185 research outputs found
Design and construction risks for a shipping port and container terminal : case study
This paper presents the risk identification process, a checklist of 215 different risks, and an associated risk breakdown structure (RBS) for the design and construction phases for a shipping port and associated container terminal. The case study project scope for the research includes a 3,500-m breakwater, 80 ha of reclaimed land, a 1,000-m-long quay wall, port equipment, and buildings. The checklist is categorized according to the project work breakdown structure (WBS) and includes risks associated with (1) breakwater, (2) reclaimed land, (3) entrance canal and basin, (4) quay wall, (5) container yard and buildings, (6) power supply, and (7) project management office. Since the research outcome was developed by subject matter experts during an actual project, it can be used during risk identification, as a completeness check after risk identification on similar projects, or for individual activities (e.g., quay wall construction) per the required project scope. The research also includes a list of risks that specifically relate to marine construction.https://ascelibrary.org/journal/jwped5hj2020Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM
Can Valproic Acid be an Inducer of Clozapine Metabolism?
Introduction: Prior clozapine studies indicated no effects, mild inhibition or induction of valproic acid (VPA) on clozapine metabolism. The hypotheses that (i) VPA is a net inducer of clozapine metabolism, and (ii) smoking modifies this inductive effect were tested in a therapeutic drug monitoring study. Methods: After excluding strong inhibitors and inducers, 353 steady-state total clozapine (clozapine plus norclozapine) concentrations provided by 151 patients were analyzed using a random intercept linear model. Results: VPA appeared to be an inducer of clozapine metabolism since total plasma clozapine concentrations in subjects taking VPA were significantly lower (27% lower; 95% confidence interval, 14-39%) after controlling for confounding variables including smoking (35% lower, 28-56%). Discussion: Prospective studies are needed to definitively establish that VPA may (i) be an inducer of clozapine metabolism when induction prevails over competitive inhibition, and (ii) be an inducer even in smokers who are under the influence of smoking inductive effects on clozapine metabolism
Estimation of the Economic Burden and Labor Impact of Migraine in Spain: Results from the Spanish Atlas of Migraine Survey 2018
P170
Objectives: To estimate the average annual cost per patient and theimpact on work t of migraine in Spain.
Material and Method: This is a prospective, online, anonymous, cross-sectional survey, conducted between June and September2017, promoted by the Spanish Association of Patients with Headache(AEPAC) within the framework of the Spanish Atlas of Migraine2018. People who completed the survey answered questions in relationto their migraine. A distinction was made between chronic migraine(CM) and episodic migraine (EM), considering the monthlyheadache days declared by patients. The economic burden of migrainewas evaluated: direct health costs (including visits to specialists, medical tests, emergency visits, hospital admissions andmedication), indirect costs (lost labor productivity), and those assumedby the migraineur. The labor consequences of migraine overthe last year were analyzed. Chi-square and Mann- Whitney testswere used as contrast tests. Ethics Approval: A central ethics reviewboard approved the study design.
Results: 1, 281 people with migraine participated in the survey, 34.2%with CM, 88.2% women, with an average age of 37.3 (SD 11.5). Thedirect health costs for the last year were estimated at €3, 847.29 forCM and €964.19 for EM (p<0, 001). The costs assumed by the patientin the last year were €1, 609.89 for CM and €878.04 for EM (p<0.001).The indirect cost was estimated at €7, 464.83 for CM and €3, 199.15for EM (p <0.001). The total average cost per patient/year rised to€12, 922.01 for CM and €5, 041.41 for EM (p<0.001). Regarding the jobstatus: 62.2% with EM and 49.0% with CM were working, 2.6% withEM and 9.1% with CM were on sick leave and 12.2% with EM and16.8% with CM were unemployed (p <0.05). In the last year, becauseof migraine, 17.8% of patients with EM and 27.2% with CM (p<0.01)requested days of leave or leave of absence, and reduced their workinghours 8.5% with EM and 11.1% CM (p=0.270). Labor efficiencywas reduced in 61.1% of patients with EM and 65.7% with CM(p=0.257).
