4 research outputs found
Quantify resilience enhancement of UTS through exploiting connect community and internet of everything emerging technologies
This work aims at investigating and quantifying the Urban Transport System
(UTS) resilience enhancement enabled by the adoption of emerging technology
such as Internet of Everything (IoE) and the new trend of the Connected
Community (CC). A conceptual extension of Functional Resonance Analysis Method
(FRAM) and its formalization have been proposed and used to model UTS
complexity. The scope is to identify the system functions and their
interdependencies with a particular focus on those that have a relation and
impact on people and communities. Network analysis techniques have been applied
to the FRAM model to identify and estimate the most critical community-related
functions. The notion of Variability Rate (VR) has been defined as the amount
of output variability generated by an upstream function that can be
tolerated/absorbed by a downstream function, without significantly increasing
of its subsequent output variability. A fuzzy based quantification of the VR on
expert judgment has been developed when quantitative data are not available.
Our approach has been applied to a critical scenario (water bomb/flash
flooding) considering two cases: when UTS has CC and IoE implemented or not.
The results show a remarkable VR enhancement if CC and IoE are deploye
Time to onset of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaws: a multicentre retrospective cohort study
Objectives: Osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) is a potentially severe adverse effect of bisphosphonates (BP). Although the risk of ONJ increases with increasing duration of BP treatment, there are currently no reliable estimates of the ONJ time to onset (TTO). The objective of this study was to estimate the TTO and associated risk factors in BP-treated patients. Subjects and Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from 22 secondary care centres in seven countries relevant to 349 patients who developed BP-related ONJ between 2004 and 2012. Results: The median (95%CI) TTO was 6.0 years in patients treated with alendronate (n = 88) and 2.2 years in those treated with zoledronate (n = 218). Multivariable Cox regression showed that dentoalveolar surgery was inversely associated, and the use of antiangiogenics directly associated, with the TTO in patients with cancer treated with zoledronate. Conclusions: The incidence of ONJ increases with the duration of BP therapy, with notable differences observed with respect to BP type and potency, route of administration and underlying disease. When data are stratified by BP type, a time of 6.0 and 2.2 years of oral alendronate and intravenous zoledronate therapy, respectively, is required for 50% of patients to develop ONJ. After stratification by disease, a time of 5.3 and 2.2 years of BP therapy is required for 50% of patients with osteoporosis and cancer, respectively, to develop ONJ. These findings have significant implications for the design of future clinical studies and the development of risk-reduction strategies aimed at either assessing or modulating the risk of ONJ associated with BP