WorldWideScience

Sample records for microanalysis public domain

  1. Clinimetrics and clinical psychometrics: macro- and micro-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomba, Elena; Bech, Per

    2012-01-01

    Clinimetrics was introduced three decades ago to specify the domain of clinical markers in clinical medicine (indexes or rating scales). In this perspective, clinical validity is the platform for selecting the various indexes or rating scales (macro-analysis). Psychometric validation of these indexes or rating scales is the measuring aspect (micro-analysis). Clinical judgment analysis by experienced psychiatrists is included in the macro-analysis and the item response theory models are especially preferred in the micro-analysis when using the total score as a sufficient statistic. Clinical assessment tools covering severity of illness scales, prognostic measures, issues of co-morbidity, longitudinal assessments, recovery, stressors, lifestyle, psychological well-being, and illness behavior have been identified. The constructive dialogue in clinimetrics between clinical judgment and psychometric validation procedures is outlined for generating developments of clinical practice in psychiatry. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  2. Advanced Microanalysis Facility

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Laboratory Consortium — The Advanced Microanalysis Facility fully integrates capabilities for chemical and structural analysis of electronic materials and devices for the U.S. Army and DoD....

  3. PUBLIC DOMAIN PROTECTION. USES AND REUSES OF PUBLIC DOMAIN WORKS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monica Adriana LUPAȘCU

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available This study tries to highlight the necessity of an awareness of the right of access to the public domain, particularly using the example of works whose protection period has expired, as well as the ones which the law considers to be excluded from protection. Such works are used not only by large libraries from around the world, but also by rights holders, via different means of use, including incorporations into original works or adaptations. However, the reuse that follows these uses often only remains at the level of concept, as the notion of the public’s right of access to public domain works is not substantiated, nor is the notion of the correct or legal use of such works.

  4. X-ray microanalysis in plant physiology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neumann, D.

    1979-01-01

    X-ray microanalysis represents a highly sensitive and modern method for the measurement of ions in the very small compartments of the cell. The limitations of X-ray microanalysis in biological objects exist in the preparation of the tissues and the quantitation of the results. In plant physiology this method has provided several surprising results and new insights for further investigations. (author)

  5. Quantitative X-ray microanalysis of biological specimens

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roomans, G.M.

    1988-01-01

    Qualitative X-ray microanalysis of biological specimens requires an approach that is somewhat different from that used in the materials sciences. The first step is deconvolution and background subtraction on the obtained spectrum. The further treatment depends on the type of specimen: thin, thick, or semithick. For thin sections, the continuum method of quantitation is most often used, but it should be combined with an accurate correction for extraneous background. However, alternative methods to determine local mass should also be considered. In the analysis of biological bulk specimens, the ZAF-correction method appears to be less useful, primarily because of the uneven surface of biological specimens. The peak-to-local background model may be a more adequate method for thick specimens that are not mounted on a thick substrate. Quantitative X-ray microanalysis of biological specimens generally requires the use of standards that preferably should resemble the specimen in chemical and physical properties. Special problems in biological microanalysis include low count rates, specimen instability and mass loss, extraneous contributions to the spectrum, and preparative artifacts affecting quantitation. A relatively recent development in X-ray microanalysis of biological specimens is the quantitative determination of local water content

  6. Biomedical microanalysis--putting it to work now in diagnostic pathology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abraham, J.L.

    1980-01-01

    Based on a review of seven years' experience with microanalysis in human pathology, the emphasis of this keynote paper is that currently available microanalytic instrumentation and methodology are of great use diagnostically. The appropriate diagnostic questions which must be posed for microanalysis center around those seeking the cause of the disease (etiologic diagnosis). The preventive and forensic aspects of etiologic diagnosis are stressed. Pathologists analyse not only tissues but also material samples. The backscattered electron (BSE) image with compositional contrast has been essential in making efficient diagnostic use of microanalysis in the scanning electron microscope (SEM). From the 454 specimens seen in the four years 1976-1979, examples are presented to illustrate several aspects of microanalysis: e.g., documentation of the identity and source of toxic dust in lungs; identification of particulate materials in liver, kidney, salivary glands, lymph nodes, etc.; problems of contamination of specimens; use of high vs low magnification analysis; relative volume of tissue sampled using thick (5 micrometer) vs thin (100nm) sections; time required for analysis; and use of fresh frozen, cryo-sectioned tissue for analysis of soluble materials. For practical diagnostic microanalysis, SEM with BSE and x-ray microanalysis of 5 micrometer thick tissue sections at present seems to be the most efficient procedure

  7. Public Domain; Public Interest; Public Funding: Focussing on the ‘three Ps’ in Scientific Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mags McGinley

    2005-03-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ‘three Ps’ of scientific research: Public Domain; Public Interest; Public Funding. This is done by examining some of the difficulties faced by scientists engaged in scientific research who may have problems working within the constraints of current copyright and database legislation, where property claims can place obstacles in the way of research, in other words, the public domain. The article then looks at perceptions of the public interest and asks whether copyright and the database right reflect understandings of how this concept should operate. Thirdly, it considers the relevance of public funding for scientific research in the context of both the public domain and of the public interest. Finally, some recent initiatives seeking to change the contours of the legal framework are be examined.

  8. Violence defied? : A review of prevention of violence in public and semi-public domain

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Knaap, L.M. van der; Nijssen, L.T.J.; Bogaerts, S.

    2006-01-01

    This report provides a synthesis of 48 studies of the effects of the prevention of violence in the public and semi-public domain. The following research questions were states for this study:What measures for the prevention of violence in the public and semi-public domain are known and have been

  9. Public licenses and public domain as alternatives to copyright

    OpenAIRE

    Köppel, Petr

    2012-01-01

    The work first introduces the area of public licenses as a space between the copyright law and public domain. After that, consecutively for proprietary software, free and open source software, open hardware and open content, it maps particular types of public licenses and the accompanying social and cultural movements, puts them in mutual as well as historical context, examines their characteristics and compares them to each other, shows how the public licenses are defined by various accompan...

  10. Preserving the positive functions of the public domain in science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pamela Samuelson

    2003-11-01

    Full Text Available Science has advanced in part because data and scientific methodologies have traditionally not been subject to intellectual property protection. In recent years, intellectual property has played a greater role in scientific work. While intellectual property rights may have a positive role to play in some fields of science, so does the public domain. This paper will discuss some of the positive functions of the public domain and ways in which certain legal developments may negatively impact the public domain. It suggests some steps that scientists can take to preserve the positive functions of the public domain for science.

  11. Progress in x-ray microanalysis in the analytical electron microscope

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Williams, D.B.

    1987-01-01

    Analytical electron microscopes (AEM) consisting of x-ray energy dispersive spectrometers (EDS) interfaced to scanning transmission electron microscopes have been available for more than a decade. During that time, progress towards reaching the fundamental limits of the technique has been slow. The progress of x-ray microanalysis in AEM is examined in terms of x-ray detector technology; the EDS/AEM interface; accuracy of microanalysis; and spatial resolution and detectability limits. X-ray microanalysis in the AEM has substantial room for improvement in terms of the interface between the detector and the microscope. Advances in microscope design and software should permit 10nm resolution with detectability limits approaching 0.01wt percent. 16 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab

  12. Vision of new generation CRMs for QC of microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tian Weizhi

    2005-01-01

    Direct analysis of ever smaller solid samples has become one of the trends in modern analytical science, in coping with the increasing requirements from life, materials, environment, and other frontier scientific fields. Due to the lack of natural matrix CRMs certified at matched sample size levels, however, quantitative calibration and quality control have long been a bottleneck of microanalysis. CRMs of new generation are therefore called for to make solid sampling microanalysis an accurately quantitative and quality-controllable technique. In this paper, an approach is proposed to use a combination of several nuclear analytical techniques in the certification of RMs suitable for QC of analyses at sub-ng sample size levels. The technical procedures, the major problems, and the possible format of certificates of the new generation CRMs, and the outliik of the establishment of QC system for microanalysis are described. The CRMs of current generation have played an important role in the quality of analysis, especially trace analysis, and in turn in the development of related scientific fields in 20 th century. It may be reasonably predicted that the new generation CRMs will play the similar role in the quality of microanalysis, and in turn in relevant frontier scientific fields in 21 st century. Nuclear analytical techniques have made, and will continue to make, unique contributions to both generations of CRMs.

  13. Nuclear analytical methods in quality control of microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tian Weizhi

    2004-01-01

    Quantitative calibration and quality control have been a major bottleneck in microanalysis due to the lack of natural-matrix CRMs certified at sample sizes compatible with those of unknown samples. A solution is described to characterize sampling behavior for individual elements, so as to identify elements homogeneous enough at stated sample size levels in given CRMs/RMs. By using a combination of several nuclear analytical techniques, INAA-EDXRF-μPIXE, sampling behavior for individual elements can be characterized at sample size levels from grams down to pg. Natural-matrix CRMs specifically for QC of microanalysis may thus be created. Additional information in certificates of these new generation CRMs is imagined. (author)

  14. The Definition, Dimensions, and Domain of Public Relations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hutton, James G.

    1999-01-01

    Discusses how the field of public relations has left itself vulnerable to other fields that are making inroads into public relations' traditional domain, and to critics who are filling in their own definitions of public relations. Proposes a definition and a three-dimensional framework to compare competing philosophies of public relations and to…

  15. Demonstration of iron and thorium in autopsy tissues by x-ray microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Landas, S.; Turner, J.W.; Moore, K.C.; Mitros, F.A.

    1984-01-01

    We performed x-ray microanalysis of autopsy specimens using a scanning-transmission electron microscopy mode. Tissues were obtained at necropsy from a patient with history of angiography using thorium dioxide and from a patient with hemochromatosis. X-ray microanalysis confirmed the presence of thorium and iron in their respective tissues. Effects of staining reagents were examined

  16. Titanium pigmentation. An electron probe microanalysis study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dupre, A.; Touron, P.; Daste, J.; Lassere, J.; Bonafe, J.L.; Viraben, R.

    1985-01-01

    A patient had an unusual pigmentary disease induced by titanium dioxide. The use of a topical cream containing titanium dioxide caused a xanthomalike appearance on the patient's penis. Electron probe microanalysis was valuable in establishing the cause of this balanitis

  17. Cultural Heritage and the Public Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bas Savenije

    2012-09-01

    by providing their resources on the Internet” (Berlin Declaration 2003. Therefore, in the spirit of the Berlin Declaration, the ARL encourages its members’ libraries to grant all non-commercial users “a free, irrevocable, worldwide, right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship”. And: “If fees are to be assessed for the use of digitised public domain works, those fees should only apply to commercial uses” (ARL Principles July 2010. In our view, cultural heritage institutions should make public domain material digitised with public funding as widely available as possible for access and reuse. The public sector has the primary responsibility to fund digitisation. The involvement of private partners, however, is encouraged by ARL as well as the Comité des Sages. Private funding for digitisation is a complement to the necessary public investment, especially in times of economic crisis, but should not be seen as a substitute for public funding. As we can see from these reports there are a number of arguments in favour of digitisation and also of providing maximum accessibility to the digitised cultural heritage. In this paper we will investigate the legal aspects of digitisation of cultural heritage, especially public domain material. On the basis of these we will make an inventory of policy considerations regarding reuse. Furthermore, we will describe the conclusions the National Library of the Netherlands (hereafter: KB has formulated and the arguments that support these. In this context we will review public-private partnerships and also the policy of the KB. We will conclude with recommendations for cultural heritage institutions concerning a reuse policy for digitised public domain material.

  18. X-ray microanalysis of single and cultured cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wroblewski, J.; Roomans, G.M.

    1984-01-01

    X-ray microanalysis of single or cultured cells is often a useful alternative or complement to the analysis of the corresponding tissue. It also allows the analysis of individual cells in a cell population. Preparation for X-ray microanalysis poses a number of typical problems. Suspensions of single cells can be prepared by either of two pathways: (1) washing - mounting - drying, or (2) centrifugation - freezing or fixation - sectioning. The washing step in the preparation of single or cultured cells presents the most severe problems. Cultured cells are generally grown on a substrate that is compatible with both the analysis and the culture, washed and dried. In some cases, sectioning of cultured cell monolayers has been performed. Special problems in quantitative analysis occur in those cases where the cells are analyzed on a thick substrate, since the substrate contributes to the spectral background

  19. X-ray microanalysis of freeze-dried and frozen-hydrated cryosections

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zierold, K.

    1988-01-01

    The elemental composition and the ultrastructure of biological cells were studied by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) combined with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. The preparation technique involves cryofixation, cryoultramicrotomy, cryotransfer, and freeze-drying of samples. Freeze-dried cryosections 100-nm thick appeared to be appropriate for measuring the distribution of diffusible elements and water in different compartments of the cells. The lateral analytical resolution was less than 50 nm, depending on ice crystal damage and section thickness. The detection limit was in the range of 10 mmol/kg dry weight for all elements with an atomic number higher than 12; for sodium and magnesium the detection limits were about 30 and 20 mmol/kg dry weight, respectively. The darkfield intensity in STEM is linearly related to the mass thickness. Thus, it becomes possible to measure the water content in intracellular compartments by using the darkfield signal of the dry mass remaining after freeze-drying. By combining the X-ray microanalytical data expressed as dry weight concentrations with the measurements of the water content, physiologically more meaningful wet weight concentrations of elements were determined. In comparison to freeze-dried cryosections frozen-hydrated sections showed poor contrast and were very sensitive against radiation damage, resulting in mass loss. The high electron exposure required for recording X-ray spectra made reproducible microanalysis of ultrathin (about 100-nm thick) frozen-hydrated sections impossible. The mass loss could be reduced by carbon coating; however, the improvement achieved thus far is still insufficient for applications in X-ray microanalysis. Therefore, at present only bulk specimens or at least 1-micron thick sections can be used for X-ray microanalysis of frozen-hydrated biological samples

  20. Accurate Cross Sections for Microanalysis

    OpenAIRE

    Rez, Peter

    2002-01-01

    To calculate the intensity of x-ray emission in electron beam microanalysis requires a knowledge of the energy distribution of the electrons in the solid, the energy variation of the ionization cross section of the relevant subshell, the fraction of ionizations events producing x rays of interest and the absorption coefficient of the x rays on the path to the detector. The theoretical predictions and experimental data available for ionization cross sections are limited mainly to K shells of a...

  1. Developments in quantitative electron probe microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tixier, R.

    1977-01-01

    A study of the range of validity of the formulae for corrections used with massive specimen analysis is made. The method used is original; we have shown that it was possible to use a property of invariability of corrected intensity ratios for standards. This invariance property provides a test for the self consistency of the theory. The theoretical and experimental conditions required for quantitative electron probe microanalysis of thin transmission electron microscope specimens are examined. The correction formulae for atomic number, absorption and fluorescence effects are calculated. Several examples of experimental results are given, relative to the quantitative analysis of intermetallic precipitates and carbides in steels. Advances in applications of electron probe instruments related to the use of computer and the present development of fully automated instruments are reviewed. The necessary statistics for measurements of X ray count data are studied. Estimation procedure and tests are developed. These methods are used to perform a statistical check of electron probe microanalysis measurements and to reject rogue values. An estimator of the confidence interval of the apparent concentration is derived. Formulae were also obtained to optimize the counting time in order to obtain the best precision in a minimum amount of time [fr

  2. Microanalysis in Music Therapy: Introduction and Theoretical basis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wosch, Thomas; Wigram, Tony

    2007-01-01

    In the context of music therapy, microanalysis is the detailed analysis of that short period of time during a music therapy session during which some kind of significant change takes place. These moments are crucial to the therapeutic process, and there is increasing interest amongst music therap...... provides a wealth of important theoretical and practical information for music therapy clinicians, educators and students.......In the context of music therapy, microanalysis is the detailed analysis of that short period of time during a music therapy session during which some kind of significant change takes place. These moments are crucial to the therapeutic process, and there is increasing interest amongst music...... therapists in understanding how they come about and whether there are ways of initiating them. The contributors to this groundbreaking book look at methods of micro process analyses used in a variety of music therapy contexts, both clinical and research-based. They outline their methods, which include using...

  3. How does microanalysis of mother-infant communication inform maternal sensitivity and infant attachment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beebe, Beatrice; Steele, Miriam

    2013-01-01

    Microanalysis research on 4-month infant-mother face-to-face communication operates like a "social microscope" and identifies aspects of maternal sensitivity and the origins of attachment with a more detailed lens. We hope to enhance a dialogue between these two paradigms, microanalysis of mother-infant communication and maternal sensitivity and emerging working models of attachment. The prediction of infant attachment from microanalytic approaches and their contribution to concepts of maternal sensitivity are described. We summarize aspects of one microanalytic study by Beebe and colleagues published in 2010 that documents new communication patterns between mothers and infants at 4 months that predict future disorganized (vs. secure) attachment. The microanalysis approach opens up a new window on the details of the micro-processes of face-to-face communication. It provides a new, rich set of behaviors with which to extend our understanding of the origins of infant attachment and of maternal sensitivity.

  4. Determination of UTW K/sub XSi/ factors for low atomic number microanalysis: A systematic approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krishnan, K.M.; Echer, C.J.

    1987-07-01

    A systematic measurement of experimental K/sub XSi/ factors, with particular emphasis on low Z microanalysis (6 ≤ 7 ≤ 32), at 200 kV for a KEVEX UTW Si(Li) detector fitted to a JEOL 200CX analytical microscope, using a variety of high purity standards has been carried out. Under normal operating conditions of a LaB 6 filament, it is shown that absorption in the specimen is very critical, particularly for heavy element matrices, and sample thicknesses need to be measured for accurate microanalysis of low Z elements (C,N,O). Using these measured K/sub XSi/ factors, quantitative UTW-EDX microanalysis has been routinely extended to carbon. 21 refs

  5. Quantitative energy-dispersive electron probe X-ray microanalysis ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Abstract. An energy-dispersive electron probe X-ray microanalysis (ED-EPMA) technique us- ing an energy-dispersive X-ray detector with an ultra-thin window, designated as low-Z particle. EPMA, has been developed. The low-Z particle EPMA allows the quantitative determination of concentrations of low-Z elements such ...

  6. Energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis of elements' content and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study was designed to investigate elements' content and anti-microbial effects of two Malaysian plants, Pereskia bleo and Goniothalamus umbrosus. Elements' analysis was carried out using Energy Dispersive X-ray Microanalysis combined with Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope (EDX, VPSEM).

  7. Investigation of enviromental objects by microanalysis methods

    OpenAIRE

    Osīte, Agnese

    2008-01-01

    Investigation of environmental objects by microanalysis methods AEROSOL PARTICLES, SOOT, METALLIC ELEMENTS, WATER, PINE NEEDLES, STRIPPING POTENTIOMETRY, INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA MASSPECTROMETRY, ENERGY DISPERIVE X-RAY FLUORESCENCE Performing the fractionated sampling by both commercially available and laboratory constructed devices, mass concentrations of four fractions of solid particles PM10, PM2.5-10, PM2.5 and PM1 were determined. Mass concentrations of soot were ...

  8. How Does Microanalysis of Mother-Infant Communication Inform Maternal Sensitivity and Infant Attachment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beebe, Beatrice; Steele, Miriam

    2013-01-01

    Microanalysis research on 4-month mother-infant face-to-face communication operates like a “social microscope” and identifies aspects of maternal sensitivity and the origins of attachment with a more detailed lens. We hope to enhance a dialogue between these two paradigms, microanalysis of mother-infant communication and maternal sensitivity and emerging working models of attachment. The prediction of infant attachment from microanalytic approaches and their contribution to concepts of maternal sensitivity are described. We summarize aspects of one microanalytic study by Beebe and colleagues (2010) that documents new communication patterns between mothers and infants at 4 months that predict future disorganized (vs. secure) attachment. The microanalysis approach opens up a new window on the details of the micro-processes of face-to-face communication. It provides a new, rich set of behaviors with which to extend our understanding of the origins of infant attachment and of maternal sensitivity. PMID:24299136

  9. Error analysis of a public domain pronunciation dictionary

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Martirosian, O

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available ], a popular public domain resource that is widely used in English speech processing systems. The techniques being investigated are applied to the lexicon and the results of each step are illustrated using sample entries. The authors found that as many...

  10. Trace microanalysis of uranium in Indian tea samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bansal, V.; Prasad, Rajendra

    1991-01-01

    The microscopic detection of radiation damage in plastic detectors has been used for the microanalysis of uranium contents in tea samples, commercially available in the market. The uranium concentration has been found to vary from 0.007±0.0001 to 0.12±0.001 ppm in various tea leaves. (author). 6 refs., 1 tab

  11. Towards development of a high quality public domain global roads database

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew Nelson

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available There is clear demand for a global spatial public domain roads data set with improved geographic and temporal coverage, consistent coding of road types, and clear documentation of sources. The currently best available global public domain product covers only one-quarter to one-third of the existing road networks, and this varies considerably by region. Applications for such a data set span multiple sectors and would be particularly valuable for the international economic development, disaster relief, and biodiversity conservation communities, not to mention national and regional agencies and organizations around the world. The building blocks for such a global product are available for many countries and regions, yet thus far there has been neither strategy nor leadership for developing it. This paper evaluates the best available public domain and commercial data sets, assesses the gaps in global coverage, and proposes a number of strategies for filling them. It also identifies stakeholder organizations with an interest in such a data set that might either provide leadership or funding for its development. It closes with a proposed set of actions to begin the process.

  12. Networking strategies of the microscopy community for improved utilization of advanced instruments: (1) The Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ringer, S.P.; Apperley, M.H.

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes the strategy underpinning the formation and operation of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF). AMMRF is a formal collaboration that links eight Australian Universities together to create a user-focused national capability in microscopy and microanalysis. The AMMRF flagship capabilities include: Cameca IMS-1280 and NanoSIMS-50 ion microprobes (University of Western Australia); High-throughput, high-resolution cryoTEM (University of Queensland); Atom Probe Microscopy (University of Sydney); High-resolution Focussed Ion-Beam and SEM (Universities of Adelaide and NSW); High-resolution SEM microanalysis facility (University of New South Wales); and PHI TRIFT V nanoToF ToF-SIMS (University of South Australia). Secondly, a network of peer support and expert training has been established amongst facility professional support staff. The governance and funding of the organisation are described and the advantages and achievements of a nationally coordinated facility for microscopy and microanalysis are set out. Selected data are presented that benchmark the performance of the facility, describe the economic impact and demonstrate the impact on the quality of research outcomes as a result of operating national collaborative research infrastructure for microscopy and microanalysis

  13. Application of X-ray microanalysis to the study of drug uptake in cell culture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reasor, M.J.; Lee, P.; Kirk, R.G.

    1990-01-01

    X-ray microanalysis has been used previously to study the accumulation of iodine in alveolar macrophages of rats treated with the iodinated drug, amiodarone. Due to metabolism of the drug in vivo, primarily to desethylamiodarone, it was not possible to identify the source of the iodine signal. In the present study we have utilized primary cell cultures of alveolar macrophages to study the intracellular accumulation of each of these drug species in vitro. Neither drug is metabolized by these cells in culture, permitting characterization of the accumulation of each independent of the other. Cells were incubated with equimolar concentrations of either amiodarone or desethylamiodarone for 42 hr, and X-ray microanalysis of freeze-dried cryosections of cells was used to quantify accumulation by monitoring the iodine signal associated with each drug. For both drug exposures, the highest iodine content was present in amorphous bodies and dense granules, consistent with the pattern following in vivo exposure. Higher levels of desethylamiodarone, compared to amiodarone, were measured in all compartments of the cells. The results of the in vitro investigation further demonstrate the utility of X-ray microanalysis in the study of the cellular response to amiodarone and desethylamiodarone

  14. Microanalysis of clay-based pigments in paintings by XRD techniques

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Hradil, David; Bezdička, Petr; Hradilová, J.; Vašutová, V.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 125, MAR (2016), s. 10-20 ISSN 0026-265X R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA14-22984S Institutional support: RVO:61388980 Keywords : Clay minerals * Earth pigments * Clay-binder interaction * Powder X-ray micro-diffraction * Quantitative phase microanalysis Subject RIV: DB - Geology ; Mineralogy Impact factor: 3.034, year: 2016

  15. Quantitative microanalysis with a nuclear microprobe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Themner, Klas.

