Impact on the Quality of Life When Living Close to a Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant

The objective of the study was to investigate the impact on the quality of life of people living close to a municipal wastewater treatment plant. A case control study, including 235 inhabitants living within a 500 m radius by a municipal wastewater treatment plant (cases) and 97 inhabitants living in a different area (controls), was conducted. A standardized questionnaire was self-completed by the participants which examined the general health perception and the overall life satisfaction. Also, the concentration of airborne pathogenic microorganisms in aerosol samples collected around the wastewater treatment plant was investigated. Significant risk for symptoms such as headache, unusual tiredness, and concentration difficulties was recorded and an increased possibility for respiratory and skin diseases was reported. A high rate of the cases being irritable and moody was noticed. Significantly higher gastrointestinal symptoms were also reported among the cases in relation to the controls. The prevalence of pathogenic airborne microorganisms originating from the wastewater treatment plant was reported in high numbers in sampling points close to the wastewater treatment plant. More analytical epidemiological investigations are needed to determine the cause as well as the burden of the diseases to inhabitants living surrounding the wastewater treatment plant

International evidence-based recommendations on ultrasound-guided vascular access

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Knowledge Enriched Short-term Scheduling for Engineer-to-order Products

AbstractContemporary shop-floors are highly affected by the ever-increasing complexity that is caused by the fluctuating customer demands. Therefore, a high degree of flexibility is needed and the scheduling of manufacturing tasks must be agile to changes. For addressing this challenge, this research work proposes a knowledge enriched short-term job-shop scheduling engine. More precisely, it focuses on the short-term scheduling of the resources of the machine shop, through an artificial intelligence algorithm that generates and evaluates alternative assignments of resources to tasks. Based on the requirements of a new order, a similarity mechanism retrieves successfully executed past orders together with a dataset that includes the processing times, the job and task sequence and the suitable resources. Afterwards it adapts these parameters to the requirements of the new order so as to evaluate the alternative schedules and identify a good alternative in a timely manner. The deriving schedule can be presented on mobile devices and it can be manipulated by the planner on-the-fly respecting tasks precedence constraints and machine availability. A case study from the mold making industry is used for validating the proposed framework

Knowledge-based Estimation of Manufacturing Lead Time for Complex Engineered-to-order Products

AbstractProduct complexity leads to increased unpredictability of indices related to manufacturing performance estimation. This phenomenon is intensified in companies that produce engineered-to-order products, such as the knowledge and labour intensive mould-making industry. During the initial capturing of product specifications formalisation difficulties arise. Moreover, the estimation of delivery times for new moulding project is solely based on the engineers’ experience. A methodology, which has been developed into a software tool is proposed that exposes graphical interfaces for customers to submit new orders and establish a formalised communication with the engineering team. The collected data are stored in a knowledge repository and are processed by a case-based reasoning mechanism for the lead time estimation. A real-life pilot installation has been initiated to a mould making SME. Preliminary results depict a significant reduction in the number of iterations between customers and engineering department compared to the traditional approach followed by the company, and improved accuracy of lead time estimation

Effect of Vitamin E Supplementation on Various Functional Properties of Macrophages and Neutrophils Obtained from Weaned Piglets

Sixteen piglets were used to determine the effect of vitamin E supplementation on several functional properties of macrophages and neutrophils obtained from weaned piglets. Piglets, immediately following weaning, were assigned to one of three experimental groups: control (no vitamin E supplementation), low level of vitamin E supplementation (100 mg DL-\u3b1-tocopheryl acetate/kg diet) and high level of vitamin E supplementation (300 mg DL-\u3b1-tocopheryl acetate/kg diet). Supplementation of vitamin E lasted for a period of 36 days, following a 3-day adaptation period after weaning. Blood samples were collected on days 0, 12, 24 and 36 of the experimental period, monocytes/macrophages and neutrophils were isolated and the following parameters were determined in macrophages and neutrophils activated by phorbol myristate acetate: total cell-associated and membrane-bound urokinase plasminogen activator (u-PA) activity and Superoxide anion production. Results showed that macrophages and neutrophils isolated from piglets that received supplemental vitamin E had higher (P 0.05) on total and membrane-bound u-PA activities and superoxide anion production by porcine macrophages and neutrophils on days 24 and 36 of the experimental period. In conclusion, the low level of vitamin E supplementation is recommended for piglets for the first 2 weeks after weaning

Transcription of the tumor suppressor genes p53 and rb in lymphocytes from patients with chronic kidney disease: Evidence of molecular senescence?

Patients suffering from renal failure exhibit an impaired immune system function. We wanted to investigate the transcription of the tumor suppressor genes p53 and RB to record, if these cells could be stimulated in vitro in order to divide, after the addition of antigenic and inflammatory factors. This expression was measured by real-time PCR in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from three different groups: ten healthy individuals, ten patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and ten dialysis patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD). The transcription rate of these genes was also measured after the cultivation of PBMCs under four different conditions: just with the culture medium, with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), with C-reactive protein (CRP), and with lipoxin A(LXA-LPS. Our results show that in most cases after the cultivation with additives, the transcription levels were higher in dialysis patients compared to those of the other two groups. Our findings serve as indications of cellular senescence on a molecular level, while it seems that these cells are less easily stimulated in vitro in order to duplicate. © 2012 Vasileios Kordinas et al

Optimization of cannula visibility during ultrasound-guided subclavian vein catheterization, via a longitudinal approach, by implementing echogenic technology

Objective. One limitation of ultrasound-guided vascular access is the technical challenge of visualizing the cannula during insertion into the vessel. We hypothesized that the use of an echogenic vascular cannula (EC) would improve visualization when compared with a nonechogenic vascular cannula (NEC) during real-time ultrasound-guided subclavian vein (SCV) cannulation in the ICU. Material and Methods. Eighty mechanically ventilated patients were prospectively enrolled in a randomized study that was conducted in a medical-surgical ICU. Forty patients underwent EC and 40 patients were randomized to NEC. The procedure was ultrasound-guided SCV cannulation via the infraclavicular approach on the longitudinal axis. Results. The EC group exhibited increased cannula visibility as compared to the NEC group (92 % ± 3 % versus 85 ± 7 %, resp., P < 0.01). There was strong agreement between the procedure operators and independent observers (k = 0.9, 95 confidence intervals assessed by bootstrap analysis = 0.87 to 0.93; P < 0.01). Access time (12.1 s ± 6.5 versus 18.9 s ± 10.9) and the perceived technical difficulty of the ultrasound method (4.5 ± 1.5 versus 7.5 ± 1.5) were both decreased in the EC group compared to the NEC group (P < 0.05). Conclusions. Echogenic technology significantly improved cannula visibility and decreased access time and technical complexity optimizing thus real-time ultrasound-guided SCV cannulation via a longitudinal approach. © 2012 Konstantinos Stefanidis et al