Biomethane Production from Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Selected Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) with Sewage Sludge: Effect of the Ino…

2021

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the inoculum to substrate ratio (ISR) and the mixture ratio between organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and sewage sludge (SS) on the methane production potential achievable from anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD). Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) assays at mesophilic temperature were used to determine the best AcoD configuration for maximizing methane yield and production rate, as well as to address possible synergistic effects. The maximum methane yield was observed at ISR of 1 and 60% OFMSW: 40% SS as co-digestion mixture, whereas the highest methane production rate was achieved at ISR of 2 with the same mixture ratio (207 m…

Mikä muuttui vai muuttuiko mikään? Yli 65-vuotiaiden arki korona-aikana

2021

Koronapandemian leviämisen estämiseksi asetetut rajoitukset ovat kohdistuneet erityisesti ikäihmisiin, joille tauti on vaarallisin. Miten korona-aika rajoituksineen on näkynyt ikääntyneiden elämässä ja hyvinvoinnissa? Tutkimuksemme aineistona on 31 kesällä 2020 tehtyä puhelinhaastattelua. Korona-aika rajoituksineen oli vaikuttanut haastateltujen arkeen ja hyvinvointiin eri tavoin. Suuri osa koki arkensa muuttuneen vain vähän tai ei ollenkaan, osa taas koki hyvinvointinsa huonontuneen merkittävästi. Jotkut kokivat arkensa jopa parantuneen. Niillä, joilla arki ei ollut juuri muuttunut, elämä oli saattanut olla jo ennestään rajoittunutta huonon toimintakyvyn ja vähäisten sosiaalisten kontaktie…

Achieving complete nitrification below the washout SRT with hybrid membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) treating municipal wastewater

2021

This study analyzed the performances of a hybrid membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) pilot plant in terms of nutrients removal of the attached growth and suspended biomass in comparison with a conventional activated sludge (CAS) system at different sludge retention time (SRT) (20−3) days. Overall, the MABR showed better performances than the CAS in terms of TSS (86% vs 79%), COD (89% vs 85%) and total nitrogen (80% vs 65%). The minimum SRT for achieving complete nitrification in the MABR was close to 3 days, corresponding to a SRT in the aerobic compartment of 1.9 days, whereas in the CAS it was equal to 8 days (aerobic SRT of 4.8 days). Nitrification rate in biofilm was on average equa…

Phosphorus‐Directed Rhodium‐Catalyzed C−H Arylation of 1‐Pyrenylphosphines Selective at the K ‐Region

2021

Mycorrhizal symbiosis changes host nitrogen source use

2021

Abstract Purpose The ecological importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in plant acquisition of inorganic and organic sources of nitrogen (N) is not clear. To improve understanding of the plant N nutrition ecology, we tested the effect of intraspecific competition and AMF in plant N source use in growth and N acquisition. Methods Solidago virgaurea was grown in microcosms in a fully factorial experiment under greenhouse conditions. The factors tested were intraspecific competition between seedlings and adult plants (yes, no), N source (NH4, glycine) and AMF (inoculated with Glomus hoi, not inoculated). Results When grown separately, non-mycorrhizal seedling growth was highest when …

L’e-ETP : Vers une redéfinition de la prise en charge de l'obésité

2021

National audience

Financement participatif au sein de l’UEMOA : opportunités et limites pour l’entrepreneuriat

2021

National audience

Health Risk Assessment of Exposure to 15 Essential and Toxic Elements in Spanish Women of Reproductive Age: A Case Study

2021

This case study investigates the exposure of 119 Spanish women of reproductive age to 5 essential (Co, Cu, Mn, V, Zn) and 10 toxic (Ba, Be, Cs, Ni, Pb, Pt, Sb, Th, Al, U) elements and assesses their risk. The essential elements (Co, Cu, Mn, V, and Zn) showed average concentrations (GM: geometric mean) of 0.8, 35, 0.5, 0.2, and 347 μg/L, respectively. Five of the toxic elements (Ba, Cs, Ni, Al, U) exhibited detection frequencies of 100%. The GM concentrations of the novel toxic elements were 12 μg/L (Al), 0.01 μg/L (Pt), 0.02 μg/L (U), 0.12 μg/L (Th), 0.009 μg/L (Be) and 4 μg/L (Cs). The urine analysis was combined with a survey to assess any variations between subgroups…