    1989-01-01

    The analytical techniques of paticle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and Rutherford backscattering (RBS), together with the nuclear microprobe, form a very powerful tool for performing quantitative microanalysis of biological material. Calibration of the X-ray detection system in the microprobe set-up has been performed and the accuracy of the quantitative procedure using RBS for determination of the areal mass density was investigated. The accuracy of the analysis can be affected by alteration in the elemental concentrations during irradiation due to the radiation damage induced by the very intense beams of ionixing radiation. Loss of matrix elements from freeze-dried tissue sections and polymer films have been studied during proton and photon irradiation and the effect on the accuracy discussed. Scanning the beam over an area of the target, with e.g. 32x32 pixels, in order to produce en elemental map, yields a lot of information and, to be able to make an accurate quantitatification, a fast algorithm using descriptions of the different spectral contributions is of need. The production of continuum X-rays by 2.55 MeV protons has been studied and absolute cross-sections for the bremsstrahlung production from thin carbon and some polymer films determined. For the determination of the bremsstrahlung background knowledge of the amounts of the matrix elements is important and a fast program for the evaluation of spectra of proton back- and forward scattering from biological samples has been developed. Quantitative microanalysis with the nuclear microprobe has been performed on brain tissue from rats subjected to different pathological conditions. Increase in calcium levels and decrease in potssium levels for animals subjected to crebral ischaemia and for animals suffering from epileptic seizures were observed coincidentally with or, in some cases before, visible signs of cell necrosis. (author)

  16. X-ray microanalysis of psoriatic skin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grundin, T.G.; Roomans, G.M.; Forslind, B.; Lindberg, M.; Werner, Y.

    1985-01-01

    Electron probe x-ray microanalysis was used to study elemental distribution in uninvolved and involved skin from patients with psoriasis, and in skin from healthy controls. Significant differences were found between the involved and uninvolved psoriatic skin. In the involved skin, the concentrations of Mg, P, and K were higher in the stratum germinativum, spinosum, and granulosum, compared to the corresponding strata in uninvolved skin. Neither involved nor uninvolved psoriatic stratum germinativum differed markedly from nonpsoriatic control stratum germinativum. In uninvolved psoriatic skin only a lower level of K was noted. In comparison to uninvolved psoriatic skin, the elemental composition of the various strata of involved psoriatic skin shows a pattern typical for highly proliferative, nonneoplastic cells

  17. Calcium transport mechanism in molting crayfish revealed by microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mizuhira, V.; Ueno, M.

    1983-01-01

    Crayfish provide a good model in which to study the transport mechanism of Ca ions. During the molting stage, decalcified Ca ions are transferred into the blood and accumulate in the gastrolith epithelium, after which a gastrolith is formed on the surface of the epithelium. The gastrolith is dissolved in the stomach after molting, and the Ca is reabsorbed and redistributed throughout the newly formed exoskeleton. We studied the mechanism of Ca transport by cytochemical precipitation of Ca ions and by electron microanalysis, including X-ray microanalysis (EDX) and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), with a computer. In EDX analysis, the fine precipitates of K-antimonate in the gastrolith mitochondria clearly defined Ca with antimony; we also observed a large amount of Ca-oxalate in the mitochondria, and Ca-K X-ray pulses were clearly defined. Ca-K X-rays were also detected from fresh freeze-substituted mitochondria. Finally, we succeeded in taking a Ca-L EELS image from the mitochondria of fresh freeze-substituted thin sections. Only a very small amount of Ca was detected from the cell membrane and other organelles. Ca-adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) and Mg-ATPase activity was also very clearly demonstrated in the mitochondria. These enzymes may play an important role in Ca metabolism

  18. The method of quantitative X-ray microanalysis of fine inclusions in copper

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morawiec, H.; Kubica, L.; Piszczek, J.

    1978-01-01

    The method of correction for the matrix effect in quantitative x-ray microanalysis was presented. The application of the method was discussed on the example of quantitative analysis of fine inclusions of Cu 2 S and Cu 2 O in copper. (author)

  19. Contribution to the application of nuclear microprobe in geochemistry. Carbon and nitrogen microanalysis in glasses and minerals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mosbah, M.

    1988-01-01

    The morphological complexity of geological materials implies the use of microanalysis techniques utilization. Nuclear microprobe allows selective and no destructive light elements determination, through nuclear reactions. Nuclear microanalysis has been used to characterize carbon and nitrogen in volatile phase dissolved in magmatic samples. The application of some microanalysis techniques in geochemistry are discussed, nuclear microprobe theory and techniques are developed. Minerals, glasses and glassy inclusions are described, and more particularly, the interest of these investigations. Optimal conditions of carbon and nitrogen analysis ( 12 C(d.p) 13 C and 14 N(d,p) 15 N reaction respectively), as deuteron energy and observation angle are studied. A methodology has been established for this purpose. Several results are exposed: Punctual analysis, carbon concentration profile in depth surface scanning, surficial mapping in glassy inclusions. The carbon content interpretation in glassy inclusions measured conveniently for the first time agrees with data obtained through other techniques. In conclusion, degazing schedule improvements require more analysis. Perspective research axis are evocated [fr

  20. A Public Domain Software Library for Reading and Language Arts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balajthy, Ernest

    A three-year project carried out by the Microcomputers and Reading Committee of the New Jersey Reading Association involved the collection, improvement, and distribution of free microcomputer software (public domain programs) designed to deal with reading and writing skills. Acknowledging that this free software is not without limitations (poor…

  1. 37 CFR 201.26 - Recordation of documents pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer software. 201.26 Section 201.26... GENERAL PROVISIONS § 201.26 Recordation of documents pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer software. (a) General. This section prescribes the procedures for submission of...

  2. Preparation of biological samples for transmission X-ray microanalysis: a review of alternative procedures to the use of sectioned material

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sigee, D.C.

    1988-01-01

    Although transmission X-ray microanalysis of biological material has traditionally been carried out mainly on sectioned preparations, a number of alternative procedures exist. These are considered under three major headings - whole cell preparations, analysis of cell homogenates and biological fluids, and applications of the technique to microsamples of purified biochemicals. These three aspects provide a continuous range of investigative level - from the cellular to the molecular. The use of X-ray microanalysis with whole cell preparations is considered in reference to eukaryote (animal) cells and prokaryotes - where it has particular potential in environmental studies on bacteria. In the case of cell homogenates and biological fluids, the technique has been used mainly with microdroplets of animal material. The use of X-ray microanalysis with purified biochemicals is considered in relation to both particulate and non-particulate samples. In the latter category, the application of this technique for analysis of thin films of metalloprotein is particularly emphasised. It is concluded that wider use could be made of the range of preparative techniques available - both within a particular investigation, and in diverse fields of study. Transmission X-ray microanalysis has implications for environmental, physiological and molecular biology as well as cell biology

  3. Elemental microanalysis of biological and medical specimens with a scanning proton microprobe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Legge, G.J.F.; Mazzolini, A.P.

    1979-01-01

    The scanning proton microprobe is shown to be a sensitive instrument for elemental microanalysis of cells and tissues in biological and medical specimens. The preparation of specimens and their behaviour under irradiation are crucial and the application of quantitative scanning analysis to the monitoring of such problems is illustrated

  4. Atom probe microanalysis: Principles and applications to materials problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, M.K.; Smith, G.D.W.

    1987-01-01

    A historical background and general introduction to field emission and field-ionization, field-ion microscopy, and the atom probe is given. Physical principles of field ion microscopy are explained, followed by interpretation of images. Types of atom probes are discussed, as well as the instrumentation used in atomic probe microanalysis. Methods of atom probe analysis and data representation are covered, along with factors affecting performance and statistical analysis of atom probe data. Finally, some case studies and special types of analyses are presented

  5. Nuclear microanalysis of oxide films on structural steel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Istomin, I.V.; Karabash, V.A.; Maisyukov, V.D.; Sosnin, A.N.; Shorin, V.S.

    1989-01-01

    Studies of the behavior of structural materials in nuclear power plants have indicated the important role of oxide films on metals, especially metals of the iron group. The films may be formed as a result of the corrosion of the metal in an aggressive coolant. At the same time, some oxide films have anticorrosive properties and can be produced specially by the introduction of inhibitor-passivators, e.g., molecular oxygen, into the aggressive medium. Experimental data on the film growth rate make it possible to determine the kinetics of the oxidation process, the nature of the diffusion of the main components through the film, and the role of the phase transitions (crystal-chemical transformations) and point defects during the migration of oxygen and metal ions through the oxide. In this study nuclear microanalysis is used to measure the parameters of oxide films formed on 10Cr2Mo and 1Cr18Ni10Ti steels in steam in the temperature range 320-620C. In this method the film parameters in the general analysis of the energy spectra of deuterons back-scattered from iron nuclei and protons in the case of the 16 O(d,p 1 ) 17 O nuclear reaction. With this approach and an initial deuteron energy E o = 0.9 MeV the range of the measurable thickness t of the films is 0.001-1.5 mg/cm 2 . The data obtained not only confirm the high sensitivity of the nuclear microanalysis method but also demonstrate that it can be used for nondestructive quality control of the surface

  6. Choice and preparation of standard samples for X-ray spectral microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gavrilenko, I.S.; Surzhko, V.F.

    1989-01-01

    Choice, preparation and certification of standard samples for X-ray spectral microanalysis are considered. Requirements for standard samples in terms of concentration and volume, porosity, corrosion, conductivity distribution are formulated. Stages of sample preparation process, including composition choice, heat treatment, section production, certification, are considered in detail. The choice of composition is based on studying phase equilibrium diagrams, subdivided into 6 types

  7. Multi-dimensional microanalysis of masklessly implanted atoms using focused heavy ion beam

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mokuno, Yoshiaki; Iiorino, Yuji; Chayahara, Akiyoshi; Kiuchi, Masato; Fujii, Kanenaga; Satou, Mamoru

    1992-01-01

    Multi-dimensional structure fabricated by maskless MeV gold implantation in silicon wafer was analyzed by 3 MeV carbon ion microprobe using a microbeam line developed at GIRIO. The minimum line width of the implanted region was estimated to be about 5 μm. The advantages of heavy ions for microanalysis were demonstrated. (author)

  8. X-ray microanalysis of black piedra.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Figueras, M J; Guarro, J

    1997-11-01

    The elements present in the fungal structures produced by Piedraia hortae in vivo and in vitro have been investigated using electron microscopy X-ray microanalysis. Phosphorus, sulphur and calcium were detected in the nodules which developed on hair and on colonies on culture. These elements belong to the extracellular material that compacts the pseudoparenchymatous organization of the fungus. They may be present due to the capacity of melanin-like pigments to sequester ions and/or they may form part of the sulphates and phosphates of the polyanionic mucopolysaccharides that constitute the extracellular material. Environmental contaminants such as aluminium, silicon and iron were detected exclusively on the surface of the nodule. They were deposited or linked to the residual molecules produced during the breakdown of the cuticular keratin. The advantages of these techniques for elucidating the chemical nature of fungal structures are discussed.

  9. Standardless quantification by parameter optimization in electron probe microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Limandri, Silvina P.; Bonetto, Rita D.; Josa, Víctor Galván; Carreras, Alejo C.; Trincavelli, Jorge C.

    2012-01-01

    A method for standardless quantification by parameter optimization in electron probe microanalysis is presented. The method consists in minimizing the quadratic differences between an experimental spectrum and an analytical function proposed to describe it, by optimizing the parameters involved in the analytical prediction. This algorithm, implemented in the software POEMA (Parameter Optimization in Electron Probe Microanalysis), allows the determination of the elemental concentrations, along with their uncertainties. The method was tested in a set of 159 elemental constituents corresponding to 36 spectra of standards (mostly minerals) that include trace elements. The results were compared with those obtained with the commercial software GENESIS Spectrum® for standardless quantification. The quantifications performed with the method proposed here are better in the 74% of the cases studied. In addition, the performance of the method proposed is compared with the first principles standardless analysis procedure DTSA for a different data set, which excludes trace elements. The relative deviations with respect to the nominal concentrations are lower than 0.04, 0.08 and 0.35 for the 66% of the cases for POEMA, GENESIS and DTSA, respectively. - Highlights: ► A method for standardless quantification in EPMA is presented. ► It gives better results than the commercial software GENESIS Spectrum. ► It gives better results than the software DTSA. ► It allows the determination of the conductive coating thickness. ► It gives an estimation for the concentration uncertainties.

  10. Accumulation of Domain-Specific Physical Inactivity and Presence of Hypertension in Brazilian Public Healthcare System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turi, Bruna Camilo; Codogno, Jamile S; Fernandes, Romulo A; Sui, Xuemei; Lavie, Carl J; Blair, Steven N; Monteiro, Henrique Luiz

    2015-11-01

    Hypertension is one of the most common noncommunicable diseases worldwide, and physical inactivity is a risk factor predisposing to its occurrence and complications. However, it is still unclear the association between physical inactivity domains and hypertension, especially in public healthcare systems. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the association between physical inactivity aggregation in different domains and prevalence of hypertension among users of Brazilian public health system. 963 participants composed the sample. Subjects were divided into quartiles groups according to 3 different domains of physical activity (occupational; physical exercises; and leisure-time and transportation). Hypertension was based on physician diagnosis. Physical inactivity in occupational domain was significantly associated with higher prevalence of hypertension (OR = 1.52 [1.05 to 2.21]). The same pattern occurred for physical inactivity in leisure-time (OR = 1.63 [1.11 to 2.39]) and aggregation of physical inactivity in 3 domains (OR = 2.46 [1.14 to 5.32]). However, the multivariate-adjusted model showed significant association between hypertension and physical inactivity in 3 domains (OR = 2.57 [1.14 to 5.79]). The results suggest an unequal prevalence of hypertension according to physical inactivity across different domains and increasing the promotion of physical activity in the healthcare system is needed.

  11. Prepare of microanalysis reference material for nuclear analysis of Chinese ancient ceramic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feng Songlin; Xu Qing; Feng Xiangqian; Fan Dongyu; Lei Yong; Cheng Lin

    2005-01-01

    Some analytic technique can play important role for identifying the provenance and age of ceramic ware. However, it is usually not allowed to destructive analyze for a valuable intact porcelain ware. These analysis methods such as X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), Proton Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE), and Synchrotron Radiation X-ray Fluorescence (SRXRF) are suitable for nondestructive analysis of ancient ceramic wares. In order to compare the analytic data obtained by different measuring method and identify the provenance and age accurately, the effective way is to calibrate elemental concentration in body and glaze of ceramic ware. Microanalysis reference material (MRM) of ancient ceramic has to be prepared for achieving quantitative analysis. A solid powder 99% in size of 500 mesh for microanalysis reference material (MRM) has being prepared in institute of high energy physics. The minimum analytic masses of 1 mg were determined by Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) for these elements (Sc, Cr, Co, Rb: Cs, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Tb, Yb, Lu; Hf, Ta, Th, U), and by SRXRF for elements (K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Zn; Rb, Sr).

  12. Optimization of an analytical electron microscope for x-ray microanalysis: instrumental problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bentley, J.; Zaluzec, N.J.; Kenik, E.A.; Carpenter, R.W.

    1979-01-01

    The addition of an energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer to a modern transmission or scanning transmission electron microscope can provide a powerful tool in the characterization of the materials. Unfortunately this seemingly simple modification can lead to a host of instrumental problems with respect to the accuracy, validity, and quality of the recorded information. This tutorial reviews the complications which can arise in performing x-ray microanalysis in current analytical electron microscopes. The first topic treated in depth is fluorescence by uncollimated radiation. The source, distinguishing characteristics, effects on quantitative analysis and schemes for elimination or minimization as applicable to TEM/STEMs, D-STEMs and HVEMs are discussed. The local specimen environment is considered in the second major section where again detrimental effects on quantitative analysis and remedial procedures, particularly the use of low-background specimen holers, are highlighted. Finally, the detrimental aspects of specimen contamination, insofar as they affect x-ray microanalysis, are discussed. It is concluded that if the described preventive measures are implemented, reliable quantitative analysis is possible

  13. A versatile atomic number correction for electron-probe microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Love, G.; Cox, M.G.; Scott, V.D.

    1978-01-01

    A new atomic number correction is proposed for quantitative electron-probe microanalysis. Analytical expressions for the stopping power S and back-scatter R factors are derived which take into account atomic number of the target, incident electron energy and overvoltage; the latter expression is established using Monte Carlo calculations. The correct procedures for evaluating S and R for multi-element specimens are described. The new method, which overcomes some limitations inherent in earlier atomic number corrections, may readily be used where specimens are inclined to the electron beam. (author)

  14. Microanalysis of clay-based pigments in painted artworks by the means of Raman spectroscopy

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Košařová, V.; Hradil, David; Němec, I.; Bezdička, Petr; Kanický, V.

    2013-01-01

    Roč. 44, č. 11 (2013), s. 1570-1577 ISSN 0377-0486 Institutional support: RVO:61388980 Keywords : Raman spectroscopy * clay-based pigments * clay minerals * iron oxides * microanalysis of paintings Subject RIV: CB - Analytical Chemistry, Separation Impact factor: 2.519, year: 2013

  15. Language Choice and Use of Malaysian Public University Lecturers in the Education Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tam Lee Mei

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available It is a norm for people from a multilingual and multicultural country such as Malaysia to speak at least two or more languages. Thus, the Malaysian multilingual situation resulted in speakers having to make decisions about which languages are to be used for different purposes in different domains. In order to explain the phenomenon of language choice, Fishman domain analysis (1964 was adapted into this research. According to Fishman’s domain analysis, language choice and use may depend on the speaker’s experiences situated in different settings, different language repertoires that are available to the speaker, different interlocutors and different topics. Such situations inevitably cause barriers and difficulties to those professionals who work in the education domain. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to explore the language choice and use of Malaysian public university lecturers in the education domain and to investigate whether any significant differences exist between ethnicity and field of study with the English language choice and use of the lecturers. 200 survey questionnaires were distributed to examine the details of the lecturers’ language choice and use. The findings of this research reveal that all of the respondents generally preferred to choose and use English language in both formal and informal education domain. Besides, all of the respondents claimed that they chose and used more than one language. It is also found that ethnicity and field of study of the respondents influence the language choice and use in the education domain. In addition, this research suggested that the language and educational policy makers have been largely successful in raising the role and status of the English language as the medium of instruction in tertiary education while maintaining the Malay language as having an important role in the communicative acts, thus characterizing the lecturers’ language choice and use. Keywords: Language

  16. Standardless quantification by parameter optimization in electron probe microanalysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Limandri, Silvina P. [Instituto de Fisica Enrique Gaviola (IFEG), CONICET (Argentina); Facultad de Matematica, Astronomia y Fisica, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Medina Allende s/n, (5016) Cordoba (Argentina); Bonetto, Rita D. [Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo en Ciencias Aplicadas Dr. Jorge Ronco (CINDECA), CONICET, 47 Street 257, (1900) La Plata (Argentina); Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 1 and 47 Streets (1900) La Plata (Argentina); Josa, Victor Galvan; Carreras, Alejo C. [Instituto de Fisica Enrique Gaviola (IFEG), CONICET (Argentina); Facultad de Matematica, Astronomia y Fisica, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Medina Allende s/n, (5016) Cordoba (Argentina); Trincavelli, Jorge C., E-mail: trincavelli@famaf.unc.edu.ar [Instituto de Fisica Enrique Gaviola (IFEG), CONICET (Argentina); Facultad de Matematica, Astronomia y Fisica, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Medina Allende s/n, (5016) Cordoba (Argentina)

    2012-11-15

    A method for standardless quantification by parameter optimization in electron probe microanalysis is presented. The method consists in minimizing the quadratic differences between an experimental spectrum and an analytical function proposed to describe it, by optimizing the parameters involved in the analytical prediction. This algorithm, implemented in the software POEMA (Parameter Optimization in Electron Probe Microanalysis), allows the determination of the elemental concentrations, along with their uncertainties. The method was tested in a set of 159 elemental constituents corresponding to 36 spectra of standards (mostly minerals) that include trace elements. The results were compared with those obtained with the commercial software GENESIS Spectrum Registered-Sign for standardless quantification. The quantifications performed with the method proposed here are better in the 74% of the cases studied. In addition, the performance of the method proposed is compared with the first principles standardless analysis procedure DTSA for a different data set, which excludes trace elements. The relative deviations with respect to the nominal concentrations are lower than 0.04, 0.08 and 0.35 for the 66% of the cases for POEMA, GENESIS and DTSA, respectively. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer A method for standardless quantification in EPMA is presented. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer It gives better results than the commercial software GENESIS Spectrum. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer It gives better results than the software DTSA. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer It allows the determination of the conductive coating thickness. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer It gives an estimation for the concentration uncertainties.

  17. Blockchain-based Public Key Infrastructure for Inter-Domain Secure Routing

    OpenAIRE

    de la Rocha Gómez-Arevalillo , Alfonso; Papadimitratos , Panos

    2017-01-01

    International audience; A gamut of secure inter-domain routing protocols has been proposed in the literature. They use traditional PGP-like and centralized Public Key Infrastructures for trust management. In this paper, we propose our alternative approach for managing security associations, Secure Blockchain Trust Management (SBTM), a trust management system that instantiates a blockchain-based PKI for the operation of securerouting protocols. A main motivation for SBTM is to facilitate gradu...

  18. Remotely Piloted Aircraft and War in the Public Relations Domain

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-10-01

    the terms as they appear in quoted texts. 2. Peter Kreeft, Socratic Logic: A Logic Text Using Socratic Method , Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian...Ronald Brooks.22 This method of refuting an argu- ment reflects option C (above), demonstrating that the conclusion does not follow from the premises...and War in the Public Relations Domain Feature tional Security Assistance Force (ISAF) met to discuss methods of elim- inating civilian casualties in

  19. [Progress in the application of laser ablation ICP-MS to surface microanalysis in material science].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yong; Jia, Yun-hai; Chen, Ji-wen; Shen, Xue-jing; Liu, Ying; Zhao, Leiz; Li, Dong-ling; Hang, Peng-cheng; Zhao, Zhen; Fan, Wan-lun; Wang, Hai-zhou

    2014-08-01

    In the present paper, apparatus and theory of surface analysis is introduced, and the progress in the application of laser ablation ICP-MS to microanalysis in ferrous, nonferrous and semiconductor field is reviewed in detail. Compared with traditional surface analytical tools, such as SEM/EDS (scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectrum), EPMA (electron probe microanalysis analysis), AES (auger energy spectrum), etc. the advantage is little or no sample preparation, adjustable spatial resolution according to analytical demand, multi-element analysis and high sensitivity. It is now a powerful complementary method to traditional surface analytical tool. With the development of LA-ICP-MS technology maturing, more and more analytical workers will use this powerful tool in the future, and LA-ICP-MS will be a super star in elemental analysis field just like LIBS (Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy).

  20. Transmission electron microscopy physics of image formation and microanalysis

    CERN Document Server

    Reimer, Ludwig

    1993-01-01

    "Transmission Electron Microscopy" presents the theory of image and contrastformation, and the analytical modes in transmission electron microscopy Theprinciples of particle and wave optics of electrons are described Electron-specimen interactions are discussed for evaluating the theory of scattering and phase contrast Also analysed are the kinetical and dynamical theories of electron diffraction and their applications for crystal-structure determination and imaging of lattices and their defects X-ray microanalysis and electron energy-loss spectroscopy are treated as analytical methods The third edition includes a brief discussionof Schottky emission guns, some clarification of minor details, and references to the recent literature

  1. Practical applications of energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis in diagnostic oral pathology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daley, T.D.; Gibson, D.

    1990-01-01

    Energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis is a powerful tool that can reveal the presence and relative quantities of elements in minute particles in biologic materials. Although this technique has been used in some aspects of dental research, it has rarely been applied to diagnostic oral pathology. The purpose of this paper is to inform practicing dentists and oral specialists about the diagnostic potential of this procedure by presenting three case reports. The first case involved the identification of flakes of a metallic material claimed by a 14-year-old girl to appear periodically between her mandibular molars. In the second case, a periodontist was spared a lawsuit when a freely mobile mass in the antrum of his patient was found to be a calcium-phosphorus compound not related to the periodontal packing that had been used. The third case involved the differential diagnosis of amalgam tattoo and graphite tattoo in a pigmented lesion of the hard palate mucosa. The results of the analyses were significant and indicate a role for this technique in the assessment of selected cases. Potential for wider use of energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis in diagnostic oral pathology exists as research progresses

  2. Microanalysis of oligosaccharide HS203 in beagle dog plasma by postcolumn fluorescence derivatization method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Shumeng; Zhao, Xia; Li, Guangsheng; Yu, Guangli; Xing, Xiaoxu; Zeng, Yangyang; Wu, Jian; Wang, Jianing

    2012-06-20

    A rapid and sensitive postcolumn fluorescence derivatization method was developed for microanalysis of antidiabetic oligosaccharide HS203 in beagle dog plasma. After plasma protein was removed by a simple and fast ultrafiltration method, chromatographic separation was performed on an Asahipak GS-320 HQ column with a mobile phase of 50 mmol/L phosphate buffer (pH 6.7) and acetonitrile (83/17, v/v). The column effluent was monitored by fluorescence detection at 249 nm (excitation) and 435 nm (emission) using guanidine hydrochloride as a postcolumn derivatizing reagent. A satisfactory resolution of the analyte was achieved and the limit of detection was found to be 4 ng (more sensitive than silver staining of HS203 in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis). The method described above was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of HS203 and to monitor blood glucose level simultaneously in beagle dog. It is also possible to be applied for microanalysis of other oligosaccharides in biological samples. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. A Fuel Microanalysis for a Deep Burn-High Temperature Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Young Min; Jo, Chang Keun; Jun, Ji Su; Cho, Moon Sung

    2010-08-01

    The microanalysis for a deep burn-high temperature reactor (DB-HTR) covers the gas pressure buildup in a coated fuel particle (CFP), the thermo-mechanical behavior of a CFP, the failure probabilities of CFPs, the thermal analysis for a fuel element and a CFP, and the fission product transport into a coolant. The fuel performance analysis code of KAERI, COPA, is used in the microanalysis. The considered fuel materials are 0.2% UO 2 + 99.8% (5% NpO 2 + 95% PuO 1.8 ) mixed with 0.6 moles of silicon carbide (SiC) per mole of heavy metal and 30% UO 2 + 70% (5% NpO 2 + 95% PuO 1.8 ) mixed with 0.6 moles SiC per mole of heavy metal. Two thermal powers, 600 and 450 MW th , are taken into account. It was assumed that the DB-HTR was operated at constant temperature and power for normal operation and then was subjected to a low pressure conduction cooling (LPCC) accident for 250 hours. All the fuels of the DB-HTRs had good mechanical and thermal integrity during normal operation. But in the LPCC accident, whole particle failure occurred in the 600 MW DB-HTRs and the failure fractions in the 450 MW DB-HTRs are below 0.03. In order to secure the integrity of CFPs during the LPCC accident, it is necessary to reduce the excessive temperatures and the gas pressure in a CFP

  4. The MicroAnalysis Toolkit: X-ray Fluorescence Image Processing Software

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Webb, S. M.

