87value/wos11967 huggingface dataset:
The water footprint (WF) has been developed within the water resources research community as a volumetric measure of freshwater appropriation. The concept is used to assess water use along supply chains, sustainability of water use within river basins, efficiency of water use, equitability of water allocation and dependency on water in the supply chain. With the purpose of integrating the WF in life cycle assessment of products, LCA scholars have proposed to weight the original volumetric WF by the water scarcity in the catchment where the WF is located, thus obtaining a water-scarcity weighted WF that reflects the potential local environmental impact of water consumption. This paper provides an elaborate critique on this proposal. The main points are: (1) counting litres of water use differently based on the level of local water scarcity obscures the actual debate about water scarcity, which is about allocating water resources to competing uses and depletion at a global scale; (2) the neglect of green water consumption ignores the fact that green water is scarce as well; (3) since water scarcity in a catchment increases with growing overall water consumption in the catchment, multiplication of the consumptive water use of a specific process or activity with water scarcity implies that the resultant weighted WF of a process or activity will be affected by the WFs of other processes or activities, which cannot be the purpose of an environmental performance indicator; (4) the LCA treatment of the WF is inconsistent with how other environmental footprints are defined; and (5) the Water Stress Index, the most cited water scarcity metric in the LCA community, lacks meaningful physical interpretation. It is proposed to incorporate the topic of freshwater scarcity in LCA as a natural resource depletion category, considering depletion from a global perspective. Since global freshwater demand is growing while global freshwater availability is limited, it is key to measure the comparative claim of different products on the globe's limited accessible and usable freshwater flows. (C) 2016 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a relatively recent concept describing an entity characterized by the presence of a pathophysiological biomarker signature characteristic for AD in the absence of specific clinical symptoms. There is rising interest in the scientific community to define such an early target population mainly because of failures of all recent clinical trials despite evidence of biological effects on brain amyloidosis for some compounds. A conceptual framework has recently been proposed for this preclinical phase of AD. However, few data exist on this silent stage of AD. We performed a systematic review to investigate how the concept is defined across studies. The review highlights the substantial heterogeneity concerning the three main determinants of preclinical AD: normal cognition, cognitive decline, and AD pathophysiological signature. We emphasize the need for a harmonized nomenclature of the preclinical AD concept and standardized population-based and case-control studies using unified operationalized criteria. (C) 2017 the Alzheimer's Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Revetment is a protective structure for a shoreline with stony material, usually natural stone or concrete, with a thickness of only one layer of elements and of which the elements are placed in a pattern. Various conditions of designing and implementing coastal protection structures such as implementation speed and construction cost; cause the use of Articulated Concrete Block Mattress (ACB Mat). ACB mattresses have an appropriate flexibility that can be installed on different conditions of slope revetments. ACB mat system includes a filter layer that allows infiltration and exfiltration to occur while providing particle retention of the soil subgrade. To determine the extent of the effect of hydrodynamic, structural and non-structural factors as well as presenting dimensionless relations and design charts of ACB Mats, experimental data are needed which can be achieved by an appropriate laboratory scale model (lambda = 1 : 10). In the present study, the effect of various parameters was investigated to improve existing formula by adding effects of mattress length, construction slope, filter layer, ACB mat thickness and friction coefficient. Accordingly, new modified equation was obtained by adding parameters; stability shifting factor, stability course factor and stability shape factor which can be presented as 1.8 < a < 5.4, 7 < b < 12 and c approximate to 1 respectively. At the end, six design charts will be presented which can be helpful to determine minimum length of mattress for different wave's characteristics and construction's slope on two type of filter layer. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
With the network scales rapidly and new network applications emerge frequently, bandwidth supply for today's Internet could not catch up with the rapid increasing requirements. Unfortunately, irrational using of network sources makes things worse. Actual network deploys single-next-hop optimization paths for data transmission, but such best effort model leads to the imbalance use of network resources and usually leads to local congestion. On the other hand Multi-path routing can use the aggregation bandwidth of multi paths efficiently and improve the robustness of network, security, load balancing and quality of service. As a result, multi-path has attracted much attention in the routing and switching research fields and many important ideas and solutions have been proposed. This paper focuses on implementing the parallel transmission of multi next-hop data, balancing the network traffic and reducing the congestion. It aimed at exploring the key technologies of the multi-path communication network, which could provide a feasible academic support for subsequent applications of multi-path communication networking. It proposed a novel multi-path algorithm based on node potential in the network. And the algorithm can fully use of the network link resource and effectively balance network link resource utilization.