Clinical manifestations of head and neck cancer in pediatric patients, an analysis of 253 cases in a single Brazilian center

2021

Pediatric head and neck cancer (PHNC) is rare and its nonspecific clinical manifestations may often lead to delayed diagnosis. We aimed to describe the signs, symptoms, and clinicopathological characteristics of PHNC. Medical records were retrospectively reviewed for all PHNC cases diagnosed from 1986 to 2016 affecting patients aged 19-years and younger from a tertiary referral center in Brazil. Demographic variables, anatomical site of primary tumors, histopathological diagnoses, signs and symptoms, and patterns of misdiagnosis were collected and interpreted by statistical and descriptive analysis. A total of 253 PHNC cases were included. The mean age was 9.3 years and male patients were m…

Phytochemical and Pharmacological Evaluation of the Residue By-Product Developed from the Ocimum americanum (Lamiaceae) Postdistillation Waste

2021

The yield of essential oils in plants is not high and postdistillation wastes rich in phenolic compounds could be used to enhance the profitability of essential oil-bearing plants. The aim of the study was to evaluate polyphenols in a dry extract obtained from the postdistillation waste of the American basil (Ocimum americanum L.) herb, and to conduct the screening of its pharmacological activities. Rosmarinic acid, caffeic acid and rutin were identified in the extract using high-performance thin-layer chromatography. The high-performance liquid chromatography analysis found the presence of a plethora of polyphenols in the extract. Rosmarinic acid, luteolin-7-O-glucoside and rutin were as t…

Sympathetic cooling schemes for separately trapped ions coupled via image currents

2021

Cooling of particles to mK-temperatures is essential for a variety of experiments with trapped charged particles. However, many species of interest lack suitable electronic transitions for direct laser cooling. We study theoretically the remote sympathetic cooling of a single proton with laser-cooled $^9$Be$^+$ in a double-Penning-trap system. We investigate three different cooling schemes and find, based on analytical calculations and numerical simulations, that two of them are capable of achieving proton temperatures of about 10 mK with cooling times on the order of 10 s. In contrast, established methods such as feedback-enhanced resistive cooling with image-current detectors are limited …

A parody of action : Politics and pantomime in Agamben's critique of Arendt

2021

The Current State of Remote Physiotherapy in Finland : Cross-sectional Web-Based Questionnaire Study

2021

Background The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has required social, health, and rehabilitation organizations to implement remote physiotherapy (RP) as a part of physiotherapists’ daily practice. RP may improve access to physiotherapy as it delivers physiotherapy services to rehabilitees through information and communications technology. Even if RP has already been introduced in this century, physiotherapists’ opinion, amount of use, and form in daily practice have not been studied extensively. Objective This study aims to investigate physiotherapists’ opinions of the current state of RP in Finland. Methods A quantitative, cross-sectional, web-based questionnaire was sent to working-aged members …

Grain Boundary Wetting Phenomena in High Entropy Alloys Containing Nitrides, Carbides, Borides, Silicides, and Hydrogen: A Review

2021

This review was written during the preparation of M-era.Net full proposal “Grain boundaries in multicomponent alloys without principal component” (A.Ko., A.Ku., G.L., and E.R., application No 9345). We also acknowledge the support of the KIT-Publication Fund of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, as a center of excellence, has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement no. 739508, project CAMART2.

