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This study aimed to describe health-related quality of life (HRQoL) 3 months and 1 year after stroke, compare HRQoL between dependent (modified Rankin scale [mRS] 3-5) and independent (mRS 0-2) patients, and identify factors predictive of poor HRQoL. Patients with a first ischemic stroke or intraparenchymal hemorrhage from the Joinville Stroke Registry were analyzed retrospectively. Using the 5-level version of the EuroQol-5D questionnaire, HRQoL was calculated for all patients 3 months and 1 year after stroke, stratified by mRS score (0-2 or 3-5). One-year HRQoL predictors were examined using univariate and multivariate analyses. Three months after a stroke, data from 884 patients were analyzed; 72.8% were categorized as mRS 0-2 and 27.2% as mRS 3-5, and the mean HRQoL was 0.670 ± 0.256. At 1-year follow-up, 705 patients were evaluated; 75% were classified as mRS 0-2 and 25% as mRS 3-5, and the mean HRQoL was 0.71 ± 0.249. An increase in HRQoL was observed between 3 months and 1 year (mean difference 0.024, P <.0001), both in patients with 3-month mRS 0-2 (0.013, P =.027) and mRS 3-5 (0.052, P <.0001). Increasing age, female sex, hypertension, diabetes, and a high mRS were associated with poor HRQoL at 1 year. This study described the HRQoL after a stroke in a Brazilian population. This analysis shows that the mRS was highly associated with HRQoL after stroke. Age, sex, diabetes, and hypertension were also associated with HRQoL, although not independently of mRS. • Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) utility after stroke is currently unknown in Brazil. Using population-based data, we found that the 1-year HRQoL after stroke is 0.71, significantly lower in dependent (0.40) than independent patients (0.81). • These real-world findings are helpful for many future studies, such as those examining the burden of stroke and economic evaluations that include stroke as an outcome or seek to improve functional status after stroke. • The study also confirms that the modified Rankin scale (mRS) is a reliable HRQoL surrogate and provides mapping scores to convert mRS to utility, which is helpful for stroke studies that include the mRS but not the EQ-5D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Studies on the normal electrocardiogram limits in African populations are limited, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. There is no literature describing normal ECG limits in Angolans.Objectives: The aim of this study is to establish the normal ECG limits for adult Angolans, without established heart disease, stratified by gender and age.Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed, involving 2179 participants from a population in northern Angola, without established heart disease, aged between 15 and 74 years. A 12‑lead ECG and a rhythm strip were recorded for all participants and analysed and processed by the University of Glasgow software and encoded by the Minnesota Code. The normal range of the electrocardiographic parameters were established as the 2nd and 98th percentiles of the measurement distribution per age group and gender. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for two independent groups and Bonferroni adjustments were used for multiple testing. GAMLSS models were used to obtain the continuous age-dependent percentile curves.Results: The normal range of the ECG differed between men and women: heart rate 49 to 100 bpm vs. 55 to 108 bpm, P wave duration 81 to 130 ms vs. 84 to 130 ms, PR interval 119 to 210 ms vs. 120 to 202 ms, QRS duration 74 to 110 ms vs. 70 to 104 ms, QT interval 324 to 441 ms vs. 314 and 438 ms, P-wave axis - 29 to 850 vs. -18 to 810, QRS-wave axis - 13 to 850 vs. -180 and 820, T-wave axis 0 to 720 vs. -8 to 730, Sokolow-Lyon index 2.13 to 6.21 mV vs. 1.60 to 4.87 mV, Cornell index 0.17 to 6.24 mV vs. 0.14 mV to 4.35 mV.Conclusions: The values described for the electrocardiographic measurements above can act as a reference framework for Angolan adults without established heart disease. Our study suggests that the normal range of most ECG parameters vary according to age and sex and the ECG diagnostic criteria must therefore be specific for these demographic measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • An extended Perers model is proposed for PV-T collectors generating electricity. • It is suitable for parameter estimation and does not require extra measurements. • It is compatible with complex incidence angle effects and can be used if needed. • High performance high | β pv | PV-T collectors should benefit more from this model. Abstract Solar thermal collectors including hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) collectors can be certified in accordance with the ISO 9806 standard for an assessment of their reliability and thermal performance. The ISO 9806 standard relies on the Perers model for the latter though the model does not differentiate between hybrid (fluid circulation and electricity generation) and non-hybrid (no electricity generation) operation of PV-T collectors. The present communication proposes an extension of the Perers model explicitly accounting for the effective absorption factor reduction caused by electricity generation in PV-T collectors under maximum power point (MPP) operation, and discusses its suitability for parameter estimation via multi-linear regression (MLR). The solution devised assumes a linear MPP cell efficiency temperature dependence and employs the collector efficiency factor construct on which the original Perers model already implicitly relies, thus avoiding the need to measure additional quantities while remaining compatible with MLR. In doing so, more detailed thermal performance modelling of PV-T collectors is possible than with the standard Perers model, with minimal additional effort and while retaining the original's modularity. The extended model's added relevance is nonetheless predicted to be positively correlated with the thermal and electrical performance levels and the cell efficiency temperature dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalysis was recognised as a suitable process for the photoabatement of atmospheric pollutants. The photooxidation mechanism on TiO 2 has been widely studied. However, recent studies demonstrated that the very often-assumed photooxidation intermediated by the hydroxyl radical cannot explain all the experimental observations. Indeed, this study contributes for a new understanding