Bulk viscosity of the Lennard-Jones system at the triple point by dynamical Non Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics

Non-equilibrium Molecular Dynamics (NEMD) calculations of the bulk viscosity of the triple point Lennard-Jones fluid are performed with the aim of investigating the origin of the observed disagreement between Green-Kubo estimates and previous NEMD data. We show that a careful application of the Doll's perturbation field, the dynamical NEMD method, the instantaneous form of the perturbation and the "subtraction technique" provides a NEMD estimate of the bulk viscosity at zero field in full agreement with the value obtained by the Green-Kubo formula. As previously reported for the shear viscosity, we find that the bulk viscosity exhibits a large linear regime with the field intensity which confirms the Lennard-Jones fluid as a genuine Newtonian fluid even at triple point.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figure

An analytic-geospatial approach for sustainable water resource management: a case study in the province of Perugia

Water is a strategic, but also highly vulnerable, natural resource. This because the increasing demand from multiple uses, in many cases competing amongst them, seems to influence the concepts of sustainability of the exploitation. From the operational point of view, the studied system is an integrated decision support system. It is not only a platform to exchange information and assessments, but also a tool for conflict resolution, in the management of water resources, to obtain the consensus among all participants in the decisional processes. So the canonical “top-down” approach has been replaced with a “bottom-up” approach where all stakeholders become decision makers themselves. The application of the aforementioned approach was studied for the Tiber River basin and has been applied to the Province of Perugia area. The study focused to the building of a spatial database of hydrological data and multipurpose water withdrawals, together with the setting of the evaluation model for the surface water resources. This model bases its algorithms on regionalization procedures of flow parameters. For the definition of the river condition, hydrological indices calculated from the hydrological database have been used, while for the existing withdrawals, an analysis procedure has been developed, that from the point of interest directly selected on the map, finds out the upstream basin and, by means of overlay procedures, identifies the upstream water uses and the total flow that could be extracted. The potential of the system and the technologies used are contained in a WEB platform that allows the analysis of the database of water uses/withdrawals on the cartography, and the comparison with the hydrogeological characteristics of the sub-basin examined. The purpose of this study is to provide software tools that can be used as a support in water resource evaluation and management policies at the basin scale

An analytic-geospatial approach for sustainable water resource management: a case study in the province of Perugia

Water is a strategic, but also highly vulnerable, natural resource. This because the increasing demand from multiple uses, in many cases competing amongst them, seems to influence the concepts of sustainability of the exploitation. From the operational point of view, the studied system is an integrated decision support system. It is not only a platform to exchange information and assessments, but also a tool for conflict resolution, in the management of water resources, to obtain the consensus among all participants in the decisional processes. So the canonical "top-down" approach has been replaced with a "bottom-up" approach where all stakeholders become decision makers themselves. The application of the aforementioned approach was studied for the Tiber River basin and has been applied to the Province of Perugia area. The study focused to the building of a spatial database of hydrological data and multipurpose water withdrawals, together with the setting of the evaluation model for the surface water resources. This model bases its algorithms on regionalization procedures of flow parameters. For the definition of the river condition, hydrological indices calculated from the hydrological database have been used, while for the existing withdrawals, an analysis procedure has been developed, that from the point of interest directly selected on the map, finds out the upstream basin and, by means of overlay procedures, identifies the upstream water uses and the total flow that could be extracted. The potential of the system and the technologies used are contained in a WEB platform that allows the analysis of the database of water uses/withdrawals on the cartography, and the comparison with the hydrogeological characteristics of the sub-basin examined. The purpose of this study is to provide software tools that can be used as a support in water resource evaluation and management policies at the basin scale

