The ability of a contemporary accurate-mass Q-TOF instrument coupled to a UHPLC to detect trace levels of nonylphenol polyethoxylates (NPEOs) in complex wastewaters has been investigated. NPEOs are environmentally hazardous substances that affect aquatic organisms. The study was motivated by the “confirmation of contaminants” concept, which is based on the use of identification points (IPs) as ...

Surrogate end points in clinical research pose real danger. A surrogate end point is an outcome measure, commonly a laboratory test, that substitutes for a clinical event of true importance. Resistance to activated protein C, for example, has been used as a surrogate for venous thrombosis in women using oral contraceptives. Other examples of inappropriate surrogate end points in contraception i...

Paper is devoted to a problem of the hidden faults, which are appropriate for safety-related instrumentation and control systems aimed at ensuring the safety of high-risk objects. Such systems are designed for operation in two modes: normal and emergency. The problem consists in accumulation (during a normal mode) of the hidden faults impairing the functionality of the digital components and sy...

This study empirically evaluates whether the increasingly large numbers of private outpatient healthcare facilities (HCFs) within the European Union (EU) countries comply with the existing European waste legislation, and whether compliance with such legislation affects the fraction of healthcare waste (HCW) classified as hazardous. To that end, this study uses data collected by a large survey o...

AIMS To investigate the prevalence and temporal patterns of hazardous drinking and risk factors during medical school for future hazardous drinking among doctors. METHODS Two cohorts of graduating medical students (N = 1052) from all four Norwegian universities (NORDOC) were surveyed in their final year of medical school training (1993/94 and 1999) (T1) and again 4 (T2) and 10 (T3) years late...

Dual-arm robotic system for load transportation in hazardous environments is considered in this study. First, physical model of the robot arms with the load is presented and related equations of motion are obtained. Friction forces arising on the contact points between the load and robot arm tips are also taken into account. Then, robust non-chattering sliding mode control is used in order to o...