Making waves: The NORMAN antibiotic resistant bacteria and resistance genes database (NORMAN ARB&ARG)-An invitation for collaboration to tackle antibiotic resistance.

With the global concerns on antibiotic resistance (AR) as a public health issue, it is pivotal to have data exchange platforms for studies on antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment. For this purpose, the NORMAN Association is hosting the NORMAN ARB&ARG database, which was developed within the European project ANSWER. The present article provides an overview on the database functionalities, the extraction and the contribution of data to the database.

Immobilisation of arsenic in contaminated soil by electrokinetics in an outdoor experiment.

Although landfilling is environmentally and economically unsustainable, it is the dominant soil remediation method in EU member states. This paper describes part of a study on mixed contaminants that investigated the stabilisation of arsenic (As) in contaminated soil in an outdoor box experiment with electrokinetic treatment (EK). The experiment was conducted in two 1 m boxes, each containing a 20 cm bottom layer of sand, overlaid with 20 cm of peat.

Automatic Hybrid Access Control in SCADA-Enabled IIoT Networks Using Machine Learning.

The recent advancements in the Internet of Things have made it converge towards critical infrastructure automation, opening a new paradigm referred to as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). In the IIoT, different connected devices can send huge amounts of data to other devices back and forth for a better decision-making process. In such use cases, the role of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) has been studied by many researchers in recent years for robust supervisory control management.

The psychophysiological influence of exertion and affect on sport-specific cognitive and physical performance.

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to examine differences in cognitive and physical performance, affective states, perceived exertion, and physiological responses between trials with cognitive, physical, or combined cognitive and physical load.

Design: Randomised cross-over trial.

Methods: Highly trained competitive orienteers (n = 15 men; n = 10 women) completed three randomised trials comprised of: (1) sport-specific cognitive tests; (2) 35-minute cycling time trial; and (3) combined sport-specific cognitive tests and 35-minute cycling time trial.

The Evolving Landscape of Exosomes in Neurodegenerative Diseases: Exosomes Characteristics and a Promising Role in Early Diagnosis.

Neurodegenerative diseases (ND) remains to be one of the biggest burdens on healthcare systems and serves as a leading cause of disability and death. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is among the most common of such disorders, followed by Parkinson's disease (PD). The basic molecular details of disease initiation and pathology are still under research.

Network Reconfiguration for Increasing Transportation System Resilience Under Extreme Events.

Evacuating residents out of affected areas is an important strategy for mitigating the impact of natural disasters. However, the resulting abrupt increase in the travel demand during evacuation causes severe congestions across the transportation system, which thereby interrupts other commuters' regular activities. In this article, a bilevel mathematical optimization model is formulated to address this issue, and our research objective is to maximize the transportation system resilience and restore its performance through two network reconfiguration schemes: contraflow (also referred to as lane reversal) and crossing elimination at intersections.

A neural network framework for similarity-based prognostics.

Prognostic performance is associated with accurately estimating remaining useful life. Difficulty in accurate prognostic applications can be tackled by processing raw sensor readings into more meaningful and comprehensive health condition indicators that will then provide performance information for remaining useful life estimations. To that end, typically, multiple tasks on data pre-processing and predictions have to be carried out such that tasks can be assessed using different methodological aspects.

Reconstructing secondary test database from PHM08 challenge data set.

In this data article, a reconstructed database, which provides information from PHM08 challenge data set, is presented. The original turbofan engine data were from the Prognostic Center of Excellence (PCoE) of NASA Ames Research Center (Saxena and Goebel, 2008), and were simulated by the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation (C-MAPSS) (Saxena et al., 2008).

Accurate control of the covalent functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes for the electro-enzymatically controlled oxidation of biomolecules.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were functionalized by ferrocene through ethyleneglycol chains of different lengths (FcETGn) and the functionalized SWCNTs (f-SWCNTs) were characterized by different complementary analytical techniques. In particular, high-resolution scanning electron transmission microscopy (HRSTEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) analyses support that the outer tubes of the carbon-nanotube bundles were covalently grafted with FcETGn groups. This result confirms that the electrocatalytic effect observed during the oxidation of the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) co-factor by the f-SWCNTs is due to the presence of grafted ferrocene derivatives playing the role of a mediator.

Removal and Re-use of Tar-contaminated Sediment by Freeze-dredging at a Coking Plant Luleå, Sweden.

  Submerged tar-contaminated sediment are generally very loose, which makes remediation challenging. We tested if a modified version of freeze-dredging could be used to remove and dewater such sediment in a canal down-stream a coking plant. PVC hoses carrying a heat medium were placed horizontally in the submerged sediment.

Asthma medication - persistence with adrenergics, steroids and combination products over a 5-year period.

Background: Many patients with asthma underuse steroids for inhalation. This has been identified as a main cause of therapy failure and of excess health care utilization.

Objective: To elucidate the medication persistence of patients using asthma drugs, how patients combine the drugs over time and whether medication persistence was influenced by patients switching to combination products.

Dispensed volumes of anti-asthmatic drugs related to the prevalence of asthma and COPD in Sweden.

Purpose: To explore the possibility of using dispensed volumes asthma/COPD drugs as a proxy for the combined prevalence of asthma plus COPD.

Methods: The proportions of the Swedish population with inhalation drugs for asthma/COPD 2004 were obtained using three different databases. A pharmacy record database gave the volumes of dispensed drugs (defined daily doses, DDDs of R03A + R03B drugs) for each patient, 20 years and older.

The duality in using information and communication technology in elder care.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to report a study illuminating values and perceptions held by professional carers of older people about the use of information and communication technology applications.

Background: Various information and communication technology applications have successfully been developed to help solve a variety of problems in elder care. Beside different technical barriers and the assumed negative attitudes among older people, staff values and attitudes have been found to be an important cause of resistance to change and slowness in introduction of information and communication technology in health care of older people.

Atopic dermatitis, conjunctivitis, and hand dermatitis among Swedish dental personnel, including use of personal protective devices.

A previous study on dental personnel in northern Sweden show that dentists had a significantly higher prevalence of self-reported and physician-diagnosed atopic dermatitis and conjunctivitis, compared to chair assistants and referents (Lönnroth & Shahnavaz 1998). Further, significantly more male dentists reported experience of hand dermatitis compared to male referents. To compare the prevalence among dental personnel working in other geographical areas of Sweden, and survey the use of personal protective equipment, a questionnaire study was conducted during 1997, which included all dentists and his/her chair assistants, working in general private and public dental care in Sweden.

Adverse health reactions in skin, eyes, and respiratory tract among dental personnel in Sweden.

Dental personnel manually handle products that contain monomers. Several studies have documented adverse health effects after exposure to such products. Gloves made of vinyl or latex are easily penetrated by monomers.

Hand dermatitis and symptoms from the fingers among Swedish dental personnel.

Hand dermatitis among dental personnel has been an issue in recent years. Dental personnel manually handle polymer materials which are known to irritate skin, and also cause allergy. In addition, dental personnel wash their hands frequently, and use latex gloves, and are therefore at risk to develop hand dermatitis.