of NO photooxidation. First, the adsorption equilibrium isotherms of NO, NO 2 and H 2 O on the photocatalyst, Aeroxide ® P25 from Evonik Industries, were obtained. Also, the concentration of hydroxyl radicals was determined by photoluminescence. A comprehensive design of experiments was then followed; NO conversion and selectivity were obtained as a function of the relative humidity, irradiance, NO inlet concentration and residence time, following a response surface methodology (RSM). These results were then used to discuss the photooxidation mechanism of NO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the impacts introduced on Distribution Transformer (DT) aging due to the integration of nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEBs) into existing Low-Voltage Distribution Grids. The study considers a neighborhood in the Portuguese municipality of Évora where buildings are set to become nZEBs using solar Photovoltaic systems. This transition is reproduced by simulation using real pre-transition electricity demand and climate data. Following the IEC 60076-7 standard to model the aging process of the considered DT, the collected results show that nZEBs can have a positive impact on the analyzed aging process. However, when relatively high nZEB integration levels are considered, this study also reveals that the subsequent reverse power flows can achieve relatively large magnitudes, especially around noon, thus accelerating the DT's aging into prohibitive values. Given the utmost importance of the nZEB concept for the European building stock, this study identifies nZEBs operation related issues that can result from excessive coincident on-site generation and presents a battery based power export limitation strategy to mitigate such impacts on DT aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study evaluated whether a natural dietary additive, dried Artemisia annua leaves, may be useful to control Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus on naturally infested cattle. Twenty heifers of the Canchim breed, weighing around 250 kg, were divided into two equally sized experimental groups: 1) control animals and 2) animals receiving 200 g/day of dried A. annua leaves for two months. Before treatment began, the animals were homogeneously distributed in control and treatment groups based on their pre-treatment weight and tick infestation level. Counts of engorged female ticks then occurred weekly during the two-month experimental period. We also monitored cattle weight gain and packed cell volume (PCV). Artemisinin (0.96%) was quantified in the plant material by high-performance liquid chromatography with refractive index detector (HPLC-IR). No statistical differences between the control and treatment groups were observed for engorged female counts (log averages of 1.3 ticks and 1.4 ticks per animal, respectively), daily cattle weight gain (0.910 kg and 0.888 kg, respectively) or PCV (33.5% and 33.0%, respectively). We conclude that the oral supplementation of cattle feed with dried A. annuna leaves did not control natural infestation of R. (B.) microplus . The hypothesis of artemisinin’s action on cattle ticks by ingestion through the animals’ blood was not confirmed at the evaluated dose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photoelastic technique has seen some renewed interest in past few years with digital images and image processing new methods becoming readily available. However, further research is needed to improve the precision, the accuracy and the automation of photoelastic technique. The aim of this research work is to get new numerical equations for the phase-shifting method in digital photoelasticity using a plane polariscope. The model was developed to plane polariscope because of the simplicity and low cost of this equipment. To develop the phase shift and respective intensity equations only the analyzer is rotated. A ring under diametral compression is used for the experimental validation. From these intensity equations, the equations for isoclinic and isochromatic parameters are deduced by applying a new numerical technique. This approach can be used to calculate the isoclinic and isochromatic parameters using any number of images. Several analysis are performed with different number of photographic images. The results showed errors reduce when more phase-stepped images are utilized. Hence, one concludes that the uncertainties in results due to effects of errors on photoelastic images can be reduced with a larger amount of phase-stepped images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that domestic responses to financial crises are constrained in a way that limits the options available to national governments is not new. However, the last term of the European Parliament was a period when this reality was brought home to European electorates with previously unseen potency. This study explores the implications of this for the logic of voting in the 2014 European elections. Defection from government parties in EP elections is known to result from a combination of sincere/ideological and performance/protest voting logics. However, this study argues that fiscal tightening policies functioned, in the most affected countries, as a signal leading voters to discount the ideological positions of parties and to behave mostly under a pure protest logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stagnation temperatures experienced by glazed photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) collectors pose a threat to their performance and longevity, in part due to the limited temperature stability of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulants. In order to identify suitable solutions for application in residential solar domestic hot water (SDHW) PV-T systems, a comparative analysis of known overheating prevention and stagnation handling measures was conducted and dynamic simulations were used to support the analysis. While no measure was found to comply with all desirable goals including reliability, implementation and operation costs, integral venting mechanisms were identified as the most promising among the control systems reviewed. Moreover, active collector heat dumping and automatic collector shading led to minimal electrical efficiency increases and decreases, respectively, while purging tank water when the collector overheats was found to be ineffective due to delays in the start of circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]