Microfibrous TiO2 supported photocatalysts prepared by metal-organic chemical vapor infiltration for indoor air and waste water purification

The photocatalytic degradation of gaseous (toluene) and aqueous (imazapyr, malic acid, orange G) pollutants over TiO2 supported photocatalysts is investigated using a batch reactor. A strong influence of the microstructural characteristics of TiO2 on the decomposition kinetics of the pollutants is found. Well crystallized, porous TiO2-anatase films grown under low pressure at 400–500 8C by MOCVD on glass plates and by MOCVI on glass micro-fibers are the best heterogeneous photocatalysts, showing the highest activity. We demonstrate a good control of these characteristics by choosing the deposition parameters. Achieving conformal coverage (i.e. good infiltration) of glass micro-fibers by the TiO2 thin films has also a strong influence on the photocatalytic activity. A correlation between optimal infiltration, film microstructure and photocatalytic activity is established. Strong similarities between optimal photocatalytic decomposition rate in gas and liquid phase were found with respect to the film microstructure and the photocatalyst mass. The total mineralization of the toluene was prevented because of the deactivation of the photocatalyst surface. However the reactivation of the photocatalyst was achieved by UV irradiation under oxygen stream. This allows a long-term use of the photocatalyst

Observational study of adherence to European clinical practice guidelines for the management of acute coronary syndrome in revascularized versus non-revascularized patients – the CONNECT Study

SummaryBackgroundThe CONNECT study compared clinician adherence to guideline-recommended secondary prevention therapies prescribed at discharge for patients hospitalized for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in those managed initially with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; revascularized) and those who did not undergo revascularization.MethodsPatients aged greater than or equal to 18 years, hospitalized for a documented ST-segment elevation or non-ST-segment elevation ACS, were enrolled consecutively over 1 month at 238 sites in France.ResultsCompared with revascularized patients (n=870), non-revascularized patients (n=706) were significantly older, and a greater proportion were women, had high-blood pressure, type-2 diabetes or a history of atherothrombotic or cardiac disease, but a smaller proportion had a history of coronary angioplasty. On discharge, non-revascularized patients were prescribed beta-blockers, aspirin, statins, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or adenosine diphosphate receptor antagonists less frequently than revascularized patients. An adherence score greater than or equal to 80% (at least four of the five recommended agents prescribed at discharge) was found in 96.7% of revascularized patients and 74.4% of non-revascularized patients (P<0.001).ConclusionsDespite a similar or even higher level of cardiovascular risk, non-revascularized ACS patients were prescribed guideline-recommended secondary prevention therapy less frequently than revascularized patients

Photocatalytic Degradation of Polynitrophenols on Various Commercial Suspended or Deposited Titania Catalysts Using Artificial and Solar Light

Phenol (PH) and three polynitrophenols (4-nitrophenol (PNP), 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP), 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP)) were photocatalytically degraded by using titania under either artificial or solar light. These four reactions were chosen as test reactions to compare the efficiencies of two suspended commercial titania photocatalysts (Degussa P-25 and Millennium PC-500). It appears that P-25 has a higher initial efficiency in all nitrophenol disappearance reactions. However, for the overall degradation rate, measured by the chemical oxygen demand (COD) disappearance, the performance of PC-500 was similar to that of P25. This was attributed to a favorable textural effect since PC-500 has a much higher surface area which facilitates the readsorption of intermediates. PC-500 was subsequently supported on a special photoinert paper provided by Ahlstrom Company (38-Pont Evèque, France). The influence of the silica binder used for sticking titania particles on the paper fibers was put in evidence as an inhibitor of the coulombic adsorption of anionic species, especially 2,4,6-trinitrophenol, because of the low pzc of silica. Once validated, this supported photocatalyst was introduced in an autonomous solar pilot photoreactor identical to the several prototypes built in the European AQUACAT program. It was demonstrated that the purification of water could be efficiently obtained in a larger scale without any final tedious filtration

