The AI Act provides a risk-based framework for AI regulation, delegating the implementation of essential requirements to harmonised standards. This regulatory approach raises several issues ...concerning the alignment of standards with regulation’s requirements, the legitimacy of the European standardisation system, and the ability of harmonised standards to ensure fundamental rights protection. This paper discusses and analyses the regulatory approach underlying the AI Act, the main issues surrounding the proposed regulation, and the implications for the AI Act's ability to achieve its goals.
Abstract
In order to solve the difficulties in the construction design of pile foundation and cushion cap of bridge substructure caused by marsh geology and tidal environment abroad, according to the ...European standard EN 1997, a new form of integrated design of retaining wall and cofferdam construction is creatively proposed. The whole process of structural design is studied in detail from the aspects of structural selection, determination of load and load partial coefficient, checking calculation of component design details. Taking the Brunei project as a case, the results show that the integrated design method of retaining wall and cofferdam construction can effectively improve the performance of the pile foundation of the beam substructure, meet the requirements of European standard EN 1997, and provide technical reserves for the construction of similar bridge projects abroad.
The equation for thermal comfort for buildings in the free-running mode (Annexe A2) in European Standard EN15251 rests on the data collected in the EU project Smart Controls and Thermal Comfort ...(SCATs). Many of these data were from naturally ventilated office buildings which were in free-running mode outside the heating season. Using the data from these buildings a relationship between indoor comfort and outdoor climate was developed for free-running buildings. This paper describes the data and the methods of analysis used to estimate the comfort conditions in the variable environment of free-running buildings. The paper also describes how the indoor comfort conditions were related to the running mean of the outdoor temperature, and addresses the effects of air movement and humidity. The paper considers the proportions of people likely to be comfortable if the temperature differs from the neutral temperature. The differences between the adaptive comfort charts in EN15251 and ASHRAE 55-2004 are discussed.
Objective:
While Hungary is often reported to have the highest incidence and mortality rates of lung cancer, until 2018 no nationwide epidemiology study was conducted to confirm these trends. The ...objective of this study was to estimate the occurrence of lung cancer in Hungary based on a retrospective review of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) database.
Methods:
Our retrospective, longitudinal study included patients aged ≥20 years who were diagnosed with lung cancer (ICD-10 C34) between 1 Jan 2011 and 31 Dec 2016. Age-standardized incidence and mortality rates were calculated using both the 1976 and 2013 European Standard Populations (ESP).
Results:
Between 2011 and 2016, 6,996 – 7,158 new lung cancer cases were recorded in the NHIF database annually, and 6,045 – 6,465 all-cause deaths occurred per year. Age-adjusted incidence rates were 115.7–101.6/100,000 person-years among men (ESP 1976: 84.7–72.6), showing a mean annual change of − 2.26% (
p
= 0.008). Incidence rates among women increased from 48.3 to 50.3/100,000 person-years (ESP 1976: 36.9–38.0), corresponding to a mean annual change of 1.23% (
p
= 0.028). Age-standardized mortality rates varied between 103.8 and 97.2/100,000 person-years (ESP 1976: 72.8–69.7) in men and between 38.3 and 42.7/100,000 person-years (ESP 1976: 27.8–29.3) in women.
Conclusion:
Age-standardized incidence and mortality rates of lung cancer in Hungary were found to be high compared to Western-European countries, but lower than those reported by previous publications. The incidence of lung cancer decreased in men, while there was an increase in incidence and mortality among female lung cancer patients.
•Biodiesel from waste Amalfi cost lemon seeds oil.•No co-solvent, no additional active phases, low voltage electrocatalytic conversion.•PtIrRu nanoalloy modified electrode.•High activity and ...stability for a sustainable conversion.•Biodiesel agreement with the European Standard.
A novel electrocatalytic simple method, based on a Pt, Ir and Ru trimetallic nanoalloy (PtIrRu), was explored for the biodiesel production from Amalfi coast waste lemon seeds oil. The experiments were performed in a methanolic reaction mixture, in the absence of toxic co-solvents and active dissolved species, and operating at a moderate voltage. The transesterification reaction occurred with a low amount of nanocatalyst in a two-phase reaction mixture, where an emulsion of oil in the alcohol phase is formed under stirring. A systematic study, looking for combinations ensuring high biodiesel yields, was performed by varying the process parameters. The effects of the voltage, temperature, NaCl content, methanol/oil ratio, reaction time and water content on the methyl esters yield were explored and the products were analyzed. Although temperature does not significantly affect conversion, NaCl content and time were found crucial. Lemon seed oil conversion reached a value of 98.2% after 2 h at 15 V, 0.3 wt% of NaCl and 20 °C, methanol/oil ratio 10:1, water content 2 wt%. Although a methyl esters yield reduction was observed in the presence of water, yields of 80% and 49.2% were still measured at 2 wt% and 4 wt% of water, respectively. The characteristics of the biodiesel produced were in agreement with the EN14214. The results of this paper constitute a proof of concept of the valorization in biodiesel of all lemon seed oils, also considering the large global scale citrus fruit consumption and processing, e.g. to produce fruit juices.
