Search results for "thing"
showing 10 items of 908 documents
The development of a hybrid technique employing the boundary element method for thermoelastic stress separation
2000
: This paper presents a development of a hybrid technique employing a boundary element method for determining individual stress components in two-dimensional arbitrarily shaped domains from experimental isopachics only. The procedure consists of a numerical solution of two Poisson equations representing equilibrium for two-dimensional plane-stressed solids with zero body forces. An existing technique is employed for smoothing interior thermoelastic data and enhancing boundary information. The algorithm of stress separation has been implemented with the help of commercial codes. The whole procedure has been tested through a complete post-processing example of thermoelastic stress analysis da…
An Anthropometric Analysis of Seated and Standing People
2012
Thermal radiative exchanges of the human body with surrounding surfaces play an essential role in describing the thermal conditions of people in a given environment. Moreover, they could be induced by, among other causes, the presence of high intensity radiant sources, like lighting spots or infrared heating panels. This implies that a suitable set of radiation data related to human body anthropometry is required. This set of data mainly comprises the body surface area, the clothing area factor, the effective radiation area factor, and projected area factors. Several analytical or experimental methods may be utilized in order to compute these parameters. A detailed description of the most c…
La disciplina delle concessioni balneari e l’evaporazione del diritto liquido
2023
Nel contributo si riconsidera il complesso scenario creatosi a seguito degli ultimi sviluppi in materia di rinnovo delle concessioni demaniali marittime con finalità turistico-ricreative. Sintetizzati degli eventi più significativi che hanno interessato il settore, si riflette sul futuro della disciplina delle concessioni balneari alla luce dello scontro frontale tra gli obiettivi perseguiti dal legislatore nazionale e gli obblighi pro-concorrenziali di matrice europea promossi dalla giurisprudenza amministrativa. This contribution aims to provide some considerations on the complex scenario created as a result of the latest developments in the field of maritime state concessions for tourist…
Non-periodic Polynomial Splines
2015
In this chapter, we outline the essentials of the splines theory. By themselves, they are of interest for signal processing research. We use the Zak transform to derive an integral representation of polynomial splines on uniform grids. The integral representation facilitated design of different generators of spline spaces and their duals. It provides explicit expressions for interpolating and smoothing splines of any order. In forthcoming chapters, the integral representation of splines will be used for the constructions of efficient subdivision schemes and so also for the design spline-based wavelets and wavelet frames.
Polydimethylsiloxane (silicone rubber) brooch as a personal passive air sampler for semi-volatile organic compounds
2018
Exposure assessments conducted using a personal sampler include the contribution of human activities to exposure that is neglected when using a stationary air sampler. This study evaluated the uptake characteristics and application of the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS or silicone rubber) brooch as a personal passive air sampler (PPAS) for measuring concentrations of two groups of semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), namely phthalates and organophosphate esters (OPEs), indoors in proximity to the breathing zone. Uptake rates of the PDMS brooch were calibrated against a personal low volume active air sampler (PLV-AAS) co-deployed on each of five study participants working in offices for 8 hs…
Cardiovascular, ventilatory and total activity responses of brown trout to handling stress
1994
Changes in total activity, heart and ventilation rates were observed in 2-year-old brown trout, following handling stress, using non-contact bioelectronic monitoring equipment. Experiments were carried out in laboratory conditions at water temperatures below 4° C, Transfer between tanks as well as 5 min restraint stress increased the total activity of fish for 24 to 48 h, after which it declined to near the pre-stress level. The transfer and struggle both elevated the heart rate for 3 to 4 days. Ventilation rate was elevated to a maximum of about 30% above the nominal level and recovered within 3 to 4 days. Both heart and ventilation rates were higher in feeding fish relative to fasting fis…
Preserved knowledge maps of countries: Implications for the organisation of semantic memory
2004
We describe two patients with selectively preserved knowledge of the category of countries. Following a series of cerebra infarcts, patient DB presented with severe perceptual impairment, including dense apperceptive agnosia, prosopagnosia, an topographical agnosia. Despite these deficits, he could effortlessly name countries from their outline maps. Patient WH, who suffered from semantic dementia, had severe naming and comprehension difficulties, with extremely sparse residual semantic knowledge. Remarkably, the category of countries was preserved. First, we argue that, for both patients, this category preservation occurs at a semantic level. Second, we discuss our findings in the context …
FILTERING CHAOS: A TECHNIQUE TO ESTIMATE DYNAMICAL AND OBSERVATIONAL NOISE IN NONLINEAR SYSTEMS
2005
Nonlinear dynamical models are frequently used to approximate and predict observed physical, biological and economic systems. Such models will be subject to errors both in the model dynamics, and the observations of the underlying system. In order to improve models, it is necessary to understand the causes of error growth. A complication with chaotic models is that small errors may be amplified by the model dynamics. This paper proposes a technique for estimating levels of both dynamical and observational noise, based on the model drift. The method is demonstrated for a number of models, for cases with both stochastic and nonstochastic dynamical errors. The effect of smoothing or treating …
Automatic bilevel ventilation in sleep-disordered breathing: A real-life experience in southern Italy
2016
Automatic bilevel ventilation (AutoBI) has been recently introduced to treat obstructive sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), but clinical experience is still limited. We revised the charts of patients treated for obstructive SDB in our sleep clinic in 2015 (n=214) to assess the frequency of trials of AutoBI ventilators (ResMed Auto25 or Respironics BiFlex), the clinical characteristics of these patients, the reason to shift from CPAP to AutoBI, and the outcome of AutoBI titration. A trial of domiciliary AutoBI was made in 44 patients (20.5%) intolerant to CPAP due to high CPAP levels (n=11) or who showed incomplete resolution of SDB on CPAP (n=33). The table reports the clinical data accordin…
Differential contribution of dead space ventilation and low arterial pCO2 to exercise hyperpnea in patients with chronic heart failure secondary to i…
2003
In chronic heart failure (CHF), the abnormally large ventilatory response to exercise (VE/VCO(2) slope) has 2 conceptual elements: the requirement of restraining arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO(2)) from increasing (because of an increased ratio between increased physiologic dead space and tidal volume [VD/VT]) and the depression of arterial pCO(2) by further increased ventilation, which necessarily implies an important non-carbon dioxide stimulus to ventilation. We aimed to assess the contribution of these 2 factors in determining the elevated VE/VCO(2) slope in CHF. Thirty patients with CHF underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing (age 65 +/- 11 years, left ventricular e…