In this article, we consider houses belonging to an eco-neighborhood in which inhabitants have the capacity to optimize dynamically the energy demand and the energy storage level so as to maximize their utility. The inhabitants’ preferences are characterized by their sensitivity toward comfort versus price, the optimal expected temperature in the house, thermal loss and heating efficiency of th...

BACKGROUND Cigarette smoking causes cardiovascular disease and activates markers of endothelial dysfunction or injury. We investigated the nailfold capillary blood velocity (NCV) in cigarette smokers compared to non-smokers. METHODS Forty-eight men (eighteen non-smokers and thirty smokers) were recruited. We measured NCV using nailfold capillary microscopy and exhaled carbon monoxide (ECO) co...

The compensation for undesirable outputs resulting from operational activities requires measurement applications and control systems to reduce material and energy consumption and to protect the indispensable natural resources as well. In general environmental management applies the Ecocontrolling system to ensure its tasks. The controlling tasks of strategic, tactical and operative management h...

Technology acceptance is a challenge that can be addressed properly if decision makers of technology acceptance are aware of all issues that need to be addressed. Borrowing theory of basic ecology, researchers propose an information technology (IT) ecosystem (IECOS) and identified in the entirety all the elements present at IECOS. The study focuses on identified elements of IECOS borrowing theo...

AIM To compare the total and organic mercury content in sea-fish samples from Croatia, where fishing occurs in a closed part of the Mediterranean Sea, and from other countries fishing mostly in the oceans. METHOD During 1997, we collected at the Zagreb fish market a total of 115 samples of fifteen kinds of fish including bathypelagic, pelagic and elasmobranch fish, caught in the wider coastal...

Coastal cities in China are challenged by multiple growth paths and strategies related to demands in the housing market, economic growth and eco-system protection. This paper examines the effects of conflicting strategies between economic growth and environmental protection on future urban scenarios in Ningbo, China, through logistic-regression-based cellular automata (termed LogCA) modeling. T...

Eco-P colonies are constructed as natural extension of P colonies with dynamical evolution of environment. P colonies are one of the kind of computational models based on independent autonomous agents represented by membrane systems working and evolving in a shared environment. These acts are based on the set of program associated with every agent. There are two types of agents in eco-P colonie...

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, causing widespread damage to industry, housing, and infrastructure. The area of New Orleans East was particularly devastated, including a cluster of industries, such as a major foodprocessing plant, manufacturing facilities, and bulk material and gas processors. Although this area was well suited for resource recovery and eco-industrial ...

We compared growth, leaf gas exchange characteristics, water relations, chlorophyll fluorescence, and Na(+) and Cl(-) concentration of two cultivars ('Koroneiki' and 'Picual') of olive (Olea europaea L.) trees in response to high salinity (NaCl 100mM) and elevated CO(2) (eCO(2)) concentration (700microLL(-1)). The cultivar 'Koroneiki' is considered to be more salt sensitive than the relatively ...

BACKGROUND COPD is largely under-diagnosed and once diagnosed usually at a late stage. Early diagnosis is thoroughly recommended but most attempts failed as the disease is marginally known and screening marginally accepted. It is a rare cause of concern in primary care and spirometry is not very common. Exhaled carbon monoxide (eCO) is a 5-seconds easy-to-use device dedicated to monitor cigaret...