El presente artículo aborda la protección de las personas mayores a la luz de los perfiles evolutivos del sistema europeo de derechos humanos. En efecto, desde una perspectiva de tutela multinivel de ...los derechos humanos, se analizan los estándares del Consejo de Europa y de la Unión, poniendo el acento en la Carta Social Europea y en la jurisprudencia del Comité Europeo de Derechos Sociales. Dicho análisis conduce a concluir que se está forjando un acervo europeo del Ius Senectutis de crucial importancia en el contexto de crisis sanitaria y humanitaria provocada por la pandemia de covid-19. Esos estándares europeos y sus sinergias con otros estándares internacionales y nacionales, en última instancia, están llamados a optimizar los derechos de las personas mayores y su dignidad en coherencia con el principio pro personae.
Highlights • A historical perspective of the development of short-tandem repeat (STR) profiling. • STR characteristics are described: heterozygote balance, stutter, stochastic effects. • ...Interpretation of DNA profiles using likelihood ratios (LRs) is explored. • A comparison of software solutions to interpret complex DNA profiles. • The application of STRs for intelligence database searches. Limitations described.
This article explores the potential of using real-world driving patterns to derive PHEV and BEV utility factors and evaluates how different travel and recharging behaviours affect the calculation of ...the standard SAE J2841 utility factor. The study relies on six datasets of driving data collected monitoring 508,607 conventional fuel vehicles in six European areas and a dataset of synthetic data from 700,000 vehicles in a seventh European area. Sources representing the actual driving behaviour of PHEV together with the WLTP European utility factor are adopted as term of comparison. The results show that different datasets of driving data can yield to different estimates of the utility factor. The SAE J2841 standard method results to be representative of a large variety of behaviours of PHEVs and BEVs' drivers, characterised by a fully-charged battery at the beginning of the trip sequence, thus being representative for fuel economy and emission estimates in the early phase deployment of EVs, charged at home and overnight. However the results show that the SAE J2841 utility factor might need to be revised to account for more complex future scenarios, such as necessity-driven recharge behaviour with less than one recharge per day or a fully deployed recharge infrastructure with more than one recharge per day.
•Driving data from 508,607 real-world vehicles and 700,000 synthetic vehicles in EU are analysed.•PHEV and BEV utility factors are calculated with different assumptions.•Different daily driving distances in different geographical areas have an impact on the UF.•Cabin cooling and heating can change significantly the BEV utility factor.•SAE J2841 might need to be revised for more complex future mobility and recharging scenarios.
Much attention has focused on hand decontamination for healthcare workers, but little attention has been paid to patient hand hygiene. Patients confined to bed are often unable to access handwashing ...facilities. They could use an alcohol hand rub, but these are not advised for soiled hands or social hand hygiene. One alternative is the use of a hand wipe. However, it is important to ascertain the effectiveness of hand wipes for removal of transient micro-organisms from the hands.
To develop a method to assess the antimicrobial efficacy of hand wipes compared with handwashing, and thus determine if a hand wipe can be acceptable for patient hand hygiene.
The methodology was based on European Standards EN 1499 (2013) and EN 1500 (2013) as there is no standard for hand wipes. The hands of 20 healthy volunteers were contaminated artificially by immersion in Escherichia coli, and then sampled before and after the use of a reference soft soap or hand wipes for 60 s. The counts obtained were expressed as log10, and the log10 reductions were calculated.
The hand wipe with no antimicrobial agent (control wipe) was inferior to the soft soap. However, the antimicrobial hand wipe was statistically non-inferior to the soft soap. A log10 reduction of 3.54 was obtained for the soft soap, 2.46 for the control hand wipe, and 3.67 for the antimicrobial hand wipe.
The evidence suggests that the antimicrobial hand wipe, when applied for 60 s, is at least as good as soap and water, representing an acceptable alternative to handwashing from a bactericidal perspective.
•The valorization of the oil included in solid food waste from restaurants has been carried out.•There are significant differences in the oil fatty acid composition depending on the ...restaurant.•Physical and chemical properties of the oils are not dependent on the restaurant, excepting acid value.•Fatty acid composition of the oils is similar to that found in vegetable oils used to produce biodiesel.•Biodiesel properties mostly meet European standard EN14214.
Food waste contributes to increase the environmental impact, besides the ethical issue. One interesting way of valorization is its conversion in biofuel, thus helping to boost the concept of circular economy. The target of this work was to find out the feasibility of the use of the oil included in solid food waste (SFW) to produce biodiesel that meets the European biodiesel standard EN 14214. For this purpose, Soxhlet extraction of the lipid fraction of SFW from different restaurants has been carried out. Fatty acid composition was analyzed and potential differences concerning the source of SFW were evaluated through principal component analysis. Results showed significant differences in the oil fatty acid composition depending on the restaurant. However, oil physical and chemical properties were similar, excepting the acid value. Due to the high free fatty acid content (acidity of 11.21 mg KOH/g) of the oil from fine dining restaurant residues, acid-catalyzed esterification pre-treatment to the alkaline transesterification was needed. The fatty acid composition of oils from SFW differs depending on the restaurant, but the range of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) is similar to that found in vegetable oils, showing a content of oleic acid (C18:1) between 36.39 and 41.57% w/w and linolenic acid (C18:2) of 21.37–38.63% w/w. Several chemical and physical properties of SFW oil biodiesel were analyzed. It was found that biodiesel fulfil the European standard EN 14214, with the exception of FAME yield, oxidation stability and glyceride content. For this reason and to improve biodiesel quality, further reaction optimization study, blending with diesel fuel or the use of additives is strongly recommended. It may be concluded, from this field trial, that oil from SFW from different restaurants may be mixed together and used to produce biodiesel. To corroborate this statement, further diesel engine tests are needed.
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