    2011-01-01

    The MicroAnalysis Toolkit is an analysis suite designed for the processing of x-ray fluorescence microprobe data. The program contains a wide variety of analysis tools, including image maps, correlation plots, simple image math, image filtering, multiple energy image fitting, semi-quantitative elemental analysis, x-ray fluorescence spectrum analysis, principle component analysis, and tomographic reconstructions. To be as widely useful as possible, data formats from many synchrotron sources can be read by the program with more formats available by request. An overview of the most common features will be presented.

  5. Correlated microradiography, X-ray microbeam diffraction and electron probe microanalysis of calcifications in an odontoma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aoba, T.; Yoshioka, C.; Yagi, T.

    1980-01-01

    Using microradiography, X-ray microbeam diffraction and electron probe microanalysis, a correlated morphologic and crystallographic study was performed on dysplastic enamel in a compound odontoma. The tumor was found in the lateral incisor-canine region of the left mandible of a 36-year-old woman. A conspicuous feature was the presence of hypomineralized areas, which were situated in the proximity of enamel surface and distinctly demarcated from the adjacent enamel. X-ray microbeam diffraction and electron microanalysis showed that these lesions have a lower crystallinity and a higher concentration of magnesium as compared with the adjacent enamel. In addition, the present study revealed the presence of two other types of calcifications: 1) calcified structures within the fissure or on the enamel surface, which include lacunae of varying size and which resemble a form of coronal cementum, and 2) spherical calcifications which may be an epithelial product. (author)

  6. Electronprobe X-ray microanalysis of biological specimens improvement of a number of quantification procedures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boekestein, A.

    1984-01-01

    In this thesis an investigation is described to establish which quantification procedures can be used in the X-ray microanalysis of biological specimens. Two classes of specimens have been distinguished from each other, i.e. thick specimens (opaque to the beam electrons) and thin specimens (transparent to the beam electrons). (Auth.)

  7. X-ray microanalysis in cryosections of natively frozen Paramecium caudatum with regard to ion distribution in ciliates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schmitz, M.; Meyer, R.; Zierold, K.

    1985-01-01

    Cells of Paramecium caudatum were shock-frozen without pretreatment for cryoultramicrotomy and freeze-dried for subsequent X-ray microanalysis. Na, Mg, P, S, Cl, K, and Ca were detected in different amounts in several subcellular compartments. In particular, calcium was localized below the cell surface (pellicle). Trichocysts were found to contain significant amounts of Na in their base but not in the tip. Na, Mg, P, S, Cl, K, Ca were found in electron dense deposits within the lumen of the contractile vacuole. A small K concentration was found in the cytoplasm and in the mitochondria. X-ray microanalysis of the element distribution in different subcellular compartments provides information for the understanding of cellular functions such as exocytosis, locomotion, and ion regulation

  8. Recent applications of X-ray microanalysis in muscle pathology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wroblewski, R.; Edstrom, L.

    1984-01-01

    X-ray microanalysis of single muscle fibres visualized in the scanning- and scanning-transmission mode of electron microscopy has been applied to human muscle biopsies to quantify changes of intracellular elements in different muscle disorders. To detect elements representing diffusible ions, cryofixation and cryosectioning was performed and analyses were conducted on freeze-dried cryosections 6μm thick. Changes in the concentration of elements were found to differentiate certain muscular disorders. A large increase in sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl), and a decrease in potassium (K) was typical of myotubular myopathy, while a moderate increase in Na and Cl was found in central core disease and nemaline myopathy

  9. Suburban development – a search for public domains in Danish suburban neighbourhoods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Melgaard, Bente; Bech-Danielsen, Claus

    These years some of the post-war Danish suburbs are facing great challenges – social segregation, demographic changes and challenges in building technology. In particular, segregation prevents social life from unfolding across social, economic and cultural borders. Therefore, in this paper......, potentials for bridge-building across the enclaves of the suburb are looked for through a combined architectural-anthropological mapping of public spaces in a specific suburb in Denmark, the analyses being carried out in the light of Hajer & Reijndorp’s definition of public domains and the term exchange...

  10. Tomographic spectral imaging: microanalysis in 3D

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotula, P.G.; Keenan, M.R.; Michael, J.R.

    2003-01-01

    Full text: Spectral imaging, where a series of complete x-ray spectra are typically collected from a 2D area, holds great promise for comprehensive near-surface microanalysis. There are however numerous microanalysis problems where 3D chemical information is needed as well. In the SEM, some sort of sectioning (either mechanical or with a focused ion beam (FIB) tool) followed by x-ray mapping has, in the past, been utilized in an attempt to perform 3D microanalysis. Reliance on simple mapping has the potential to miss important chemical features as well as misidentify others. In this paper we will describe the acquisition of serial-section tomographic spectral images (TSI) with a dual-beam FIB/SEM equipped with an EDS system. We will also describe the application of a modified version of our multivariate statistical analysis algorithms to TSIs. Serial sectioning was performed with a FEI DB-235 FIB/SEM. Firstly, the specimen normal was tilted to the optic axis of the FIB column and a trench was milled into the surface of the specimen. A second trench was then milled perpendicular to the first to provide visibility of the entire analysis surface to the x-ray detector. In addition, several fiducial markers were milled into the surface to allow for alignment from slice to slice. The electron column is at an angle of 52 deg to the ion column so the electron beam can 'see' the analysis surface milled by the FIB with no additional specimen tilting or rotation. Likewise the x-ray detector is at a radial angle of 45 deg to the plane of the electron and ion columns (about the electron column) and a take-off-angle of 35 deg with respect to an untilted specimen so it can 'see' the analysis surface as well with no additional sample tilting or rotation. Spectral images were acquired from regions 40 μm wide and 20μm deep for each slice. Approximately 1μm/slice was milled and 10-12 total slices were cut. Spectral images were acquired with a Thermo NORAN Vantage (Digital imaging

  11. The Value of Privacy and Surveillance Drones in the Public Domain : Scrutinizing the Dutch Flexible Deployment of Mobile Cameras Act

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gerdo Kuiper; Quirine Eijkman

    2017-01-01

    The flexible deployment of drones in the public domain, is in this article assessed from a legal philosophical perspective. On the basis of theories of Dworkin and Moore the distinction between individual rights and collective security policy goals is discussed. Mobile cameras in the public domain

  12. Agents unleashed a public domain look at agent technology

    CERN Document Server

    Wayner, Peter

    1995-01-01

    Agents Unleashed: A Public Domain Look at Agent Technology covers details of building a secure agent realm. The book discusses the technology for creating seamlessly integrated networks that allow programs to move from machine to machine without leaving a trail of havoc; as well as the technical details of how an agent will move through the network, prove its identity, and execute its code without endangering the host. The text also describes the organization of the host's work processing an agent; error messages, bad agent expulsion, and errors in XLISP-agents; and the simulators of errors, f

  13. The International River Interface Cooperative: Public Domain Software for River Flow and Morphodynamics (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nelson, J. M.; Shimizu, Y.; McDonald, R.; Takebayashi, H.

    2009-12-01

    The International River Interface Cooperative is an informal organization made up of academic faculty and government scientists with the goal of developing, distributing and providing education for a public-domain software interface for modeling river flow and morphodynamics. Formed in late 2007, the group released the first version of this interface (iRIC) in late 2009. iRIC includes models for two and three-dimensional flow, sediment transport, bed evolution, groundwater-surface water interaction, topographic data processing, and habitat assessment, as well as comprehensive data and model output visualization, mapping, and editing tools. All the tools in iRIC are specifically designed for use in river reaches and utilize common river data sets. The models are couched within a single graphical user interface so that a broad spectrum of models are available to users without learning new pre- and post-processing tools. The first version of iRIC was developed by combining the USGS public-domain Multi-Dimensional Surface Water Modeling System (MD_SWMS), developed at the USGS Geomorphology and Sediment Transport Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, with the public-domain river modeling code NAYS developed by the Universities of Hokkaido and Kyoto, Mizuho Corporation, and the Foundation of the River Disaster Prevention Research Institute in Sapporo, Japan. Since this initial effort, other Universities and Agencies have joined the group, and the interface has been expanded to allow users to integrate their own modeling code using Executable Markup Language (XML), which provides easy access and expandability to the iRIC software interface. In this presentation, the current components of iRIC are described and results from several practical modeling applications are presented to illustrate the capabilities and flexibility of the software. In addition, some future extensions to iRIC are demonstrated, including software for Lagrangian particle tracking and the prediction of

  14. Utility of replica techniques for x-ray microanalysis of second phase particles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bentley, J.

    1984-01-01

    X-ray microanalysis of second phase particles in ion-milled or electropolished thin foils is often complicated by the presence of the matrix nearby. Extraction replica techniques provide a means to avoid many of the complications of thin-foil analyses. In this paper, three examples of the analysis of second phase particles are described and illustrate the improvement obtained by the use of extraction replicas for qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, and analysis of radioactive specimens

  15. Domains of State-Owned, Privately Held, and Publicly Traded Firms in International Competition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mascarenhas, Briance

    1989-01-01

    Hypotheses relating ownership to domain differences among state-owned, publicly traded, and privately held firms in international competition were examined in a controlled field study of the offshore drilling industry. Ownership explained selected differences in domestic market dominance, international presence, and customer orientation, even…

  16. Public-domain software for root image analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mirian Cristina Gomes Costa

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available In the search for high efficiency in root studies, computational systems have been developed to analyze digital images. ImageJ and Safira are public-domain systems that may be used for image analysis of washed roots. However, differences in root properties measured using ImageJ and Safira are supposed. This study compared values of root length and surface area obtained with public-domain systems with values obtained by a reference method. Root samples were collected in a banana plantation in an area of a shallower Typic Carbonatic Haplic Cambisol (CXk, and an area of a deeper Typic Haplic Ta Eutrophic Cambisol (CXve, at six depths in five replications. Root images were digitized and the systems ImageJ and Safira used to determine root length and surface area. The line-intersect method modified by Tennant was used as reference; values of root length and surface area measured with the different systems were analyzed by Pearson's correlation coefficient and compared by the confidence interval and t-test. Both systems ImageJ and Safira had positive correlation coefficients with the reference method for root length and surface area data in CXk and CXve. The correlation coefficient ranged from 0.54 to 0.80, with lowest value observed for ImageJ in the measurement of surface area of roots sampled in CXve. The IC (95 % revealed that root length measurements with Safira did not differ from that with the reference method in CXk (-77.3 to 244.0 mm. Regarding surface area measurements, Safira did not differ from the reference method for samples collected in CXk (-530.6 to 565.8 mm² as well as in CXve (-4231 to 612.1 mm². However, measurements with ImageJ were different from those obtained by the reference method, underestimating length and surface area in samples collected in CXk and CXve. Both ImageJ and Safira allow an identification of increases or decreases in root length and surface area. However, Safira results for root length and surface area are

  17. Results of chemical microanalysis of selected stone artefacts from the collection of the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Ježek, Martin; Płociński, T.

    2013-01-01

    Roč. 64, [1] (2013), s. 137-145 ISSN 0043-5082 Institutional support: RVO:67985912 Keywords : chemical microanalysis * SEM * whetstones * touchstones * precious metal Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology

  18. DATABASES AND THE SUI-GENERIS RIGHT – PROTECTION OUTSIDE THE ORIGINALITY. THE DISREGARD OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monica LUPAȘCU

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available This study focuses on databases as they are regulated by Directive no.96/9/EC regarding the protection of databases. There are also several references to Romanian Law no.8/1996 on copyright and neighbouring rights which implements the mentioned European Directive. The study analyses certain effects that the sui-generis protection has on public domain. The study tries to demonstrate that the reglementation specific to databases neglects the interests correlated with the public domain. The effect of such a regulation is the abusive creation of some databases in which the public domain (meaning information not protected by copyright such as news, ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries ends up being encapsulated and made available only to some private interests, the access to public domain being regulated indirectly. The study begins by explaining the sui- generis right and its origin. The first mention of databases can be found in “Green Paper on Copyright (1998,” a document that clearly shows, the database protection was thought to cover a sphere of information non-protectable from the scientific and industrial fields. Several arguments are made by the author, most of them based on the report of the Public Consultation sustained in 2014 in regards to the necessity of the sui-generis right. There are some references made to a specific case law, namely British Houseracing Board vs William Hill and Fixture Marketing Ldt. The ECJ’s decision în that case is of great importance for the support of public interest to access information corresponding to some restrictive fields that are derived as a result of the maker’s activities, because in the absence of the sui-generis right, all this information can be freely accessed and used.

  19. The complexity of changes in the domain of managing public expenditures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dimitrijević Marina

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Public expenditures are a huge problem in contemporary states. In the conditions of a global economic crisis and the circumstances involving high level of citizen dissatisfaction related to the former methods of funding and managing the public sector (reflected in ruining the funding sources, irrational spending of public expenditure funds, increase in the budget deficit and the level of public debt, the changes in the domain of managing public expenditures have become a priority. By their nature, these changes are complex and long-lasting, and they should bring significant improvements in the field of public expenditure; they have to provide for lawful and purposeful spending of public funds. It is expected to lower the needed public incomes for financing public expenditure, to improve production and competition in the market economy, and to increase personal consumption, living standard and the quality of life of the population. Regardless of the social, economic, legal or political environment in each of state, the topical issue of reforming the management of public expenditures seems to imply a return to a somewhat neglected need for the public sector to function within its own financial possibilities. The state modernisation processes and advancement in the process of managing public expenditures call for a realistic evaluation of the existing condition and circumstances in which these processes occur, as well as the assessment of potential and actual risks that may hinder their effectiveness. Otherwise, it seems that the establishment of a significant level of responsibility in spending the budget funds and a greater transparency of public expenditure may be far-fetched goals.

  20. Combating Identity Fraud in the Public Domain: Information Strategies for Healthcare and Criminal Justice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Plomp, M.G.A.; Grijpink, J.H.A.M.

    2011-01-01

    Two trends are present in both the private and public domain: increasing interorganisational co-operation and increasing digitisation. Nowadays, more and more processes within and between organisations take place electronically. These developments are visible on local, national and European scale.

  1. Use of X-ray microanalysis for study of cation distribution in potassium deficient pumpkin roots

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalia Burmistrova

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Ice slices of root tissues were investigated by X-ray microanalysis. It is shown that the cytoplasm of the meristematic and differentiated cells of potassium dificiest roots maintains a high potassium level. The vacuoles of various root cells loose more K and accumulate more Na and Mg than does the cytoplasm.

  2. Optimization of Actinide Quantification by Electron Probe Microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moy, A.; Merlet, C.; Llovet, X.; Dugne, O.

    2013-06-01

    Conventional quantitative electron probe microanalysis of actinides requires the use of reference standard samples. However, for such elements, standards are generally not available. To overcome this difficulty, standard-less methods of analysis are used, in which the x-ray intensity emitted by the standard is calculated. To be reliable, such calculations require accurate knowledge of physical data such as the x-ray production cross section. However, experimental data of this quantity are not always available for actinide elements. In the present work, experimental L and M x-ray production cross sections were measured for elements uranium and lead. Measurements were performed with two electron microprobes using wavelength-dispersive spectrometers using thin self-supporting targets. Experimental results are compared with calculated cross sections obtained from different analytical formulae, and, whenever possible, with experimental data obtained from the literature. (authors)

  3. APPLICATION OF SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE EQUIPPED WITH THE MICROANALYSIS SYSTEM FOR INVESTIGATION OF BRASS COVERING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. P. Kurenkova

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The possibilities of application of scanning electronic microscope equipped with microanalysis system for investigation of the brass covering quality by slug for production of wire and metal cord particularly of change of copper concentration by covering thickness and slug perimeter, revealing of ?-phase allocation presence and character, determination of defect reasons, are shown.

  4. Assessment of homogeneity of candidate reference material at the nanogram level and investigation on representativeness of single particle analysis using electron probe X ray microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ro, Chul-Un; Hoornaerta, S.; Griekena, R. van

    2002-01-01

    Particulate samples of a candidate reference material are evaluated on their homogeneity from bottle to bottle using electron probe X ray microanalysis technique. The evaluation on the homogeneity is done by the utilization of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistics to the processing of the quantitative electron probe X ray microanalysis data. Due to a limitation, existing even in computer controlled electron probe X ray microanalysis, in terms of analysis time and expenses, the number of particles analyzed is much smaller compared to that in the sample. Therefore, it is investigated whether this technique provides representative analysis results for the characteristics of the sample, even though a very small portion of the sample is really analyzed. Furthermore, the required number of particles for the analysis, to insure a certain level of reproducibility, e.g. 5% relative standard deviation, is determined by the application of the Ingamells sampling theory. (author)

  5. Sample Preparation for Electron Probe Microanalysis-Pushing the Limits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geller, Joseph D; Engle, Paul D

    2002-01-01

    There are two fundamental considerations in preparing samples for electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). The first one may seem obvious, but we often find it is overlooked. That is, the sample analyzed should be representative of the population from which it comes. The second is a direct result of the assumptions in the calculations used to convert x-ray intensity ratios, between the sample and standard, to concentrations. Samples originate from a wide range of sources. During their journey to being excited under the electron beam for the production of x rays there are many possibilities for sample alteration. Handling can contaminate samples by adding extraneous matter. In preparation, the various abrasives used in sizing the sample by sawing, grinding and polishing can embed themselves. The most accurate composition of a contaminated sample is, at best, not representative of the original sample; it is misleading. Our laboratory performs EPMA analysis on customer submitted samples and prepares over 250 different calibration standards including pure elements, compounds, alloys, glasses and minerals. This large variety of samples does not lend itself to mass production techniques, including automatic polishing. Our manual preparation techniques are designed individually for each sample. The use of automated preparation equipment does not lend itself to this environment, and is not included in this manuscript. The final step in quantitative electron probe microanalysis is the conversion of x-ray intensities ratios, known as the "k-ratios," to composition (in mass fraction or atomic percent) and/or film thickness. Of the many assumptions made in the ZAF (where these letters stand for atomic number, absorption and fluorescence) corrections the localized geometry between the sample and electron beam, or takeoff angle, must be accurately known. Small angular errors can lead to significant errors in the final results. The sample preparation technique then becomes very

  6. 2nd International Multidisciplinary Microscopy and Microanalysis Congress

    CERN Document Server

    Oral, Ahmet; Ozer, Mehmet

    2015-01-01

    The 2nd International Multidisciplinary Microscopy and Microanalysis Congress & Exhibition (InterM 2014) was held on 16–19 October 2014 in Oludeniz, Fethiye/ Mugla, Turkey. The aim of the congress was to gather scientists from various branches and discuss the latest improvements in the field of microscopy. The focus of the congress has been widened in an "interdisciplinary" manner, so as to allow all scientists working on several related subjects to participate and present their work. These proceedings include 33 peer-reviewed technical papers, submitted by leading academic and research institutions from over 17 countries and representing some of the most cutting-edge research available. The papers were presented at the congress in the following sessions: ·         Applications of Microscopy in the Physical Sciences ·         Applications of Microscopy in the Biological Sciences.

  7. Quantitative X-ray spectral microanalysis of bioorganic films by means of a crystal-diffraction spectrometer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pogorelov, A.G.; Pogorelova, V.N.; Khrenova, E.V.; Gol'dshtejn, D.V.; Aksirov, A.M.; Kantor, G.M.

    2005-01-01

    The details of the quantitative X-ray spectral microanalysis performed with a wave dispersive spectrometer are described. Hydration of biological tissues, light element composition, low concentration of analyzed elements and their nonuniform distribution are the specific features of bioorganic film and tissue section. This paper is aimed to discuss the general approaches to both preparation technique and quantitative analysis principles [ru

  8. Comparison of STIM and particle backscattering spectrometry mass determination for quantitative microanalysis of cultured cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deves, G.; Ortega, R.

    2001-01-01

    In biological sample microanalysis, a mass-normalisation method is commonly used as a quantitative index of elemental concentrations determined by particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE). The organic mass can either be determined using particle backscattering spectrometry (BS) or scanning transmission ion microscopy (STIM). However, the accuracy of quantitative microanalysis in samples such as cultured cells is affected by beam-induced loss of organic mass during analysis. The aim of this paper is to compare mass measurements determined by particle BS or by STIM. In order to calibrate STIM and BS analyses, we measured by both techniques the thickness of standard foils of polycarbonate (3 and 6 μm), Mylar[reg] (4 μm), Kapton[reg] (7.5 μm) and Nylon[reg] (15 μm), as well as biological samples of mono-layered cultured cells. Non-damaging STIM analysis of samples before PIXE irradiation is certainly one of the most accurate ways to determine the sample mass, however, this requires strong experimental handling. On the other hand, BS performed simultaneously to PIXE is the simplest method to determine the local mass in polymer foils, but appears less accurate in the case of cultured cells

  9. Microanalysis on the Hydrogen Ion Irradiated 50 wt pct TiC-C Films

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Hui JIANG; Yaoguang LIU; Ningkang HUANG

    2007-01-01

    The 50 wt pct TiC-C films were prepared on stainless steel substrates by using a technique of ion beam mixing.These films were irradiated by hydrogen ion beam with a dose of 1×1018 ions/cm2 and an energy of 5 keV.Microanalysis of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) were used to analyze the films before and after hydrogen ion irradiation and to study the mechanism of hydrogen resistance.

  10. IMAP: A complete Ion Micro-Analysis Package for the nuclear microprobe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Antolak, A.J.; Hildner, M.L.; Morse, D.H.; Bench, G.S.

    1993-01-01

    Microprobe techniques using scanned, focused MeV ions are routinely used in Livermore for materials characterization. Comprehensive data analysis with these techniques is accomplished with the computer software package IMAP, for Ion Micro-Analysis Package. IMAP consists of a set of command language procedures for data processing and quantitative spectral analysis. Deconvolution of the data is achieved by spawning sub-processes within IMAP which execute analysis codes for each specific microprobe technique. IMAP is structured to rapidly analyze individual spectra or multi-dimensional data blocks which classify individual events by the two scanning dimensions, the energy of the detected radiation and, when necessary, one sample rotation dimension. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the utility of the package

  11. Localization of lead within leaf cells of Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus (Hedw. ) Warnst. by means of transmission electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ophus, E M; Gullvag, B M

    1974-01-01

    Results of ultrastructural studies and transmission electron microscope microanalysis of leaves of the bryophyte Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus collected from a park in Trondheim are presented. The lead content of these leaves primarily derives from motor traffic exhaust gases. A fine structural examination of the leaf cells revealed that detectable amounts of lead had entered the cytoplasm and could be recognized as electron-dense precipitates localized inside the plasma membrane, within vesicles or vacuoles, chloroplasts, mitochondria, microbodies and plasmodesmata. Control material, fixed only in glutaraledhyde and not post-stained, showed that these precipitates must be due to metallic elements having great electron-scattering properties. TEM-X-ray microanalysis indicated the definite presence of lead and phosphorus within both the nuclear and chloroplast inclusions. The possible presence of some other metals is also discussed.

