Radioactivity of soil in Croatia I: naturally occurring decay chains

The assessment of environmental radioactivity much relies on radionuclide content in soil. This stems from the significant contribution of soil to both external and internal exposure to ionising radiation via direct emission of gamma radiation and soil-to-plant radionuclide transfer, respectively. This motivated us to carry out a systematic research on the radioactivity of soil in Croatia to obtain relevant data that can be used as a basis for understanding the related effects of geomorphological, biogeographical, and climatological properties of the environment. We collected samples of the surface layer of uncultivated soil (0–10 cm) at 138 sites from all over the country and measured them for radionuclide activity concentrations by means of high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry. This resulted in radioactivity maps containing data on activity concentrations of representative radionuclides in the environment. In this paper, which is the first in our two-part presentation, we focus on the naturally occurring 232Th and 238U decay chains and their correlations with the diversity of Croatian regions. For both of the chains, activity concentrations were the highest in the Dinaric region, the lowest in the Pannonian region, and intermediate in the Adriatic region. Relatively high concentrations of 226Ra in the soil of the Dinaric region implied a possibility of an enhanced emanation of its progeny 222Rn into the air. Activity concentrations of 210Pb were additionally elevated in areas with dense vegetation, most probably due to an atmospheric deposition of airborne 210Pb onto the surface of plants and their eventual decomposition on the ground.

346 - Canadian Guidelines on Opioid and Benzodiazepine Use Disorders in Older Adults

The United Nations 20171 report on World Population Aging predicts that the number of persons over age 60 years will reach nearly 2.1 billion by the year 2050, representing 22% of the overall population. Despite this predicted demographic surge there is a vast lack of awareness of substance use disorders (SUDs) in older adults, a phenomenon that has been called “an invisible epidemic” by the Royal College of Psychiatrists2. Older adults, principally baby boomers, face the highest risk for SUDs3, but often go underrecognized, undertreated and underrepresented in clinical trials.Vaccarino et al in 20184 has put out a Call to Action to better serve the unmet needs of this population. There is an urgent need for raising awareness and improving education regarding SUDs, especially among older adults. There is also a great need for better training of health care professionals to improve their skills, knowledge, and attitudes towards treating SUDs in older adults. Policy and decision makers regarding health care delivery systems need to be better informed to make wiser decisions in order to improve access and availability of age-specific SUD treatments in older adults. To this end, The Canadian Coalition for Seniors’ Mental Health (CCSMH)5, with a grant from the Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP) of Health Canada, has recently created and published an introductory paper6 and a set of four guidelines on the prevention, assessment, and treatment of alcohol7, benzodiazepine8, cannabis9, and opioid10 use disorders among older adults.This is Part 1 of a two-part presentation of CCSMH’s SUD guidelines highlighting the opioid and benzodiazepine use disorders in older adults; Part 2, second presentation, will highlight guidelines related to alcohol and cannabis use disorder in older adults.

Sexual Harassment within College Campus Recreation Departments as Perceived by NIRSA Employees

This is part one of a four-part presentation of a national investigation of NIRSA members on the topic of sexual harassment/discrimination within college campus recreation departments. A national survey of 1000 randomly selected NIRSA members in North America was completed by means of an on-line questionnaire to determine the perceptions of NIRSA members as to the possible existence of sexual harassment [discrimination] within their own college campus recreation departments, in terms of a) existence of sexual harassment in the work environment, b) frequency of occurrences against males and females, c) examples of sexual harassment, d) frequency of sexual harassment acts, e) reaction to sexual harassment, f) issuance of complaints, g) existence of policies/procedures dealing with sexual harassment, and h) separation between males and females (exclusion, avoidance, distancing). An examination of the data was completed in terms of the respondents' gender, marital status, and gender of one's supervisor. Findings revealed that the vast majority of the respondents felt that their work place was safe, one of respect, one of tolerance, not intimidating and that sexual harassment was not a major factor in their workplace. Policies, procedures and educational opportunities were cited as existing in terms of the identification, prevention, reporting and prompt complaint resolution of sexual harassment. Common forms of unwanted verbal expressions of a sexual nature were infrequently cited as existing within the work place.

