The Trees of the Sacred Natural Sites of Zagori,NW Greece

Cultural landscapes can often be identified by the presence of sacred trees which have been retained and can be recognised as distinctive veteran trees. The characteristics of these trees such as huge size and longevity give them an enduring presence in the landscape, while their conceptualisation as the ‘domesticated’ wild, transform them into symbols of spirituality and local history. In Zagori, NW Greece, trees gain sanctity by virtue of proximity or connection with sacred sites often associated with churches. In these sites, trees can grow into natural shapes as a result of strong taboos, which prevent use for private needs. There is an association between tree species and the nature of the sacred site: broadleaved oaks and maples are associated with outlying churches; plane trees are located in central squares, next to the church and provide a focal point for community life, while in cemeteries native evergreens are nowadays replaced by planted conifers. In the present day local communities appreciate sacred trees as living elements of their collective memory and local history.     

Amplification Effects of Soil Stratification on Ground Stress Waves

An analytical model is presented for the prediction of the amplification of compressional and shear waves produced by an explosion, or any other shock impact on the surface of a stratified soil deposit. This amplification is caused by multiple reflections of waves between the ground surface and an underlying parallel soil layer possessing different density and seismic velocity. The model developed may be easily applied for the protection of both buried and aboveground structures with the aid of suitable diagrams prepared in this work, which give, in a simple way, the enhancement factors by which particle velocities of direct waves should be multiplied to estimate the resultant particle velocities. The soil parameters that are taken into account in the analytical model and its simplified graphical solution are density, attenuation factor, and compressional- and shear-wave propagation velocities for the first two soil layers. Other parameters encountered are depth of the top soil layer, depth of burial of the structure, horizontal distance of the structure from the source, and trinitrotoluene equivalent of the source. The cube root scaling is considered for the attenuation of waves in soil with distance.     

Assessment of Fenton's reagent and ozonation as pre-treatments for increasing the biodegradability of aqueous diethanolamine solutions from an oil refinery gas sweetening process

The aim of this work was to evaluate the efficiency of three chemical oxidation processes for increasing the biodegradability of aqueous diethanolamine solutions (aqueous DEA solutions), to be used as pre-treatments before a biological process. The raw aqueous DEA solution, sourced from a sour gas sweetening plant at a Mexican oil refinery, was first characterized by standardized physico-chemical methods. Then experiments were conducted on diluted aqueous DEA solutions to test the effects of Fenton's reagent, ozone and ozone-hydrogen peroxide on the removal of some physicochemical parameters of these solutions. Lastly, biodegradability tests based on Dissolved Organic Carbon Die Away OECD301-A, were carried out on a dilution of the raw aqueous DEA solution and on the treated aqueous DEA solutions, produced by applying the best experimental conditions determined during the aforementioned oxidation tests. Experimental results showed that for aqueous DEA solutions treated with Fenton's reagent, the best degradation rate (70%) was obtained at pH 2.8, with Fe(2+) and H(2)O(2) at doses of 1000 and 10,000 mg/L respectively. In the ozone process, the best degradation (60%) was observed in aqueous DEA solution (100 mg COD/L), using 100 mg O(3)/L at pH 5. In the ozone-hydrogen peroxide process, no COD or DOC removals were observed. The diluted spent diethanolamine solution showed its greatest increase in biodegradability after a reaction period of 28 days when treated with Fenton's reagent, but after only 15 days in the case of ozonation.     

SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF STATIONARY POINT PROCESSES USING THE FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM ALGORITHM

Abstract. In this paper we consider techniques of spectral analysis for stationary point processes in order to study the behaviour of a complex physiological system. The estimates of the power spectrum are obtained by smoothing the periodogram which is computed very rapidly with the help of the fast Fourier transform algorithm. In the computation of the estimates we can use either the whole record of the data or a number of disjoint records.     

SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF A STATIONARY BIVARIATE POINT PROCESS WITH APPLICATIONS TO NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

Abstract. In this paper we discuss the spectral analysis of a stationary bivariate point process applied to the study of a complex physiological system. An estimate of the cross-spectral density can be obtained by smoothing the modified cross-periodogram statistic. The smoothed estimate is calculated by dividing the whole length of the data into a number of disjoint subrecords. Estimates of the coherence function and the cross-intensity function follow directly from the estimate of the cross-spectral density. It is shown that the asymptotic properties of the estimate of the cross-intensity function can be improved by inserting a convergence factor in it. Examples of the estimates are illustrated by using two data sets from neurophysiological experiments and their importance is emphasized by examining the behaviour of the complex physiological system under study.     

Removal of amino acids from water by adsorption on polystyrene resins

The adsorption of eight amino acids, L ‐asparagine, D,L ‐threonine, L ‐lysine, L ‐leucine D,L ‐methionine, L ‐tyrosine, L ‐phenylalanine and D,L ‐tryptophan, on the non‐polar macroporous adsorbents Amberlite XAD‐2 and XAD‐4 (polystyrene–divinylbenzene copolymers) was studied. Equilibrium adsorption experiments were conducted to estimate the types of isotherm and their parameters. The effect the chemical composition and structure of the amino acids on the efficiency of adsorption was evaluated. The influence of pH and ionic strength was also studied. The data of adsorption isotherms of the examined amino acids seemed generally to approach the Freundlich isotherm model. Tryptophan isotherm adsorption data could match in some cases the Langmuir model. The majority of the adsorption isotherms were almost linear. In terms of adsorbed amino acid on both resin surfaces, the amino acids can be ranked thus: D,L ‐tryptophan > L ‐phenylalanine > D,L ‐methionine, L ‐tyrosine > L ‐leucine > L ‐lysine > D,L ‐threonine > L ‐asparagine. In low pH solution, adsorption was generally higher than that at intermediate and high pH values. Generally, as the ionic strength increases, the adsorption of the amino acids increases. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry     

Assessment of tremor activity in the Parkinson's disease using a set of wearable sensors

Tremor is the most common motor disorder of Parkinson's disease (PD) and consequently its detection plays a crucial role in the management and treatment of PD patients. The current diagnosis procedure is based on subject-dependent clinical assessment, which has a difficulty in capturing subtle tremor features. In this paper, an automated method for both resting and action/postural tremor assessment is proposed using a set of accelerometers mounted on different patient's body segments. The estimation of tremor type (resting/action postural) and severity is based on features extracted from the acquired signals and hidden Markov models. The method is evaluated using data collected from 23 subjects (18 PD patients and 5 control subjects). The obtained results verified that the proposed method successfully: 1) quantifies tremor severity with 87 % accuracy, 2) discriminates resting from postural tremor, and 3) discriminates tremor from other Parkinsonian motor symptoms during daily activities.