Conclusion: Migraine represents an important economic burden inSpain, particularly in patients with CM. Migraine causes importantproductivity losses resulting from absenteeism, presentism, decreasingthe working hours and the probabilities to keep working, and itsimpact is significantly greater in CM
The influence of pre-fermentative maceration and ageing factors on ester profile and marker determination of Pedro Ximenez sparkling wines
The influence of pre-fermentative maceration and ageing factors on the ester profiles of Pedro Ximenez sparkling wines was evaluated. The pre-fermentative maceration consisted of the skin-maceration of musts at 10 degrees C for 6 h. The sparkling wines were produced following the Champenoise method. Samples were monitored at 3, 6 and 9 months of ageing on lees. Sparkling wines with pre fermentative maceration displayed higher contents of ethyl esters of branched acids and cinnamates. Meanwhile, those without maceration showed higher levels of ethyl esters of fatty acids and higher alcohol acetates. The study of statistical interactions elucidated different hydrolytic kinetics and developments in higher alcohol acetates and ethyl esters of branched acids during ageing. The application of a dual criterion based on univariate (ANOVA) and multivariate analyses (OPLS-DA) allowed us to identify new potential volatile markers related to pre-fermentative maceration and ageing time, reported for the first time in sparkling wines
Spin Precession and Oscillations in Mesoscopic Systems
We compare and contrast magneto-transport oscillations in the fully quantum
(single-electron coherent) and classical limits for a simple but illustrative
model. In particular, we study the induced magnetization and spin current in a
two-terminal double-barrier structure with an applied Zeeman field between the
barriers and spin disequilibrium in the contacts. Classically, the spin current
shows strong tunneling resonances due to spin precession in the region between
the two barriers. However, these oscillations are distinguishable from those in
the fully coherent case, for which a proper treatment of the electron phase is
required. We explain the differences in terms of the presence or absence of
coherent multiple wave reflections.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Sensitivity of phytoplankton, zooplankton and macroinvertebrates to hydrogen peroxide treatments of cyanobacterial blooms
Addition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a promising method to acutely suppress cyanobacterial blooms in lakes. However, a reliable H2O2 risk assessment to identify potential effects on non-target species is currently hampered by a lack of appropriate ecotoxicity data. The aim of the present study was therefore to quantify the responses of a wide diversity of freshwater phytoplankton, zooplankton and macroinvertebrates to H2O2 treatments of cyanobacterial blooms. To this end, we applied a multifaceted approach. First, we investigated the 24-h toxicity of H2O2 to three cyanobacteria (Planktothrix agardhii, Microcystis aeruginosa, Anabaena sp.) and 23 non-target species (six green algae, eight zooplankton and nine macroinvertebrate taxa), using EC50 values based on photosynthetic yield for phytoplankton and LC50 values based on mortality for the other organisms. The most sensitive species included all three cyanobacterial taxa, but also the rotifer Brachionus calyciflores and the cladocerans Ceriodaphnia dubia and Daphnia pulex. Next, the EC50 and LC50 values obtained from the laboratory toxicity tests were used to construct a species sensitivity distribution (SSD) for H2O2. Finally, the species predicted to be at risk by the SSD were compared with the responses of phytoplankton, zooplankton and macroinvertebrates to two whole-lake treatments with H2O2. The predictions of the laboratory-based SSD matched well with the responses of the different taxa to H2O2 in the lake. The first lake treatment, with a relatively low H2O2 concentration and short residence time, successfully suppressed cyanobacteria without major effects on non-target species. The second lake treatment had a higher H2O2 concentration with a longer residence time, which resulted in partial suppression of cyanobacteria, but also in a major collapse of rotifers and decreased abundance of small cladocerans. Our results thus revealed a trade-off between the successful suppression of cyanobacteria at the expense of adverse effects on part of the zooplankton community. This delicate balance strongly depends on the applied H2O2 dosage and may affect the decision whether to treat a lake or not.</p
Local Charge Excesses in Metallic Alloys: a Local Field Coherent Potential Approximation Theory
Electronic structure calculations performed on very large supercells have
shown that the local charge excesses in metallic alloys are related through
simple linear relations to the local electrostatic field resulting from
distribution of charges in the whole crystal.
By including local external fields in the single site Coherent Potential
Approximation theory, we develop a novel theoretical scheme in which the local
charge excesses for random alloys can be obtained as the responses to local
external fields. Our model maintains all the computational advantages of a
single site theory but allows for full charge relaxation at the impurity sites.