Towards Optimization of Cyclic Production Systems

In this paper, the expression "production systems" refers to flow-shops, job-shops, assembly systems, Kanban systems and, in general, to any Discrete Event System (DES) which transforms raw material and/or components into products and/or components. Such a system is said to be cyclic if it provides indefinitely the same sequence of products. A schedule of a cyclic production system is defined as soon as the starting time of each operation on the related resource is known. It has been showed that, whatever the feasible schedule applied to the cyclic production system, it is always possible to fully utilize the bottleneck resource. In other words, it is always possible to maximize the productivity of such a system. As a consequence, we aim at finding the schedule which permits to maximize the productivity with a Work-In-Process (WIP) as small as possible. We propose a heuristic approach based on Petri nets to find a near-optimal, if not optimal, solution. We also give a sufficient condition for a solution to be optimal

Evaluating the performance of a climate-driven mortality model during heat waves and cold spells in Europe.

The impact of climate change on human health is a serious concern. In particular, changes in the frequency and intensity of heat waves and cold spells are of high relevance in terms of mortality and morbidity. This demonstrates the urgent need for reliable early-warning systems to help authorities prepare and respond to emergency situations. In this study, we evaluate the performance of a climate-driven mortality model to provide probabilistic predictions of exceeding emergency mortality thresholds for heat wave and cold spell scenarios. Daily mortality data corresponding to 187 NUTS2 regions across 16 countries in Europe were obtained from 1998-2003. Data were aggregated to 54 larger regions in Europe, defined according to similarities in population structure and climate. Location-specific average mortality rates, at given temperature intervals over the time period, were modelled to account for the increased mortality observed during both high and low temperature extremes and differing comfort temperatures between regions. Model parameters were estimated in a Bayesian framework, in order to generate probabilistic simulations of mortality across Europe for time periods of interest. For the heat wave scenario (1-15 August 2003), the model was successfully able to anticipate the occurrence or non-occurrence of mortality rates exceeding the emergency threshold (75th percentile of the mortality distribution) for 89% of the 54 regions, given a probability decision threshold of 70%. For the cold spell scenario (1-15 January 2003), mortality events in 69% of the regions were correctly anticipated with a probability decision threshold of 70%. By using a more conservative decision threshold of 30%, this proportion increased to 87%. Overall, the model performed better for the heat wave scenario. By replacing observed temperature data in the model with forecast temperature, from state-of-the-art European forecasting systems, probabilistic mortality predictions could potentially be made several months ahead of imminent heat waves and cold spells

On Unrelated Machine Scheduling with Precedence Constraints

In this paper, we consider the problem of scheduling tasks on unrelated parallel machines. Precedence constraints exist between the tasks, but their number is limited compared with the number of tasks. We propose a number of heuristics in order to find near-optimal solutions to the problem. Empirical results show that the heuristics are able to find very good approximate solutions

Identification of genes involved in Ca(2+ )ionophore A23187-mediated apoptosis and demonstration of a high susceptibility for transcriptional repression of cell cycle genes in B lymphoblasts from a patient with Scott syndrome

BACKGROUND: In contrast to other agents able to induce apoptosis of cultured cells, Ca(2+ )ionophore A23187 was shown to elicit direct activation of intracellular signal(s). The phenotype of the cells derived from patients having the hemorrhagic disease Scott syndrome, is associated with an abnormally high proportion of apoptotic cells, both in basal culture medium and upon addition of low ionophore concentrations in long-term cultures. These features are presumably related to the mutation also responsible for the defective procoagulant plasma membrane remodeling. We analyzed the specific transcriptional re-programming induced by A23187 to get insights into the effect of this agent on gene expression and a defective gene regulation in Scott cells. RESULTS: The changes in gene expression upon 48 hours treatment with 200 nM A23187 were measured in Scott B lymphoblasts compared to B lymphoblasts derived from the patient's daughter or unrelated individuals using Affymetrix microarrays. In a similar manner in all of the B cell lines, results showed up-regulation of 55 genes, out of 12,000 represented sequences, involved in various pathways of the cell metabolism. In contrast, a group of 54 down-regulated genes, coding for histones and proteins involved in the cell cycle progression, was more significantly repressed in Scott B lymphoblasts than in the other cell lines. These data correlated with the alterations of the cell cycle phases in treated cells and suggested that the potent effect of A23187 in Scott B lymphoblasts may be the consequence of the underlying molecular defect. CONCLUSION: The data illustrate that the ionophore A23187 exerts its pro-apoptotic effect by promoting a complex pattern of genetic changes. These results also suggest that a subset of genes participating in various steps of the cell cycle progress can be transcriptionally regulated in a coordinated fashion. Furthermore, this research brings a new insight into the defect in cultured Scott B lymphoblasts, leading to hypothesize that a mutated gene plays a role not only in membrane remodeling but also in signal transduction pathway(s) leading to altered transcriptional regulation of cell cycle genes

