Different wipe materials and wetting agents have been traditionally used to collect pesticide residues from indoor surfaces in human exposure assessments. Such methods were developed to estimate human pesticide exposure through skin contact. From an environmental point of view, wiping methods may be also applied to predict the runoff potential of pesticides on urban impervious surfaces. Since l...

This paper presents an approach for understanding a spatial structure from a wire-6amed environmental model which has been conswcted by a mobile robot with a stereo system. We discover the object surfaces using relations of line connection and some geometrical constraints. This method on also infer lndetected lines, thus the occluded surfaces can be reconstructed. We prescnt experimental result...

This paper analyzes utilization of renewable energy systems and efficient building envelopes in the semi-arid climate. The proposed model evaluates renewable energy systems solutions as well as economic- and energy-efficient construction materials for the net zero-energy buildings (NZEB) in semi-arid climates. The objective of this paper is to optimize total energy cost and environmental impact...

The water repellency and self-cleaning ability of many biological surfaces has inspired many fundamental and practical studies related to the development of synthetic superhydrophobic surfaces. However, the investigation of such substrates made of biodegradable polymers has been scarce. Simple approaches based on a single step, performed at room temperature (and pressure), were implemented to o...

The control of microbial infections is a very important issue in modern society. In general there are two ways to stop microbes from infecting humans or deteriorating materials—disinfection and antimicrobial surfaces. The first is usually realized by disinfectants, which are a considerable environmental pollution problem and also support the development of resistant microbial strains. Antimicro...

INTRODUCTION Limited data exist on patient factors related to environmental contamination with Clostridium difficile. METHODS We evaluated the association between the functional status of patients with C. difficile infection (CDI) and environmental contamination with C. difficile. RESULTS Contamination of patient rooms was frequent and higher functional status was associated with contaminat...

Bacteria living epiphytically on aerial plant surfaces encounter severe and rapidly fluctuating environmental conditions, and their capacity to withstand environmental stress contributes to epiphytic fitness. The stationary phase sigma factor RpoS is a key determinant in stress response of gram-negative bacteria, including Pseudomonas spp. This study focused on the role of RpoS in stress respon...

Previously, we demonstrated that children in day care centers commonly experience diarrhea due to rotavirus, giardia, and bacterial pathogens. Multiple agents frequently coexist, and the environment is heavily contaminated with enteric bacteria during outbreaks. A study of environmental surface contamination with rotavirus was performed during three non-outbreak periods. Of 25 samples collected...

We propose an efficient rendering method for dynamic scenes under all-frequency environmental lighting. To render the surfaces of objects illuminated by distant environmental lighting, the triple product of the lighting, the visibility function and the BRDF is integrated at each shading point on the surfaces. Our method represents the environmental lighting and the BRDF with a linear combinatio...