Personal protective clothing and safety of firefighters near a high intensity fire front

The main objective of this work is the establishment of useful guide lines for secure fighting of high intensity fires, namely the determination of the influence of the personal protective clothing properties on safety during wildland firefighting operations. The physiological reaction of men exposed to these extreme conditions is obtained by numerical simulation of the heat and the mass transfer from an individual in the proximity of a fire line, as representative of a typical situation of a firefighter suppressing a high intensity fire. It is obvious that the impinging flux density depends on flame's dimensions and its properties as well as on the distance between the flame and those involved in fire suppression activities. The results obtained were calculated using a computer program based on a modified version of the Stolwijk thermoregulation model. Taking into account the time evolutions of skin, rectal and hypothalamus temperatures, a parametric study is presented about the importance of clothing properties, activity level and other external parameters in order to avoid the risk of significant undesired thermophysiological reactions within the firefighters. The results clearly show that, besides the improvement of personal protective clothing properties, the safety of firefighters is essentially related to good control of the exposure times to these high intensity radiation fluxes.     

Cashew nut oil: effect of kernel grade and a microwave preheating extraction step on chemical composition,oxidative stability and bioactivity

The cashew nut kernels can be broadly classified by colour, size, quality and integrity, into whole (W), butts (B), splits (S) and P (pieces). This work evaluated seven sizes and qualities of cashew kernel (B1, S1, W4, SP1, SP2, P2 and W240), for oil extraction. Then, two oil extraction methods, using cold pressing (CP) and microwave preheating (MP), respectively, were investigated. In evaluation of cashew kernel grades, the fat content varied between 51.6 and 57.6 g 100 g^?1, and the acidity and peroxide were low, indicating good chemical quality for all grades. The oil extracted by MP showed a higher induction time in the Rancimat test (46.25 h). The cashew nut oil showed bioactivity, mainly associated with the level of total phenolic compounds (CP: 202.17 mg 100 g^?1; MP: 371.95 mg 100 g^?1), and showed antiproliferative activity against cancer cells (lung, breast and liver) but only at high concentrations. The MP extraction preserved many components and increased the phenolic compounds in the cashew kernel oil, without promoting negative changes in its physicochemical and oxidative qualities.     

Geographical variation and partition of metals in tissues of Octopus vulgaris along the Portuguese coast

Zinc, Cu, Cd, Pb and Hg were determined in mantle, arm and digestive gland of 59 individuals of Octopus vulgaris captured at six sites along the Portuguese coast. Metal concentrations in tissues did not vary significantly (P<0.05) with size/weight, sex or sexual stage. The abundance of metals in each analysed tissue was: Zn>Cu>Cd>Pb>Hg. Concentrations in the digestive gland reached one (Pb, Hg) and two (Zn, Cu, Cd) orders of magnitude higher than those found in arm and mantle, which indicates that the digestive gland contains the major storage sites for these elements, acting as a detoxification organ. However, concentrations in the digestive gland showed contrasting geographic patterns: Zn, Pb, Cu and Hg were higher in the Southern stations, while Cd levels increased drastically in Northern stations. This increase is in line with the contrasting Cd distribution in coastal waters. The lack of relations between metal concentration in tissues and biological parameters facilitates the recognition of those spatial patterns. The geographical contrast of Cd is extended to the accumulation in mantle and arm. A possible explanation for these enhanced values is that threshold level for Cd accumulation in digestive gland was attained and detoxification processes eventually modified.     

Effects of morphology on the electrochemical performance of NiFe2O4 nanoparticles with battery-type behavior

We report the synthesis of NiFe₂O₄ nanoparticles by the complexation EDTA-citrate method under acidic (pH = 3) and basic (pH = 9) conditions. The structural, optical, vibrational, magnetic, and electrochemical properties were studied. The samples have crystallite sizes of 21 nm (pH 3) and 73 nm (pH 9), with rounded particles and layered structures. The ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectra at 12 K showed that both samples had an inverse spinel cation distribution. At 5 K, the sample prepared at pH 9 showed saturation magnetizations of about 50 emu/g. Raman spectra showed typical bands of NiFe₂O₄ phase. The materials were tested as electrodes under alkaline condition. The cyclic voltammetry and charge-discharge experiments indicated a battery-type behavior, with maximun capacities of 65 and 5 C/g (at specific currents of 3 and 10 A/g) for samples prepared at pH 9 and 3, respectively. This work offers a route for obtaining NiFe₂O₄ nanoparticles with different morphologies and sizes tuned by the synthesis conditions.     

