Background: Industrialization and urbanization had a devastating impact on public health and caused an increase in health related morbidity and mortality. In fact, asthma is a chronic condition which is considered as one of the significant challenges of public health. In this study, we investigated the association of air pollution and weather conditions with excess emergency ward admissions o...

−An empirical model to predict the boiler efficiency and pollutant emissions was developed with artificial neural networks based on the experimental data on a 360 MW W-flame coal fired boiler. The temperature of the furnace was selected as an intermediate variable in the hybrid model so that the predictive precision of NOx emissions was enhanced. The predictive precision of the hybrid model was...

A process simulation model was constructed for a 2 ton/hr incinerator. The simulation model was designed to provide system performance parameters according to various operating conditions. In accommodating the wide variation of quality and composition of input wastes, the plant operating parameters such as amount of excess air, preheated air temperature, waste feed rate and primary air distribu...

Excess waveguide bend loss can be minimized through the use of offsets and air trenches. Offsets, used for reducing the junction loss between straight and curved waveguides, and air trenches, which prevent bend radiation loss, were simulated by a three-dimensional, semivectorial beam propagation method. Low loss polymer waveguide bend structures, employing both offsets and trenches, were fabric...

The preparation described here is permanently cleared and water proof. It has the advantage of being fixed to a glass slide for easy handling and storage, yet it is adaptable for scanning (EEL ‘Scanner’). After staining the cellulose acetate electropherograms (Oxoid, OX0 Ltd.,) in Ponceau S, they are rinsed in 5% acetic acid and air dried. The strips (2.5 x IO cm) are trimmed such that each pro...

We have compared the behavior of ovotransferrin at the air-solution interface in the presence of a monovalent ion (acetate), or a divalent ion (citrate), the latter being known to induce conformational changes of this protein upon interaction with its iron-binding sites. We have characterised the adsorption layer at the air-water interface in terms of homogeneity, surface concentration excess a...

Methods Imaging studies Six healthy dogs were studied in a Siemens 1.5T scanner using three breath-held 2D SSFP cine sequences (Table 1) in the basal position where flow artifacts are most pronounced. Shared scan parameters: spatial_resolution=1.2x1.2x5mm3, flip_angle=70°, temporal_resolution=10-12ms, no parallel imaging. Image processing Each cine stack I(t) (t denotes trigger time) was loaded...

Occupational and toxicological studies have demonstrated adverse health effects from exposure to toxic air contaminants. Data on outdoor levels of toxic air contaminants have not been available for most communities in the United States, making it difficult to assess the potential for adverse human health effects from general population exposures. Emissions data from stationary and mobile source...

For the purposes of a research upon the effects on the respiratory exchanges and metabolism of varying the percentage of oxygen in the air breathed, a specially constructed apparatus was devised in which animals under experiment (usually cats) could be kept for as long a period as was desired in an atmosphere containing a constant percentage of oxygen, the carbon-dioxide produced by the animal ...