Evaluation of an Early-Warning System for Heat Wave-Related Mortality in Europe: Implications for Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Forecasting and Climate Services.

Heat waves have been responsible for more fatalities in Europe over the past decades than any other extreme weather event. However, temperature-related illnesses and deaths are largely preventable. Reliable sub-seasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) climate forecasts of extreme temperatures could allow for better short-to-medium-term resource management within heat-health action plans, to protect vulnerable populations and ensure access to preventive measures well in advance. The objective of this study is to assess the extent to which S2S climate forecasts could be incorporated into heat-health action plans, to support timely public health decision-making ahead of imminent heat wave events in Europe. Forecasts of apparent temperature at different lead times (e.g., 1 day, 4 days, 8 days, up to 3 months) were used in a mortality model to produce probabilistic mortality forecasts up to several months ahead of the 2003 heat wave event in Europe. Results were compared to mortality predictions, inferred using observed apparent temperature data in the mortality model. In general, we found a decreasing transition in skill between excellent predictions when using observed temperature, to predictions with no skill when using forecast temperature with lead times greater than one week. However, even at lead-times up to three months, there were some regions in Spain and the United Kingdom where excess mortality was detected with some certainty. This suggests that in some areas of Europe, there is potential for S2S climate forecasts to be incorporated in localised heat-health action plans. In general, these results show that the performance of this climate service framework is not limited by the mortality model itself, but rather by the predictability of the climate variables, at S2S time scales, over Europe

Demented versus non-demented very old inpatients: the same comorbidities but poorer functional and nutritional status

Background: demented patients have been reported to be healthier than other old people of the same age. Objectives: to assess comorbid conditions, functional and nutritional status in medically ill hospitalised patients with normal cognition or affected by dementia of various causes and severities, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Design and Setting: a prospective study was carried out, between January and December 2004, in the Rehabilitation and Geriatric Hospital (HOGER). Methods: activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and mini nutritional assessment (MNA) scores were assessed as a function of the status of the patient two weeks before admission to hospital. On admission, cognitive status was assessed by a systematic battery of neuropsychological tests, comorbid conditions were assessed with the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), and body mass index (BMI) and functional independence measure (FIM) were determined. BMI and FIM were also determined on discharge. Results: we studied 349 patients (mean age 85.2±6.7; 76% women): 161 (46.1%) cognitively normal, 37 (10.6%) with MCI and 151 (43.3%) demented (61 Alzheimer's disease (AD), 62 mixed dementia (MD) and 17 vascular dementia (VaD)). ADL, IADL, FIM and MNA scores on admission decreased with cognitive status, regardless of the type of dementia. Functionality at discharge remained significantly lower in demented patients than in other patients. CCI was high and similar in all three groups (mean 4.6±2.7). Patients with VaD had poorer health than other demented patients, with a higher average comorbidity score, more frequent hypertension, stroke and hyperlipidaemia. Comorbidity did not increase with severity levels of dementia. Conclusions: in this cohort of very old inpatients, demented patients, non-demented patients and patients with MCI had similar levels of comorbidity, but demented patients had a poorer functional and nutritional statu