(Architectural) measures to control wave overtopping inside harbours

One of the weak zones in the safety of the coastal city Oostende, Belgium, are the quays in the inner harbour which are rather low. A storm wall is an easy and effective measure to reduce wave overtopping and prevent the city from flooding. The location of this storm wall (close by the quay wall (2m) versus further away from the quay wall (15m)), and architectural alternatives for better integration in the setting have been studied at Ghent University. This paper summarizes the results

Explanation of inequality in utilization of ambulatory care before and after universal health insurance in Thailand

Thailand implemented a Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) of national health insurance in April 2001 to finance equitable access to health care. This paper compares inequalities in health service use before and after the UCS, and analyses the trend and determinants of inequality

A Seamless Convergence of the Digital and Physical Factory Aiming in Personalized Product Emergence Process (PPEP) for Smart Products within ESB Logistics Learning Factory at Reutlingen University

AbstractA seamless convergence of the digital and physical factory aiming in personalized Product Emergence Process (PPEP) for smart products within ESB Logistics Learning Factory at Reutlingen University.A completely new business model with reference to Industrie4.0 and facilitated by 3D Experience Software in today's networked society in which customers expect immediate responses, delightful experience and simple solutions is one of the mission scenarios in the ESB Logistics Learning Factory at ESB Business School (Reutlingen University).The business experience platform provides software solutions for every organization in the company respectively in the factory. An interface with dashboards, project management apps, 3D - design and construction apps with high end visualization, manufacturing and simulation apps as well as intelligence and social network apps in a collaborative interactive environment help the user to learn the creation of a value end to end process for a personalized virtual and later real produced product.Instead of traditional ways of working and a conventional operating factory real workers and robots work semi-intuitive together. Centerpiece in the self-planned interim factory is the smart personalized product, uniquely identifiable and locatable at all times during the production process – a scooter with an individual colored mobile phone – holder for any smart phone produced with a 3D printer in lot size one. Smart products have in the future solutions incorporated internet based services – designed and manufactured - at the costs of mass products. Additionally the scooter is equipped with a retrievable declarative product memory. Monitoring and control is handled by sensor tags and a raspberry positioned on the product. The engineering design and implementation of a changeable production system is guided by a self-execution system that independently find amongst others esplanade workplaces.The imparted competences to students and professionals are project management method SCRUM, customization of workflows by Industrie4.0 principles, the enhancements of products with new personalized intelligent parts, electrical and electronic self-programmed components and the control of access of the product memory information, to plan in a digital engineering environment and set up of the physical factory to produce customer orders. The gained action-orientated experience refers to the chances and requirements for holistic digital and physical systems

Comparison of performance of four instruments in evaluating the effects of salmeterol on asthma quality of life

Quality of life measures are increasingly used as important efficacy endpoints in studies of drugs for asthma. The purpose of this study was to assess both the sensitivity to change and the construct validity of four different quality of life instruments in patients with asthma. In a double-blind, parallel group study, 120 moderate asthma patients, aged between 18-70 yrs, received either inhaled salmeterol 50 micrograms b.i.d. or inhaled salbutamol 400 micrograms b.i.d. In addition to respiratory outcomes, quality of life was measured at a 6 weeks follow-up using: 1) Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ); 2) Living With Asthma Questionnaire (LWAQ); 3) Sickness Impact Profile (SIP); 4) Rating Scale (RS); and Standard Gamble (SG) utilities. Salmeterol led to significant improvements over salbutamol on virtually all clinical outcomes. Although all the quality of life instruments showed the same trend in favour of salmeterol, only the AQLQ and RS utilities showed significantly greater improvement on salmeterol than on salbutamol. Except for the AQLQ, the correlation between change in lung function and change in quality of life was generally low. Whereas, the AQLQ correlated well with the patient's overall assessment of efficacy (r = 0.64), the LWAQ, SIP and

Poor Health Reporting?

In spite of the wide disparities in wealth and in objective health measures like mortality, observed inequality by wealth in self-reported health appears to be nearly nonexistent in low- to middle-income settings. To determine the extent to which this is driven by reporting tendencies, we use anchoring vignettes to test and correct for reporting heterogeneity in health among elderly South Africans. Significant reporting differences across wealth groups are detected. Poorer individuals rate the same health state description more positively than richer individuals. Only after we correct for these differences does a significant and substantial health disadvantage of the poor emerge. We also find that health inequality and reporting heterogeneity are confounded by race. Within race groups—especially among black Africans and to a lesser degree among whites—heterogeneous reporting leads to an underestimation of health inequalities between richest and poorest. More surprisingly, we also show that the correction may go in the opposite direction: the apparent black African (vs. white) health disadvantage within the top wealth quintile almost disappears after we correct for reporting tendencies. Such large shifts and even reversals of health gradients have not been documented in previous studies on reporting bias in health inequalities. The evidence for South Africa, with its history of racial segregation and socioeconomic inequality, highlights that correction for reporting matters greatly when using self-reported health measures in countries with such wide disparities

Characterization of the heme pocket structure and ligand binding kinetics of non-symbiotic hemoglobins from the model legume lotus japonicus