Through applications to CuPd and CuZn alloys, we find that, as a general rule,
non linear charge rearrangements occur at the impurity site as a consequence of
the complex phenomena related with the electronic screening of the external
potential. This nothwithstanding, we observe that linear relations hold between
charge excesses and external potentials, in quantitative agreement with the
mentioned supercell calculations, and well beyond the limits of linearity for
any other site property.Comment: 11 pages, 1 table, 7 figure
Real and Virtual Compton Scattering: the nucleon polarisabilities
We give an overview of low-energy Compton scattering (gamma^(*) p --> gamma
p) with a real or virtual incoming photon. These processes allow the
investigation of one of the fundamental properties of the nucleon, i.e. how its
internal structure deforms under an applied static electromagnetic field. Our
knowledge of nucleon polarisabilities and their generalization to non-zero
four-momentum transfer will be reviewed, including the presently ongoing
experiments and future perspectives.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Minireview/Proceedings of "Many-Body Structure
of Strongly Interacting Systems", Mainz, Germany, Feb. 23-25 2011 . V2: typos
corrected. version to appear in EPJ Special Topic
Validation of the FAM19A4/mir124-2 DNA methylation test for both lavage- and brush-based self-samples to detect cervical (pre)cancer in HPV-positive women
Objectives DNA methylation analysis of cancer-related genes is a promising tool for HPV-positive women to identify those with cervical (pre)cancer (CIN3+) in need of treatment. However, clinical performance of methylation markers can be influenced by the sample type utilized. We describe a multiplex quantitative methylation-specific PCR that targets FAM19A4 and mir124-2 loci, to detect CIN3+ using both HPV-positive lavage- and brush self-samples. Methods We determined methylation thresholds for clinical classification using HPV-positive training sets comprising lavage self-samples of 182 women (including 40 with CIN3+) and brush self-samples of 224 women (including 61 with CIN3+). Subsequently, independent HPV-positive validation sets of 389 lavage self-samples (including 78 with CIN3+), and 254 brush self-samples (including 72 with CIN3+) were tested using the preset thresholds. Furthermore, the clinical performance of combined methylation analysis and HPV16/18 genotyping was determined. Results Training set analysis revealed similar FAM19A4 and mir124-2 thresholds for both self-sample types to yield highest CIN3+ sensitivity at 70% specificity. Validation set analysis resulted in a CIN3+ sensitivity of 70.5% (95%CI: 60.4-80.6) at a specificity of 67.8% (95%CI: 62.7-73.0) for lavage self-samples, and a CIN3+ sensitivity of 69.4% (95%CI: 58.8-80.1) at a 76.4% (95%CI: 70.2-82.6) specificity for brush self-samples. In combination with HPV16/18 genotyping, CIN3+ sensitivity and specificity were 88.5% (95%CI: 81.4-95.6) and 46.0% (95%CI: 40.4-51.5) for lavage self-samples, and 84.7% (95%CI: 76.4-93.0) and 54.9% (95%CI: 47.7-62.2) for brush self-samples. Conclusions FAM19A4/mir124-2 methylation analysis performs equally well in HPV-positive la
Predictive powers of chiral perturbation theory in Compton scattering off protons
We study low-energy nucleon Compton scattering in the framework of baryon
chiral perturbation theory (BPT) with pion, nucleon, and (1232)
degrees of freedom, up to and including the next-to-next-to-leading order
(NNLO). We include the effects of order , and , with
MeV the -resonance excitation energy. These are
all "predictive" powers in the sense that no unknown low-energy constants enter
until at least one order higher (i.e, ). Estimating the theoretical
uncertainty on the basis of natural size for effects, we find that
uncertainty of such a NNLO result is comparable to the uncertainty of the
present experimental data for low-energy Compton scattering. We find an
excellent agreement with the experimental cross section data up to at least the
pion-production threshold. Nevertheless, for the proton's magnetic
polarizability we obtain a value of fm, in
significant disagreement with the current PDG value. Unlike the previous
PT studies of Compton scattering, we perform the calculations in a
manifestly Lorentz-covariant fashion, refraining from the heavy-baryon (HB)
expansion. The difference between the lowest order HBPT and BPT
results for polarizabilities is found to be appreciable. We discuss the chiral
behavior of proton polarizabilities in both HBPT and BPT with the
hope to confront it with lattice QCD calculations in a near future. In studying
some of the polarized observables, we identify the regime where their naive
low-energy expansion begins to break down, thus addressing the forthcoming
precision measurements at the HIGS facility.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, RevTeX4, revised version published in EPJ
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