This paper presents an experimental characterization of the arc fault phenomenon, for both AC and DC systems, focusing the attention on series arcs. The aim of the study is to find some current characteristics, which can be significant for the purpose of arc detection. The arcing current signal is analyzed in both time and frequency domain. For the AC analysis, the test conditions are chosen in accordance with the unwanted tripping tests and the operation inhibition tests reported in the Standard UL 1699. The DC study is carried out on the currents waveforms acquired during some on-field tests on a PV plant. Starting from the study herein presented, the authors have found that is it possible to suitably detect the arc faults, in both AC and DC systems, by using an high resolution low frequency harmonic current analysis.
The tyrosine based electrochemical analysis of the Zn(II)- and Cu(II)-induced aggregation of A beta 42 - the amyloid-beta peptide implicated in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis - and its isoforms with D7H and H6R familial mutations or the naturally occurring Ser-8 phosphorylation was carried out by square wave voltammetry on carbon screen printed electrodes. The electrooxidation peak current was directly compared with the size (determined by dynamic light scattering, DLS) of A beta 42 aggregates formed in the analyzed samples in the presence of Zn(II) or Cu(II) ions (Me(II)) and the amount of peptide in the 'soluble' (resistant to sedimentation upon application of centrifugal force) fraction. It was demonstrated that at substoichiometric Me(II) ion concentrations, the decrease of the electrooxidation current with the Me(II) ion concentration may be attributed to depletion of a peptide pool constituting the 'soluble' fraction. Above the stoichiometric Me(II) ion concentration, the contribution to the peak current from the large sedimentation-prone A beta 42 aggregates starts to progressively dominate. The relative values of the peak current can potentially serve as an estimate of the relative number of 'soluble' peptide in A beta 42 preparation. The application of direct electrochemistry to the Me(II)-induced aggregation of A beta 42 isoforms concurrently with DLS has allowed to reveal some specific features of the aggregation process, determined by the presence of mutations and the modification. The direct electrochemistry appears to present itself as a method complementary to methods for monitoring the Me(II)-induced A beta aggregation based on aggregate detection. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Manufacturing engineering is supposed to provide analyses related to various aspects of manufacturing and production in order to maximise technological, energy, and economic gains in relevant production processes. The present paper gives a recapitulation of several publications by present authors, presenting considerations of the energy efficiency of biofuel production. The energy efficiency is understood as the ratio of energy obtained from biofuels produced basing on crops from a particular area to the energy required to satisfy needs of all subsidiary processes assuring correct functioning of the production system, starting from operations aimed to obtain agricultural crops, and ending with the conversion of the crops onto biofuels. Derived by the present authors, the mathematical model of energy efficiency of biofuel production is extended to a more general form, and applied to the analysis of quantitative relations between energy efficiency of sc. energy plantations, and further elements of biofuel production system converting harvested biomass into biofuel. Investigations are aimed towards the determination of the role of biomass as a source of energy.
In our previous studies we have shown that seeing another person live with a direct vs. averted gaze results in enhanced skin conductance responses (SCRs) indicating autonomic arousal and in greater relative left-sided frontal activity in the electroencephalography (asymmetry in the alpha-band power), associated with approach motivation. In our studies, however, the stimulus persons had a neutral expression. In real-life social interaction, eye contact is often associated with a smile, which is another signal of the sender's approach-related motivation. A smile could, therefore, enhance the affective-motivational responses to eye contact. In the present study, we investigated whether the facial expression (neutral vs. social smile) would modulate autonomic arousal and frontal EEG alpha-band asymmetry to seeing a direct vs. an averted gaze in faces presented live through a liquid crystal (LC) shutter. The results showed that the SCRs were greater for the direct than the averted gaze and that the effect of gaze direction was more pronounced for a smiling than a neutral face. However, in this study, gaze direction and facial expression did not affect the frontal EEG asymmetry, although, for gaze direction, we found a marginally significant correlation between the degree of an overall bias for asymmetric frontal activity and the degree to which direct gaze elicited stronger left-sided frontal activity than did averted gaze.
