Search results for "Emerging"
showing 10 items of 640 documents
Occurrence of illicit drugs in two wastewater treatment plants in the South of Italy
2017
In this study the occurrence and the behavior of illicit drugs and their metabolites have been investigated for two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) (namely, WWTP-1 and WWTP-2) located in Sicily (island of Italy). Samples were analyzed for methamphetamine, cocaine (COC), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methadone (METH), 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (EDDP), 3,4-methylenedioxy amphetamine (MDA); 3,4-methylenedioxy ethylamphetamine (MDEA), 11-nor-9-carboxy-Î9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) and Benzoylecgonine (BEG). The BEG, COC, MOR and THC-COOH were found at the highest concentration in both WWTPs. The Wastewater-based epidemiology calculation for BEG, COC…
Energy-Efficiency and Coverage Quality Management for Reliable Diagnostics in Wireless Sensor Networks
2020
International audience; The processing of data and signals provided by sensors aims at extracting rnrelevant features which can be used to assess and diagnose the health state rnof the monitored targets. Nevertheless, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) present rna number of shortcomings that have an impact on the quality of the gathered rndata at the sink level, leading to imprecise diagnostics rnof the observed targets. To improve data accuracy, two main critical and related issues, namely the energy consumption and coverage quality, need to be considered. The goal is to maximize the network lifetime while guaranteeing the complete coverage of all the targets. Unfortunately, these performance…
Improving the management of potentially predictable hospital readmissions of the elderly and their quality of life through new icts
2013
3rd International Conference on the Elderly and New Technologies. III Jornadas Internacionales de Mayores y Nuevas Tecnologías. The ageing population is currently beginning to create economic repercussions, as ageing often implies an increase of health expenditure related to, specially, hospital admissions and/or unplanned readmissions and long term care services. The present paper deals with two strategies that could be implemented through the establishment and use of new technologies to avoid these increasing costs: 1) screening tools of health information systems aimed at identifying patients at risk of hospital readmissions or repeated use of health resources; and 2) new icts at elderly…
Quantitative methods in tourism and hospitality: a perspective article
2019
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of past perspectives and future trends in tourism and hospitality research. Design/methodology/approach The study grounds the discussion on the timeline evolution of quantitative research methods. Findings Although still under-recognized by scholars, mixed methods represent the future of research in tourism and hospitality. Research limitations/implications The investigation is confined to quantitative methods. Originality/value No other surveys sketch a period of 150 years of quantitative analyses in tourism and hospitality.
Quantum technologies and the elephants
2021
Extraordinary progress in quantum sensors and technologies opens new avenues for exploring the Universe and testing the assumptions forming the basis of modern physics. This QST focus issue: focus on quantum sensors for new-physics discoveries is a next-decade roadmap on developing a wide range of quantum sensors and new technologies towards discoveries of new physics. It covers the next generation of various technologies, including atomic and nuclear clocks, atomic and diamond-based magnetometers, atom and laser interferometers, control of trapped atoms, ions, and molecules, optomechanical systems, and many others. In this editorial, we outline major problems of fundamental physics we aim …
Exceptional Heterogeneity in Viral Evolutionary Dynamics Characterises Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection.
2016
The treatment of HCV infection has seen significant progress, particularly since the approval of new direct-acting antiviral drugs. However these clinical achievements have been made despite an incomplete understanding of HCV replication and within-host evolution, especially compared with HIV-1. Here, we undertake a comprehensive analysis of HCV within-host evolution during chronic infection by investigating over 4000 viral sequences sampled longitudinally from 15 HCV-infected patients. We compare our HCV results to those from a well-studied HIV-1 cohort, revealing key differences in the evolutionary behaviour of these two chronic-infecting pathogens. Notably, we find an exceptional level o…
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Different Testing Strategies that Use Antibody Levels to Detect Chronic Hepatitis C in Blood Donors.
2016
Aim. We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of seven hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing strategies in blood donors. Methods. Three of the seven strategies were based on HCV diagnosis and reporting guidelines in Mexico and four were from previous and current recommendations outlined by the CDC. The strategies that were evaluated determine antibody levels according to the signal-to-cut-off (S/CO) ratio and use reflex Immunoblot (IMB) or HCV RNA tests to confirm true positive (TP) cases of chronic HCV infection. Costs were calculated from the perspective of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS). A decision tree model was developed to estimate the expected number of true positive cas…
Radionuclides in wastewater treatment plants: monitoring of Sicilian plants.
2015
Three Sicilian wastewater treatment plants were monitored to assess the occurrence and the behaviour of radionuclides. Two sampling campaigns (screening and long-term) were carried out during which liquid and solid samples have been analysed. It was found that 131I mostly occurred in the samples analysed during the screening campaign (43% of the analysed samples contained 131I). High 131I specific activity was found in the mixed liquor, recycled sludge and dehydrated sludge samples. This finding was mainly due to the tendency of 131I to be associated with solid particles. During the long-term sampling campaign an influence of the sludge retention time (SRT) on the 131I behaviour was found. …
A life cycle scenario analysis of different pavement technologies for urban roads.
2019
In the past, lowest price was the award criterion, given that structural capacity and safety were assured. In the last years, environmental, energy, and long-term impacts have been introduced (climate change, resource depletion, energy consumption, generated solid waste, discharged water, and emissions). Unfortunately, the introduction of new pavement technologies and materials (i.e., waste plastics) affects maintenance and rehabilitation processes and call for accurate and timeliness studies and criteria. Consequently, this paper presents an energy and environmental assessment of an Italian urban road and considers different material-related scenarios that fully comply with emerging techno…
Quantum mechanical settings inspired by RLC circuits
2018
In some recent papers several authors used electronic circuits to construct loss and gain systems. This is particularly interesting in the context of PT-quantum mechanics, where this kind of effects appears quite naturally. The electronic circuits used so far are simple, but not so much. Surprisingly enough, a rather trivial RLC circuit can be analyzed with the same perspective and it produces a variety of unexpected results, both from a mathematical and on a physical side. In this paper we show that this circuit produces two biorthogonal bases associated to the Liouville matrix $\Lc$ used in the treatment of its dynamics, with a biorthogonality which is linked to the value of the parameter…