Influence of anodizing surface treatment on the aging behavior in salt-fog environment of aluminum alloy 5083 to fiber reinforced composites adhesive…

2021

The present work aims to evaluate how an innovative and eco-friendly anodizing process with tartaric-sulfuric acid (TSA) bath and a pore widening in an aqueous solution of NaOH 0.1 M can improve the durability in marine environment of co-cured adhesive joints between an aluminum alloy (AA 5083) and fiber (i.e., glass or basalt)-reinforced composite substrates. The aging was carried out by exposing samples to salt-fog spray conditions (5 wt.% NaCl) for 30, 60 and 90 days in a climate chamber, in accordance with ASTM B117. In order to get further insights on the aging behaviour of bonded joints, neat matrix was also exposed to the same environment for 60 days. Quasi-static mechanical tests an…

Issue 1 - “Update on adverse respiratory effects of outdoor air pollution”. Part 1): Outdoor air pollution and respiratory diseases: A general update…

2021

Objective: to summarize the main updated evidence about the health effects of air pollution and to focus on Italian epidemiological experiences on the respiratory effects. Results: The recent literature indicates that there is strong evidence for causal relationships between PM2.5 air pollution exposure and all-cause mortality as well as mortality from acute lower respiratory infections, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer. A growing body of evidence also suggests causal relationships with type II diabetes and impacts on neonatal mortality from low birth weight and short gestation as well as neurologic effects in both children and adults. …

Genome-wide variant calling in reanalysis of exome sequencing data uncovered a pathogenic TUBB3 variant.

2021

Almost half of all individuals affected by intellectual disability (ID) remain undiagnosed. In the Solve-RD project, exome sequencing (ES) datasets from unresolved individuals with (syndromic) ID (n = 1,472 probands) are systematically reanalyzed, starting from raw sequencing files, followed by genome-wide variant calling and new data interpretation. This strategy led to the identification of a disease-causing de novo missense variant in TUBB3 in a girl with severe developmental delay, secondary microcephaly, brain imaging abnormalities, high hypermetropia, strabismus and short stature. Interestingly, the TUBB3 variant could only be identified through reanalysis of ES data using a genome-wi…

Requirement analysis for an artificial intelligence model for the diagnosis of the COVID-19 from chest X-ray data

2021

There are multiple papers published about different AI models for the COVID-19 diagnosis with promising results. Unfortunately according to the reviews many of the papers do not reach the level of sophistication needed for a clinically usable model. In this paper I go through multiple review papers, guidelines, and other relevant material in order to generate more comprehensive requirements for the future papers proposing a AI based diagnosis of the COVID-19 from chest X-ray data (CXR). Main findings are that a clinically usable AI needs to have an extremely good documentation, comprehensive statistical analysis of the possible biases and performance, and an explainability module.

Des choix photographiques comme révélateurs d’un ressenti en espace vert urbain

2021

International audience

Lastensuojelun tutkimusperustan vahvistamisen haasteita ja mahdollisuuksia

2021

- Lastensuojelun toimintamallit voivat olla lupaava tapa parantaa lastensuojelua, mutta systemaattisen kirjallisuuskatsauksemme mukaan niiden vaikuttavuudesta on vielä hyvin vähän tietoa. Tarve mallien vaikuttavuustutkimukselle on suuri. - Lastensuojelun tutkimusperustaisuuden edistämisessä voidaan toimintamallien ohella hyödyntää muita rinnakkaisia strategioita. -Kehittämistyöhön tulisi kytkeä nykyistä enemmän arviointitutkimusta. Näin uusista lupaavista menetelmistä ja malleista saataisiin tuotettua tietoa aiempaa järjestelmällisemmin. - Tieto olisi myös paremmin yleistettävissä, kun sen tuottamista olisivat ohjanneet tieteellisen tutkimuksen yleiset eettiset periaatteet ja hyvä tieteelli…

David against Goliath: Diagnosis and Strategies for a Niche Sport to Develop a Sustainable Fan Community

2021

Pilota, played using the hands, is a niche sport with origins dating back to Greco-Roman times. In the Valencian region of Spain, an indigenous version of the sport is played with healthy participation rates despite having to compete with the major global sports. This study is aimed at understanding the current situation of this sport in terms of knowledge, transmission channels, fan experience and media consumption, as well as the brand strategy challenges it faces for building a stable and sustainable fan community. The methodology consists of a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Nearly 1500questionnaires completed across three study universes, four focus groups and 3…