  12. Fast resolution of the neutron diffusion equation through public domain Ode codes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garcia, V.M.; Vidal, V.; Garayoa, J. [Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Departamento de Sistemas Informaticos, Valencia (Spain); Verdu, G. [Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Departamento de Ingenieria Quimica y Nuclear, Valencia (Spain); Gomez, R. [I.E.S. de Tavernes Blanques, Valencia (Spain)

    2003-07-01

    The time-dependent neutron diffusion equation is a partial differential equation with source terms. The resolution method usually includes discretizing the spatial domain, obtaining a large system of linear, stiff ordinary differential equations (ODEs), whose resolution is computationally very expensive. Some standard techniques use a fixed time step to solve the ODE system. This can result in errors (if the time step is too large) or in long computing times (if the time step is too little). To speed up the resolution method, two well-known public domain codes have been selected: DASPK and FCVODE that are powerful codes for the resolution of large systems of stiff ODEs. These codes can estimate the error after each time step, and, depending on this estimation can decide which is the new time step and, possibly, which is the integration method to be used in the next step. With these mechanisms, it is possible to keep the overall error below the chosen tolerances, and, when the system behaves smoothly, to take large time steps increasing the execution speed. In this paper we address the use of the public domain codes DASPK and FCVODE for the resolution of the time-dependent neutron diffusion equation. The efficiency of these codes depends largely on the preconditioning of the big systems of linear equations that must be solved. Several pre-conditioners have been programmed and tested; it was found that the multigrid method is the best of the pre-conditioners tested. Also, it has been found that DASPK has performed better than FCVODE, being more robust for our problem.We can conclude that the use of specialized codes for solving large systems of ODEs can reduce drastically the computational work needed for the solution; and combining them with appropriate pre-conditioners, the reduction can be still more important. It has other crucial advantages, since it allows the user to specify the allowed error, which cannot be done in fixed step implementations; this, of course

  13. Microstructure and microanalysis of some ancient building materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Majumdar, A.J.; Rayment, D.L.; Pettifer, K.

    1988-12-01

    In order to assess the very long term of durability of modern Portland cements for encapsulating certain types of radioactive waste, the microstructure and microanalysis of concretes of various ages made from such cements are compared with those from similar materials of ancient origins with ages upto 2500 years used in early Greek, Roman and British Construction. Most of the historical 'concretes' examined were heavily carbonated and at best showed only traces of the calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) phase, the heart of modern Portland Cement concretes. The notable exception was the 1700 years old concrete from Hadrian's Wall - the mortar in this was rich in C-S-H. The modern concrete samples, from 10 to 140 years old, showed little carbonation and their compositions of the C-S-H phase were very similar to those found from Hadrian's Wall. From all the evidence examined, it is concluded that the C-S-H phase is capable of surviving intact for several thousands of years in the absence of external chemical attack. (author)

  14. An EPMA study on KNbO3 and NaNbO3 single crystals - potential reference materials for quantitative microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Samardzzija, Z.; Bernik, S.; Malic, B.; Ceh, M.; Marinenko, R.B.

    2004-01-01

    Single crystals of KNbO 3 and NaNbO 3 were selected from the limited number of suitable alkali compounds that are available and evaluated as possible reference materials for the electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA) of alkaline niobates with a composition described by the general formula K 1-x Na x NbO 3 . The EPMA study verified that KNbO 3 and NaNbO 3 single crystals are stable under the electron beam and compositionally homogeneous. A quantitative microanalysis confirmed the composition of pure KNbO 3 , while the NaNbO 3 crystal contained 0.3 mass fraction % of Ca. A significant improvement in the accuracy of the quantitative EPMA of polycrystalline potassium-sodium niobates was achieved using these single crystals as standards. The crystals can also be useful as reference materials for the analysis of sodium and potassium in other materials. (author)

  15. Study on methods of quantitative analysis of the biological thin samples in EM X-ray microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Detian; Zhang Xuemin; He Kun; Yang Yi; Zhang Sa; Wang Baozhen

    2000-01-01

    Objective: To study the methods of quantitative analysis of the biological thin samples. Methods: Hall theory was used to study the qualitative analysis, background subtraction, peel off overlap peaks; external radiation and aberrance of spectra. Results: The results of reliable qualitative analysis and precise quantitative analysis were achieved. Conclusion: The methods for analysis of the biological thin samples in EM X-ray microanalysis can be used in biomedical research

  16. The uses of synchrotron radiation sources for elemental and chemical microanalysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, J.R.; Chao, E.C.T.; Minkin, J.A.; Back, J.M.; Jones, K.W.; Rivers, M.L.; Sutton, S.R.

    1990-01-01

    Synchrotron radiation sources offer important features for the analysis of a material. Among these features is the ability to determine both the elemental composition of the material and the chemical state of its elements. For microscopic analysis synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (SXRF) microprobes now offer spatial resolutions of 10 ??m with minimum detection limits in the 1-10 ppm range depending on the nature of the sample and the synchrotron source used. This paper describes the properties of synchrotron radiation and their importance for elemental analysis, existing synchrotron facilities and those under construction that are optimum for SXRF microanalysis, and a number of applications including the high energy excitation of the K lines of heavy elements, microtomography, and XANES and EXAFS spectroscopies. ?? 1990.

  17. Identification of 5'-adenylylimidodiphosphate-hydrolyzing enzyme activity in rabbit taste bud cells using X-ray microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asanuma, N.

    1990-01-01

    X-ray microanalysis has been used to characterize the enzyme activity hydrolyzing the ATP analogue 5'-adenylylimidodiphosphate (AMP-PNP) in taste bud cells. Rabbit foliate papillae fixed with paraformaldehyde and glutaraldehyde were incubated cytochemically with AMP-PNP as the substrate and lead ion as capture agent. The reaction product which appeared on the microvilli of taste bud cells was examined using an energy dispersive X-ray microanalyzer connected to an analytical electron microscope. The X-ray spectrum thus obtained was compared with that obtained from the product obtained from the demonstration of ATPase activity. Comparison of the phosphorus/lead ratios in the two products showed that twice as much phosphorus was released from an AMP-PNP molecule by the activity in question compared with that released from an ATP molecule by ATPase activity. This indicates that the enzyme hydrolyzes AMP-PNP into AMP and imidodiphosphate and that the enzyme is adenylate cyclase or ATP pyrophosphohydrolase, which possesses a similar hydrolytic property, but not ATPase or alkaline phosphatase, which hydrolyzes AMP-PNP into ADP-NH2 and orthophosphate. This paper provides an example of the use of X-ray microanalysis as a tool for enzyme distinction. The method is applicable to a variety of enzymes and tissues

  18. The public understanding of nanotechnology in the food domain: the hidden role of views on science, technology, and nature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vandermoere, Frederic; Blanchemanche, Sandrine; Bieberstein, Andrea; Marette, Stephan; Roosen, Jutta

    2011-03-01

    In spite of great expectations about the potential of nanotechnology, this study shows that people are rather ambiguous and pessimistic about nanotechnology applications in the food domain. Our findings are drawn from a survey of public perceptions about nanotechnology food and nanotechnology food packaging (N = 752). Multinomial logistic regression analyses further reveal that knowledge about food risks and nanotechnology significantly influences people's views about nanotechnology food packaging. However, knowledge variables were unrelated to support for nanofood, suggesting that an increase in people's knowledge might not be sufficient to bridge the gap between the excitement some business leaders in the food sector have and the restraint of the public. Additionally, opposition to nanofood was not related to the use of heuristics but to trust in governmental agencies. Furthermore, the results indicate that public perceptions of nanoscience in the food domain significantly relate to views on science, technology, and nature.

  19. Microanalysis of vitrous char and associated polymers: reference and ancient assemblages

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allue, E.; Bonnamy, S.; Courty, M. M.; Gispert I Guirado, F.

    2012-12-01

    Formation of vitrous char that occur in ancient charcoal assemblages have remained unsolved. Laboratory experiments refuted vitrification to resulting from high temperature charring of green or resinous wood. This puzzling problem has been refreshed by showing the association to the charcoal and vitrous char of plastics that were originally supposed to only be produced by petroleum industry. Extraction of similar polymers within geological glassy products from cosmic airbursts has suggested impact processes to possibly forming the carbonaceous polymorphs. The pulverisation at the ground in the Angles village (French Eastern Pyrenees) following the 2011 August 2nd high altitude meteor explosion of exotic debris with vitrous char and polymers, just alike the puzzling ones of the geological and archaeological records, has provided potential reference materials. We present here their microanalysis by Environmental SEM with EDS, Raman micro-spectrometry and FTIR, XRD, TEM, ICP-MS and isotope analyses. The characterization helps elucidating how the carbonaceous polymorphs formed by transient heating and transient high pressure of atmospheric aerosols. Under TEM the vesicular, dense, vitrous char show high structural organization with a dense pattern of nano-sized graphitized domains, metals and mineral inclusions. The coupled Raman-ESEM has allowed identifying a complex pattern at micro scales of ordered "D" peak at 1320-1350 cm-1 and the graphitic, ordered peak at 1576-1590 cm-1, in association to amorphous and poorly graphitic ordered carbon. The later occurs within plant cells that have been extracted from the dense vitrous char by performing controlled combustion under nitrogen up to 1000°C. In contrast, the brittle, vesicular vitrous char and the polymers encountered at the rear of the pulverised airburst debris reveal to be formed of agglutinated micro spherules of amorphous carbon with rare crystallized carbon nano-domains and scattered mineral inclusions. They

  20. Clinical applications of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis in dermatology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Forslind, B.

    1984-01-01

    Scanning electron microscopy is frequently applied to dermatological problems, as is evident from a review of the recent literature. In this paper, preparation methods and new techniques allowing experimental studies on the integumentary system are emphasized. Quantitative analysis in the electron microscope by use of energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX) has become an important accessory technique. EDX can, for instance, be used to study problems involving physiological changes induced in skin by agents causing contact reactions. Recently, it has been shown that treatment with DNCB, chromate and nickel causes changes in elemental distribution in guinea-pig skin. In addition, elemental uptake in the integumentary system and in pathological inclusions in skin can be analyzed.

  1. Clinical applications of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis in dermatology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forslind, B.

    1984-01-01

    Scanning electron microscopy is frequently applied to dermatological problems, as is evident from a review of the recent literature. In this paper, preparation methods and new techniques allowing experimental studies on the integumentary system are emphasized. Quantitative analysis in the electron microscope by use of energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX) has become an important accessory technique. EDX can, for instance, be used to study problems involving physiological changes induced in skin by agents causing contact reactions. Recently, it has been shown that treatment with DNCB, chromate and nickel causes changes in elemental distribution in guinea-pig skin. In addition, elemental uptake in the integumentary system and in pathological inclusions in skin can be analyzed

  2. The uses of synchrotron radiation sources for elemental and chemical microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, J.R.; Chao, E.C.T.; Minkin, J.A.; Back, J.M.; Jones, K.W.; Rivers, M.L.; Sutton, S.R.

    1989-08-01

    Synchrotron radiation sources offer important features for the analysis of a material. Among these features is the ability to determine both the elemental composition of the material and the chemical state of its elements. For microscopic analysis synchrotron x-ray fluorescence (SXRF) microprobes now offer spatial resolutions of 10μm with minimum detection limits in the 1--10 ppM range depending on the nature of the sample and the synchrotron source used. This paper describes the properties of synchrotron radiation and their importance for elemental analysis, existing synchrotron facilities and those under construction that are optimum for SXRF microanalysis, and a number of applications including the high energy excitation of the K lines of heavy elements, microtomography, and XANES and EXAFS spectroscopies. 45 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab

  3. Towards an information strategy for combating identity fraud in the public domain: Cases from healthcare and criminal justice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Plomp, M.G.A.; Grijpink, J.H.A.M.

    2011-01-01

    Two trends are present in both the private and public domain: increasing interorganisational co-operation and increasing digitisation. More and more processes within and between organisations take place electronically, on local, national and European scale. The technological and organisational

  4. Quantitative electron probe microanalysis of boron in binary borides

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bastin, G.F.; Heijligers, H.J.M.

    1986-01-01

    Quantitative electron probe microanalysis has been performed in 27 binary borides in the range of 4-30 keV, both for the metals as well as for Boron. The procedures along which accurate intensity measurements for B-K α must be carried out are discussed in detail. A total of 196 k-ratios with respect to elemental standards for the metal X-ray lines and 180 k-ratios for B-K α relative to elemental Boron have been obtained. These data have been used to arrive at an improved parameterization for the φ(ρz) approach in matrix correction. The resulting new program (BAS861) was compared to 5 other current correction programs. At the same occasion the available set of mass absorption coefficients for Boron was tested on its consistency and better values suggested where necessary. Finally it is shown that the modified version of the Gaussian φ(ρz) approach (BAS861 program) is highly successful in the matrix correction for B-K α : a relative root-mean-square value of 6.30% was obtained. (Auth.)

  5. Standardless quantification methods in electron probe microanalysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Trincavelli, Jorge, E-mail: trincavelli@famaf.unc.edu.ar [Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Ciudad Universitaria, 5000 Córdoba (Argentina); Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de la República Argentina, Medina Allende s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, 5000 Córdoba (Argentina); Limandri, Silvina, E-mail: s.limandri@conicet.gov.ar [Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Ciudad Universitaria, 5000 Córdoba (Argentina); Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de la República Argentina, Medina Allende s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, 5000 Córdoba (Argentina); Bonetto, Rita, E-mail: bonetto@quimica.unlp.edu.ar [Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ciencias Aplicadas Dr. Jorge Ronco, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de la República Argentina, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Calle 47 N° 257, 1900 La Plata (Argentina)

    2014-11-01

    The elemental composition of a solid sample can be determined by electron probe microanalysis with or without the use of standards. The standardless algorithms are quite faster than the methods that require standards; they are useful when a suitable set of standards is not available or for rough samples, and also they help to solve the problem of current variation, for example, in equipments with cold field emission gun. Due to significant advances in the accuracy achieved during the last years, product of the successive efforts made to improve the description of generation, absorption and detection of X-rays, the standardless methods have increasingly become an interesting option for the user. Nevertheless, up to now, algorithms that use standards are still more precise than standardless methods. It is important to remark, that care must be taken with results provided by standardless methods that normalize the calculated concentration values to 100%, unless an estimate of the errors is reported. In this work, a comprehensive discussion of the key features of the main standardless quantification methods, as well as the level of accuracy achieved by them is presented. - Highlights: • Standardless methods are a good alternative when no suitable standards are available. • Their accuracy reaches 10% for 95% of the analyses when traces are excluded. • Some of them are suitable for the analysis of rough samples.

  6. X-Ray Microanalysis of Human Cementum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alvarez-Pérez, Marco Antonio; Alvarez-Fregoso, Octavio; Ortiz-López, Jaime; Arzate, Higinio

    2005-08-01

    An energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis study was performed throughout the total length of cementum on five impacted human teeth. Mineral content of calcium, phosphorous, and magnesium were determined with an electron probe from the cemento-enamel junction to the root apex on the external surface of the cementum. The concentration profiles for calcium, phosphorous, and magnesium were compared by using Ca/P and Mg/Ca atomic percent ratio. Our findings demonstrated that the Ca/P ratio at the cemento-enamel junction showed the highest values (1.8 2.2). However, the area corresponding to the acellular extrinsic fiber cementum (AEFC) usually located on the coronal one-third of the root surface showed a Ca/P media value of 1.65. Nevertheless, on the area representing the fulcrum of the root there is an abrupt change in the Ca/P ratio, which decreases to 1.3. Our results revealed that Mg2+ distribution throughout the length of human cementum reached its maximum Mg/Ca ratio value of 1.3 1.4 at.% around the fulcrum of the root and an average value of 0.03%. A remarkable finding was that the Mg/Ca ratio pattern distribution showed that in the region where the Ca/P ratio showed a decreasing tendency, the Mg/Ca ratio reached its maximum value, showing a negative correlation. In conclusion, this study has established that clear compositional differences exist between AEFC and cellular mixed stratified cementum varieties and adds new knowledge about Mg2+ distribution and suggests its provocative role regulating human cementum metabolism.

  7. Combining Public Domain and Professional Panoramic Imagery for the Accurate and Dense 3d Reconstruction of the Destroyed Bel Temple in Palmyra

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wahbeh, W.; Nebiker, S.; Fangi, G.

    2016-06-01

    This paper exploits the potential of dense multi-image 3d reconstruction of destroyed cultural heritage monuments by either using public domain touristic imagery only or by combining the public domain imagery with professional panoramic imagery. The focus of our work is placed on the reconstruction of the temple of Bel, one of the Syrian heritage monuments, which was destroyed in September 2015 by the so called "Islamic State". The great temple of Bel is considered as one of the most important religious buildings of the 1st century AD in the East with a unique design. The investigations and the reconstruction were carried out using two types of imagery. The first are freely available generic touristic photos collected from the web. The second are panoramic images captured in 2010 for documenting those monuments. In the paper we present a 3d reconstruction workflow for both types of imagery using state-of-the art dense image matching software, addressing the non-trivial challenges of combining uncalibrated public domain imagery with panoramic images with very wide base-lines. We subsequently investigate the aspects of accuracy and completeness obtainable from the public domain touristic images alone and from the combination with spherical panoramas. We furthermore discuss the challenges of co-registering the weakly connected 3d point cloud fragments resulting from the limited coverage of the touristic photos. We then describe an approach using spherical photogrammetry as a virtual topographic survey allowing the co-registration of a detailed and accurate single 3d model of the temple interior and exterior.

  8. Assessment of current cybersecurity practices in the public domain : cyber indications and warnings domain.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hamlet, Jason R.; Keliiaa, Curtis M.

    2010-09-01

    This report assesses current public domain cyber security practices with respect to cyber indications and warnings. It describes cybersecurity industry and government activities, including cybersecurity tools, methods, practices, and international and government-wide initiatives known to be impacting current practice. Of particular note are the U.S. Government's Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) and 'Einstein' programs, which are serving to consolidate the Government's internet access points and to provide some capability to monitor and mitigate cyber attacks. Next, this report catalogs activities undertaken by various industry and government entities. In addition, it assesses the benchmarks of HPC capability and other HPC attributes that may lend themselves to assist in the solution of this problem. This report draws few conclusions, as it is intended to assess current practice in preparation for future work, however, no explicit references to HPC usage for the purpose of analyzing cyber infrastructure in near-real-time were found in the current practice. This report and a related SAND2010-4766 National Cyber Defense High Performance Computing and Analysis: Concepts, Planning and Roadmap report are intended to provoke discussion throughout a broad audience about developing a cohesive HPC centric solution to wide-area cybersecurity problems.

  9. A study of back-trap mottle in coated papers using electron probe microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eby, T.; Whalen-Shaw, M.

    1991-01-01

    In this paper methodology is been developed for analyzing both the surface and cross-sectional distributions for coating components using electron probe microanalysis and image analysis technology. Actual light and dark areas of print mottle are physically separated and analyzed to provide an unequivocal relationship between the distribution of coating components and the physical structure of the coating in areas of print mottle. Areas of low ink density were found to have higher surface latex concentration, greater mean coating thickness, and greater mean rawstock roughness. Furthermore, the difference in surface concentration of CaCO 3 within areas of, low and high ink density was established as a new and additional probable cause of back-trap mottle

  10. Enhancing public access to legal information : A proposal for a new official legal information generic top-level domain

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mitee, Leesi Ebenezer

    2017-01-01

    Abstract: This article examines the use of a new legal information generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) as a viable tool for easy identification of official legal information websites (OLIWs) and enhancing global public access to their resources. This intervention is necessary because of the existence of

  11. Into the Dark Domain: The UK Web Archive as a Source for the Contemporary History of Public Health

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorsky, Martin

    2015-01-01

    With the migration of the written record from paper to digital format, archivists and historians must urgently consider how web content should be conserved, retrieved and analysed. The British Library has recently acquired a large number of UK domain websites, captured 1996–2010, which is colloquially termed the Dark Domain Archive while technical issues surrounding user access are resolved. This article reports the results of an invited pilot project that explores methodological issues surrounding use of this archive. It asks how the relationship between UK public health and local government was represented on the web, drawing on the ‘declinist’ historiography to frame its questions. It points up some difficulties in developing an aggregate picture of web content due to duplication of sites. It also highlights their potential for thematic and discourse analysis, using both text and image, illustrated through an argument about the contradictory rationale for public health policy under New Labour. PMID:26217072

  12. Tyrosinase inhibitor screening in traditional Chinese medicines by electrophoretically mediated microanalysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Lilin; Zhang, Wenpeng; Zhao, Haiyan; Chen, Zilin

    2015-08-01

    A capillary-electrophoresis-based method for the screening of tyrosinase inhibitors in traditional Chinese medicines was developed. The method integrated electrophoretically mediated microanalysis with sandwich mode injection, partial filling, and rapid polarity switching techniques, and carried out on-column enzyme reaction and the separation of substrate and product. The conditions were optimized including the background electrolyte, mixing voltage, and the incubation time. Finally, the screening of nine standard natural compounds of traditional Chinese medicines was carried out. The inhibitors can be directly identified from the reduced peak area of the product compared to that obtained without any inhibitor. Chlorogenic acid (100 μM) showed inhibitory activity with the inhibitory percentage of 19.8%, while the other compounds showed no inhibitory activity. This method has great application potential in drug discovery from traditional Chinese medicines. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  13. Diamond exploration and mantle structure imaging using PIXE microanalysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ryan, C G; Griffin, W L; Win, T T [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), North Ryde, NSW (Australia). Div. of Exploration Geoscience

    1997-12-31

    Geochemical methods of diamond exploration rely on recognizing indicator minerals that formed in the earth`s upper mantle, within the diamond stability field, and were entrained in rapidly rising volatile-rich magmas and emplaced in or on the crust. Diamond is only stable at high pressure. Therefore, diamond exploration commonly targets prospects containing high pressure minerals, such as low-Ca, high-Cr (`G10`) garnets and high-Cr chromites, similar to inclusions in diamonds. However, this procedure can be ambiguous; some barren pipes contain abundant `G10` garnets. while such garnets are extremely rare in the Argyle pipe, the world`s largest diamond producer. Similarly, high-Cr chromites are shed by a wide variety of barren rock types. PIXE microanalysis of trace elements in concentrate garnets and chromites from kimberlites and other volcanic rocks helps to remove the ambiguities by pinning down the source temperature (T), pressure (P) and local (paleo)geotherm (P-T relation), which permits the rich store of trace element information in these minerals, reflecting rock chemistry and metasomatic processes, to be placed in a stratigraphic context. 11 refs., 4 figs.

  14. Diamond exploration and mantle structure imaging using PIXE microanalysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ryan, C.G.; Griffin, W.L.; Win, T.T. [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), North Ryde, NSW (Australia). Div. of Exploration Geoscience

    1996-12-31

    Geochemical methods of diamond exploration rely on recognizing indicator minerals that formed in the earth`s upper mantle, within the diamond stability field, and were entrained in rapidly rising volatile-rich magmas and emplaced in or on the crust. Diamond is only stable at high pressure. Therefore, diamond exploration commonly targets prospects containing high pressure minerals, such as low-Ca, high-Cr (`G10`) garnets and high-Cr chromites, similar to inclusions in diamonds. However, this procedure can be ambiguous; some barren pipes contain abundant `G10` garnets. while such garnets are extremely rare in the Argyle pipe, the world`s largest diamond producer. Similarly, high-Cr chromites are shed by a wide variety of barren rock types. PIXE microanalysis of trace elements in concentrate garnets and chromites from kimberlites and other volcanic rocks helps to remove the ambiguities by pinning down the source temperature (T), pressure (P) and local (paleo)geotherm (P-T relation), which permits the rich store of trace element information in these minerals, reflecting rock chemistry and metasomatic processes, to be placed in a stratigraphic context. 11 refs., 4 figs.

  15. Prospects of X-ray microanalysis in the study of pathophysiology of myocardial contraction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wendt-Gallitelli, M.F.; Schwegler, M.; Holubarsch, C.; Jacob, R.; Wolburg, H.; Schlote, W.

    1980-01-01

    X-ray microanalysis was used to compare chemically untreated cryosections of quick-frozen myocardial tissue in 'caffeine contracture' with cryosections of normal muscle. Our goal was to find out if it is possible by this method to detect changes in the calcium compartmentalization of the myocardial cell occurring by changes in its functional state. While it is possible to quantitate calcium in the cisternae of sarcoplasmic reticulum of the control muscle preparation, calcium could never be detected in these compartments of caffeine-contracted muscles. In active microsomal fraction of ventricular myocardium it is possible to quantitate calcium and also to distinguish two components on account of their different ability to accumulate this element. The calcium content is different in the two components of the fraction. (orig.) [de

  16. X-ray microanalysis of Zn in the taste organ of the teleost Ameiurus nebulosus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reutter, K.

