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Background: Health-related Habits (HrH) are a major priority in healthcare. However there is little agreement on whether exercise, diet, smoking or dental hygiene are better described as lifestyles, habits or behaviors, and on what is their hierarchical relationship. This research is aimed at representing the basic concepts which are assumed to constitute the conceptual framework enabling us to interpret and organize the field of HrH. Methods: A group of 29 experts with different backgrounds agreed on the definition and hierarchy of HrH following an iterative process which involved framing analysis and nominal group techniques. Results: Formal definitions of health-related behavior, habit, life-style and life-style profile were produced. In addition a series of basic descriptors were identified: health reserve, capital, risk and load. Six main categories of HrH were chosen based on relevance to longevity: diet/exercise, vitality/stress, sleep, cognition, substance use and other risk. Attributes of HrH are clinical meaningfulness, quantifiability, temporal stability, associated morbidity, and unitarity (non-redundancy). Two qualifiers (polarity and stages of change) have also been described. Conclusions: The concepts represented here lay the groundwork for the development of clinical and policy tools related to HrH and lifestyle. An adaptation of this system to define targets of health interventions and to develop the classification of person factors in ICF may be needed in the future.

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In this work the use of a membrane based liquid extraction process for recovery of the homogeneous catalyst employed in the wet peroxide oxidation process (WPO) is studied. In the WPO process the oxidation agent is the hydroxyl radical that is obtained by using a combination of hydrogen peroxide and a mixture of Fe(II), Cu(II), and Mn(II) in aqueous solution. The mixture of metallic cations permits the almost total degradation of the refractory organic compounds, but the use of metallic salts as catalysts induces additional pollution. To recover the homogeneous catalyst of the WPO process by means of non-dispersive solvent extraction (NDSX) two hollow fiber membrane contactors are employed, one for the extraction step and the second for the back-extraction step. From the initial assays, the extractant LIX 622N was selected for Cu(II) recovery and Cyanex 272 for Fe(II) and Mn(II) recovery. Selective separation of Fe(II) and Mn(II) can be obtained by adjusting the pH of the feed aqueous phase. The three metals are stripped using sulfuric acid to give concentrated solutions of CuSO(4), FeSO(4), and MnSO(4) that can be recycled to the formulation of the catalyst solution of the WPO process. A mathematical model has been proposed to describe the recovery of Cu. Two design parameters are required: the membrane mass transport coefficient of the extraction and stripping modules (k(m) = 3.07 x 10(-7) m/sec) and the equilibrium parameter of the extraction reaction (K(Ex) = 0.0832).