A Randomized Trial Assessing the Muscle Strength and Range of Motion in Elderly Patients following Distal Radius Fractures Treated with 4- and 6-Week…

2021

Background: There is no consensus among orthopedic surgeons as to the required period of cast immobilization in distal radius fractures in elderly patients. The purpose of this study was to assess muscle strength and range of motion symmetry in elderly patients after distal radius fractures with different periods of cast immobilization. Methods: This study evaluated 50 patients (33 women and 17 men), aged over 65 years, after cast immobilization treatment for distal radius fracture. The mean age at the beginning of treatment was 71 years. The mean duration of follow-up was 1 year and 3 months. The first subgroup (n = 24) comprised the patients whose fractures had been immobilized in a cast …

The Lost Social Context of Recovery Psychiatrization of a Social Process

2021

From being a concept questioning the core of psychiatric knowledge and practice, recovery has been adopted as a guiding vison for mental health policy and practice by different local, national, and international organizations. The aim of this article is to contextualize the different understandings of recovery and its psychiatrization through the emergence of an individualizing and de-contextualized definition which have gained a dominant position. It ends with an attempt to formulate a new definition of recovery which integrates people in their social context. Research results from various follow-up studies showing the possibility of recovery from severe mental distress have stressed the i…

Supplementary material 1 from: Bartolucci F, Domina G, Argenti C, Bacchetta G, Ballelli S, Banfi E, Barberis D, Barberis G, Bertolli A, Bolpagni R, B…

2021

Supplementary data

How to Measure Propensity to Take Risks in the Italian Context: The Italian Validation of the Risk Propensity Scale

2021

Risk propensity is a multifaced construct that influences many aspects of life, such as decision making. In the present study, the psychometric characteristics of the Risk Propensity Scale (RPS) have been explored for the first time in an Italian sample. The RPS is a 7 item self-report questionnaire measuring people’s tendency to take risks. The English RPS has been translated following the forward–backwards translation method, and it was filled out by 199 participants. Since its dimensionality has never been explored before, its factor structure has been analysed with exploratory factor analysis that confirmed the one-factor structure of the questionnaire and the retention of all the item…

Novel fuzzy-based optimization approaches for the prediction of ultimate axial load of circular concrete-filled steel tubes

2021

An accurate estimation of the axial compression capacity of the concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) column is crucial for ensuring the safety of structures containing them and preventing related failures. In this article, two novel hybrid fuzzy systems (FS) were used to create a new framework for estimating the axial compression capacity of circular CCFST columns. In the hybrid models, differential evolution (DE) and firefly algorithm (FFA) techniques are employed in order to obtain the optimal membership functions of the base FS model. To train the models with the new hybrid techniques, i.e., FS-DE and FS-FFA, a substantial library of 410 experimental tests was compiled from openly availa…

Mothers’ return-to-work reasons and work–family conflict : does a partner involved in childcare make a difference?

2021

Facilitating mothers’ work–family reconciliation upon their return to work can be considered a viable means of enhancing women’s overall employment participation. This study examined return-to-work reasons among mothers with a one-year-old child, how these reasons are related to mothers’ background characteristics, work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) and whether having a partner home caring for the child protects against such conflicts. Results based on survey data collected from Finnish working mothers (N = 573) in 2016 showed four dimensions of return-to-work reasons: personal importance of work, work- and career-related worries, dissatisfaction with stay-at-ho…

Magnetic sensitivity distribution of Hall devices in antiferromagnetic switching experiments

2021

We analyze the complex impact of the local magnetic spin texture on the transverse Hall-type voltage in device structures utilized to measure magnetoresistance effects. We find a highly localized and asymmetric magnetic sensitivity in the eight-terminal geometries that are frequently used in current-induced switching experiments, for instance to probe antiferromagnetic materials. Using current-induced switching of antiferromagnetic NiO/Pt as an example, we estimate the change in the spin Hall magnetoresistance signal associated with switching events based on the domain switching patterns observed via direct imaging. This estimate correlates with the actual electrical data after subtraction …

Tutkimus artefaktin ongelmasta ja aineellisen ja käsitteellisen välisistä suhteista

2021

Terapeuttisen vallan viettelevyyttä ja hähmäisyyttä jäljittämässä

2021

Terapeuttinen valta. Onnellisuuden ja hyvinvoinnin jännitteitä 2000-luvun Suomessa. Toim. Kristiina Brunila, Esko Harni, Antti Saari & Hanna Ylöstalo. Vastapaino 2021. 367 s.