    1983-01-01

    The trace metal Zn seems to be essential for the normal functioning of the gustatory sense. It was tried to localize Zn within the peripheral and central parts of the bullhead's gustatory system by the use of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis. In freeze dried preparations of the bullhead's barbel taste buds (and the taste buds of rabbits) Zn is found in randomly distributed granules, which cannot be related to distinct taste bud regions. Furthermore, Zn occurs in subunits of the central gustatory nuclei, the vagal and facial lobe of the rhombencephalon. Therefore Zn appears to be essential for intact peripheral as well as central gustatory processes, at least in lower vertebrates. (author)

  17. Standard-free electron-probe microanalysis of thin films of HTSC-oxide and semiconductors (h<1μm)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kvardakov, A.M.; Mikhajlova, A.Ya.; San'gin, V.P.; Lazarev, V.B.

    1993-01-01

    A simplified variant of the standard-free electron-probe microanalysis is elaborated to carry out rapid analysis of chemical composition of >1μm thickness thin films of high-temperature superconductor oxides and semiconductors on alien substrates. The suggested technique has increased the efficiency of search for optimal conditions of preparation YBa 2 Cu 3 O x thin films existing in magnetron and InSb ion-beam techniques of spraying on SrTiO 3 and α-Al 2 O 3 monocrystal base substrates

  18. Electron energy loss spectroscopy microanalysis and imaging in the transmission electron microscope: example of biological applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Diociaiuti, Marco

    2005-01-01

    This paper reports original results obtained in our laboratory over the past few years in the application of both electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and electron spectroscopy imaging (ESI) to biological samples, performed in two transmission electron microscopes (TEM) equipped with high-resolution electron filters and spectrometers: a Gatan model 607 single magnetic sector double focusing EEL serial spectrometer attached to a Philips 430 TEM and a Zeiss EM902 Energy Filtering TEM. The primary interest was on the possibility offered by the combined application of these spectroscopic techniques with those offered by the TEM. In particular, the electron beam focusing available in a TEM allowed us to perform EELS and ESI on very small sample volumes, where high-resolution imaging and electron diffraction techniques can provide important structural information. I show that ESI was able to improve TEM performance, due to the reduced chromatic aberration and the possibility of avoiding the sample staining procedure. Finally, the analysis of the oscillating extended energy loss fine structure (EXELFS) beyond the ionization edges characterizing the EELS spectra allowed me, in a manner very similar to the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis of the X-ray absorption spectra, to obtain short-range structural information for such light elements of biological interest as O or Fe. The Philips EM430 (250-300 keV) TEM was used to perform EELS microanalysis on Ca, P, O, Fe, Al and Si. The assessment of the detection limits of this method was obtained working with well-characterized samples containing Ca and P, and mimicking the actual cellular matrix. I applied EELS microanalysis to Ca detection in bone tissue during the mineralization process and to P detection in the cellular membrane of erythrocytes treated with an anti-tumoral drug, demonstrating that the cellular membrane is a drug target. I applied EELS microanalysis and selected area electron

  19. DAE emergency response centre (ERC) at Kalpakkam for response to nuclear and radiological emergencies in public domain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meenakshisundaram, V.; Rajagopal, V.; Mathiyarasu, R.; Subramanian, V.; Rajaram, S.; Somayaji, K.M.; Kannan, V.; Rajagopalan, H.

    2008-01-01

    In India, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has been identified as the nodal agency/authority in respect of providing the necessary technical inputs in the event of any radiation emergency that may occur in public domain. The overall system takes into consideration statutory requirements, executive decisions as well as National and International obligations. This paper highlights the details about the strength of the Kalpakkam ERC and other essential requisites and their compliance since its formation

  20. Electron probe microanalysis of a METAPHIX UPuZr metallic alloy fuel irradiated to 7.0 at.% burn-up

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brémier, S., E-mail: stephan.bremier@ec.europa.eu [European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Transuranium Elements, P.O. Box 2340, D-76125 Karlsruhe (Germany); Inagaki, K. [Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Nuclear Technology Research Laboratory, 2-11-1 Iwado-kita, Komae-shi, Tokyo 201-8511 (Japan); Capriotti, L.; Poeml, P. [European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Transuranium Elements, P.O. Box 2340, D-76125 Karlsruhe (Germany); Ogata, T.; Ohta, H. [Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Nuclear Technology Research Laboratory, 2-11-1 Iwado-kita, Komae-shi, Tokyo 201-8511 (Japan); Rondinella, V.V. [European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Transuranium Elements, P.O. Box 2340, D-76125 Karlsruhe (Germany)

    2016-11-15

    The METAPHIX project is a collaboration between CRIEPI and JRC-ITU investigating safety and performance of a closed fuel cycle option based on fast reactor metal alloy fuels containing Minor Actinides (MA). The aim of the project is to investigate the behaviour of this type of fuel and demonstrate the transmutation of MA under irradiation. A UPuZr metallic fuel sample irradiated to a burn-up of 7 at.% was examined by electron probe microanalysis. The fuel sample was extensively characterised qualitatively and quantitatively using elemental X-ray imaging and point analysis techniques. The analyses reveal a significant redistribution of the fuel components along the fuel radius highlighting a nearly complete depletion of Zr in the central part of the fuel. Numerous rare earth and fission products secondary phases are present in various compositions. Fuel cladding chemical interaction was observed with creation of a number of intermediary layers affecting a cladding depth of 15–20 μm and migration of cladding elements to the fuel. - Highlights: • Electron Probe MicroAnalysis of a UPuZr metallic fuel alloy irradiated to 7.0 at.% burn-up. • Significant redistribution of the fuel components along the fuel radius, nearly complete depletion of Zr in the central part of the fuel. • Interactions between the fuel and the cladding with occurrence of a number of intermediary layers and migration of cladding elements to the fuel. • Safe irradiation behaviour of the base alloy fuel.

  1. X ray microanalysis of leaf and seed elemental composition among four species of living fossil gymnosperm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chang Chongyan; Li Yongliang; Chen Xiaoduan; Liu Jinying; Zhou Yunlong

    2002-01-01

    The leaf and seed elemental composition and average mass fraction are analysed or four species of living fossil gymnosperm: Ginkgo biloba L., Cathaya argyrophylla Chun et Kuang, Glyptostrobus pensilis (D. Don) Koch and Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng by SEM X ray microanalysis method. The results show that the elemental composition is different and the elemental average mass fraction is evidently different between the seed and leaf for the same species. The elemental composition and average mass fraction between seed and seed wing is different in Cathaya argyrophylla and Metasequoia glyptostroboides. Among three type leaf of Glyptostrobus pensilis, the elemental composition is the same, but average mass fraction is very different

  2. New Inversion and Interpretation of Public-Domain Electromagnetic Survey Data from Selected Areas in Alaska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, B. D.; Kass, A.; Saltus, R. W.; Minsley, B. J.; Deszcz-Pan, M.; Bloss, B. R.; Burns, L. E.

    2013-12-01

    Public-domain airborne geophysical surveys (combined electromagnetics and magnetics), mostly collected for and released by the State of Alaska, Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (DGGS), are a unique and valuable resource for both geologic interpretation and geophysical methods development. A new joint effort by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the DGGS aims to add value to these data through the application of novel advanced inversion methods and through innovative and intuitive display of data: maps, profiles, voxel-based models, and displays of estimated inversion quality and confidence. Our goal is to make these data even more valuable for interpretation of geologic frameworks, geotechnical studies, and cryosphere studies, by producing robust estimates of subsurface resistivity that can be used by non-geophysicists. The available datasets, which are available in the public domain, include 39 frequency-domain electromagnetic datasets collected since 1993, and continue to grow with 5 more data releases pending in 2013. The majority of these datasets were flown for mineral resource purposes, with one survey designed for infrastructure analysis. In addition, several USGS datasets are included in this study. The USGS has recently developed new inversion methodologies for airborne EM data and have begun to apply these and other new techniques to the available datasets. These include a trans-dimensional Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique, laterally-constrained regularized inversions, and deterministic inversions which include calibration factors as a free parameter. Incorporation of the magnetic data as an additional constraining dataset has also improved the inversion results. Processing has been completed in several areas, including Fortymile and the Alaska Highway surveys, and continues in others such as the Styx River and Nome surveys. Utilizing these new techniques, we provide models beyond the apparent resistivity maps supplied by the original

  3. Microanalysis on selected video clips with focus on communicative response in music therapy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ridder, Hanne Mette Ochsner

    2007-01-01

    This chapter describes a five-step procedure for video analysis where the topic of investigation is the communicative response of clients in music therapy. In this microanalysis procedure only very short video clips are used, and in order to select these clips an overview of each music therapy...... session is obtained with the help of a session-graph that is a systematic way of collecting video observations from one music therapy session and combining the data in one figure. The systematic procedures do not demand sophisticated computer equipment; only standard programmes such as Excel and a media...... player. They are based on individual music therapy work with a population who are difficult to engage in joint activities and who show little response (e.g. persons suffering from severe dementia). The video analysis tools might be relevant to other groups of clients where it is important to form a clear...

  4. Sources and Resources Into the Dark Domain: The UK Web Archive as a Source for the Contemporary History of Public Health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorsky, Martin

    2015-08-01

    With the migration of the written record from paper to digital format, archivists and historians must urgently consider how web content should be conserved, retrieved and analysed. The British Library has recently acquired a large number of UK domain websites, captured 1996-2010, which is colloquially termed the Dark Domain Archive while technical issues surrounding user access are resolved. This article reports the results of an invited pilot project that explores methodological issues surrounding use of this archive. It asks how the relationship between UK public health and local government was represented on the web, drawing on the 'declinist' historiography to frame its questions. It points up some difficulties in developing an aggregate picture of web content due to duplication of sites. It also highlights their potential for thematic and discourse analysis, using both text and image, illustrated through an argument about the contradictory rationale for public health policy under New Labour.

  5. Fiscal 1992 survey report. Survey of research trends in search for important research domains; 1992 nendo juten kenkyu ryoiki tansaku no tame no kenkyu doko chosa hokokusho

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1993-03-01

    For contribution of suggestions for establishing directions and concrete tasks for new industrial technology research and development projects, a survey is conducted about trends of industrial technology development and into research domains where importance will gather in the future, for which development trends are studied such as limiting, providing of intelligence, and advanced composition. In this report, domains expected to become important in the future are investigated. Important subjects are found in the domains of the space limiting (micromachining, atom/molecule manipulation, microanalysis, etc.), the time limiting (super-spacetime processing, quantum device, femtosecond technology, 4-dimensional device, etc.), biomimetics and providing of intelligence (intelligent material, neural network, genetic algorithm, artificial life, sensor fusion, intelligent robot, etc.). In addition to these, 'ultrastructure that learns from organisms,' 'intensive interaction system,' and 'nonlinearity/chaos technology' are proposed as promising fields of development. Since Japan is traditionally strong in hardware technologies relating to micromachining and substance/material processing, good results will be attained when the industrial, governmental, and academic circles exert endeavors. (NEDO)

  6. Fiscal 1992 survey report. Survey of research trends in search for important research domains; 1992 nendo juten kenkyu ryoiki tansaku no tame no kenkyu doko chosa hokokusho

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1993-03-01

    For contribution of suggestions for establishing directions and concrete tasks for new industrial technology research and development projects, a survey is conducted about trends of industrial technology development and into research domains where importance will gather in the future, for which development trends are studied such as limiting, providing of intelligence, and advanced composition. In this report, domains expected to become important in the future are investigated. Important subjects are found in the domains of the space limiting (micromachining, atom/molecule manipulation, microanalysis, etc.), the time limiting (super-spacetime processing, quantum device, femtosecond technology, 4-dimensional device, etc.), biomimetics and providing of intelligence (intelligent material, neural network, genetic algorithm, artificial life, sensor fusion, intelligent robot, etc.). In addition to these, 'ultrastructure that learns from organisms,' 'intensive interaction system,' and 'nonlinearity/chaos technology' are proposed as promising fields of development. Since Japan is traditionally strong in hardware technologies relating to micromachining and substance/material processing, good results will be attained when the industrial, governmental, and academic circles exert endeavors. (NEDO)

  7. A simple method to improve the quantification accuracy of energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Walther, T

    2008-01-01

    Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy in a transmission electron microscope is a standard tool for chemical microanalysis and routinely provides qualitative information on the presence of all major elements above Z=5 (boron) in a sample. Spectrum quantification relies on suitable corrections for absorption and fluorescence, in particular for thick samples and soft X-rays. A brief presentation is given of an easy way to improve quantification accuracy by evaluating the intensity ratio of two measurements acquired at different detector take-off angles. As the take-off angle determines the effective sample thickness seen by the detector this method corresponds to taking two measurements from the same position at two different thicknesses, which allows to correct absorption and fluorescence more reliably. An analytical solution for determining the depth of a feature embedded in the specimen foil is also provided.

  8. Minimum detection limit and spatial resolution of thin-sample field-emission electron probe microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kubo, Yugo; Hamada, Kotaro; Urano, Akira

    2013-01-01

    The minimum detection limit and spatial resolution for a thinned semiconductor sample were determined by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) using a Schottky field emission (FE) electron gun and wavelength dispersive X-ray spectrometry. Comparison of the FE-EPMA results with those obtained using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry in conjunction with scanning transmission electron microscopy, confirmed that FE-EPMA is largely superior in terms of detection sensitivity. Thin-sample FE-EPMA is demonstrated as a very effective method for high resolution, high sensitivity analysis in a laboratory environment because a high probe current and high signal-to-noise ratio can be achieved. - Highlights: • Minimum detection limit and spatial resolution determined for FE-EPMA. • Detection sensitivity of FE-EPMA greatly superior to that of STEM-EDX. • Minimum detection limit and spatial resolution controllable by probe current

  9. X-ray microanalysis of elements present in the matrix of cnidarian nematocysts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tardent, P; Zierold, K; Klug, M; Weber, J

    1990-01-01

    The composition and concentration of elements, in particular those of metallic cations, present in the intracapsular matrix and the wall of nematocysts of various cnidarian species have been recorded by means of X-ray microanalysis performed on 100nm thick cryosections. The predominant cation detected in the nematocyst matrix of the hydrozoan Podocoryne carnea (medusa), the scyphozoan Aurelia aurita (scyphopolyp) and the anthozoan Calliactis parasitica (tentacles and acontia) is K(+). Mg(2+) prevails in tentacular cysts of Anthopleura elegantissima, Actinia equina and Anemonia viridis, whereas, the acrorhagial cysts of A. elegantissima and A. equina contain Ca(2+) instead of Mg(2+). The acrorhagial cysts of A. viridis contain Mg(2+) like those of the tentacles. In the tentacular nematocysts of Podocoryne carnea polyps (Hydrozoa) on the other hand ambiguous element contents were found indicating that the cysts of this species has no preference for a particular cation. The high values of sulfur recorded in the matrix and particularly the wall of all the cysts are reflecting the presence of numerous protein disulfide bonds within the structural components (wall, shaft, tubule) of the nematocysts.

  10. Electron probe micro-analysis of irradiated Triso-coated UO2 particles, (1)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ogawa, Toru; Minato, Kazuo; Fukuda, Kosaku; Ikawa, Katsuichi

    1983-11-01

    The Triso-coated low-enriched UO 2 particles were subjected to the post-irradiation electron probe micro-analysis. Observations and analyses on the amoeba effect, inclusions and solutes in the UO 2 matrix were made. In the cooler side of the particle which suffered extensive kernel migration, two significant features were observed: (1) the wake of minute particles, presumably UO 2 , left by the moving kernel in the carbon phase and (2) carbon precipitation in the pores and along the grain boundaries of the UO 2 kernel. Both features could be hardly explained by the gas-phase mechanism of carbon transport and rather suggest the solid state mechanism. Two-types of 4d-transition metal inclusions were observed: the one which was predominantly Mo with a fraction of Tc and another which was enriched with Ru and containing significant amount of Si. The Mo and Si were also found in the UO 2 matrix; the observation led to the discussion of the oxygen potential in the irradiated Triso-coated UO 2 particle. (author)

  11. Analysis of hydrogen isotopes in materials by secondary ion mass spectrometry and nuclear microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ross, G.G.

    1994-01-01

    Only two techniques are really appropriate for the depth profiling of hydrogen isotopes: nuclear microanalysis (NMA) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The intent of this paper is to give an up to date review of both techniques and to show how they can be used in conjunction. Both techniques (SIMS and NMA) will be described briefly. NMA will divided into two different categories: nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) and elastic recoil detection (ERD). Both techniques (SIMS and NMA) will be discussed in terms of sensitivity, resolution, probing depth, quantitative measurement, generality and selectivity, beam induced effects and surface roughness effects. The principal advantages and disadvantages of each of these techniques will be specified, supporting the contention that SIMS and NMA are complementary and should be used in conjunction. Finally, some examples of, and perspectives for, the complementary use of both techniques will be presented. (Author)

  12. KAMUTHE video microanalysis system for use in Brazil: translation, cross-cultural adaptation and evidence of validity and reliability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustavo Schulz Gattino

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Background KAMUTHE is a video microanalysis system which observes preverbal communication within the music therapy setting. This system is indicated for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD or multiple disabilities. The purpose of this study was to translate, adapt to Brazilian Portuguese language and analyze some psychometric properties (reliability and validity evidence of KAMUTHE administration in Brazil for individuals with ASD. Participants and procedure Translation, back translation, analysis by judges, and pilot application were performed to obtain evidence of content and face validity. The second part of this study was to administer KAMUTHE in 39 consecutive children with ASD. An individual session of improvisational music therapy was applied to assess the different behaviors included in KAMUTHE. The intra-rater reliability, concurrent validity and convergent validity were analyzed. Results Translation and cross-cultural adaptation were followed and some cultural adaptations were needed. Inter-rater reliability was very good (ICCs 0.95-0.99 for the three child’s behaviors analyzed. Criteria validity with a moderate negative association was found (r = –.38, p = .017 comparing the behavior “Gazes at therapist” and the level of ASD along with the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS. Convergent validity was established between the behavior “Gazes at therapist” and the two nonlinguistic communication scales (social interaction and interests of the Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC with a moderate correlation (r = –.43, p = .005. Conclusions The administration of the KAMUTHE video microanalysis system showed positive results in children with ASD. Further studies are needed to improve the reliability and validity of the instrument in Brazil.

  13. Preparation and certification of the Polish reference material Virginia Tobacco Leaves (CTA-VTL-2) for inorganic trace analysis including microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dybczynski, R.; Polkowska-Motrenko, H.; Samczynski, Z.; Szopa, Z.

    1997-01-01

    A new Polish certified reference material Virginia Tobacco Leaves (CTA-VTL-2) for inorganic trace analysis including microanalysis has been prepared. Certification of the candidate reference material was based on the world-wide interlaboratory comparison in which 60 laboratories from 18 countries, participated using various analytical methods and techniques. Data evaluation performed by means of the new multifunctional software package -SSQC. Recommended values were assigned for 33 and 'information' values for 10 elements, respectively. The validity of 'certified' values was confirmed for several elements using 'very accurate' methods developed in this Laboratory. (author)

  14. Bulk specimen X-ray microanalysis of freeze-fractured, freeze-dried tissues in gerontological research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagy, I.

    1988-01-01

    The rationale for choosing the freeze-fracture freeze-drying (FFFD) method of biological bulk specimen preparation as well as the theoretical and practical problems of this method are treated. FFFD specimens are suitable for quantitative X-ray microanalysis of biologically relevant elements. Although the spatial resolution of this analytical technique is low, the application of properly selected bulk standard crystals as well as the measurement of the intracellular water and dry mass content by means of another method developed in the same laboratory, allow us to obtain useful information about the age-dependent changes of ionic composition in the main intracellular compartments. The paper summarizes the problems with regard to specimen preparation, beam penetration and the quantitative analysis of FFFD specimens. The method has been applied so far mainly for the analysis of intranuclear and intracytoplasmic concentrations of Na, C1 and K in various types of cells and has resulted in a significant contribution to our understanding of the cellular mechanisms of aging. 84 references

  15. An Overview of Public Domain Tools for Measuring the Sustainability of Environmental Remediation - 12060

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Claypool, John E.; Rogers, Scott [AECOM, Denver, Colorado, 80202 (United States)

    2012-07-01

    their clients. When it comes to the public domain, Federal government agencies are spearheading the development of software tools to measure and report emissions of air pollutants (e.g., carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases, criteria air pollutants); consumption of energy, water and natural resources; accident and safety risks; project costs and other economic metrics. Most of the tools developed for the Government are available to environmental practitioners without charge, so they are growing in usage and popularity. The key features and metrics calculated by the available public-domain tools for measuring the sustainability of environmental remediation projects share some commonalities but there are differences amongst the tools. The SiteWise{sup TM} sustainability tool developed for the Navy and US Army will be compared with the Sustainable Remediation Tool (SRT{sup TM}) developed for the US Air Force (USAF). In addition, the USAF's Clean Solar and Wind Energy in Environmental Programs (CleanSWEEP), a soon-to-be-released tool for evaluating the economic feasibility of utilizing renewal energy for powering remediation systems will be described in the paper. (authors)

  16. Monte Carlo simulation of the electron and X-ray depth distribution for quantitative electron probe microanalysis of PWR spent fuels

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kwon, Hyoung Mun; Lee, Hyung Kwon; Son, Young Zoon; Chun, Yong Bum [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2011-10-15

    Electron probe microanalysis requires several corrections to quantify an element of a specimen. The X-rays produced by the primary beam are created at some depth in the specimen. This distribution is usually represented as the function {Phi}(pz), and it is possible to calculate the correction factors for atomic number and absorption effects. The electron and X-ray depth distributions for a quantitative electron probe micro analysis were simulated by the CASINO Monte Carlo program to quantify some elements of the PWR spent fuel with 50 GWd/tU of burnup and 2 years of cooling time

  17. Monte Carlo simulation of the electron and X-ray depth distribution for quantitative electron probe microanalysis of PWR spent fuels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kwon, Hyoung Mun; Lee, Hyung Kwon; Son, Young Zoon; Chun, Yong Bum

    2011-01-01

    Electron probe microanalysis requires several corrections to quantify an element of a specimen. The X-rays produced by the primary beam are created at some depth in the specimen. This distribution is usually represented as the function Φ(pz), and it is possible to calculate the correction factors for atomic number and absorption effects. The electron and X-ray depth distributions for a quantitative electron probe micro analysis were simulated by the CASINO Monte Carlo program to quantify some elements of the PWR spent fuel with 50 GWd/tU of burnup and 2 years of cooling time

  18. Preparation and certification of the Polish reference material Virginia Tobacco Leaves (CTA-VTL-2) for inorganic trace analysis including microanalysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dybczynski, R.; Polkowska-Motrenko, H.; Samczynski, Z.; Szopa, Z.

    1997-12-31

    A new Polish certified reference material Virginia Tobacco Leaves (CTA-VTL-2) for inorganic trace analysis including microanalysis has been prepared. Certification of the candidate reference material was based on the world-wide interlaboratory comparison in which 60 laboratories from 18 countries, participated using various analytical methods and techniques. Data evaluation performed by means of the new multifunctional software package -SSQC. Recommended values were assigned for 33 and `information` values for 10 elements, respectively. The validity of `certified` values was confirmed for several elements using `very accurate` methods developed in this Laboratory. (author). 47 refs, 28 figs, 12 tabs.

  19. Sugar microanalysis by HPLC with benzoylation: improvement via introduction of a C-8 cartridge and a high efficiency ODS column.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyagi, Michiko; Yokoyama, Hirokazu; Hibi, Toshifumi

    2007-07-01

    An HPLC protocol for sugar microanalysis based on the formation of ultraviolet-absorbing benzoyl chloride derivatives was improved. Here, samples were prepared with a C-8 cartridge and analyzed with a high efficiency ODS column, in which porous spherical silica particles 3 microm in diameter were packed. These devices allowed us to simultaneously quantify multiple sugars and sugar alcohols up to 10 ng/ml and to provide satisfactory separations of some sugars, such as fructose and myo-inositol and sorbitol and mannitol. This protocol, which does not require special apparatuses, should become a powerful tool in sugar research.

  20. Assessing water availability over peninsular Malaysia using public domain satellite data products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ali, M I; Hashim, M; Zin, H S M

    2014-01-01

    Water availability monitoring is an essential task for water resource sustainability and security. In this paper, the assessment of satellite remote sensing technique for determining water availability is reported. The water-balance analysis is used to compute the spatio-temporal water availability with main inputs; the precipitation and actual evapotranspiration rate (AET), both fully derived from public-domain satellite products of Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) and MODIS, respectively. Both these satellite products were first subjected to calibration to suit corresponding selected local precipitation and AET samples. Multi-temporal data sets acquired 2000-2010 were used in this study. The results of study, indicated strong agreement of monthly water availability with the basin flow rate (r 2 = 0.5, p < 0.001). Similar agreements were also noted between the estimated annual average water availability with the in-situ measurement. It is therefore concluded that the method devised in this study provide a new alternative for water availability mapping over large area, hence offers the only timely and cost-effective method apart from providing comprehensive spatio-temporal patterns, crucial in water resource planning to ensure water security

  1. Low temperature x-ray microanalysis of highly mineralised biological samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clode, P.L.; Marshall, A.T.