LNG-Based Cogeneration Systems: Part 1—Comparison of Gas-Turbine-Based Concepts

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is expected to contribute in future more than in the past to the overall energy supply in the world. The paper is the first part of a two-part presentation. In the first one, some novel concepts for combining LNG regasification with the generation of electricity are discussed, whereas in the second part advanced exergy-based analyses are applied to the most favorable LNG–based cogeneration system. All concepts to be evaluated in the first part use gas turbines, to keep the overall investment cost relatively low. The comparisons are conducted based on thermodynamic efficiency and on the potential for improving this efficiency.

LNG-Based Cogeneration Systems: Part 2—Advanced Exergy-Based Analyses of a Concept

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is expected to contribute in future more than in the past to the overall energy supply in the world. The paper is the second part of a two-part presentation. In the first one, some novel concepts for combining LNG regasification with the generation of electricity are discussed, whereas in the second part advanced exergy-based analyses are applied to the most favorable LNG–based cogeneration system. These analyses include an advanced exergy analysis and an advanced exergoeconomic analysis. With the aid of these analyses the interactions among system components as well as the potential for improving the thermodynamic efficiency and the potential for reducing the overall cost will be revealed. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate (a) the potential for generating electricity while regasifying LNG, and (b) the capabilities associated with advanced exergy-based methods.

Geometry-Based Similarity Assessment: A Method for Mistake-Proofing the Assembly of Complex Products

Mixed model production is the assembly of multiple products on a common assembly line (see Fig. 1). Companies are moving to mixed-model production environments to: 1) reduce production investment, 2) provide increased customization and respond to globalization, 3) reduce response time and variability (order → delivery), and 4) reduce risk and uncertainty. This transition to a more chaotic production environment increases the chance of using incorrect parts as the number of “similar” parts increases dramatically. Many companies do not have systems in place to identify and prevent usage of the wrong part until after errors have occurred and are found in inspection or, worse yet, at the customer. CAD systems are invaluable for designing products of ever-increasing complexity. Design for Assembly (DFA) techniques are essential for minimizing product complexity to reduce product and manufacturing costs. New techniques such as Assembly FMEA and Mixed-model FMEA, can reduce the potential of using the wrong part. However, they require “experts” to identify potential interchangeability and, being human-dependent, are not 100% accurate. Most companies rely on assembly error-proofing technology (barcodes, visual inspection), part presentation simplification (kitting, lean manufacturing), or automation to prevent using the wrong part. Unfortunately, this approach does not prevent the design and installation of physically interchangeable parts. Instead, it prevents defects from escaping to the customer. This not only leads to unnecessary rework during production, but also significantly increases the chance of errors during service as many prevention approaches such as kitting and automation are not available. With product life-cycles shrinking (Shibata, 2001) and development times shortening even more severely, companies cannot afford to fix problems after they find them in production. Companies need to address the problem in the design stage. To address usage of wrong parts, the authors propose a geometry-based pairwise comparison that alerts designers to this potential error. By interacting with the CAD system or Visualization environment directly, the system provides accurate feedback to designers when their proposed parts are “too similar” to existing parts; without requiring additional time from the designer. This paper describes the new method, details various implementation approaches and their limitations, and concludes with difficulties of implementation. Several examples are explored along with the limitations of the approach.

An Event-Related Potential Study of the Effects of Semantic Deviations: An Application of a Method of Sequential-Part Presentation

The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of semantic deviations of picture stimuli by applying a method of sequential-part presentations. S1 stimuli were 10 pictures of animals which were divided into 7 × 7 portions and successively presented in random order. S2 stimuli were three types of pictures (A, the same as S1; B, semantically the same but physically different from S1; and C, both semantically and physically different from S1). Subjects were required to name S1 verbally after seeing S2. The largest N400 components of the event-related potential were elicited for Category C of S2, whereas large LPCs were elicited for Categories B and C. This suggests that a method of sequential-part presentations is effective for eliciting the N400 component of the event-related potential for picture stimuli.