Knowledge gaps and acceptability of abbreviated alcohol screening in general practice: A cross-sectional survey of hazardous and non-hazardous drinkers

Background: General practice provides a unique setting where hazardous alcohol consumption can be screened for and behavioural interventions can be implemented in a continuous care model. Our aim was to assess in a general practice population, the prevalence of hazardous drinking, the knowledge and attitudes surrounding alcohol, and the acceptability of brief interventions in alcohol. Methods: A cross-sectional survey in a practice in South London, performed as part of a wider service evaluation. Questionnaires were offered to adult patients awaiting their appointments. Responses were stratified according to hazardous drinking, as per the abbreviated 'Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test' (AUDIT-C). Results: Of 179 respondents (30 % male), 34 % yielded an AUDIT-C ≥5 and 18 % reported that they never drink alcohol. Male and Caucasian patients were more likely to self-report hazardous drinking, who in turn were more likely to believe in the health benefits of moderate consumption. Little over half of patents thought that alcohol is a risk factor for cancer and were misinformed of its calorific content, suggesting two targets for future improvement. Patients' knowledge about what is a single 'unit' of alcohol was below that expected by random chance 66 % agreed that alcohol screening should feature in all GP consultations. Conclusions: While awareness of alcohol related health risks is generally good, future efforts may benefit from focusing on the association with cancer and calories. Our findings question the utility of the 'unit' system, as well as dissemination of suggested 'health benefits' of moderate consumption. General practice initiatives in screening and brief advice for alcohol deserve further study

Time Calibration of TileCal Modules with Cosmic Muons

A method to synchronize TileCal readout in time using cosmic muons has been developed. It is based on the comparison between the expected time of flight of muons crossing TileCal cells and the measured time. The method has been applied to cosmic data from September and October of 2007, when different sub-detectors of ATLAS were integrated during the Milestone Weeks. The resolution reached with this method is better than 0.7 ns when the statistical error is not the main contribution to the uncertainty

A plug and play transparent communication layer for cloud robotics architectures

The cloud robotics paradigm aims at enhancing the abilities of robots by using cloud services, but it still poses several challenges in the research community. Most of the current literature focuses on how to enrich specific robotic capabilities, overlooking how to effectively establish communication between the two fields. Our work proposes a “plug-and-play” solution to bridge the communication gap between cloud and robotic applications. The proposed solution is designed based on the mature WebSocket technology and it can be extended to any ROS-based robotic platform. The main contributions of this work are the definition of a reliable autoconnection/autoconfiguration mechanism as well as to outline a scalable communication layer that allows the effective control of multiple robots from multiple users. The “plug-and-play” solution was evaluated in both simulated and real scenarios. In the first case, the presence of users and robots was simulated with Robot Operating System (ROS) nodes running on five machines. In the real scenario, three non-expert users teleoperated, simultaneously, three remote robots by using the proposed communication layer with different networking protocols. Results confirmed the reliability at different levels: at startup (success_rate = 100%); during high-rate communications (message_lost = 0%); in performing open-loop spiral trajectories with enhancement, with respect to similar works; and in the quality of simultaneous teleoperations

Land take and landscape loss: Effect of uncontrolled urbanization in Southern Italy

The present paper describes a research that, based on the evolutionary data of the urban settlement over a period of half a century, shows the changes undergone by the various landscape categories of Southern Italy. The regions involved are four (Campania, Basilicata, Puglia and Calabria) and share renowned urban, economic and social issues such as unauthorised development, low income per capita and organised crime. All this has produced profound transformations on some of the most important and rare Italian landscapes, such as coastal plains and coastal carbonate slabs. Uncontrolled urban sprawl has further provoked an environmental crisis and eco-friendly insularisation of the yet numerous and valuable protected areas of this geographical area, thus leading to a high density of buildings and infrastructures even in national parks, breaking European records in this respect. Through finalised indicators, the characteristics of the evolution occurred have been analytically highlighted, and by using the latest generation satellite data, it is shown how such phenomena have continued to take place with significant energy over the last few years. The result is a picture of environmental threats still very prominent in this southern extremity of the peninsula, above all towards those naturalistic qualities and landscapes that are the main attractions of an intense national and international tourism whose income, however, has not been conveyed in a correct and inclusive way to allow high-level socio-economic conditions of the resident population. Keywords: Urban growth, Land take, Landscape loss, Urban sprinkling, South Ital

Identification of leakages by calibration of WDS models

Open Access journalCopyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.12th International Conference on Computing and Control for the Water Industry, CCWI2013Leakage detection is critical for the proper management of water distribution systems (WDS). This paper proposes a leak detection approach based on a Bayesian calibration method. The methodology uses a newly formulated index, μ, which takes into account the variation of roughness in pipes between the calibrated models with and without leaks. Case studies, which use literature networks, are presented to demonstrate how the approach can be used in identifying pipes with losses. The approach starts with a calibration method followed by the analysis of sensitivity matrices. The approach proved to be effective in finding leaks, but the results depend crucially on the number and quality of the observed data.European CommissionEuropean Social FundRegion of Calabri

Identification of Measurement Points for Calibration of Water Distribution Network Models

AbstractMuch importance is given to determining the input data for water distribution system networks, particularly with regard to urban networks, because the design and the management of WDS are based on a verification model. Good calibration of models is required to obtain realistic results. This is possible by the use of a certain number of measurements: flow in pipes and pressure in nodes. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a new model able to provide guidance on the choice of measurement points to obtain the site data. All analyses are carried out firstly on literature networks and then on a real network using a new approach based on sensitivity matrices

Model calibration as a tool for leakage identification in WDS: A real case study

16th Water Distribution System Analysis Conference, WDSA2014 — Urban Water Hydroinformatics and Strategic PlanningCopyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Water leakage detection is important for a proper management of water distribution systems (WDS). This paper proposes the application of the leak detection approach based on a new Bayesian calibration methodology. The methodology uses a new developed index μ, which takes into account the difference in roughness values in pipes of the calibrated models with and without leaks. The case study is referred to a real network and is presented to demonstrate how the approach can be used in identifying pipes with losses. The approach starts with the UNINET calibration method followed by the analysis of sensitivity matrices. The case study proves that the approach is effective in finding leaks in real networks, but the results depend on the quality of the observed data

emergency management of water distribution systems the nodal demand control

Abstract During emergency situations (e.g., due to pipe bursts or other network failures), appropriate management of Water Distribution Systems (WDS) is required. Critical events often cause service failures, because the pressure head in some nodes of the network become inadequate to deliver required demand. In this paper, a new methodology is developed based on the nodal demand control. with the aim to increase the pressure head, and hence the flow rate actually delivered at critical nodes (i.e., hospitals, vulnerable customers, etc.). This is done to avoid or minimize service interruptions between the failure and the repair times. Furthermore, a pipe burst can cause isolation of a portion of the network such that the flow along pipes changes and this causes the reduction of head in some nodes. The proposed methodology is manages the delivered flow rate using a Pressure Driven Analysis (PDA) approach. This is based on operating control of valves and by identifying the nodes where the pressure control should be implemented. Those control nodes are chosen by the analysis of sensitivity matrices and the Max-Sum Method (Bush and Uber, 1998; Fiorini Morosini et al., 2014). The methodology is demonstrated on a case study for a real network of Cosenza, a town in the South of Italy