AT1 and AT2 Receptor Knockout Changed Osteonectin and Bone Density in Mice in Periodontal Inflammation Experimental Model

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of AT1 and AT2 receptors in a periodontal inflammation experimental model. Methods: Periodontal inflammation was induced by LPS/Porphyromonas gingivalis. Maxillae, femur, and vertebra were scanned using Micro-CT. Maxillae were analyzed histopathologically, immunohistochemically, and by RT-PCR. Results: The vertebra showed decreased BMD in AT1 H compared with WT H (p < 0.05). The femur showed increased Tb.Sp for AT1 H and AT2 H, p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively. The Tb.N was decreased in the vertebra (WT H-AT1 H: p < 0.05; WT H-AT2 H: p < 0.05) and in the femur (WT H-AT1 H: p < 0.01; WT H-AT2 H: p < 0.05). AT1 PD increased linear bone loss (p < 0.05) and decreased osteoblast cells (p < 0.05). RANKL immunostaining was intense for AT1 PD and WT PD (p < 0.001). OPG was intense in the WT H, WT PD, and AT2 PD when compared to AT1 PD (p < 0.001). AT1 PD showed weak immunostaining for osteocalcin compared with WT H, WT PD, and AT2 PD (p < 0.001). AT1 H showed significantly stronger immunostaining for osteonectin in fibroblasts compared to AT2 H (p < 0.01). Conclusion: AT1 receptor knockout changed bone density, the quality and number of bone trabeculae, decreased the number of osteoblast cells, and increased osteonectin in fibroblasts.     

Spatial Determinants of Urban Residential Water Demand in Fortaleza,Brazil

This paper aims at estimating the residential water demand function for the city of Fortaleza, Brazil, considering the potential impact of including spatial effects in the model. The empirical evidence is a unique micro-data set obtained through a household water consumption survey carried out in 2007. We estimated three econometric models, which have as explanatory variables the average/marginal price, the difference, income, number of male and female residents and the number of bathrooms, under different spatial specifications: the Spatial Error Model (SEM), the Spatial Autoregressive model (SAR), and finally, the Spatial Autoregressive Moving Average model (SARMA). Results suggest that the SARMA model is the “best” as shown by a series of tests. Such results contradict conclusions drawn by Chang et al. (Urban Geogr 31(7):953–972, 2010), House-Peters et al. (JAWRA J Am Water Resour Assoc 46(3), 2010), and Ramachandran and Johnston (2011). This means, among other things, that not controlling spatial effects is a key specification error, underestimating the effect of almost all variables in the model. Sometimes, these differences can be as high as 24.66 % and 13.32 % for price elasticity in the Average Price and the McFadden models, respectively.     

The big data of violent events: algorithms for association analysis using spatio-temporal storytelling

This paper proposes three methods of association analysis that address two challenges of Big Data: capturing relatedness among real-world events in high data volumes, and modeling similar events that are described disparately under high data variability. The proposed methods take as input a set of geotemporally-encoded text streams about violent events called “storylines”. These storylines are associated for two purposes: to investigate if an event could occur again, and to measure influence, i.e., how one event could help explain the occurrence of another. The first proposed method, Distance-based Bayesian Inference, uses spatial distance to relate similar events that are described differently, addressing the challenge of high variability. The second and third methods, Spatial Association Index and Spatio-logical Inference, measure the influence of storylines in different locations, dealing with the high-volume challenge. Extensive experiments on social unrest in Mexico and wars in the Middle East showed that these methods can achieve precision and recall as high as 80 % in retrieval tasks that use both keywords and geospatial information as search criteria. In addition, the experiments demonstrated high effectiveness in uncovering real-world storylines for exploratory analysis.     

Measuring mental workload: ocular astigmatism aberration as a novel objective index

This study assessed the effect of two perceptually matched mental tasks with different levels of mental demand on ocular aberrations in a group of young adults. We measured ocular aberration with a wavefront sensor, and total, internal and corneal RMS (root mean square) aberrations were calculated from Zernike coefficients, considering natural and scaled pupils (5, 4.5, and 4 mm). We found that total, internal and corneal astigmatism RMS showed significant differences between mental tasks with natural pupils (p < .05), and this effect was maintained with 5 mm scaled pupils (total RMS astigmatism, p < .05). Consistently, pupil size, intraocular pressure, perceived mental load and cognitive performance were influenced by the level of mental complexity (p < .05 for all). The findings suggest that ocular astigmatism aberration, mediated by intraocular pressure, could be an objective, valid reliable index to evaluate the impact of cognitive processing in conjunction with others physiological markers in real world contexts.

Practitioner Summary: The search continues for a valid, reliable, convenient method of measuring mental workload. In this study we found ocular astigmatism aberration is sensitive to the cumulative effect of mental effort. It shows promise of being a novel ocular index which may help to assess mental workload in real situations.