Non-pharmacological management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, contributing to a substantial use of resources. According to World Health Organization estimates, 65 million  people have moderate to severe COPD. The condition is also recognised as a systemic disease with   extrapulmonary manifestations, such as peripheral muscle dysfunction, malnutrition and depression, which  further contribute to disability, poor quality of life, exacerbations and mortality. Optimum management  requires nonpharmacological interventions combined with pharmacological treatment. However, the former is often neglected and not widely used in daily practice, with the focus mainly on the latter

Justice and adaptation to climate change in the Asia Pacific region : designing international institutions

Many developing states argue that they should be compensated for the costs of adapting to climate change. They point out that industrialised states are responsible for the bulk of historical greenhouse gas emissions and per capita first world emissions continue to dwarf developing world emissions. Yet, given the substantial internal inequality and rapidly rising emissions within developing states such as China and India, the same arguments that justify international adaptation compensation might equally justify internal redistributive measures. This paper addresses the question of how international institutions that fund adaptation to anthropogenic climate change should be designed. After reviewing both communitarian and cosmopolitan arguments about adaptation assistance we propose that a more just and more effective international agreement on climate change adaptation must achieve a higher degree of consistency between the principles of burden sharing applied internationally and domestically. Adaptation assistance should target human welfare directly rather than through compensation payments between states. The application of these arguments is briefly demonstrated primarily by use of China as an example

ERS, AY-farm electrical distribution

This Acceptance Test Procedure (ATP) has been prepared to demonstrate that the AY-Farm Electrical Distribution; in the Equipment Removal System portion of Project W-320, functions as required by the design criteria

Cathodic protection - addition of 6 anodes to existing rectifier 31

Acceptance test report for Cathodic Protection - Addition of 6 Anodes to existing Rectifier 31 for Project W-32

Implications of new measurements of O-16 + p + C-12,13, N-14,15 for the abundances of C, N isotopes at the cosmic ray source

The fragmentation of a 225 MeV/n O-16 beam was investigated at the Bevalac. Preliminary cross sections for mass = 13, 14, 15 fragments are used to constrain the nuclear excitation functions employed in galactic propagation calculations. Comparison to cosmic ray isotonic data at low energies shows that in the cosmic ray source C-13/C approximately 2% and N-14/0=3-6%. No source abundance of N-15 is required with the current experimental results

Non-pharmacological management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, contributing to a substantialuse of resources. According to World Health Organization estimates, 65 million people have moderate to severe COPD. The conditionis also recognised as a systemic disease with extrapulmonary manifestations, such as peripheral muscle dysfunction, malnutrition anddepression, which further contribute to disability, poor quality of life, exacerbations and mortality. Optimum management requires nonpharmacologicalinterventions combined with pharmacological treatment. However, the former is often neglected and not widely used indaily practice, with the focus mainly on the latter

Investigating the distribution of polybrominated diphenyl ethers through an Australian wastewater treatment plant

The aim of this study was to quantify the amount of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) released into the environment (biosolids, effluent) from a conventional Australian activated sludge treatment wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The concentration of PBDE congeners was measured at various treatment stages and included four aqueous samples (raw, primary, secondary and tertiary effluents) and three sludges (primary, secondary and lime stabilized biosolids), collected at three sampling events over the course of the experiment (29 days). Semi-permeable membrane devices (SPMDs) were also installed for the duration of the experiment, the first time that SPMDs have been used to measure PBDEs in a WWTP. Over 99% of the PBDEs entering the WWTP were removed through the treatment processes, principally by sedimentation. The main congeners detected were BDE 47, 99 and 209, which are characteristic of the two major commercial formulations viz penta-BDE and deca-BDE. All the PBDE congeners measured were highly correlated with each other, suggesting a similar origin. In this case, the PBDEs are thought to be from domestic sources since domestic wastewater is the main contribution to the in-flow (approximately 95%). The mean concentration of SigmaPBDEs in chemically stabilized sewage sludge (biosolids) was 300microg kg(-1) dry weight. It is calculated that 2.3+/-0.3kg of PBDEs are disposed of each year with biosolids generated from the WWTP. If all Australian sewage sludge is contaminated to at least this concentration then at least 110kg of PBDEs are associated with Australian sewage sludge annually. Less than 10g are released annually into the environment via ocean outfall and field irrigation; this level of contamination is unlikely to pose risk to humans or the environment. The environmental release of treated effluent and biosolids is not considered a large source of PBDE environmental emissions compared to the quantities used annually in Australia