The Centaurea parlatoris complex (Asteraceae): taxonomic checklist and typifications

2021

A taxonomic account of the Centaurea parlatoris complex (Asteraceae), endemic to Sicily, is presented. This complex includes six taxa, three described in the 19th century (C. parlatoris, C. parlatoris var. tomentosa and C. parlatoris var. virescens) and three recently described (C. sicana, C. giardinae and C. heywoodiana). Starting from the designation of the types for the oldest plant names that have not been typified yet, taxonomic considerations are formulated and C. parlatoris var. virescens is elevated to the rank of species. An identification key and a distribution map complete this account.

Gender differences among professionals dedicated to Oral Implantology in Spain: An observational study.

2021

Background: Despite the development of society and the educational progress achieved at the university education level, women continue to face obstacles that hinder their professional development. This study aims to determine whether there are gender differences in a representative sample of professionals dedicated to Oral Implantology in Spain. Material and Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study based on the STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) guidelines. An electronic survey consisting of two blocks of questions was sent to members of the Spanish Society of Implants. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. Results: A tot…

A dynamic adjustment model of saccade lengths in reading for word-spaced orthographies : evidence from simulations and invisible boundary experiments

2021

Contemporary models of eye movement control in reading assume a discrete target word selection process preceding saccade length computation, while the selection itself is assumed to be driven by word identification processes. However, a potentially more parsimonious, dynamic adjustment view allows both next word length and its content (e.g. orthographic) to modulate saccade length in a continuous manner. Based on a recently proposed center-based saccade length account (a new regression model of forward saccade length is introduced and validated in a simulation study. Further, additional simulations and gaze-contingent invisible boundary experiments were used to study the cognitive mechanism…

Phase imaging microscopy under the Gabor regime in a minimally modified regular bright-field microscope

2021

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is nowadays a powerful tool for visualization and analysis of biological processes. QPI is usually attained from specifically designed optical microscopes retrieving phase information in a quantitative way. In this paper we report on an extremely simple, low cost and compact way to update a standard bright-field microscope with coherent sensing capabilities. It is based on the in-line Gabor holography concept and only needs to replace the illumination broadband source of the regular microscope with a coherent one. The proposed methodology is completed by the recording of a digital in-line Gabor hologram instead of regular imaging conditions and by the numeri…

The House on Mango Street: A Parable of Degeneration or a Chicana Rewriting of Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies

2021

Reading Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies (1863) makes it possible for Esperanza Cordero to imagine an idyllic site of empowered identity in The House on Mango Street. Yet, I argue that Esperanza’s transformed identity can only reside outside her original community and that her journey from the sad red house of Mango Street to her reconceived clean house at the end of the text is necessarily a trajectory of desired uprootedness that follows the script presented in The Water-Babies. Like Tom, Kingsley’s protagonist, Esperanza undergoes a metamorphosis to shed off the traits that categorize her as Chicana in order to embrace a remodeled subjectivity and, consequently, become an ontologicall…

Towards Seamless IoT Device-Edge-Cloud Continuum:

2021

In this paper we revisit a taxonomy of client-side IoT software architectures that we presented a few years ago. We note that the emergence of inexpensive AI/ML hardware and new communication technologies are broadening the architectural options for IoT devices even further. These options can have a significant impact on the overall end-to-end architecture and topology of IoT systems, e.g., in determining how much computation can be performed on the edge of the network. We study the implications of the IoT device architecture choices in light of the new observations, as well as make some new predictions about future directions. Additionally, we make a case for isomorphic IoT systems in whic…