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The BASUMA (Body Area System for Ubiquitous Multimedia Applications) body sensor network will consist of several wearable or handheld wireless medical sensors and a PDA like base station. The sensors, designed in a way to minimize disturbance of the patient's everyday life, will record important diagnostic parameters which are analysed on the base station. This will allow a continuous monitoring of the patient's state of health outside the hospital. Sensors were developed for the measurement of electrocardiograms (ECGs), air and blood content of the thorax (thoracic impedance), body temperature, breathing rate and cough control, blood pressure, pulse rate, oxygen saturation, lung functions, reactive oxygen species (ROS) (exhaled H2O2), and lactate in breath condensate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is part of the research included in the European project AQUATERRA, focused on the study of different persistent organic pollutants in different risk zones along the Ebro River basin. This chapter summarizes brominated flame retardant research in the Ebro area. Within a monitoring program at different risk zones in this river, two high contaminated areas were detected. The first one is located along the Cinca River, a tributary of Ebro River, downstream a heavily industrialized town (Monzón) and data showed a high HBCD contamination in this area. The second one is located along the Vero River, a tributary of Cinca River, downstream an industrial park in Barbastro. In this case, high contamination of deca-BDE-209 was found. Our work included the analysis of sediments and biota, with special attention on aspects such as temporal trends, bioavailability, and bioaccumulation of these contaminants. Moreover, an attempt of identification of source contamination was carried out, with the analysis of industrial effluents. In both cases, the industry responsible of the contamination was identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lowland forests of South-eastern Europe present the remains of large forest areas, strongly influenced by periodic flooding and shallow groundwater tables. Their natural hydrologic regime was throughout history continuously exposed to various negative influences such as intensive forest exploitation and hydro-technical activities Nowadays there are more indices of regional runaway of climate change, which have caused a lowering trend in the groundwater tables and more intense droughts. To attenuate past, present and future negative impacts on the hydrology of lowlands, the possibilities of water table management were assessed. In this study, the procedure of estimation of the historic state of waterlogging based on a comparison of relict morphological indicators of hydromorphic soils and the present state of groundwater tables were developed. According to this, major influences on groundwater tables such as hydro-technical objects and disturbances of forest stand structure were assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs), such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) and tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBP-A), have routinely been added to consumer products for several decades in a successful effort to reduce fire-related injury and property damage. Recently, concern for this emerging class of chemicals has risen because of their occurrence in the environment and in human biota. Here we briefly review scientific issues related to analytical, toxicological and environmental aspects of these BFRs and discuss data gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown that seeding allows for greater control of the microstructure of self-reinforced beta-silicon nitride based ceramics, which when combined with tailoring of the sintering additives can results in significant improvements in fracture toughness and strength. Similar behavior was noted in alpha-SiAlONs. In beta-Si3N4 ceramics in which alumina serves as one of the additives, the larger elongated reinforcing grains result from the epitaxial deposition of Si6-zAlzOzN8-z layers on the Si3N4 core. Structural models show that the bond strength of the interface between the SiAlON and the amorphous intergranular film increases as the Al and O contents of the SiAlON increase. This is consistent with experiments that revealed interfacial debonding was promoted when the z-value of the SiAlON epitaxial layer was reduced. Compositional tailoring that leads to enhanced interfacial debonding and an increase in the fracture toughness. For a number of applications, creep resistance is also required in these ceramics. Recent results have been obtained in self-reinforced silicon nitride ceramics where controlled increases in the fraction of larger elongated reinforeing grains were found to reduce the creep rates. However, viscous flow in the amorphous intergranular films (IGF) in silicon nitride-based ceramics significantly impact their creep behavior and mechanical reliability at elevated temperatures. Recent studies of bulk Si-based oxynitride glasses have shown that increasing the nitrogen to oxygen (N:O), rare earth (RE): aluminum (Al) ratios of the glass and using smaller RE ions raise the glass viscosities. Creep models suggest that this will improve the creep resistance of the silicon nitride ceramics, which is supported by the results of creep studies. The above findings are providing a framework for designing the next generation of silicon nitride-based ceramics by microstructural and compositional tailoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]