Caregiver burden on sexual intimacy and marital satisfaction

SUMMARY Objective: This study investigates affective and sexual dimensions in partners involved as caregivers of Alzheimer dementia (AD) subjects. A negative correlation between burden of the caregiver and sexual-affective quality of life was assumed. Design and methods: Hundred participants with AD partner (33 male, 67 female), aged between 55 and 85 years were recruited and data were collected from the Caregiver Burden Inventory scale and a semi-structured interview that included demographic information, medical history, relationship and sexual satisfaction, and current sexual function. AD group was compared with a control group (CG) (N ¼ 100) matched for age, sex, education and marital status on measures of the semi-structured interview. Data were analysed using frequency count, univariate analysis (chi-squared and ANOVA) and bivariate correlation. Results: The findings revealed that mean burden level was 31.59 (SD 19.51). A difference between experimental and CGs was found for sexual and affective marital satisfaction (p < 0.05). The same variables showed a rather negative correlation with total burden levels (r ¼ )0.374, p < 0.001; r ¼ )0.448, p < 0.001). What's known Alzheimer dementia and the global impairment of intellectual function, as well as its physiological correlates, have strong influence on the quality of life with the consequent need of assistance which could determine a high burden level in the caregiver. The attendant cognitive changes that occur in the Alzheimer patient present many, often conflicting, challenges to a couple's sexual functioning 2,

Design and energetic analysis of a self-powered Bluetooth low energy speed sensor

Most of the speedometers on bicycles uses batteries. Batteries are polluting materials and they must be replaced. This paper presents an implementation of a self-powered speed sensor that uses energy harvesting to power itself, it measures the speed and transmits the data using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to external devices such as smartphones. The energy harvester is a coil that acts as sensor, too. A prototype of the sensor has been built and a voltage regulation circuit has been simulated by using a SPICE simulator. Furthermore, a custom firmware has been designed using a Bluetooth Low Energy nRF51822 SoC by Nordic Semiconductor and the parameters of the BLE connection has been accurately chosen to obtain low energy consumptions. Finally, the energy balance between the harvested energy by the coil and the used energy by the SoC has been accomplished. The results demonstrate the technical feasibility of the self-powered BLE speed sensor for bicycles

An Android-Based Heart Monitoring System for the Elderly and for Patients with Heart Disease

The current trend in health monitoring systems is to move from the hospital to portable personal devices. This work shows how consumer devices like heart rate monitors can be used not only for applications in sports, but also for medical research and diagnostic purposes. The goal pursued by our group was to develop a simple, accurate, and inexpensive system that would use a few pieces of data acquired by the heart rate monitor and process them on a smartphone to (i) provide detailed test reports about the user’s health state; (ii) store report records; (iii) generate emergency calls or SMSs; and (iv) connect to a remote telemedicine portal to relay the data to an online database. The system developed by our team uses sophisticated algorithms to detect stress states, detect and classify arrhythmia events, and calculate energy consumption. It is suitable for use by elderly subjects and by patients with heart disease (e.g., those recovering from myocardial infarction) or neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. Easy, immediate, and economical remote health control can therefore be achieved without the need for expensive hospital equipment, using only portable consumer devices

Real-time apnea detection using pressure sensor and tri-axial accelerometer

Respiratory disorders, if diagnosed late and untreated, may cause the advancement of many pathologies especially pertaining the cardiovascular system. This study proposes a method for a fast and certain detection of apnea events. For this purpose we used a commercial device that contains a pressure sensor helpful for the measurement of breath and a tri-axial accelerometer necessary to improve the detection reliability. There are numerous commercial devices able to detect breathing, but the totality of them is oriented to sport activity monitoring and so calibrated on the upper thresholds of respiratory rate. These devices are therefore not directly used as biomedical devices specific for the detection of sleep apneas or as life-saving devices in the case of “voluntary” apneas that occur in patients with severe neurological or pathological disorders. Then, we have developed complex algorithms to process the signals in real-time for the detection of apnea events with a maximum delay of 10 s, a sensitivity of 99%, and a specificity of 100%. This paper shows how an inexpensive approach is possible to control dependably the occurrence of apneas, avoiding hospitalization and the use of complex, invasive, and expensive devices