Oil Dispersants and Human Health Effects

The explosion and subsequent blowout of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) offshore drilling rig on April 20, 2010, led to the largest accidental offshore oil spill since the advent of the petroleum industry, dwarfed only by the deliberate release of crude oil by Iraqi forces during the Persian Gulf War. Over the time until the well was capped on July 15, approximately 200 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the ocean floor beneath the well site located approximately 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. For perspective, this amount is nearly 20 times the amount of oil discharged during the Exxon Valdez incident in Alaska. As a result, massive mitigation efforts took place during and after the flow of oil which entailed mechanical recovery, controlled burning, and chemical dispersion. As a result unprecedented application of oil dispersant agents was employed by BP during this time until their use was curtailed by the EPA on May 26, 2010. Overall, about 17 - 20% of the crude oil was mechanically recovered and 6 – 8% burned. For the oil remaining in the environment, about 40% (of original input) was evaporated, dissolved, or dispersed into small droplets by natural processes. Initially, it was estimated that only 16.5 million gallons of oil

PRETA Air: Hazardous Air Pollutants

This report shows that people living in a 10-county region of southwestern Pennsylvania have a significantly higher than acceptable risk of developing cancer due to exposure to toxic air pollution released by manufacturing processes, energy production and diesel combustionThe Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threats Analysis Report -- funded by The Heinz Endowments -- analyzes publicly available data on hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), also known as air toxics. Air toxics include approximately 200 pollutants identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects, such as respiratory, neurological and reproductive disorders. The report is the third in a series as part of a project examining major threats to human health and the environment in southwestern Pennsylvania

Correlation of thixotropic parameters and related tests of blood from human subjects

The flow behavior of human blood is an important facet of the circulatory system as it affects all of the organs of the body. The rheological properties of whole blood provide a means of analyzing the flow of red cells and plasma through the microcirculation. A recently observed rheological characteristic of whole human blood is thixotropy, a time-dependent phenomenon. This phenomenon is caused mainly by the redistribution of an aggregated form of erythrocytes, known as rouleaux, and the non-aggregated, single erythrocytes. In order to further define and analyze the thixotropic properties of blood, the Huang model is used to quantitatively characterize the rheological behavior and relate recorded alterations in blood viscosity at low shear rates to the biophysical parameters of blood elements. Analysis of the various parameters defined by the rheological equation is used to characterize the flow properties of whole blood and provide quantitative comparison among blood samples under a variety of clinical conditions. Rheological determinations and standard clinical hematological evaluations were performed on sixteen normal subjects and compared with similar data obtained from patients suffering from either polycythemia, Parkinson\u27s disease, or hypertension. In addition, the data of thirteen normal males was compared to that of a group of apparently healthy males who exhibited high levels of one or more of the following coronary risk factors: cigarette smoking, serum cholesterol and diastolic blood pressure. Data analysis for the sample groups was performed for the mean and variance of the group value. Analysis of variance was performed using the standard F-test, and the Student t-test for small sample sizes was used to test for significance in the difference of means. An analytical solution of the Navier-Stokes equation is presented for the case of a transient flow curve using a Couette geometry. Analysis of the solution indicates that it is possible for a Newtonian fluid to exhibit a hysteresis loop effect in its flow curve under certain experimental conditions. The size and shape of the generated loop was found to be controlled by a dimensionless group. This analysis can be used to detect and eliminate the presence of any artificial hysteresis loop effects such that the true non-Newtonian behavior of a material may be examined

Obilježja organizacije procesa dizajniranja proizvoda u odabranim tvrtkama za proizvodnju namještaja

The aim of the study was to conduct and present an analysis for the characteristics of new products development process in selected furniture manufacturing companies, focusing on the competences and vocational training of individuals designing furniture. The results of survey conducted among 75 furniture factories were presented. The obtained data was elaborated statistically taking into consideration for example the size of the company. It was shown that designing of furniture in medium-sized and large enterprises is increasingly often performed by multidisciplinary design teams composed of designers and engineers. However, at the same time a vast number of furniture companies use the artistic talents of employed engineers. These results constitute an important signal, indicating the directions of changes for providing adequate education for students of engineering faculties of universities to meet modern market requirements.Cilj istraživanja bio je provesti i prezentirati analizu procesa razvoja novog proizvoda u odabranim tvrtkama za proizvodnju namještaja, s naglaskom na kompetencije i stručno osposobljavanje osoba koje rade u procesu dizajniranja namještaja. Predstavljeni su rezultati ankete provedene u 75 tvrtki za proizvodnju namještaja. Dobiveni su podaci statistički obrađeni, pri čemu je uzeta u obzir, primjerice, veličina tvrtke. Pokazalo se da dizajniranje namještaja u srednjim i velikim poduzećima sve češće obavljaju multidisciplinarni dizajnerski timovi sastavljeni od dizajnera i inženjera. No istodobno se velik broj tvrtki za proizvodnju namještaja koristi umjetničkim talentima svojih inženjera. Dobiveni su rezultati važan pokazatelj kako je nužno promijeniti obrazovne ponude za studente tehničkih fakulteta kako bi se na odgovarajući način udovoljilo zahtjevima suvremenog tržišta rada