    2002-01-01

    Full text: Scleractinian corals are highly calcified animals that possess a massive CaCO 3 skeleton, which is associated with a thin, two-layered epithelium. The presence of the skeleton often precludes the use of conventional techniques for examination of the tissue by light and electron microscopy and necessitates an innovative approach to specimen preparation and analysis. Using a preparatory technique devised by the current authors (Clode and Marshall, 2001), we have applied low temperature x-ray microanalysis to frozen-hydrated preparations of the highly mineralised scleractinian coral Galaxea fascicularis. This has allowed us to identify sites of Ca accumulation and to suggest possible modes of Ca movement across the tissue prior to deposition within the skeleton. Mucocytes, seawater (SW) zones, symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) and lipid were all found to contain high concentrations of Ca. A significant Ca gradient that increased inwardly, from the oral ectoderm toward the skeleton, was evident within each of these features except lipid. This data suggests that Ca uptake and accumulation occurs via an active, transcellular route. The presence of high S, K and Ca concentrations in the SW immediately adjacent to the external surface of the polyp is indicative of a mucous layer creating a Donnan matrix. This matrix may facilitate Ca uptake from the surrounding SW into the tissue, and is also likely to selectively influence diffusional properties at the SW - oral ectodermal interface. Copyright (2002) Australian Society for Electron Microscopy Inc

  2. Lipovitellin-phosvitin crystals with orthorhombic features: thin-section electron microscopy, gel electrophoresis, and microanalysis in teleost and amphibian yolk platelets and a comparison with other vertebrates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lange, R.H.; Richter, H.P.; Riehl, R.; Zierold, K.; Trandaburu, T.; Magdowski, G.

    1983-01-01

    Yolk-platelet crystals in the teleosts Pelvicachromis pulcher and Noemacheilus barbatulus and the amphibians Xenopus laevis, Rana temporaria, R. esculenta, and Triturus sp. have been studied by electron diffraction and imaging using a standardized processing (glutaraldehyde-osmium tetroxide fixation, glutaraldehyde-urea embedding, thin-section staining), by X-ray microanalysis, and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of their constituents. The crystal lattice is orthorhombic having. Crystal images in the three axial projections point to the presence of space group P212121 (or an approximation of it since the lipovitellin dimers cannot be fully equivalent in some cases), to differences between the phosvitins of the two teleosts, and to a highly unusual stain exclusion from large crystal constituents interpreted as representing lipovitellin dimers. Microanalysis in ultrathin cryosections and other preparations revealed K and Cl to be the prominent ions in the crystals (and in the superficial layer of the platelet). Gel electrophoresis (including data of cyclostomes) showed considerable molecular variations despite a closely similar crystal architecture, emphasizing a physiological significance of the architecture, which may have remained conserved for nearly 400 million years according to paleontologic views

  3. Radiological emergencies due to postulated events of melted radioactive material mixed in steel reaching public domain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meena, T.R.; Anoj Kumar; Patra, R.P.; Vikas; Patil, S.S.; Chatterjee, M.K.; Sharma, Ranjit; Murali, S.

    2014-01-01

    National level response mechanism is developed at emergency response centres of DAE (DAE-ERCs) at 22 different locations spread all over the country and National Disaster Response Forces with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). ERCs are equipped with radiation monitors, radionuclide identifinders, Personnel Radiation Dosimeters (PRD) with monitoring capabilities of the order of tens of nGy/h (μR/hr) above the radiation background at any suspected locations. Even if small amounts of radioactive material is smuggled and brought in some other form into public domain, ERCs are capable to detect, identify and segregate the radioactive material from any inactive scrap. DAE-ERCs have demonstrated their capability in source search, detection, identification and recovery during the radiological emergency at Mayapuri, New Delhi

  4. Radiological emergencies due to postulated events of melted radioactive material mixed in steel reaching public domain

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meena, T. R.; Kumar, Anoj; Patra, R. P.; Vikas,; Patil, S. S.; Chatterjee, M. K.; Sharma, Ranjit; Murali, S., E-mail: tejram@barc.gov.in [Radiation Safety Systems Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai (India)

    2014-07-01

    National level response mechanism is developed at emergency response centres of DAE (DAE-ERCs) at 22 different locations spread all over the country and National Disaster Response Forces with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). ERCs are equipped with radiation monitors, radionuclide identifinders, Personnel Radiation Dosimeters (PRD) with monitoring capabilities of the order of tens of nGy/h (μR/hr) above the radiation background at any suspected locations. Even if small amounts of radioactive material is smuggled and brought in some other form into public domain, ERCs are capable to detect, identify and segregate the radioactive material from any inactive scrap. DAE-ERCs have demonstrated their capability in source search, detection, identification and recovery during the radiological emergency at Mayapuri, New Delhi.

  5. Monte Carlo Simulation of Quantitative Electron Probe Microanalysis of the PWR Spent Fuel with a Pt Coating

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kwon, Hyoung Mun; Lee, Hyung Kwon; Son, Young Zoon; Chun, Yong Bum

    2012-01-01

    The PWR spent fuel sample should be coated with conducting material in order to provide a path for electrons and to prevent charging. Generally, the ZAF method has been used for quantitative electron probe microanalysis of conducting samples. However, the coated samples are not applicable for the ZAF method. Probe current, primary electron energy and x-ray produced by the primary beam are attenuated within the coating films. The electron and X-ray depth distributions for a quantitative electron probe micro analysis were simulated by the CASINO Monte Carlo program [2] to evaluate the x-ray attenuation within the Pt coating films. The target samples are the PWR spent fuels with 50 GWd/tU of burnup , 6 years of cooling time and a Pt coating film (3, 5, 7, 10 and 15 nm thickness)

  6. Monte Carlo Simulation of Quantitative Electron Probe Microanalysis of the PWR Spent Fuel with a Pt Coating

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kwon, Hyoung Mun; Lee, Hyung Kwon; Son, Young Zoon; Chun, Yong Bum [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2012-05-15

    The PWR spent fuel sample should be coated with conducting material in order to provide a path for electrons and to prevent charging. Generally, the ZAF method has been used for quantitative electron probe microanalysis of conducting samples. However, the coated samples are not applicable for the ZAF method. Probe current, primary electron energy and x-ray produced by the primary beam are attenuated within the coating films. The electron and X-ray depth distributions for a quantitative electron probe micro analysis were simulated by the CASINO Monte Carlo program [2] to evaluate the x-ray attenuation within the Pt coating films. The target samples are the PWR spent fuels with 50 GWd/tU of burnup , 6 years of cooling time and a Pt coating film (3, 5, 7, 10 and 15 nm thickness)

  7. Sodium lauryl sulfate enhances nickel penetration through guinea-pig skin. Studies with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lindberg, M.; Sagstroem, S.R.; Roomans, G.M.; Forslind, B.

    1989-01-01

    The effect of sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), a common ingredient of detergents, on the penetration of nickel through the stratum corneum in the guinea-pig skin model was studied with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX) to evaluate the barrier-damaging properties of this common detergent. The EDX technique allows a simultaneous determination of physiologically important elements, e.g., Na, Mg, P, Cl, K, Ca and S in addition to Ni at each point of measurement in epidermal cell strata. Our results show that SLS reduces the barrier function to Ni-ion penetration of the stratum corneum. In addition we have shown that EDX allows analysis of the influence of different factors involved in nickel penetration through the skin by giving data on the physiological effects on the epidermal cells caused by the applied substances

  8. Energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis of zinc and calcium in organelles of insulin-producing cells of the mouse, rat, and a fish

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Falkmer, S; Odselius, R [Lund Univ. (Sweden); Blondel, B; Prentki, M; Wollheim, C B [Geneva Univ. (Switzerland)

    1985-01-01

    By means of energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis in the scanning-transmission electron microscope, spectra were obtained from quick-frozen, cryo-ultramicrotome-cut, freeze-dried sections of insulin cells from a fish and a mouse. It was shown that both zinc and calcium are present in significant quantities in native islet cell ..beta.. granules. In the ..beta.. granules of the rat RINm5F insuloma cells calcium, but not zinc, seemed to accumulate; the zinc contents in the secretion granules of these neoplastic ..beta.. cells were probably below the detection limit.

  9. Magmatic Vapor Phase Transport of Copper in Reduced Porphyry Copper-Gold Deposits: Evidence From PIXE Microanalysis of Fluid Inclusions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rowins, S. M.; Yeats, C. J.; Ryan, C. G.

    2002-05-01

    Nondestructive proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) studies of magmatic fluid inclusions in granite-related Sn-W deposits [1] reveal that copper transport out of reduced felsic magmas is favored by low-salinity vapor and not co-existing high-salinity liquid (halite-saturated brine). Copper transport by magmatic vapor also has been documented in oxidized porphyry Cu-Au deposits, but the magnitude of Cu partitioning into the vapor compared to the brine generally is less pronounced than in the reduced magmatic Sn-W systems [2]. Consideration of these microanalytical data leads to the hypothesis that Cu and, by inference, Au in the recently established "reduced porphyry copper-gold" (RPCG) subclass should partition preferentially into vapor and not high-salinity liquid exsolving directly from fluid-saturated magmas [3-4]. To test this hypothesis, PIXE microanalysis of primary fluid inclusions in quartz-sulfide (pyrite, pyrrhotite & chalcopyrite) veins from two RPCG deposits was undertaken using the CSIRO-GEMOC nuclear microprobe. PIXE microanalysis for the ~30 Ma San Anton deposit (Mexico) was done on halite-saturated aqueous brine (deposit (W. Australia) was done on halite-saturated "aqueous" inclusions, which contain a small (deposits of the new RPCG subclass demonstrate the greater potential of these systems, compared to the classically oxidized porphyry Cu-Au systems, to transport Cu and probably precious metals in a magmatic aqueous vapor phase. These PIXE data also support the possibility that Cu partitions preferentially into an immiscible CO2-rich magmatic fluid. References: [1] Heinrich, C.A. et al. (1992) Econ. Geol., 87, 1566-1583. [2] Heinrich, C.A. et al. (1999) Geology, 27, 755-758. [3] Rowins, S.M. (2000) Geology, 28, 491-494. [4] Rowins, S.M. (2000) The Gangue, GAC-MDD Newsletter, 67, 1-7 (www.gac.ca). [5] Rowins, S.M. et al. (1993) Geol. Soc. Australia Abs., 34, 68-70.

  10. Exceptional case of bone resorption in an osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis. A scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Caiazza, S.; Falcinelli, G.; Pintucci, S. (Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome (Italy))

    1990-01-01

    This article reports the findings of investigations on an osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis in an eye that was enucleated owing to severe complications 12 years after implantation. Scanning electron microscopy and electron probe X-ray microanalysis showed extensive resorption of the bone that was used as a supporting element in the kind of transcorneal prosthesis developed by Strampelli. The destructive process, in addition to surgical trauma, has been associated with the early and recurrent bacterial infections relating to the presence of Staphylococcus epidermidis. The need to control the occurrence of primary bacterial infections in traumatized tissues during operations as well as further infectious situations, given the enhanced antibiotic-resistence of bacteria, is emphasized.

  11. Exceptional case of bone resorption in an osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis. A scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caiazza, S.; Falcinelli, G.; Pintucci, S.

    1990-01-01

    This article reports the findings of investigations on an osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis in an eye that was enucleated owing to severe complications 12 years after implantation. Scanning electron microscopy and electron probe X-ray microanalysis showed extensive resorption of the bone that was used as a supporting element in the kind of transcorneal prosthesis developed by Strampelli. The destructive process, in addition to surgical trauma, has been associated with the early and recurrent bacterial infections relating to the presence of Staphylococcus epidermidis. The need to control the occurrence of primary bacterial infections in traumatized tissues during operations as well as further infectious situations, given the enhanced antibiotic-resistence of bacteria, is emphasized

  12. Chemical and structural composition study through transmission and reflection electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis of damaged duramater cardiac valves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Verginelli, G.; Didio, L.J.A.; Puig, L.B.; Allen, D.J.; Highinson, G.H.; Zerbini, E.J.

    1982-01-01

    Ten malfunctioning durameter aortic prosthesis, excised surgically after 44 to 54 months of implantation were studied through transmission and reflection electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis. Duramater extracted at necropsy but not used for valve prosthesis and duramater aortic prosthesis not implanted in patients were used as controls. It was concluded that homologous duramater valves present subcellular changes following implantation, with degenerating and proliferating areas which could correspond either to normal adaptation or consequence of degeneration - rebuilding which begins with implantation; it is also emphazised the need for ultramicroscopic studies in evaluating biological tissues and establishing its applicability in cardiac surgery. (M.A.C.) [pt

  13. Focussed ion beam thin sample microanalysis using a field emission gun electron probe microanalyser

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kubo, Y.

    2018-01-01

    Field emission gun electron probe microanalysis (FEG-EPMA) in conjunction with wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectrometry using a low acceleration voltage (V acc) allows elemental analysis with sub-micrometre lateral spatial resolution (SR). However, this degree of SR does not necessarily meet the requirements associated with increasingly miniaturised devices. Another challenge related to performing FEG-EPMA with a low V acc is that the accuracy of quantitative analyses is adversely affected, primarily because low energy X-ray lines such as the L- and M-lines must be employed and due to the potential of line interference. One promising means of obtaining high SR with FEG-EPMA is to use thin samples together with high V acc values. This mini-review covers the basic principles of thin-sample FEG-EPMA and describes an application of this technique to the analysis of optical fibres. Outstanding issues related to this technique that must be addressed are also discussed, which include the potential for electron beam damage during analysis of insulating materials and the development of methods to use thin samples for quantitative analysis.

  14. Combining trace elements micro-analysis in deposited dredged sediments: EPMA and μ-XRF analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Poitevin, A; Lerouge, C; Wille, G; Bataillard, P; Quinn, P; Hennet, L

    2012-01-01

    Since deposited dredged sediments are rich in metallic contaminants, they present a risk for environment. This work aims to study dredged sediments chemical composition, identify metal-carrier minerals and understand their mobility. Combining chemical and spectroscopic techniques at multi-scale for an integrative approach of trace elements (zinc, lead, iron) behaviour is therefore necessary. The global mineralogy and the chemistry of the sediment were determined by X-ray diffraction and fluorescence (XRF), respectively. Zn and Pb enriched fractions were separated using a sequential chemical extraction procedure and measured by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission and mass spectroscopy. Microanalyses using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron microprobe microanalysis (EPMA), combined with synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) were carried out to characterize mineralogical phases and identify Zn and Pb carrier minerals. Iron oxyhydroxides and iron sulphides were consistently identify as Zn and Pb carriers. The assumption that carbonate fraction was the major Zn carried phase, as demonstrated by chemical extraction results, was not verified by EPMA or μ-XRF.

  15. Web Syndication Approaches for Sharing Primary Data in "Small Science" Domains

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eric C Kansa

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available In some areas of science, sophisticated web services and semantics underlie "cyberinfrastructure". However, in "small science" domains, especially in field sciences such as archaeology, conservation, and public health, datasets often resist standardization. Publishing data in the small sciences should embrace this diversity rather than attempt to corral research into "universal" (domain standards. A growing ecosystem of increasingly powerful Web syndication based approaches for sharing data on the public Web can offer a viable approach. Atom Feed based services can be used with scientific collections to identify and create linkages across different datasets, even across disciplinary boundaries without shared domain standards.

  16. Iron speciation of airborne subway particles by the combined use of energy dispersive electron probe X-ray microanalysis and Raman microspectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eom, Hyo-Jin; Jung, Hae-Jin; Sobanska, Sophie; Chung, Sang-Gwi; Son, Youn-Suk; Kim, Jo-Chun; Sunwoo, Young; Ro, Chul-Un

    2013-11-05

    Quantitative energy-dispersive electron probe X-ray microanalysis (ED-EPMA), known as low-Z particle EPMA, and Raman microspectrometry (RMS) were applied in combination for an analysis of the iron species in airborne PM10 particles collected in underground subway tunnels. Iron species have been reported to be a major chemical species in underground subway particles generated mainly from mechanical wear and friction processes. In particular, iron-containing particles in subway tunnels are expected to be generated with minimal outdoor influence on the particle composition. Because iron-containing particles have different toxicity and magnetic properties depending on their oxidation states, it is important to determine the iron species of underground subway particles in the context of both indoor public health and control measures. A recently developed analytical methodology, i.e., the combined use of low-Z particle EPMA and RMS, was used to identify the chemical species of the same individual subway particles on a single particle basis, and the bulk iron compositions of airborne subway particles were also analyzed by X-ray diffraction. The majority of airborne subway particles collected in the underground tunnels were found to be magnetite, hematite, and iron metal. All the particles collected in the tunnels of underground subway stations were attracted to permanent magnets due mainly to the almost ubiquitous ferrimagnetic magnetite, indicating that airborne subway particles can be removed using magnets as a control measure.

  17. Electron probe microanalysis for clinical investigations: Microdrop and soft tissue analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ingram, M.J.; Ingram, F.D.

    1984-01-01

    The most important advantage offered by electron probe microanalysis (EPA) for clinical investigations is the ability to analyze smaller volumes of tissue than is possible with conventional techniques. The sample can be a biological soft tissue specimen, which involves subcellular localization, or a picoliter fluid droplet. In either case, the analysis can be nondestructive and permit multiple analyses for a number of elements in a given sample. The most highly developed electron microprobe analytical technique is fluid drop analysis, popularly referred to as microdrop analysis. This method provides the investigator with an analytic capability that has an accuracy of measurement often 1% or better on 20 to 30 picoliter fluid droplets. Electron microprobe techniques have been used for studies of animal hard tissue and for studies that involve insoluble inclusions. However, the development of techniques for studies of labile constituents in animal soft tissue has been much slower. It has been necessary not only to develop appropriate methods of tissue preparation, but also to establish sound techniques for tissue collection. Although there are adequate methods for collection of most types of tissue from laboratory animals, many of these methods are not suitable for human subjects. In order to provide the reader with a better understanding of the capabilities and potential for the application of electron microprobe methodology to problems in clinical medicine, the authors discuss some of their experiences with liquid droplet analysis and quantitative electrolyte distribution measurements in animal soft tissue

  18. Opening of energy markets: consequences on the missions of public utility and of security of supplies in the domain of electric power and gas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2001-01-01

    This conference was jointly organized by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the French ministry of economy, finances, and industry (general direction of energy and raw materials, DGEMP). It was organized in 6 sessions dealing with: 1 - the public utility in the domain of energy: definition of the public utility missions, experience feedback about liberalized markets, public utility obligation and pricing regulation; 2 - the new US energy policy and the lessons learnt from the California crisis; 3 - the security of electric power supplies: concepts of security of supplies, opinion of operators, security of power supplies versus liberalization and investments; 4 - security of gas supplies: markets liberalization and investments, long-term contracts and security of supplies; 5 - debate: how to integrate the objectives of public utility and of security of supplies in a competing market; 6 - conclusions. This document brings together the available talks and transparencies presented at the conference. (J.S.)

  19. The impact of irradiation induced specimen charging on microanalysis in a scanning electron microscope

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stevens-Kalceff, M.A.

    2003-01-01

    Full text: It is necessary to assess and characterize the perturbing influences of experimental probes on the specimens under investigation. The significant influence of electron beam irradiation on poorly conducting materials has been assessed by a combination of specialized analytical scanning electron and scanning probe microscopy techniques including Cathodoluminescence Microanalysis and Kelvin Probe Microscopy. These techniques enable the defect structure and the residual charging of materials to be characterized at high spatial resolution. Cathodoluminescence is the non-incandescent emission of light resulting from the electron irradiation. CL microscopy and spectroscopy in a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) enables high spatial resolution and high sensitivity detection of defects in poorly conducting materials. Local variations in the distribution of defects can be non-destructively characterized with high spatial (lateral and depth) resolution by adjusting electron beam parameters to select the specimen micro-volume of interest. Kelvin Probe Microscopy (KPM) is a Scanning Probe Microscopy technique in which long-range Coulomb forces between a conductive atomic force probe and the specimen enable the surface potential to be characterized with high spatial resolution. A combination of Kelvin Probe Microscopy (KPM) and Cathodoluminescence (CL) microanalysis has been used to characterize ultra pure silicon dioxide exposed to electron irradiation in a Scanning Electron Microscope. Silicon dioxide is an excellent model specimen with which to investigate charging induced effects. It is a very poor electrical conductor, homogeneous and electron irradiation produces easily identifiable surface modification which enables irradiated regions to be easily and unambiguously located. A conductive grounded coating is typically applied to poorly conducting specimens prior to investigation in an SEM to prevent deflection of the electron beam and surface charging, however

  20. Spatially resolved quantification of agrochemicals on plant surfaces using energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunsche, Mauricio; Noga, Georg

    2009-12-01

    In the present study the principle of energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX), i.e. the detection of elements based on their characteristic X-rays, was used to localise and quantify organic and inorganic pesticides on enzymatically isolated fruit cuticles. Pesticides could be discriminated from the plant surface because of their distinctive elemental composition. Findings confirm the close relation between net intensity (NI) and area covered by the active ingredient (AI area). Using wide and narrow concentration ranges of glyphosate and glufosinate, respectively, results showed that quantification of AI requires the selection of appropriate regression equations while considering NI, peak-to-background (P/B) ratio, and AI area. The use of selected internal standards (ISs) such as Ca(NO(3))(2) improved the accuracy of the quantification slightly but led to the formation of particular, non-typical microstructured deposits. The suitability of SEM-EDX as a general technique to quantify pesticides was evaluated additionally on 14 agrochemicals applied at diluted or regular concentration. Among the pesticides tested, spatial localisation and quantification of AI amount could be done for inorganic copper and sulfur as well for the organic agrochemicals glyphosate, glufosinate, bromoxynil and mancozeb. (c) 2009 Society of Chemical Industry.

  1. A review on the use of bulk specimen X-ray microanalysis in cancer research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zs-Nagy, I.

    1989-01-01

    The freeze-fracture, freeze-drying (FFFD) method of biological bulk specimen preparation combined with quantitative X-ray microanalysis is suitable for the measurement of intracellular concentrations of biologically relevant elements in human biopsy or experimental animal materials. Especially useful information can be obtained regarding the intracellular Na+/K+ ratios being independent of the actual (and unknown) water content of the cytoplasm. The sustained increase of this ratio indicates a sustained depolarization of the cell membrane. These data are of importance from the point of view of the membrane hypothesis of mitogenesis (MHM). It has been revealed that the distribution histograms of the intracellular Na+/K+ ratio display a very significant broadening and an increase of the average values in human urogenital, thyroid and laryngeal tumors, as well as in experimentally induced cell proliferation models. Although MHM has been claimed to be invalid on the basis of some atomic absorption measurements of the intracellular monovalent ion concentrations as well as of some in vitro results obtained with amiloride, this review paper demonstrates that MHM may still be a valid hypothesis for the explanation of mitotic regulation.97 references

  2. Climiate Resilience Screening Index and Domain Scores

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — CRSI and related-domain scores for all 50 states and 3135 counties in the U.S. This dataset is not publicly accessible because: They are already available within the...

  3. Transcript structure and domain display: a customizable transcript visualization tool.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watanabe, Kenneth A; Ma, Kaiwang; Homayouni, Arielle; Rushton, Paul J; Shen, Qingxi J

    2016-07-01

    Transcript Structure and Domain Display (TSDD) is a publicly available, web-based program that provides publication quality images of transcript structures and domains. TSDD is capable of producing transcript structures from GFF/GFF3 and BED files. Alternatively, the GFF files of several model organisms have been pre-loaded so that users only needs to enter the locus IDs of the transcripts to be displayed. Visualization of transcripts provides many benefits to researchers, ranging from evolutionary analysis of DNA-binding domains to predictive function modeling. TSDD is freely available for non-commercial users at http://shenlab.sols.unlv.edu/shenlab/software/TSD/transcript_display.html : jeffery.shen@unlv.nevada.edu. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  4. Sub-microanalysis of solid samples with near-field enhanced atomic emission spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xiaohua; Liang, Zhisen; Meng, Yifan; Wang, Tongtong; Hang, Wei; Huang, Benli

    2018-03-01

    A novel approach, which we have chosen to name it as near-field enhanced atomic emission spectroscopy (NFE-AES), was proposed by introducing a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) system into a laser-induced breakdown spectrometry (LIBS). The near-field enhancement of a laser-illuminated tip was utilized to improve the lateral resolution tremendously. Using the hybrid arrangement, pure metal tablets were analyzed to verify the performance of NFE-AES both in atmosphere and in vacuum. Due to localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), the incident electromagnetic field is enhanced and confined at the apex of tip, resulting in sub-micron scale ablation and elemental emission signal. We discovered that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the spectral resolution obtained in vacuum condition are better than those acquired in atmospheric condition. The quantitative capability of NFE-AES was demonstrated by analyzing Al and Pb in Cu matrix, respectively. Submicron-sized ablation craters were achieved by performing NFE-AES on a Si wafer with an Al film, and the spectroscopic information from a crater of 650 nm diameter was successfully obtained. Due to its advantage of high lateral resolution, NFE-AES imaging of micro-patterned Al lines on an integrated circuit of a SIM card was demonstrated with a sub-micron lateral resolution. These results reveal the potential of the NFE-AES technique in sub-microanalysis of solids, opening an opportunity to map chemical composition at sub-micron scale.