Gut microbiota-produced short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) play an important role in the normal human metabolism and physiology. Although the gradients of SCFAs from the large intestine, where they are largely produced, to the peripheral blood as well as the main routes of SOFA metabolism by different organs are known well for the healthy state, there is a paucity of information regarding how these are affected in disease. In particular, how the inflammation caused by infection or autoinflammatory disease affect the concentration of SCFAs in the peripheral venous blood. In this work, we revealed that diseases caused either by infectious agents (two Salmonella enterica serovars, S. Enteritidis, and S. Typhimurium) or by the exacerbation of an autoinflammatory disease, familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), both result in a significantly elevated systemic concentration of SCFAs. In the case of salmonellosis the concentration of SCFAs in peripheral blood was significantly and consistently higher, from 5- to 20-fold, compared to control. In the case of FMF, however, a significant increase of SCFAs in the peripheral venous blood was detected only in the acute phase of the disease, with a lesser impact in remission. It seems counterintuitive that the dysbiotic conditions, with a reduced number of gut microorganisms, produce such an effect. This phenomenon, however, must be appraised within the context of how the inflammatory diseases affect the normal physiology. We discuss a number of factors that may contribute to the leak and persistence of gut-produced SCFAs into the systemic circulation in infectious and autoinflammatory diseases.
Light use efficiency (LUE) models offer an effective way for regional gross primary productivity (GPP) estimation. However, LUE is not easily determined at the landscape level due to its complexity and dependence on various environmental factors. One possible strategy to avoid the requirement for assessing environmental stressors is using the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) to determine LUE via the epoxidation state of the xanthophyll cycle. Integration of such measurements into GPP models could lead to more realistic GPP estimates of landscape level. Conventional, one-leaf LUE models, however, seem less suitable for integration of such remote sensing observations, as optically derived estimates are dependent on the shadow fraction viewed at a given time. Here, we utilize the two-leaf LUE (TL-LUE) model to parameterize LUE from multiangle PRI observations and compare it with MOD17 approach. Significant relationships were found between LUE (LUE, LUEsun, and LUEshaded) and PRI (PRI, PRIsun, and PRIshaded) over 8- and 16-day time steps. Similarly, R-2 values for the relationships between modeled GPP and observed GPP (EC derived measurements of GPP) were 0.87 (TL-LUE) and 0.81 (MOD17) at deciduous forest and 0.54 (TL-LUE) and 0.46 (MOD17) at evergreen forest for eight-day periods, as well as 0.84 (TL-LUE) and 0.74 (MOD17) at deciduous forest and 0.49 (TL-LUE) and 0.46 (MOD17) at evergreen forest for 16-day periods. Our results are relevant when planning potential future satellite missions to help constrain existing GPP models using remotely sensed data, as such observations will likely be affected by canopy shading effects at the time of observation.
Solar Tower Technology is a promising way to generate sustainable electricity from concentrated solar radiation. In one of the most effective variants of this technology, a so called volumetric air receiver is used to convert concentrated radiation into heat. This component consists of a high temperature resistant cellular material which absorbs radiation and transfers the heat to an air flow which is fed from the ambient and from recirculated air. It is called volumetric, because the radiation may penetrate into the volume of the receiver through the open, permeable cells of the material. In this way a larger amount of heat transfer surface supports the solid to gaseous heat transfer in comparison to a tubular closed receiver. Finally the heated air is directed to the steam generator of a conventional steam turbine system. In this study an advanced cellular metal honeycomb structure has been designed, manufactured and tested for use as an open volumetric receiver. It consists of winded pairs of flat and corrugated metal foils. The technology is based on a one which has been primarily developed for the treatment of combustion engine exhaust gases. A number of variations of the pure linear honeycomb structure have been introduced to increase local turbulence and radial flow. Firstly, a set of samples has been tested in laboratory scale experiments to determine effective properties and the solar-to-thermal efficiency. After that, results have been compared with theoretical predictions. Finally, the three most promising materials have been used for a 500 kW test on the research platform of the Solar Tower Julich. Air outlet temperatures of more than 800 degrees C have been achieved with efficiencies of about 80%, which is about 5% more than the state-of-the-art technology, which is currently used at the main receiver of the Solar Tower. Next to this, lifetime models will be developed to increase the overall reliability of the technology. (C)2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Currently, in many European countries public protests, opinion polls, election forecasts and election results create concerns regarding a radicalization of the political culture. Again and again, it seems as if patterns of arguments appear which are particularly directed against one religion - Islam. This paper examines the question whether in Europe a general tendency of skepticism and defense towards Islam and its members is predominant and what reasons for such an attitude in populations might be. Considering socio-psychological approaches to determine the mechanisms for the development of islamophobic attitudes a comparative picture of the situation is drawn. The results reveal that primarily a wide existing feeling of threat to the own identity leads to a fear of many citizens against Islam and Muslims. An essential role for this similarity and levelling are para-social-contacts via media. The result is an increased conflict potential in societies, which in the medium term can lead to a significant threat to social cohesion as well as to a radicalization of political opinions.
