Particulate matter (PM), and in particular ultrafine particles, have a negative impact on human health. The contribution of vehicle PM emissions to air pollution is typically quantified with emission inventories, which need vehicle emission factors as input. Heavy-duty vehicles, although they represent a small percentage of the vehicle population in nearly every major country, contribute the ma...

Drotrecogin alfa (activated) (Xigris; Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN) significantly reduced mortality in severe sepsis in the PROWESS trial. We evaluate the cost-effectiveness of drotrecogin alfa (activated) as an adjunct to standard therapy from the German healthcare payer's perspective with respect to patients with 1) severe sepsis and 2) severe sepsis and multiple organ failure the ...

Exhaust emissions from thirteen compressed natural gas (CNG) and nine ultralow sulphur diesel in-service transport buses were monitored on a chassis dynamometer. Measurements were carried out at idle and at three steady engine loads of 25%, 50% and 100% of maximum power at a fixed speed of 60 km h(-1). Emission factors were estimated for particle mass and number, carbon dioxide and oxides of ni...

BACKGROUND The health, economic and societal burden of asthma is considerable, and is greatest in patients with severe asthma, particularly when inadequately controlled. Real-life studies that assess the effectiveness of treatment are of particular interest. METHODS We determined the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of adding omalizumab to standard therapy using data from the real-...

This study derives from the need to evaluate the impact on the urban air quality of two-wheeler vehicular class. Mopeds and motorcycles, in fact, are increasingly used in recent years, representing a great share of motor-powered vehicles in urban environment. This paper is finalized at the examination of the emissions of the last generation motorcycles, contributing broadly to extend knowledge ...

Productivity Premia for German Manufacturing Firms Exporting to the Euro-Area and Beyond: First Evidence from Robust Fixed Effects Estimations This paper makes three contributions. (1) It summarizes in tabular form a recent literature made of 36 micro-econometric studies for 16 different countries on the relationship between export destination and firm performance. (2) It reports estimates of t...

Standard Gaussian graphical models implicitly assume that the conditional independence among variables is common to all observations in the sample. However, in practice, observations are usually collected from heterogeneous populations where such an assumption is not satisfied, leading in turn to nonlinear relationships among variables. To address such situations we explore mixtures of Gaussian...

To meet Euro VI emission targets for heavy-duty applications, truck manufacturers concentrate on Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) and its combination with urea-based Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR). TNO developed a concept that opens the route for an alternative solution which relies on SCR as the main technology for NOx abatement. This concept offers potential fuel benefits in combination w...

BACKGROUND The impact on patients suffering from chronic hand eczema (CHE) is enormous, as no licensed systemic treatment option with proven efficacy for CHE is available. Alitretinoin is a novel agent which showed high clinical efficacy in patients with severe, refractory CHE. We assessed the cost-effectiveness of alitretinoin for CHE patient treatment from a Swiss third party payer perspectiv...