  5. Accelerator microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tuniz, C.

    1997-01-01

    Particle accelerators have been developed more than sixty years ago to investigate nuclear and atomic phenomena. A major shift toward applications of accelerators in the study of materials structure and composition in inter-disciplinary projects has been witnessed in the last two decades. The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has developed advanced research programs based on the use of particle and photon beams. Atmospheric pollution problems are investigated at the 3 MV Van de Graff accelerator using ion beam analysis techniques to detect toxic elements in aerosol particles. High temperature superconductor and semiconductor materials are characterised using the recoil of iodine and other heavy ions produced at ANTARES, the 10-MV Tandem accelerator. A heavy-ion microprobe is presently being developed at ANTARES to map elemental concentrations of specific elements with micro-size resolution. An Accelerator mass Spectrometry (AMS) system has been developed at ANSTO for the ultra-sensitive detection of Carbon-14, Iodine-129 and other long-lived radioisotopes. This AMS spectrometer is a key instrument for climate change studies and international safeguards. ANSTO is also managing the Australian Synchrotron Research program based on facilities developed at the Photon Factory (Japan) and at the Advanced Photon Source (USA). Advanced projects in biology, materials chemistry, structural condensed matter and other disciplines are being promoted by a consortium involving Australian universities and research institutions. This paper will review recent advances in the use of particle accelerators, with a particular emphasis on applications developed at ANSTO and related to problems of international concern, such as global environmental change, public health and nuclear proliferation

  6. Psychometric characteristics of a public-domain self-report measure of vocational interests: the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pozzebon, Julie A; Visser, Beth A; Ashton, Michael C; Lee, Kibeom; Goldberg, Lewis R

    2010-03-01

    We investigated the psychometric properties of the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales (ORVIS), a brief public-domain alternative to commercial inventories, in a large community sample and in a college sample. In both samples, we examined the factor structure, scale intercorrelations, and personality correlates of the ORVIS, and in the community sample, we also examined the correlations of the ORVIS scales with cognitive abilities and with the scales of a longer, proprietary interest survey. In both samples, all 8 scales-Leadership, Organization, Altruism, Creativity, Analysis, Producing, Adventuring, and Erudition-showed wide variation in scores, high internal-consistency reliabilities, and a pattern of high convergent and low discriminant correlations with the scales of the proprietary interest survey. Overall, the results support the construct validity of the scales, which are recommended for use in research on vocational interests and other individual differences.

  7. La apropiación del dominio público y las posibilidades de acceso a los bienes culturales | The appropriation of the public domain and the possibilities of access to cultural goods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joan Ramos Toledano

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Resumen: Las normas de propiedad intelectual y copyright prevén un periodo de protección otorgando unos derechos económicos exclusivos y temporales. Pasado un plazo determinado, las obras protegidas entran en lo que se denomina dominio público. Éste suele ser considerado como el momento en el que los bienes culturales pasan a estar bajo el dominio y control de la sociedad en conjunto. El presente trabajo pretende argumentar que, dado nuestro actual sistema económico, en realidad el dominio público funciona más como una posibilidad de negocio para determinadas empresas que como una verdadera opción para que el público pueda acceder a las obras.   Abstract: The legislation of continental intellectual property and copyright provide for a period of protection granting exclusive and temporary economic rights. After a certain period, protected works enter into what is called the public domain. This is often considered as the moment in which the cultural goods come under the control and domain of society as a whole. The present paper pretends to argue that, given our current economic system, the public domain actually functions more as a business opportunity for certain companies than as a real option for the public to access artistic and intellectual works.

  8. Selected ICAR Data from the SAPA-Project: Development and Initial Validation of a Public-Domain Measure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David M. Condon

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available These data were collected during the initial evaluation of the International Cognitive Ability Resource (ICAR project. ICAR is an international collaborative effort to develop open-source public-domain tools for cognitive ability assessment, including tools that can be administered in non-proctored environments (e.g., online administration and those which are based on automatic item generation algorithms. These data provide initial validation of the first four ICAR item types as reported in Condon & Revelle [1]. The 4 item types contain a total of 60 items: 9 Letter and Number Series items, 11 Matrix Reasoning items, 16 Verbal Reasoning items and 24 Three-dimensional Rotation items. Approximately 97,000 individuals were administered random subsets of these 60 items using the Synthetic Aperture Personality Assessment method between August 18, 2010 and May 20, 2013. The data are available in rdata and csv formats and are accompanied by documentation stored as a text file. Re-use potential includes a wide range of structural and item-level analyses.

  9. Ubiquitin domain proteins in disease

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Klausen, Louise Kjær; Schulze, Andrea; Seeger, Michael

    2007-01-01

    The human genome encodes several ubiquitin-like (UBL) domain proteins (UDPs). Members of this protein family are involved in a variety of cellular functions and many are connected to the ubiquitin proteasome system, an essential pathway for protein degradation in eukaryotic cells. Despite...... and cancer. Publication history: Republished from Current BioData's Targeted Proteins database (TPdb; http://www.targetedproteinsdb.com)....

  10. Cytochemical and x-ray microanalysis studies of intracellular calcium pools in scale-bearing cells of the coccolithophorid emiliana huxleyi

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wal, P. van der; Bruijn, W.C. de; Westbroek, P.

    1985-01-01

    Emiliania huxleyi is a coccolithophorid with a life cycle including a stage characterized by the occurrence of a scale-bearing cell type. The scales are composed of organic material and are produced in the cisternae of the Golgi apparatus. The present report deals with the ultrastructural calcium localization in scale-bearing cells using cation-precipitating agents. Cations were precipitated either with potassium carbonate, or potassium phosphate, and then with potassium pyroantimonate. The distribution of electron-opaque deposits was the same when visualized by all four techniques. The most extensive deposits occurred in the Golgi apparatus, the 'peripheral space' (a cellular compartment totally encompassing the protoplast), the multivesicular bodies, and the cell vacuole. X-ray microanalysis revealed that calcium was a constituent of the electron-opaque deposits. The uptake and transport of calcium, as universal functions of the Golgi apparatus, are discussed. (Author)

  11. Impacts on the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2: Microanalysis and Recognition of Micrometeoroid Compositions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kearsley, A. T.; Ross, D. K.; Anz-Meador, P.; Liou, J. C.; Opiela, J.; Grime, G. W.; Webb, R. P.; Jeynes, C.; Palitsin, V. V.; Colaux, J. L.; hide

    2014-01-01

    Postflight surveys of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on the Hubble Space Telescope have located hundreds of features on the 2.2 by 0.8 m curved plate, evidence of hypervelocity impact by small particles during 16 years of exposure to space in low Earth orbit (LEO). The radiator has a 100 - 200 micron surface layer of white paint, overlying 4 mm thick Al alloy, which was not fully penetrated by any impact. Over 460 WFPC2 samples were extracted by coring at JSC. About half were sent to NHM in a collaborative program with NASA, ESA and IBC. The structural and compositional heterogeneity at micrometer scale required microanalysis by electron and ion beam microscopes to determine the nature of the impactors (artificial orbital debris, or natural micrometeoroids, MM). Examples of MM impacts are described elsewhere. Here we describe the development of novel electron beam analysis protocols, required to recognize the subtle traces of MM residues.

  12. Characteristics of scientific web publications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thorlund Jepsen, Erik; Seiden, Piet; Ingwersen, Peter Emil Rerup

    2004-01-01

    were generated based on specifically selected domain topics that are searched for in three publicly accessible search engines (Google, AllTheWeb, and AltaVista). A sample of the retrieved hits was analyzed with regard to how various publication attributes correlated with the scientific quality...... of the content and whether this information could be employed to harvest, filter, and rank Web publications. The attributes analyzed were inlinks, outlinks, bibliographic references, file format, language, search engine overlap, structural position (according to site structure), and the occurrence of various...... types of metadata. As could be expected, the ranked output differs between the three search engines. Apparently, this is caused by differences in ranking algorithms rather than the databases themselves. In fact, because scientific Web content in this subject domain receives few inlinks, both Alta...

  13. Ultrastructural localization of lead in Stigeoclonium tenue (chlorophyceae, ulotrichales) as demonstrated by cytochemical and x-ray microanalysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Silverberg, B A

    1975-12-01

    Results of ultrastructural studies and TEM-X-ray microanalysis of the ulotrichalean alga Stigeoclonium tenue experimentally exposed to increasing concentrations of lead nitrate are presented. A fine-structural examination of the cells revealed that detectable amounts of lead (Pb) had entered the cytoplasm and could be recognized most easily as electron-dense precipitates localized on the cell wall and within the two large peripheral vacuoles. Dense deposits were never observed in mitochondria, plastids or nuclei. Pinocytotic vacuoles containing lead spheroids are removed endocytotically to the cytoplasmic vacuoles, rendering the Pb innocuous. The evidence suggests that the cell wall and vacuoles are important structures in maintaining a relatively low cytoplasmic concentration of lead, thereby reducing the toxic effects of lead ions on sensitive cellular functions. At high concentrations, ranging from 0.15 to 0.5 mg Pb/l, noticeable alterations in the fine structure of the chloroplast are evident. A method is described for the visualization of Pb deposits in fresh, chemically fixed and plastic-embedded material using a saturated solution of sodium rhodizonate.

  14. A useful and non-invasive microanalysis method for dental restoration materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hosoki, M.; Satsuma, T.; Nishigawa, K.; Takeuchi, H.; Asaoka, K.

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► This method for the microanalysis of dental alloys is beneficial for patients with allergies to dental materials. ► This metal sample is easy to mail it for inspection at specialist institutes. ► This method can be also be used in general dental clinics. - Abstract: The elemental analysis of intraoral dental restorations provides considerable information for the treatment of dental metal allergy. Elemental analyses require specific instruments and complicated procedures, so this examination is not commonly carried out in private dental clinics. We describe a novel, simple and useful micro-analytical method for dental metal restorations. Micro metal dust was obtained by polishing the surface of restorative metal material with an unused silicone point (SUPER-SNAP). The metal dust on the silicone point was then rubbed onto adhesive tape, and this tape was covered with polyethylene film. The amount of metal dust material was <20 μg. An energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer was used to carry out the elementary analysis of the metal dust on the polyethylene film. Three types of dental metal alloy materials of known components were examined. The results of elementary analyses were compared with the specifications provided by the manufacturer. The same procedure was carried out for three dental metal restorations of an adult female volunteer in vivo. The results of elemental analyses for five alloy materials exactly matched the product specification. Three metal samples obtained from intraoral restoration were also available for elemental analyses. The distinct advantage of this method is that it enables sample extraction without an invasive effect for the restoration. The metal sample is in a polyethylene film, so it is easy to mail it for inspection at specialist institutes yet it can be also be used in general dental clinics.

  15. A useful and non-invasive microanalysis method for dental restoration materials

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hosoki, M., E-mail: hosoki@tokushima-u.ac.jp [Department of Fixed Prosthodontics, Institute of Health Biosciences, University of Tokushima Graduate School, 3-18-15 Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima 770-8504 (Japan); Satsuma, T.; Nishigawa, K.; Takeuchi, H. [General Dentistry, Tokushima University Hospital, 3-18-15 Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima 770-8504 (Japan); Asaoka, K. [Department of Biomaterials and Bioengineering, Institute of Health Biosciences, University of Tokushima Graduate School, 3-18-15 Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima 770-8504 (Japan)

    2012-12-01

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer This method for the microanalysis of dental alloys is beneficial for patients with allergies to dental materials. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer This metal sample is easy to mail it for inspection at specialist institutes. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer This method can be also be used in general dental clinics. - Abstract: The elemental analysis of intraoral dental restorations provides considerable information for the treatment of dental metal allergy. Elemental analyses require specific instruments and complicated procedures, so this examination is not commonly carried out in private dental clinics. We describe a novel, simple and useful micro-analytical method for dental metal restorations. Micro metal dust was obtained by polishing the surface of restorative metal material with an unused silicone point (SUPER-SNAP). The metal dust on the silicone point was then rubbed onto adhesive tape, and this tape was covered with polyethylene film. The amount of metal dust material was <20 {mu}g. An energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer was used to carry out the elementary analysis of the metal dust on the polyethylene film. Three types of dental metal alloy materials of known components were examined. The results of elementary analyses were compared with the specifications provided by the manufacturer. The same procedure was carried out for three dental metal restorations of an adult female volunteer in vivo. The results of elemental analyses for five alloy materials exactly matched the product specification. Three metal samples obtained from intraoral restoration were also available for elemental analyses. The distinct advantage of this method is that it enables sample extraction without an invasive effect for the restoration. The metal sample is in a polyethylene film, so it is easy to mail it for inspection at specialist institutes yet it can be also be used in general dental clinics.

  16. Response to a widespread, unauthorized dispersal of radioactive waste in the public domain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wenslawski, F.A.; North, H.S.

    1979-01-01

    In March 1976 State of Nevada radiological health officials became aware that radioactive items destined for disposal at a radioactive waste burial facility near Beatty, Nevada had instead been distributed to wide segments of the public domain. Because the facility was jointly licensed by the State of Nevada and the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, both agencies quickly responded. It was learned that over a period of several years a practice existed at the disposal facility of opening containers, removing contents and allowing employees to take items of worth or fancy. Numerous items such as hand tools, electric motors, laboratory instruments, shipping containers, etc., had received widespread and uncontrolled distribution in the town of Beatty as well as lesser distributions to other locations. Because the situation might have had the potential for a significant health and safety impact, a comprehensive recovery operation was conducted. During the course of seven days of intense effort, thirty-five individuals became involved in a comprehensive door by door survey and search of the town. Aerial surveys were performed using a helicopter equipped with sensitive radiation detectors, while ground level scans were conducted using a van containing similar instrumentation. Aerial reconnaissance photographs were taken, a special town meeting was held and numerous persons were interviewed. The recovery effort resulted in a retrieval of an estimated 20 to 25 pickup truck loads of radioactively contaminated equipment as well as several loads of large items returned on a 40-foot flatbed trailer

  17. Use of media and public-domain Internet sources for detection and assessment of plant health threats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, Carla S; Nelson, Noele P; Jahn, Gary C; Niu, Tianchan; Hartley, David M

    2011-09-05

    Event-based biosurveillance is a recognized approach to early warning and situational awareness of emerging health threats. In this study, we build upon previous human and animal health work to develop a new approach to plant pest and pathogen surveillance. We show that monitoring public domain electronic media for indications and warning of epidemics and associated social disruption can provide information about the emergence and progression of plant pest infestation or disease outbreak. The approach is illustrated using a case study, which describes a plant pest and pathogen epidemic in China and Vietnam from February 2006 to December 2007, and the role of ducks in contributing to zoonotic virus spread in birds and humans. This approach could be used as a complementary method to traditional plant pest and pathogen surveillance to aid global and national plant protection officials and political leaders in early detection and timely response to significant biological threats to plant health, economic vitality, and social stability. This study documents the inter-relatedness of health in human, animal, and plant populations and emphasizes the importance of plant health surveillance.

  18. Characterization of acid tars

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Leonard, Sunday A., E-mail: sunday.leonard@ucl.ac.uk [Department of Civil Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, Chadwick Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT (United Kingdom); Stegemann, Julia A. [Department of Civil Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, Chadwick Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT (United Kingdom); Roy, Amitava [J. Bennett Johnston, Sr., Centre for Advance Microstructures and Devices (CAMD), 6980 Jefferson Highway, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70806 (United States)

    2010-03-15

    Acid tars from the processing of petroleum and petrochemicals using sulfuric acid were characterized by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), inductively coupled plasma/optical emission spectrometry (ICP/OES), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray (SEM/EDX) micro-analysis. Leaching of contaminants from the acid tars in 48 h batch tests with distilled water at a liquid-to-solid ratio 10:1 was also studied. GC/MS results show that the samples contained aliphatic hydrocarbons, cyclic hydrocarbons, up to 12 of the 16 USEPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and numerous other organic groups, including organic acids (sulfonic acids, carboxylic acids and aromatic acids), phenyl, nitrile, amide, furans, thiophenes, pyrroles, and phthalates, many of which are toxic. Metals analysis shows that Pb was present in significant concentration. DSC results show different transition peaks in the studied samples, demonstrating their complexity and variability. FTIR analysis further confirmed the presence of the organic groups detected by GC/MS. The SEM/EDX micro-analysis results provided insight on the surface characteristics of the samples and show that contaminants distribution was heterogeneous. The results provide useful data on the composition, complexity, and variability of acid tars; information which hitherto have been scarce in public domain.

  19. Characterization of acid tars

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leonard, Sunday A.; Stegemann, Julia A.; Roy, Amitava

    2010-01-01

    Acid tars from the processing of petroleum and petrochemicals using sulfuric acid were characterized by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), inductively coupled plasma/optical emission spectrometry (ICP/OES), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray (SEM/EDX) micro-analysis. Leaching of contaminants from the acid tars in 48 h batch tests with distilled water at a liquid-to-solid ratio 10:1 was also studied. GC/MS results show that the samples contained aliphatic hydrocarbons, cyclic hydrocarbons, up to 12 of the 16 USEPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and numerous other organic groups, including organic acids (sulfonic acids, carboxylic acids and aromatic acids), phenyl, nitrile, amide, furans, thiophenes, pyrroles, and phthalates, many of which are toxic. Metals analysis shows that Pb was present in significant concentration. DSC results show different transition peaks in the studied samples, demonstrating their complexity and variability. FTIR analysis further confirmed the presence of the organic groups detected by GC/MS. The SEM/EDX micro-analysis results provided insight on the surface characteristics of the samples and show that contaminants distribution was heterogeneous. The results provide useful data on the composition, complexity, and variability of acid tars; information which hitherto have been scarce in public domain.

  20. A role for chromatin topology in imprinted domain regulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacDonald, William A; Sachani, Saqib S; White, Carlee R; Mann, Mellissa R W

    2016-02-01

    Recently, many advancements in genome-wide chromatin topology and nuclear architecture have unveiled the complex and hidden world of the nucleus, where chromatin is organized into discrete neighbourhoods with coordinated gene expression. This includes the active and inactive X chromosomes. Using X chromosome inactivation as a working model, we utilized publicly available datasets together with a literature review to gain insight into topologically associated domains, lamin-associated domains, nucleolar-associating domains, scaffold/matrix attachment regions, and nucleoporin-associated chromatin and their role in regulating monoallelic expression. Furthermore, we comprehensively review for the first time the role of chromatin topology and nuclear architecture in the regulation of genomic imprinting. We propose that chromatin topology and nuclear architecture are important regulatory mechanisms for directing gene expression within imprinted domains. Furthermore, we predict that dynamic changes in chromatin topology and nuclear architecture play roles in tissue-specific imprint domain regulation during early development and differentiation.

  1. Electron probe X-ray microanalysis of boar and inobuta testes after the Fukushima accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamashiro, Hideaki; Abe, Yasuyuki; Hayashi, Gohei; Urushihara, Yusuke; Kuwahara, Yoshikazu; Suzuki, Masatoshi; Kobayashi, Jin; Kino, Yasuyuki; Fukuda, Tomokazu; Tong, Bin; Takino, Sachio; Sugano, Yukou; Sugimura, Satoshi; Yamada, Takahisa; Isogai, Emiko; Fukumoto, Manabu

    2015-01-01

    We aimed to investigate the effect of chronic radiation exposure associated with the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) accident on the testes of boar and inobuta (a hybrid of Sus scrofa and Sus scrofa domestica). This study examined the contamination levels of radioactive caesium (Cs), especially 134 Cs and 137 Cs, in the testis of both boar and inobuta during 2012, after the Fukushima accident. Morphological analysis and electron-probe X-ray microanalysis (EPMA) were also undertaken on the testes. The 134 Cs and 137 Cs levels were 6430 ± 23 and 6820 ± 32 Bq/kg in the boar testes, and 755 ± 13 and 747 ± 17 Bq/kg in the inobuta testes, respectively. The internal and external exposure of total 134 Cs and 137 Cs in the boar testes were 47.1 mGy and 176.2 mGy, respectively, whereas in the inobuta testes, these levels were 6.09 mGy and 59.8 mGy, respectively. Defective spermatogenesis was not detected by the histochemical analysis of radiation-exposed testes for either animal. In neither animal were Cs molecules detected, using EPMA. In conclusion, we showed that adverse radiation-induced effects were not detected in the examined boar and inobuta testes following the chronic radiation exposure associated with the FNPP accident

  2. Beyond cross-domain learning: Multiple-domain nonnegative matrix factorization

    KAUST Repository

    Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Gao, Xin

    2014-01-01

    Traditional cross-domain learning methods transfer learning from a source domain to a target domain. In this paper, we propose the multiple-domain learning problem for several equally treated domains. The multiple-domain learning problem assumes that samples from different domains have different distributions, but share the same feature and class label spaces. Each domain could be a target domain, while also be a source domain for other domains. A novel multiple-domain representation method is proposed for the multiple-domain learning problem. This method is based on nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), and tries to learn a basis matrix and coding vectors for samples, so that the domain distribution mismatch among different domains will be reduced under an extended variation of the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) criterion. The novel algorithm - multiple-domain NMF (MDNMF) - was evaluated on two challenging multiple-domain learning problems - multiple user spam email detection and multiple-domain glioma diagnosis. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is experimentally verified. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Beyond cross-domain learning: Multiple-domain nonnegative matrix factorization

    KAUST Repository

    Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

    2014-02-01

    Traditional cross-domain learning methods transfer learning from a source domain to a target domain. In this paper, we propose the multiple-domain learning problem for several equally treated domains. The multiple-domain learning problem assumes that samples from different domains have different distributions, but share the same feature and class label spaces. Each domain could be a target domain, while also be a source domain for other domains. A novel multiple-domain representation method is proposed for the multiple-domain learning problem. This method is based on nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), and tries to learn a basis matrix and coding vectors for samples, so that the domain distribution mismatch among different domains will be reduced under an extended variation of the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) criterion. The novel algorithm - multiple-domain NMF (MDNMF) - was evaluated on two challenging multiple-domain learning problems - multiple user spam email detection and multiple-domain glioma diagnosis. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is experimentally verified. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. A review of fission gas release data within the Nea/IAEA IFPE database

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Turnbull, J.A.; Menut, P.; Sartori, E.

    2002-01-01

    The paper describes the International Fuel Performance Experimental (IFPE) database on nuclear fuel performance. The aim of the project is to provide a comprehensive and well-qualified database on Zr clad UO 2 fuel for model development and code validation in the public domain. The data encompass both normal and off-normal operation and include prototypic commercial irradiations as well as experiments performed in material testing reactors. To date, the database contains some 380 individual cases, the majority of which provide data on FGR either from in-pile pressure measurements or PIE techniques including puncturing, electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements. The paper outlines parameters affecting fission gas release and highlights individual datasets addressing these issues. (authors)

  5. Regular periodical public disclosure obligations of public companies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marjanski Vladimir

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Public companies in the capacity of capital market participants have the obligation to inform the public on their legal and financial status, their general business operations, as well as on the issuance of securities and other financial instruments. Such obligations may be divided into two groups: The first group consists of regular periodical public disclosures, such as the publication of financial reports (annual, semi-annual and quarterly, and the management's reports on the public company's business operations. The second group comprises the obligation of occasional (ad hoc public disclosure. The thesis analyses the obligation of public companies to inform the public in course of their regular reporting. The new Capital Market Law based on two EU Directives (the Transparency Directive and the Directive on Public Disclosure of Inside Information and the Definition of Market Manipulation regulates such obligation of public companies in substantially more detail than the prior Law on the Market of Securities and Other Financial Instruments (hereinafter: ZTHV. Due to the above the ZTHV's provisions are compared to the new solutions within the domain of regular periodical disclosure of the Capital Market Law.