Plant hemoglobins (Hbs) are found in nodules of legumes and actinorhizal plants but also in non-symbiotic organs of monocots and dicots. Non-symbiotic Hbs (nsHbs) have been classified into two phylogenetic groups. Class 1 nsHbs show an extremely high O2 affinity and are induced by hypoxia and nitric oxide (NO), whereas class 2 nsHbs have moderate O2 affinity and are induced by cold and cytokinins. The functions of nsHbs are still unclear, but some of them rely on the capacity of hemes to bind diatomic ligands and catalyze the NO dioxygenase (NOD) reaction (oxyferrous Hb + NO ? ferric Hb + nitrate). Moreover, NO may nitrosylate Cys residues of proteins. It is therefore important to determine the ligand binding properties of the hemes and the role of Cys residues. Here, we have addressed these issues with the two class 1 nsHbs (LjGlb1-1 and LjGlb1-2) and the single class 2 nsHb (LjGlb2) of Lotus japonicus, which is a model legume used to facilitate the transfer of genetic and biochemical information into crops. We have employed carbon monoxide (CO) as a model ligand and resonance Raman, laser flash photolysis, and stopped-flow spectroscopies to unveil major differences in the heme environments and ligand binding kinetics of the three proteins, which suggest non-redundant functions. In the deoxyferrous state, LjGlb1-1 is partially hexacoordinate, whereas LjGlb1-2 shows complete hexacoordination (behaving like class 2 nsHbs) and LjGlb2 is mostly pentacoordinate (unlike other class 2 nsHbs). LjGlb1-1 binds CO very strongly by stabilizing it through hydrogen bonding, but LjGlb1-2 and LjGlb2 show lower CO stabilization. The changes in CO stabilization would explain the different affinities of the three proteins for gaseous ligands. These affinities are determined by the dissociation rates and follow the order LjGlb1-1 > LjGlb1-2 > LjGlb2. Mutations LjGlb1-1 C78S and LjGlb1-2 C79S caused important alterations in protein dynamics and stability, indicating a structural role of those Cys residues, whereas mutation LjGlb1-1 C8S had a smaller effect. The three proteins and their mutant derivatives exhibited similarly high rates of NO consumption, which were due to NOD activity of the hemes and not to nitrosylation of Cys residues

HisE11 and HisF8 Provide Bis-histidyl Heme Hexa-coordination in the Globin Domain of Geobacter sulfurreducens Globin-coupled Sensor

Among heme-based sensors, recent phylogenomic and sequence analyses have identified 34 globin coupled sensors (GCS), to which an aerotactic or gene-regulating function has been tentatively ascribed. Here, the structural and biochemical characterization of the globin domain of the GCS from Geobacter sulfurreducens (GsGCS162) is reported. A combination of X-ray crystallography (crystal structure at 1.5 Å resolution), UV-vis and resonance Raman spectroscopy reveals the ferric GsGCS162 as an example of bis-histidyl hexa-coordinated GCS. In contrast to the known hexa-coordinated globins, the distal heme-coordination in ferric GsGCS162 is provided by a His residue unexpectedly located at the E11 topological site. Furthermore, UV-vis and resonance Raman spectroscopy indicated that ferrous deoxygenated GsGCS162 is a penta-/hexa-coordinated mixture, and the heme hexa-to-penta-coordination transition does not represent a rate-limiting step for carbonylation kinetics. Lastly, electron paramagnetic resonance indicates that ferrous nitrosylated GsGCS162 is a penta-coordinated species, where the proximal HisF8-Fe bond is severed. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Characterization of a globin-coupled oxygen sensor with a gene-regulating function

Globin-coupled sensors (GCSs) are multiple-domain transducers, consisting of a regulatory globin-like heme-binding domain and a linked transducer domain(s). GCSs have been described in both Archaea and bacteria. They are generally assumed to bind O2 (and perhaps other gaseous ligands) and to transmit a conformational change signal through the transducer domain in response to fluctuating O2 levels. In this study, the heme-binding domain, AvGReg178, and the full protein, AvGReg of the Azotobacter vinelandii GCS, were cloned, expressed, and purified. After purification, the heme iron of AvGReg178 was found to bind O2. This form was stable over many hours. In contrast, the predominant presence of a bis-histidine coordinate heme in ferric AvGReg was revealed. Differences in the heme pocket structure were also observed for the deoxygenated ferrous state of these proteins. The spectra showed that the deoxygenated ferrous derivatives of AvGReg178 and AvGReg are characterized by a penta-coordinate and hexa-coordinate heme iron, respectively. O2 binding isotherms indicate that AvGReg178 and AvGReg show a high affinity for O2 with P50 values at 20 °C of 0.04 and 0.15 torr, respectively. Kinetics of CO binding indicate that AvGReg178 carbonylation conforms to a monophasic process, comparable with that of myoglobin, whereas AvGReg carbonylation conforms to a three-phasic reaction, as observed for several proteins with bis-histidine heme iron coordination. Besides sensing ligands, in vitro data suggest that AvGReg(178) may have a role in O2-mediated NO-detoxification, yielding metAvGReg(178) and nitrate. © 2007 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc

Decomposing socioeconomic inequality for binary health outcomes: an improved estimation that does not vary by choice of reference group

BACKGROUND Decomposition of concentration indices yields useful information regarding the relative importance of various determinants of inequitable health outcomes. But the two estimation approaches to decomposition in current use are not suitable for binary outcomes. FINDINGS The paper compares three estimation approaches for decomposition of inequality concentration indices: Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), probit, and the Generalized Linear Model (GLM) binomial distribution and identity link. Data are from the Thai Health and Welfare Survey 2003. The OLS estimates do not take into account the binary nature of the outcome and the probit estimates depend on the choice of reference groups, whereas the GLM binomial identity approach has neither of these problems. CONCLUSIONS The GLM with binomial distribution and identity link allows the inequality decomposition model to hold, and produces valid estimates of determinants that do not vary according to choice of reference groups. This GLM approach is readily available in standard statistical packages.The study was conducted under the auspices of the overarching project "The Thai Health-Risk Transition: a National Cohort Study", funded by the Wellcome Trust UK (GR071587 MA) and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (268055)