Search results for "Linear"
showing 10 items of 7165 documents
A shoreline boundary condition for a highly nonlinear Boussinesq model for breaking waves
2012
Abstract A physically based strategy was used to model swash zone hydrodynamics forced by breaking waves within a Boussinesq type of model. The position and the velocity of the shoreline were determined continuously in space by solving the physically-based equations of the shoreline motion; moreover, a fixed grid method, with a wet–dry interface, was adopted for integrating the Boussinesq model. The numerical stability of the model was improved by means of an extrapolation method. To validate the proposed methodology, the classical analytical solution for the shoreline motion of a monochromatic wave train over a plane beach was considered. The comparison between the analytical and numerical…
Elementary steps in heterogeneous catalysis: The basis for environmental chemistry
2018
Abstract Catalysis is an alternative way for reaching an immediate formation of a product, because of a lower energy barrier (between the molecules and the catalysts). Heterogeneous catalysis comprises the acceleration of a chemical reaction through interaction of the molecules involved with the surface of a solid. It is a discipline, which involves all the different aspects of chemistry: inorganic and analytical chemistry in order to characterize the catalysts and the forms of these catalysts. The industrial chemistry puts all these things together to understand the solid chemical handling, chemical reaction and energy engineering and the heat and mass transfer in these catalytic processes…
Economic development and agriculture: Managing protected areas and safeguarding the environment
2017
Abstract The establishment of protected areas has been one of the most important interventions to protect biodiversity from the threat of human activities and in particular from the agricultural traditional activities where they have been restricted at the expense of the economy of the territory sparking in literature a heated debate between those who argue the these hinder the socio-economic development and on the other hand are those who argue that is able to advance social welfare. On the basis of these considerations, the weight of agricultural sector of a country is highly linked to the percentage of protected areas even though the trend of the weight of agriculture in the overall econ…
The distribution of phthalate esters in indoor dust of Palermo (Italy).
2013
In this work, phthalic acid esters (PAEs): dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate, benzyl butyl phthalate, bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, and di-n-octyl phthalate in indoor dust (used as passive sampler) were investigated. The settled dust samples were collected from thirteen indoor environments from Palermo city. A fast and simple method using Soxhlet and GC–MS analysis has been optimized to identify and quantify the phthalates. Total phthalates concentrations in indoor dusts ranged from 269 to 4,831 mg/kg d.w. (d.w. = dry weight). The data show a linear correlation between total PAEs concentration and a single compound content, with the exclusion of the two …
Real-time parameter estimation of Zika outbreaks using model averaging
2017
SUMMARYEarly prediction of the final size of any epidemic and in particular for Zika disease outbreaks can be useful for health authorities in order to plan the response to the outbreak. The Richards model is often been used to estimate epidemiological parameters for arboviral diseases based on the reported cumulative cases in single- and multi-wave outbreaks. However, other non-linear models can also fit the data as well. Typically, one follows the so called post selection estimation procedure, i.e., selects the best fitting model out of the set of candidate models and ignores the model uncertainty in both estimation and inference since these procedures are based on a single model. In this…
Dietary acrylamide and physical performance tests: A cross-sectional analysis
2021
Background Dietary acrylamide is found in certain foods, such as deep frying, baking and roasting, and is associated with higher inflammatory and oxidative stress parameters. The association between dietary acrylamide and physical performance has not yet been explored. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between dietary acrylamide intake and physical performance tests in a large cohort of North American individuals affected by knee osteoarthritis or at high risk for this condition. Methods Dietary acrylamide intake was obtained through a food frequency questionnaire and reported in quartiles and as an increase in deciles. Physical performance was explored using the 20-…
Exploring relationships between drought and epidemic cholera in Africa using generalised linear models
2021
Abstract Background Temperature and precipitation are known to affect Vibrio cholerae outbreaks. Despite this, the impact of drought on outbreaks has been largely understudied. Africa is both drought and cholera prone and more research is needed in Africa to understand cholera dynamics in relation to drought. Methods Here, we analyse a range of environmental and socioeconomic covariates and fit generalised linear models to publicly available national data, to test for associations with several indices of drought and make cholera outbreak projections to 2070 under three scenarios of global change, reflecting varying trajectories of CO2 emissions, socio-economic development, and population gr…
The Association Between Epigenetic Clocks and Physical Functioning in Older Women: A 3-Year Follow-up
2021
Abstract Background Epigenetic clocks are composite markers developed to predict chronological age or mortality risk from DNA methylation (DNAm) data. The present study investigated the associations between 4 epigenetic clocks (Horvath’s and Hannum’s DNAmAge and DNAm GrimAge and PhenoAge) and physical functioning during a 3-year follow-up. Method We studied 63- to 76-year-old women (N = 413) from the Finnish Twin Study on Aging. DNAm was measured from blood samples at baseline. Age acceleration (AgeAccel), that is, discrepancy between chronological age and DNAm age, was determined as residuals from linear model. Physical functioning was assessed under standardized laboratory conditions at b…
An upper bound of the index of an equilibrium point in the plane
2012
Abstract We give an upper bound of the index of an isolated equilibrium point of a C 1 vector field in the plane. The vector field is decomposed in gradient and Hamiltonian components. This decomposition is related with the Loewner vector field. Associated to this decomposition we consider the set Π where the gradient and Hamiltonian components are linearly dependent. The number of branches of Π starting at the equilibrium point determines the upper bound of the index.
Probabilistic stability analysis of social obesity epidemic by a delayed stochastic model
2014
Abstract Sufficient conditions for stability in probability of the equilibrium point of a social obesity epidemic model with distributed delay and stochastic perturbations are obtained. The obesity epidemic model is demonstrated on the example of the Region of Valencia, Spain. The considered nonlinear system is linearized in the neighborhood of the positive point of equilibrium and a sufficient condition for asymptotic mean square stability of the zero solution of the constructed linear system is obtained.