Previous research has suggested that the expectancy eating is rewarding is one pathway driving the relationship between trait reward sensitivity and externally-driven eating. The aim of the current study was to extend previous research by examining the conditions under which the indirect effect of reward sensitivity and external eating via this eating expectancy occurs. Using a conditional indirect effects approach we tested the moderating effect of exposure to food cues (e.g., images) relative to non-food cues on the association between reward sensitivity and external eating, via eating expectancies. Participants (N = 119, M = 18.67 years of age, SD = 2.40) were university women who completed a computerised food expectancies task(E-TASK) in which they were randomly assigned to either an appetitive food cue condition or non-food cue condition and then responded to a series of eating expectancy statements or self-description personality statements. Participants also completed self-report trait measures of reward sensitivity in addition to measures of eating expectancies (i.e., endorsement of the belief that eating is a rewarding experience). Results revealed higher reward sensitivity was associated with faster reaction times to the eating expectancies statement. This was moderated by cue-condition such that the association between reward sensitivity and faster reaction time was only found in the food cue condition. Faster endorsement of this belief (i.e., reaction time) was also associated with greater external eating. These results provide additional support for the proposal that individuals high in reward sensitivity form implicit associations with positive beliefs about eating when exposed to food cues. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
When designing and implementing agri-environmental policies to reduce nutrient loss, action programmes may falsely address areas where the nutrient issue from agricultural activity is not currently important and is not likely to become so in the future (a false positive), or may fail to address areas where the agricultural nutrient issue is currently important or may likely become so in the future (a false negative). Based on a case study of the Louros watershed in Greece, this work identifies database and modelling sources of false positives and negatives and proposes a decision making process aimed at minimizing the possibility of committing such errors. The baseline is well simulated and shows that the Louro's watershed falls behind a Good Environmental Status, at least marginally. Simulated mitigation measures show that the river's status can be upgraded to Good, at least as concerns nitrates and ammonium. Simulated climate change does not seem to exert an important positive or negative effect. Land use changes forecasting considerably less cultivated area have a significant effect on Total Phosphorous but not on nitrates or ammonium concentrations. The non-linearity between nutrient disposition (inputs) and nutrient concentration in downstream water bodies (output) and the many factors that affect the nutrient disposition-transportation-concentration chain, highlights the importance of simulating the effects of mitigation actions and of future climate and land use changes before adopting and establishing agri-environmental measures. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Under the background of pubic entrepreneurship, people innovation, in order to speed up the implementation of innovation driven development strategy, it is imperative to deepen the innovation of colleges and universities entrepreneurship education reform. After one system with multivariate training mode reform, the comprehensive ability of the students of machine design manufacture and automation professional was promoted and the school innovation system of campus culture innovation reform was strengthened. In the long run it can effectively improve the quality of graduates and graduate employment competitiveness of colleges and universities. Aiming at the problems in the process of implementing the author puts forward some countermeasures and Suggestions.
The diagnosis of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis ( HLH) can be a difficult one, and the distinction between primary versus secondary HLH can be particularly challenging during the early stages of diagnosis. This distinction is important to make as primary HLH requires allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for a definitive cure. Flow cytometric screening tests for many of the genetic forms of HLH are available. However, not all patients with primary HLH are captured by these screening tests, due to the fact that no screening test is 100% sensitive, and additionally, some patients with primary forms of HLH may have mutations in genes which are yet to be discovered. In this issue of the European Journal of Immunology, Ammann et al. [Eur. J. Immunol. 2017. 47: 364-373] compare T-cell phenotype patterns among patients with primary and secondary HLH, and find that assessment of T-cell activation and differentiation may assist with the diagnosis of HLH. Furthermore, this phenotypic analysis has the potential to help make the important distinction between primary and secondary HLH.