Targeting Histamine Receptors in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Critical Appraisal

Irritable bowel syndrome is a group of functional gastrointestinal disorders with not yet fully clarified etiology. Recent evidence suggesting that mast cells may play a central role in the pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome paves the way for agents targeting histamine receptors as a potential therapeutic option in clinical treatment. In this review, the role of histamine and histamine receptors is debated. Moreover, the clinical evidence of anti-histamine therapeutics in irritable bowel syndrome is discussed

Higher regularity of solutions to elliptic equations on low-dimensional structures

This paper aims to establish counterparts of fundamental regularity statements for solutions to elliptic equations in the setting of low-dimensional structures such as, for instance, glued manifolds or CW-complexes. The main result proves additional Sobolev-type regularity of weak solutions to elliptic problems defined on the low-dimensional structure. Due to the non-standard geometry of a domain, we propose a new approach based on combining suitable extensions of functions supported on the thin structure with uniform bounds for difference quotients. We also derive several important conclusions from that result, namely global continuity of weak solutions and we address the correspondence between the low-dimensional weak problems and the second-order operators widely applied in the framework developed for applications in variational problems

Inevitable monokineticity of strongly singular alignment

We prove that certain types of measure-valued mappings are monokinetic i.e. the distribution of velocity is concentrated in a Dirac mass. These include weak measure-valued solutions to the strongly singular Cucker-Smale model with singularity of order $\alpha$ greater or equal to the dimension of the ambient space. Consequently, we are able to answer a couple of open questions related to the singular Cucker-Smale model. First, we prove that weak measure-valued solutions to the strongly singular Cucker-Smale kinetic equation are monokinetic, under very mild assumptions that they are uniformly compactly supported and weakly continuous in time. This can be interpreted as a rigorous derivation of the macroscopic fractional Euler-alignment system from kinetic Cucker-Smale equation without the need to perform any hydrodynamical limit. This suggests superior suitability of the macroscopic framework to describe large-crowd limits of strongly singular Cucker-Smale dynamics. Second, we perform a direct micro- to macroscopic mean-field limit from the Cucker-Smale particle system to the fractional Euler-alignment model. This leads to the final result -- existence of weak solutions to the fractional Euler-alignment system with almost arbitrary initial data in $\mathbb{R}^1$, including the possibility of vacuum. Existence can be extended to $\mathbb{R}^2$ under the a priori assumption that the density of the mean-field limit has no atoms.Comment: 33 page

The implication of the Financial Crisis of 2008 for key competitiveness drivers of global Financial Centres: Underlying Trends and Changes in Relative Standings

This chapter focuses on global financial centres, which played a key role in the financial crisis of 2008. The trade in derivatives, despite being limited in large part to Europe and the USA, significantly influenced the global economy and the competitiveness of financial centres. This study demonstrates, on the basis of the GFCI (The Global Financial Centres Index), that despite the relative rise of Asia’s economic significance, enhanced competitiveness of its cities and capital inflows to East Asian financial centres; that the position of London and New York, which were dominant centres before the crisis, remains unwavering.Sergiusz Prokura

Measuring Cyber Security Awareness within Groups of Medical Professionals in Poland

The goal of this study is to measure the cyber security awareness of medical professionals in Poland, i.e. to verify whether healthcare specialists have knowledge and understanding of basic cyber security threats. This survey was based on the cyber security recommendations from the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The survey consisted of 23 single and multiple-choice questions divided into four parts. The results categorized the respondents and measured the level of cyber security awareness. Among the 620 persons invited to participate in the survey, 300 (48.39%) responded and answered all of the questions. The results show a an unsatisfactory level of knowledge regarding information security in Poland. The main conclusion drawn from the survey is that the quality of cyber security training among medical professionals should be improved and frequency of the trainings should be increased

Optimal Liouville theorem for a semilinear Ornstein-Uhlenbeck equation

The question of triviality of solutions of the semilinear Ornstein-Uhlenbeck equation, $$\Delta w-\frac{1}{2} \langle x,\nabla w\rangle-\frac{\lambda}{p-1}w+|w|^{p-1}w=0,$$ is considered. It is shown, that if $p>1$ is Sobolev subcritical or critical and $\lambda\leq 1$, then all bounded entire solutions are constant. Moreover, in the critical case, the same conclusion holds in the subclass of radial solutions provided that $n\geq 4$ and $\lambda \in \left[\frac{3 n}{2(n-1)},2\right]$.Comment: 29 page