Existing methods used to screen chemical inventories for hazardous substances that may pose risks to humans and the environment are evaluated with a holistic mass balance modeling approach. The model integrates persistence (P), bioaccumulation (B), toxicity (T), and quantity (Q) information for a specific substance to assess chemical exposure, hazard, and risk. P and B are combined in an exposu...

In this paper we introduce a VLSI priority encoder that uses a novel priority lookahead scheme to reduce the delay for the worse case operation of the circuit, while maintaining a very low transistor count. The encoder's topmost input request has the highest priority; this priority descends linearly. Two design approaches for the priority encoder are presented, one without a priority lookahead ...

BACKGROUND In Finland, calls for emergency medical services are prioritized by educated non-medical personnel into four categories-from A (highest risk) to D (lowest risk)-following a criteria-based national dispatch protocol. Discrepancies in triage may result in risk overestimation, leading to inappropriate use of emergency medical services units and to risk underestimation that can negativel...

The goal of this study was to stratify priority areas for malaria control in the State of Mato Grosso, Brazil, based on spatial analysis. The variables used were: Annual Parasite Index (API), Plasmodium falciparum/Plasmodium vivax ratio, population variation, number of families settled, and percent of deforested area. The Moran’s I and Local Moran Test were applied, visualized with the Box Map ...

In this study, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), a proactive tool, was applied to reduce errors associated with the process which begins with assessment of patient and ends with treatment of complications. The aim of this study is to assess whether FMEA implementation will significantly reduce the incidence of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) in intensive care unit.The FM...

We ask the question, "for minimizing mean response time, which is preferable: one fast server of speed 1, or A; slow servers each of speed I/A:?" Our setting is the M/Gl/k system with two priority classes of customers, high priority and low priority, where G is a phase-type distribution. We find that multiple slow servers are often preferable — and we demonstrate exactly how many servers are pr...

ÐWith effective packet-scheduling mechanisms, modern integrated networks can support the diverse quality-of-service requirements of emerging applications. However, arbitrating between a large number of small packets on a high-speed link requires an efficient hardware implementation of a priority queue. To highlight the challenges of building scalable priority queue architectures, this paper inc...

This study describes the analysis of estragole in dry fennel preparations and in infusions prepared from them and an associated safety assessment. A wide range of estragole levels of 0.15-13.3mg/g dry fennel preparation was found. The estragole content in infusions was considerably lower ranging between 0.4 and 133.4μg/25mL infusion prepared from 1g dry material. Infusions prepared from whole f...