169,773 research outputs found
Proposal of a system for diagnosing with inefficient occupant behaviour and systems malfunctioning in the household sector
No full textOne of the key factors in curbing energy consumption in the household sector, together with energy efficiency and renewable energies, is widely recognized to be the amendment of occupant erroneous behaviour and systems malfunctioning, mainly explained by the lack of awareness of the final user.
The aim of this work is to propose a diagnostic system in the household sector which can improve the users’ awareness with respect to the energy consumption in final uses.
In particular, this paper presents an energy, environmental and economic analysis of different diagnostics systems, corresponding to different degrees of complexity and cost.
Given a reference occupancy and thermal user profile, for each diagnostic system the relevant energy consumption is assessed by simulation and the subsequent economic savings are calculated and compared to the diagnostic system cost in order to evaluate the payback period of the architecture proposed
RGBD camera monitoring system for Alzheimer’s disease assessment using Recurrent Neural Networks with Parametric Bias action recognition
No full textThe present paper proposes a computer vision system to diagnose the stage of illness in patients a ected by Alzheimer's disease. In the context of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), the system monitors people in home environment during daily personal care activities. The aim is to evaluate the dementia stage, observing actions listed in the Direct Assessment of Funcional Status (DAFS) index and detecting anomalies during the performance, in order to assign a score explaining if the action is correct or not. In this work brushing teeth and grooming hair by a hairbrush are analysed. The technology consists of the application of a Recurrent Neural Network with Parametric Bias (RNNPB) that is able to learn movements connected with a speci c action and recognize human activities by parametric bias that work like mirror neurons. This study has been conducted using Microsoft Kinect to collect data about the actions observed and oversee the user tracking and gesture recognition. Experiments prove that the proposed computer vision system can learn and recognize complex human activities and evaluates DAFS score
Hepatitis E Virus RNA Detection from Hunted Wild Boars in Central Italy: an Epidemiological Investigation
No full textEvery year, foodborne pathogens, including the hepatitis E virus (HEV), cause thousands of infections in different continents. Final consumers become infected through the ingestion of contaminated animal origin foodstuffs. Generally, in industrialized countries, HEV genotype 3 is involved in sporadic outbreaks. Infections have been described, in Europe and Japan as consequence of pork products and contaminated wild boar’s primary or processed products (liver and muscle tissues) consumption. In Central Italy, hunting activities are largely practiced. In these small and rural communities, game meat and liver are ingested by hunters’ families or at local and traditional restaurants. Therefore, these food chains can be considered critical HEV reservoirs. In this study, 506 liver and diaphragm tissues were collected from hunted wild boars in the Southern Marche region (Central Italy) and were screened for HEV RNA detection. From the 10.87% of liver and 2.76% of muscle samples, HEV3 subtype c was discovered. The observed prevalence values resulted in line with previous investigations performed in other Central Italian regions, but higher than Northern ones (3.7% and 1.9% from liver tissue). Therefore, the obtained epidemiological data highlighted the wide occurrence of HEV RNA circulation in a low-investigated area. Basing on results, a One-health approach was adopted due to the sanitary relevance of this Public Health concern
Proposal of a system for diagnosing with inefficient occupant behaviour and systems malfunctioning in the household sector
No full textOne of the key factors in curbing energy consumption in the household sector, together with energy efficiency and renewable energies, is widely recognized to be the amendment of occupant erroneous behaviour and systems malfunctioning, mainly explained by the lack of awareness of the final user.
The aim of this work is to propose a diagnostic system in the household sector which can improve the users’ awareness with respect to the energy consumption in final uses.
In particular, this paper presents an energy, environmental and economic analysis of different diagnostics systems, corresponding to different degrees of complexity and cost.
Given a reference occupancy and thermal user profile, for each diagnostic system the relevant energy consumption is assessed by simulation and the subsequent economic savings are calculated and compared to the diagnostic system cost in order to evaluate the payback period of the architecture proposed
Implementation of techniques for computing optical properties in 0-3 dimensions, including a real-space cutoff, in ABINIT
No full textWe have implemented the calculation of optical matrix elements with and without the inclusion of a real-space cutoff in the open-source software package ABINIT. We have also included the possibility to add the contribution arising from the non-local term of the pseudopotential operator. The implementation has been tested successfully for atoms, bulk silicon, and an oxidized silicon surface. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Exposure To Natural And Synthetic Asbestos Fibers May Damage The Cytochrome C Oxidase In Coupled Rat Liver Mitochondria And May Interfere With The Permeability Transition Pore.
No full textGoing Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Mitomycin C in highly myopic eyes - Author reply
No full textOphthalmology. 2005 Feb;112(2):208-18; discussion 219.
Mitomycin C modulation of corneal wound healing after photorefractive keratectomy in highly myopic eyes.
Gambato C, Ghirlando A, Moretto E, Busato F, Midena E.
SourceRefractive Surgery Service and Antimetabolite Therapy Research Unit, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of topical mitomycin C in corneal wound healing (CWH) after photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in highly myopic eyes.
DESIGN: Prospective, double-masked, randomized clinical trial.
PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-two eyes of 36 patients affected by high (>7 diopters) myopia.
METHODS: In each patient, one eye was randomly assigned to PRK with intraoperative topical 0.02% mitomycin C application, and the fellow eye was treated with a placebo. Postoperatively, mitomycin C-treated eyes received artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months), whereas the fellow eye was treated with fluorometholone sodium 2% and artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months).
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), contrast sensitivity, manifest refraction, and biomicroscopy. Contrast sensitivity was determined using the Pelli-Robson chart. Corneal confocal microscopy documented CWH.
RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 18 months (range, 12-36). No side effects or toxic effects were documented. At 12-month follow-up examination, UCVAs (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution) were 0.4+/-0.48 and 0.5+/-0.53 (P = .03) in mitomycin C-treated eyes and corticosteroid-treated eyes, respectively. At 1 year, corneal haze developed in 20% of corticosteroid-treated eyes, versus 0% of mitomycin C-treated eyes. At 12, 24, and 36 months, corneal confocal microscopy showed activated keratocytes and extracellular matrix significantly more evident in untreated eyes (Ps = 0.004, 0.024, and 0.046, respectively).
CONCLUSION: Topical intraoperative application of 0.02% mitomycin C can reduce haze formation in highly myopic eyes undergoing PRK.
Comment in
Ophthalmology. 2006 Feb;113(2):357; author reply 357-8
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
IN VITRO STUDY OF THE CYTOTOXIC POTENTIAL OF THE PRODUCT OF THERMAL TRANSFORMATION OF CEMENT-ASBESTOS
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