implemented in order to evaluate the economical burden of the improper management of COPD.METHODS: The retrospective GPs database study has analyzed patients with at least one diagnosis of COPD during the periods January 2005 – December 2008 (Cohort 1) and January 2009 – December 2011 (Cohort 2), who had a reported value of VEMS, at least one prescription of a drug from ATC R03 class within two months from the date of spirometric exam and aged 40 or more. Disease severity has been defined according to 2008 GOLD guidelines. Comparison between the cohorts has been implemented to verify possible variations in guideline adherence. Furthermore, an economical analysis has been developed in order to highlight saves obtained by following GOLD guidelines and the total inappropriate therapies’ costs.RESULTS: The first cohort involved 2,103 COPD patients, while the second cohort included 1,647 subjects. Reduction of ICS therapies has been shown between the two cohorts, with a decrease of 8.4% for mild patient and 1.6% for moderate patients; considering all the disease severities, the reduction was about 4%. Pharmacoeconomic analysis on mild and moderate patients has pointed out that about 50% of the total ICS treatments (814,692 € on 1,658,164 €) is related to the ICS element, and so considered inappropriate costs.CONCLUSION: Economic differences between the two periods have highlighted a minor mean costs for Cohort 2, underlining an improvement in the adherence to the GOLD guidelines in the last period

Ricerche in corso = Research in progress. 1. Una ricerca internazionale per spiegare l’efficacia delle pratiche di formative assessment sulle capacità di problem solving degli studenti di scuola secondaria

abstract non present

Inhaled corticosteroid containing combinations and mortality in COPD

There is no solid evidence that any pharmacologic treatment reduces mortality in COPD. Two large trials with mortality as an efficacy outcome have been carried out testing a combination of a long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) and an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and in both, the reduction in mortality failed to reach statistical significance [1, 2]. This could be seen as proof of absence of effect, but given that the TORCH trial 1) resulted in a Hazard Ratio of 0.825 (95% confidence interval 0.681–1.002, p=0.052) for the comparison of combined fluticasone propionate and salmeterol with placebo, the interpretation may not be that simple. The other negative trial, the SUMMIT trial 2), only included patients with moderate COPD and increased risk of cardiovascular comorbidity

A Low-Cost Implementation of an Eye Tracking System for Driver’s Gaze Analysis

We present an eye tracking system developed to study the driver’s gaze behavior while driving a car. Two main challenges distinguish this project from similar works with analogous purposes: (1) the use of a cheap portable remote eye tracker, normally employed for indoor applications in controlled light conditions; and (2) the use of an ordinary webcam to shoot the road in front of the car. The purpose is to generate a video where the driver’s fixations are graphically and dynamically superimposed on the road shot by webcam (taking into account the different viewpoints of driver and camera). The carried-out experiments confirmed that the implemented system, while perfectible, fulfills the requirements initially set

Inhaled triple therapy in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – Authors' reply

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