Search results for "Limiting"
showing 10 items of 219 documents
Simulating the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions limiting transmission in COVID-19 epidemics using a membrane computing model
2021
Epidemics caused by microbial organisms are part of the natural phenomena of increasing biological complexity. The heterogeneity and constant variability of hosts, in terms of age, immunological status, family structure, lifestyle, work activities, social and leisure habits, daily division of time and other demographic characteristics make it extremely difficult to predict the evolution of epidemics. Such prediction is, however, critical for implementing intervention measures in due time and with appropriate intensity. General conclusions should be precluded, given that local parameters dominate the flow of local epidemics. Membrane computing models allows us to reproduce the objects (virus…
Limiting Liability? — Risk and Ambiguity Attitudes Under Real Losses
2013
Using a laboratory experiment in which the unlimited liability treatment involves real out-of-pocket losses, we investigate and compare the behavioral effects of auditors’ limited and unlimited liability on behavior under risk and ambiguity. We find that aversion to both risk and ambiguity are higher under unlimited liability than under limited liability, and that these two constructs are correlated under unlimited liability. Our findings explain why some auditors might be hindered in performing their duties properly under unlimited liability. Further, our findings emphasize the importance of appropriately modeling risk and ambiguity attitudes in economic models on liability.
Quantification of Regional Intrapulmonary Oxygen Partial Pressure Evolution during Apnea by 3He MRI
1999
We present a new method to determine in vivo the temporal evolution of intrapulmonary oxygen concentrations by functional lung imaging with hyperpolarized (3)Helium ((3)He-->). Single-breath, single-bolus visualization of (3)He--> administered to the airspaces is used to analyze nuclear spin relaxation caused by the local oxygen partial pressure p(O(2))(t). We model the dynamics of hyperpolarization in the lung by rate equations. Based hereupon, a double acquisition technique is presented to separate depolarization by RF pulses and oxygen induced relaxation. It permits the determination of p(O(2)) with a high accuracy of up to 3% with simultaneous flip angle calibration using no additional …
Role of out of hours primary care service in limiting inappropriate access to emergency department
2017
Out of hours (OOH) doctors can have an important gate-keeping role over the access to the emergency department (ED), but the outcome and the quality of their ED referrals have been poorly studied. We aimed to investigate the outcome of patients referred to ED from OOH service and the determinants of admission or short-stay dispositions. We collected retrospectively data about referrals to ED from a local OOH service in the north-east of Italy using the OOH paper register and the ED electronic database, over the period of 01/10/2012 to 31/03/2013. Out of 5217 patients accessing the OOH service, 408 referrals were included in our analysis. 45.3% (185) of the referrals were admitted to hospita…
Relationships between oxygen concentration and patterns of energy metabolism in the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis
1992
Abstract 1. 1. Activities of 10 enzymes and accumulation of two metabolites under experimental hypoxia were investigated in the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis . 2. 2. Pyruvate kinase (PK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malic enzyme (ME), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and fumarase (FUM) activities showed great increase at low oxygen levels. Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity was not detected. 3. 3. Alanine concentration showed an increase with low oxygen concentrations, while alanine aminotransferase (GTP) showed a slight activity increase with oxygen levels. The high alanine concentration was interpreted as enhanced proteolysis. 4. 4. Our results show…
An improved cathode for alkaline fuel cells
2010
Abstract The use of nickel foam as an electrode substrate in alkaline fuel cells (AFCs) has been investigated for bipolar cells incorporating an electrically conducting gas diffusion layer (GDL). Improved performance, compared to a previous design, was obtained by adding an extra active layer (AL) composed of manganese (IV) oxide (MnO2) deposited onto carbon black. This new cathode design performed significantly better (130 mA cm−2 at 0.8 V and 25 °C) than the previous design (35 mA cm−2 under the same condition), especially at higher potential. It has been shown that the GDL is a key component of the gas diffusion electrode for both performance and durability, especially with liquid electr…
Generation of TCR-Engineered T Cells and Their Use To Control the Performance of T Cell Assays
2015
Abstract The systematic assessment of the human immune system bears huge potential to guide rational development of novel immunotherapies and clinical decision making. Multiple assays to monitor the quantity, phenotype, and function of Ag-specific T cells are commonly used to unravel patients’ immune signatures in various disease settings and during therapeutic interventions. When compared with tests measuring soluble analytes, cellular immune assays have a higher variation, which is a major technical factor limiting their broad adoption in clinical immunology. The key solution may arise from continuous control of assay performance using TCR-engineered reference samples. We developed a simp…
Temperature-related mortality impacts under and beyond Paris Agreement climate change scenarios.
2018
The Paris Agreement binds all nations to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change, with the commitment to hold warming well below 2 degrees C in global mean temperature (GMT), relative to pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C. The 1.5 degrees C limit constitutes an ambitious goal for which greater evidence on its benefits for health would help guide policy and potentially increase the motivation for action. Here we contribute to this gap with an assessment on the potential health benefits, in terms of reductions in temperature-related mortality, derived from the compliance to the agreed temperature targets, compared to more extreme warmin…
Improving accuracy of FIR filters for computing convolution transforms for smooth non-bandlimited signals
2019
We propose to improve the accuracy of FIR filters for computing convolution transforms for smooth non-bandlimited (NBL) signals by designing filters by the identification method with using a pair of bandlimited portions of the chosen NBL input and output signals related with each other by the given transform. A design example of type IV linear phase differentiator is presented, where filter coefficients are calculated from the bandlimited portions of the Cauchy pulse and its derivative. The performance of the designed differentiator is evaluated by comparing the accuracy of computed derivatives for several smooth NBL test signals, such as the Cauchy pulse, the Hilbert transform of Cauchy pu…
An attempt to realise the constrained search approach in the density functional theory
2001
Abstract The problem of reconstruction of wave functions from a given electron density is considered. A reformulation of the problem is proposed which is based on the Fourier transform. Arising mathematical problems are studied, namely, the properties of reduced spatial densities and their Fourier images are obtained, which follow from known properties of the wave functions. The proposed approach may provide a practical implementation of the Constrained Search Approach to the DFT.