  6. Method for separation of Cs from acid solution dissolving radionuclides and microanalysis of solution with ICP-AES

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kanazawa, Toru; Hidaka, Akihide; Kudo, Tamotsu; Nakamura, Takehiko; Fuketa, Toyoshi

    2004-06-01

    The VEGA (Verification Experiments of radionuclides Gas/Aerosol release) program is being performed at JAERI to understand mechanisms of radionuclides release from irradiated fuel during severe accidents. As a part of evaluation in the program, the mass balances of released and deposited FP (Fission Products) onto the test apparatus are estimated from gamma ray measurement for acid solution leached from the apparatus, but short-life nuclides are difficult to be measured because those in the VEGA fuel have been mostly depleted due to cooling for several years. Moreover, the radionuclides without emitting gamma rays and very small quantity of elements cannot be quantified by gamma ray measurement. Therefore, a microanalysis by ICP-AES (Inductively Coupled Plasma - Atomic Emission Spectrometry) for the acid solution leached from VEGA apparatuses is being applied to evaluate the released and deposited masses for those elements. Since Cs-134 and -137, which are major FP dissolved in the solution, have high intensity of gamma ray spectrum, they have to be removed from the solution before the microanalysis in order to avoid contamination of ICP system and to decrease exposure to gamma ray. In this report, methods for separation of Cs from acid solution were reviewed and the applicability of them to the ICP-AES analysis was discussed. The method for Cs separation using the inorganic ion exchanger, AMP (Ammonium Molybdate Phosphate) was applied to the solutions of cold and hot test and the effectiveness was examined. The results showed that more than 99.9% of Cs could be removed from the test solutions, and once removed Sb by AMP was recovered by using a complexing agent such as citric acid. Next, the method was applied to an acid solution leached from VEGA-3 apparatus, and ICP-AES analysis was performed for it. The analysis showed that amount of U, Sr and Zr were successfully quantified. Most of elements to be analyzed were measurable except for Sb, Ag and Sn, although

  7. Health domains for sale: the need for global health Internet governance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackey, Tim Ken; Liang, Bryan A; Kohler, Jillian C; Attaran, Amir

    2014-03-05

    A debate on Internet governance for health, or "eHealth governance", is emerging with the impending award of a new dot-health (.health) generic top-level domain name (gTLD) along with a host of other health-related domains. This development is critical as it will shape the future of the health Internet, allowing largely unrestricted use of .health second-level domain names by future registrants, raising concerns about the potential for privacy, use and marketing of health-related information, credibility of online health content, and potential for Internet fraud and abuse. Yet, prospective .health gTLD applicants do not provide adequate safeguards for use of .health or related domains and have few or no ties to the global health community. If approved, one of these for-profit corporate applicants would effectively control the future of the .health address on the Internet with arguably no active oversight from important international public health stakeholders. This would represent a lost opportunity for the public health, medical, and broader health community in establishing a trusted, transparent and reliable source for health on the Internet. Countries, medical associations, civil society, and consumer advocates have objected to these applications on grounds that they do not meet the public interest. We argue that there is an immediate need for action to postpone awarding of the .health gTLD and other health-related gTLDs to address these concerns and ensure the appropriate development of sound eHealth governance rules, principles, and use. This would support the crucial need of ensuring access to quality and evidence-based sources of health information online, as well as establishing a safe and reliable space on the Internet for health. We believe, if properly governed, .health and other domains could represent such a promise in the future.

  8. Examination of chemical elements partitioning between the γ and γ′ phases in CMSX-4 superalloy using EDS microanalysis and electron tomography

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kruk Adam

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In the present study, the partition of chemical elements between γ and γ′ phases in CMSX-4 was investigated using EDS microanalysis and electron tomography (FIB-SEM and STEM-EDS methods. The investigation has been performed for the superalloy after standard heat treatment and the ex-service CMSX-4 turbine blade after operation for 12 700 hours and 200 starts in industrial gas turbine. The results have shown that Co, Cr and Re partition to the γ matrix, Ni and W are present in both γ and γ′ phases, while Al, Ti and Ta strongly partition to the γ′ phase. The results show the abilities of new analytical electron microscopy and electron tomography methods to characterize the microstructure and chemical composition of single crystal superalloys at the nanoscale.

  9. Domains and domain loss

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Haberland, Hartmut

    2005-01-01

    politicians and in the media, especially in the discussion whether some languages undergo ‘domain loss’ vis-à-vis powerful international languages like English. An objection that has been raised here is that domains, as originally conceived, are parameters of language choice and not properties of languages...

  10. A Fast, Efficient Domain Adaptation Technique for Cross-Domain Electroencephalography(EEG-Based Emotion Recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xin Chai

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Electroencephalography (EEG-based emotion recognition is an important element in psychiatric health diagnosis for patients. However, the underlying EEG sensor signals are always non-stationary if they are sampled from different experimental sessions or subjects. This results in the deterioration of the classification performance. Domain adaptation methods offer an effective way to reduce the discrepancy of marginal distribution. However, for EEG sensor signals, both marginal and conditional distributions may be mismatched. In addition, the existing domain adaptation strategies always require a high level of additional computation. To address this problem, a novel strategy named adaptive subspace feature matching (ASFM is proposed in this paper in order to integrate both the marginal and conditional distributions within a unified framework (without any labeled samples from target subjects. Specifically, we develop a linear transformation function which matches the marginal distributions of the source and target subspaces without a regularization term. This significantly decreases the time complexity of our domain adaptation procedure. As a result, both marginal and conditional distribution discrepancies between the source domain and unlabeled target domain can be reduced, and logistic regression (LR can be applied to the new source domain in order to train a classifier for use in the target domain, since the aligned source domain follows a distribution which is similar to that of the target domain. We compare our ASFM method with six typical approaches using a public EEG dataset with three affective states: positive, neutral, and negative. Both offline and online evaluations were performed. The subject-to-subject offline experimental results demonstrate that our component achieves a mean accuracy and standard deviation of 80.46% and 6.84%, respectively, as compared with a state-of-the-art method, the subspace alignment auto-encoder (SAAE, which

  11. Improving the performance of DomainDiscovery of protein domain boundary assignment using inter-domain linker index

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zomaya Albert Y

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Knowledge of protein domain boundaries is critical for the characterisation and understanding of protein function. The ability to identify domains without the knowledge of the structure – by using sequence information only – is an essential step in many types of protein analyses. In this present study, we demonstrate that the performance of DomainDiscovery is improved significantly by including the inter-domain linker index value for domain identification from sequence-based information. Improved DomainDiscovery uses a Support Vector Machine (SVM approach and a unique training dataset built on the principle of consensus among experts in defining domains in protein structure. The SVM was trained using a PSSM (Position Specific Scoring Matrix, secondary structure, solvent accessibility information and inter-domain linker index to detect possible domain boundaries for a target sequence. Results Improved DomainDiscovery is compared with other methods by benchmarking against a structurally non-redundant dataset and also CASP5 targets. Improved DomainDiscovery achieves 70% accuracy for domain boundary identification in multi-domains proteins. Conclusion Improved DomainDiscovery compares favourably to the performance of other methods and excels in the identification of domain boundaries for multi-domain proteins as a result of introducing support vector machine with benchmark_2 dataset.

  12. Columbia Public Health Core Curriculum: Short-Term Impact.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Begg, Melissa D; Fried, Linda P; Glover, Jim W; Delva, Marlyn; Wiggin, Maggie; Hooper, Leah; Saxena, Roheeni; de Pinho, Helen; Slomin, Emily; Walker, Julia R; Galea, Sandro

    2015-12-01

    We evaluated a transformed core curriculum for the Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health (New York, New York) master of public health (MPH) degree. The curriculum, launched in 2012, aims to teach public health as it is practiced: in interdisciplinary teams, drawing on expertise from multiple domains to address complex health challenges. We collected evaluation data starting when the first class of students entered the program and ending with their graduation in May 2014. Students reported being very satisfied with and challenged by the rigorous curriculum and felt prepared to integrate concepts across varied domains and disciplines to solve public health problems. This novel interdisciplinary program could serve as a prototype for other schools that wish to reinvigorate MPH training.

  13. 2017 Emerging Technology Domains Risk Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-10-01

    REV-03.18.2016.0 2017 Emerging Technology Domains Risk Survey Daniel Klinedinst Joel Land Kyle O’Meara October 2017 TECHNICAL REPORT CMU/SEI...Distribution Statement A: Approved for Public Release. Distribution is Unlimited. List of Tables Table 1: New and Emerging Technologies 2 Table 2: Security...Impact of New and Emerging Technologies 4 Table 3: Severity Classifications and Impact Scores 5 CMU/SEI-2017-TR-008 | SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

  14. 2016 Emerging Technology Domains Risk Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-04-05

    measures upon which the CERT/CC based its recommendations and how each domain was triaged for importance. 6. Exploitation Examples details concepts or...Distribution Statement A: Approved for Public Release; Distribution is Unlimited 2 Methodology A measured approach to analysis is required when...only a few vehicles had access to a cellular Internet connection, and only at 3G speeds. Some vehicles already have LTE connections, and many

  15. Metal X-ray microanalysis in the olfactory system of rainbow trout exposed to low level of copper

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Julliard, A.K.; Astic, L.; Saucier, D.

    1995-01-01

    It has recently been shown that a chronic copper exposure induces specific degeneration of olfactory receptor cells in rainbow trout; however, the exact mechanism of action of the metal is not yet known. Using X-ray microanalysis in transmission electron microscopy, we have studied the distribution of metal in the olfactory system of fish exposed for 15,30 and 60 days to 20 μg/l of copper. This was done in order to determine if it was accumulated in receptor cells and transported into the central nervous system via the olfactory nerve. No copper accumulation was detected either in the olfactory epithelium, in the olfactory nerve or in the olfactory bulb. The heavy metal was exclusively found within melanosomes of melanophores located in the lamina propria. After 60 days of exposure, the copper content in melanosomes was about two-fold higher than that in controls. As far as some morphological recovery took place in the olfactory organ during the metal exposure, which lets us suppose that some detoxication mechanism occurs, it could be suggested that metanophores might be somehow involved in such a mechanism. (authors). 57 refs., 15 figs

  16. Using Sentence-Level Classifiers for Cross-Domain Sentiment Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-09-01

    National Defence, 2014 © Sa Majesté la Reine (en droit du Canada), telle que représentée par le ministre de la Défense nationale, 2014 DRDC-RDDC...domain sentiment classification via spectral feature alignment. In Proceedings of the 19th international conference on World Wide Web, WWW ’10...Dennis, S. 5. DATE OF PUBLICATION (Month and year of publication of document.) September 2014 6a. NO. OF PAGES (Total containing information

  17. Reclaiming public space: designing for public interaction with private devices

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Eriksson, Eva; Hansen, Thomas Riisgaard; Lykke-Olesen, Andreas

    2007-01-01

    . In this paper we explore the implications of interacting in public space and how technology can be rethought to not only act as personal devices, but be the tool to reclaim the right and possibility to interact in public spaces. We introduce information exchange, social support and regulation as three central......Public spaces are changing from being ungoverned places for interaction to be more formalized, controlled, less interactive, and designed places aimed at fulfilling a purpose. Simultaneously, new personal mobile technology aims at providing private individual spaces in the public domain...... aspects for reclaiming public space. The PhotoSwapper application is presented as an example of a system designed to integrate pervasive technology in a public setting. The system is strongly inspired by the activities at a traditional market place. Based on the design of the application we discuss four...

  18. Element concentrations in the intestinal mucosa of the mouse as measured by X-ray microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zglinicki, T. von; Roomans, G.M.

    1989-01-01

    Subcellular ion distribution in villus, crypt, Paneth and smooth muscle cells of the mouse small intestine under resting conditions was investigated by X-ray microanalysis of ultrathin cryosections. In addition, the mass distribution was estimated by measuring the optical transmission of the compartments in transmission electron micrographs. Each cell type is characterized by a special composition in terms of the major monovalent ions Na, K, and Cl. In particular, among crypt epithelial cells, those cells containing small secretion granula (termed crypt A cells) also display cytoplasmic ion concentrations significantly different from crypt epithelial cells lacking secretion granula (crypt B cells). Monovalent ion concentrations in the cytoplasm of Paneth cells, muscle cells, and crypt epithelial cells lacking secretion granula are higher than expected from osmotic considerations. Hence, significant binding of ions to cytoplasmic polyelectrolytes is assumed in these cells. There are gradients of dry mass and K concentration from the luminal to the basal side of the cell, both in crypt and in villus cells. The terminal web in these cells is rich in Na and Cl. The elemental composition of the large, dark secretion granula in Paneth cells is similar to that of the small dark granula in crypt cells. However, the two morphologically different types of granula within the Paneth cells have a significantly different elemental composition, which might reflect maturation of secretion granula

  19. Depiction of global trends in publications on mobile health

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shahla Foozonkhah

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Background: Variety of mobile health initiatives in different levels have been undertaken across many countries. Trends of these initiatives can be reflected in the research published in m-health domain. Aim: This paper aims to depict global trends in the published works on m-health topic. Materials and Methods: The Web of Science database was used to identify all relevant published papers on mobile health domain worldwide. The search was conducted on documents published from January 1898 to December 2014. The criteria for searching were set to be “mHealth” or “Mobile health” or “m health” or “m_health” or “m-health” in topics. Results: Findings revealed an increasing trend of citations and publications on m-health research since 2012. English was the first most predominant language of the publication. The US had the highest number of publication with 649 papers; however, the Netherlands ranked first after considering publication number in terms of countries population. “Studies in Health Technology and Informatics” was the source title with highest number of publications on mobile health topics. Conclusion: Trend of research observed in this study indicates the continuing growth is happening in mobile health domain. This may imply that the new model of health-care delivery is emerging. Further research is needed to specify directions of mobile health research. It is necessary to identify and prioritize the research gaps in this domain.

  20. Detection of beryllium in oxides and silicates by electron-probe microanalysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. V. Khiller

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The author developed the technique of electron-probe microanalysis for quantitative determination of beryllium content, providing the example of studying natural minerals (aluminosilicates and oxides. This technique allowed to obtain a quantitative content of beryllium (in combination with other elements in the emeralds of the Mariinsky beryllium deposit and in zonal mariinskite-chrysoberyl from the chromitites of the Bazhenov ophiolite complex. All analyzes of minerals were performed on a CAMECA SX 100 electron probe microanalyzer with five wave spectrometers (IGG UB RAS. The pressure in the sample chamber was 2 × 10–4 Pa, in the electron gun region – 4 × 10–6 Pa, in wave spectrometers – 7 Pa. Accelerating voltage was 10 kV, the current of absorbed electrons on the Faraday cylinder (beam current was 100–150 nA. Diameter of the electron beam focused on the sample was 2 μm, the angle of x-ray extraction was 40°. The spectra were obtained on wave spectrometers with TAP crystal analyzers (2d = 25.745 Å, LPET (2d = 8.75 Å, LiF (2d = 4.0226 Å, and PC3 (2d = 211.4 Å, a specialized crystal for determining the content of beryllium and boron; the author carried out all the elements measurements along the Kα-lines. To determine position of the analytical peak and the background from two sides with the minimum possible spectral overlap, the author preliminarily recorded spectra on wave spectrometers. The obtained microprobe analyzes of minerals with quantitative determination of beryllium converge well with the available theoretical compositions of beryl and chrysoberyl, which indicates the high efficiency of the developed technique. By using this technique, we can relatively quickly and reliably determine the quantitative content of beryllium in natural silicates and oxides, which is an acute need for geological researchers studying the mineralogy of beryllium deposits.

  1. Public health program capacity for sustainability: a new framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schell, Sarah F; Luke, Douglas A; Schooley, Michael W; Elliott, Michael B; Herbers, Stephanie H; Mueller, Nancy B; Bunger, Alicia C

    2013-02-01

    Public health programs can only deliver benefits if they are able to sustain activities over time. There is a broad literature on program sustainability in public health, but it is fragmented and there is a lack of consensus on core constructs. The purpose of this paper is to present a new conceptual framework for program sustainability in public health. This developmental study uses a comprehensive literature review, input from an expert panel, and the results of concept-mapping to identify the core domains of a conceptual framework for public health program capacity for sustainability. The concept-mapping process included three types of participants (scientists, funders, and practitioners) from several public health areas (e.g., tobacco control, heart disease and stroke, physical activity and nutrition, and injury prevention). The literature review identified 85 relevant studies focusing on program sustainability in public health. Most of the papers described empirical studies of prevention-oriented programs aimed at the community level. The concept-mapping process identified nine core domains that affect a program's capacity for sustainability: Political Support, Funding Stability, Partnerships, Organizational Capacity, Program Evaluation, Program Adaptation, Communications, Public Health Impacts, and Strategic Planning. Concept-mapping participants further identified 93 items across these domains that have strong face validity-89% of the individual items composing the framework had specific support in the sustainability literature. The sustainability framework presented here suggests that a number of selected factors may be related to a program's ability to sustain its activities and benefits over time. These factors have been discussed in the literature, but this framework synthesizes and combines the factors and suggests how they may be interrelated with one another. The framework presents domains for public health decision makers to consider when developing

  2. The domain theory: patterns for knowledge and software reuse

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Sutcliffe, Alistair

    2002-01-01

    ..., retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sutcliffe, Alistair, 1951- The domain theory : patterns for knowledge and software reuse / Alistair Sutcl...

  3. AMPLIFICAREA RELAłIEI AUDITULUI PUBLIC INTERN CU AUDITUL PUBLIC EXTERN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ioan Alexandru Szabo

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with the issue of functional relations between the structure of theinternal audit and external audit in the public domain. The introduction isaddressed to international standards and regulatory framework that stipulates theneed for consolidation of the cooperation relations between the two categories ofprofessionals, namely, internal auditors and external public auditors. The authoremphasizes the importance of developing and of signing the Protocol ofcooperation and collaboration between the two audit authorities that are the Courtof Accounts and The Public Finance that support the professional partnership. Thearticle also presents the terms of the Protocol signed between external audit andinternal audit in the public sector. Finally, it is concluded that the increasing therole of internal audit in the implementation and development of management andinternal control system within public entities, is conditioned by the functionality ofthe collaboration and cooperation relationships between the two audits.

  4. Domain-enhanced analysis of microarray data using GO annotations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jiajun; Hughes-Oliver, Jacqueline M; Menius, J Alan

    2007-05-15

    New biological systems technologies give scientists the ability to measure thousands of bio-molecules including genes, proteins, lipids and metabolites. We use domain knowledge, e.g. the Gene Ontology, to guide analysis of such data. By focusing on domain-aggregated results at, say the molecular function level, increased interpretability is available to biological scientists beyond what is possible if results are presented at the gene level. We use a 'top-down' approach to perform domain aggregation by first combining gene expressions before testing for differentially expressed patterns. This is in contrast to the more standard 'bottom-up' approach, where genes are first tested individually then aggregated by domain knowledge. The benefits are greater sensitivity for detecting signals. Our method, domain-enhanced analysis (DEA) is assessed and compared to other methods using simulation studies and analysis of two publicly available leukemia data sets. Our DEA method uses functions available in R (http://www.r-project.org/) and SAS (http://www.sas.com/). The two experimental data sets used in our analysis are available in R as Bioconductor packages, 'ALL' and 'golubEsets' (http://www.bioconductor.org/). Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

  5. Exposure to simultaneous sedentary behavior domains and sociodemographic factors associated in public servants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernanda Cerveira Fronza

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1980-0037.2017v19n4p469   Exposure to sedentary behavior may contribute to health problems. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of exposure to simultaneous sedentary behavior domains and verify associated sociodemographic characteristics among technical and administrative servers of a Brazilian university. This is a cross-sectional epidemiological study carried out with 623 technical and administrative servers. Sedentary behavior was identified through a questionnaire in the following domains: commuting (active / passive, sitting time at work, daily time spent watching television and computer use (≥3 hours / day. Sociodemographic variables were age, sex and educational level. The prevalence of servers that had one, two, three and four simultaneous sedentary behavior was 28.4%, 43.2%, 22.5% and 4.3%, respectively. Women were more likely to have three sedentary behavior simultaneously (OR = 1.61, CI 95% = 1.02, 2.56. Servers with 9-11 years of schooling were less exposed to two (OR = 0.27, CI 95% = 0.17, 0.44, three (OR = 0.39, CI 95% = 0.23, 0.66 and four (OR = 0.22, CI 95% = 0.07; 0.69 sedentary behavior simultaneously and those over 12 years of schooling were less likely of having two (OR = 0.22, CI 95% = 0.10; 0.49 and three (OR = 0.15, CI 95% = 0.05, 0.46 sedentary behavior simultaneously. More than half of servers have two sedentary behavior during the week. Having sedentary behavior in more than one domain simultaneously was associated with sex and educational level.

  6. Rediscovering Ducos du Hauron's Color Photography through a Review of His Three-Color Printing Processes and Synchrotron Microanalysis of His Prints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cotte, Marine; Fabris, Tiphaine; Langlois, Juliette; Bellot-Gurlet, Ludovic; Ploye, Françoise; Coural, Natalie; Boust, Clotilde; Gandolfo, Jean-Paul; Galifot, Thomas; Susini, Jean

    2018-06-18

    Louis Ducos du Huron (1837-1920) dedicated his entire life to the elaboration of physical-chemical processes for color photography. This study aimed at highlighting his unique contribution to three-color printing through 1) an in-depth review of the many protocols he published and 2) the synchrotron-based IR and X-ray microanalysis of fragments sampled in three artworks. Ducos du Hauron's method relied on the preparation and assembly of three monochromes (red, blue, yellow). This study brings to light complex multistep recipes based on photochemistry (carbon print), organic, and inorganic chemistry. The various ingredients involved (e.g., pigments, dichromate gelatin, collodion, resin) were identified and localized through their spectroscopic signature, confirming the relevance of synchrotron spectromicroscopy for the characterization of historical photographs. The impressive correlation between texts and chemical analyses calls for a wider application to the history of photography. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  7. Public scientific communication: reflections on the public and its participation forms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter Sekloča

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Scientific communication also pertains to the domain of society, where the formation of public opinion about science and technology is taking place. Concerning this process, two main points are exposed in the commentary. The first is a proposition on how the public as a social category may be conceptualized, and the second is the extent of the participation of members of the public in strengthening socialization and democratization practices in new, highly complex, contexts of scientific research. The public is conceptualized to include all citizens no matter their professional origin, including scientists, which promotes the idea of openness and equality of the public sphere where scientific issues are discussed. To be democratic in its practical-political setting, such a conception needs to deal with the problems of participation in a highly mediatized world, where not every member of the public could be included into scientific research. The author thus reflects on the mechanisms which would enable the formation of public forums where the trust of influential public actors as stakeholders of research can be tested.

  8. The BRCT domain is a phospho-protein binding domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Xiaochun; Chini, Claudia Christiano Silva; He, Miao; Mer, Georges; Chen, Junjie

    2003-10-24

    The carboxyl-terminal domain (BRCT) of the Breast Cancer Gene 1 (BRCA1) protein is an evolutionarily conserved module that exists in a large number of proteins from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. Although most BRCT domain-containing proteins participate in DNA-damage checkpoint or DNA-repair pathways, or both, the function of the BRCT domain is not fully understood. We show that the BRCA1 BRCT domain directly interacts with phosphorylated BRCA1-Associated Carboxyl-terminal Helicase (BACH1). This specific interaction between BRCA1 and phosphorylated BACH1 is cell cycle regulated and is required for DNA damage-induced checkpoint control during the transition from G2 to M phase of the cell cycle. Further, we show that two other BRCT domains interact with their respective physiological partners in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. Thirteen additional BRCT domains also preferentially bind phospho-peptides rather than nonphosphorylated control peptides. These data imply that the BRCT domain is a phospho-protein binding domain involved in cell cycle control.

  9. Structured Literature Review of disruptive innovation theory within the digital domain

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vesti, Helle; Nielsen, Christian; Rosenstand, Claus Andreas Foss

    2017-01-01

    The area of interest is disruption is the digital domain. The research questions are: How has the disruption and digital disruption literature developed over time? What is the research focus into disruption regarding the digital domain and how has this changed over time? Which methods are being...... utilized in research regarding disruption and digital disruption? Where are the key contributors to disruption in general and in digital disruption? Is there a future for digital disruption research? The method is a Structured Literature Review (SLR). The contribution is the results of an analysis of 95...... publications within the field of disruption in the digital domain and disruptive innovation theory in general. Works of twelve practitioners and 83 academics are investigated....

  10. Semi-quantitative X-ray microanalysis of bronchoalveolar lavage samples from silica-exposed and nonexposed subjects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lusuardi, M.; Capelli, A.; Donner, C.F.; Capelli, O.; Velluti, G.

    1992-01-01

    To evaluate the possibility of quantifying alveolar dust burden in conditions of exposure to silica, four groups of subjects were submitted to bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL): 10 healthy control subjects and 39 patients affected by diffuse interstitial lung disease (DILD) never exposed to dust, 23 silicotic patients and 12 chronic bronchitis patients with a history of occupational exposure to silica dust. Five to ten million BAL recovered cells were analysed with an energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDXA) system to determine the silicon content, expressed in a semi-quantitative way as silicon to sulphur (Si/S) ratio. The results were independent of smoking habit. The Si/S median values (interquartile range in brackets) for the four groups were 0.53 (0.5-0.65), 0.60 (0.41-0.8), 1.23 (1.06-1.39); 1.31 (1.11-1.97), respectively. Silicotics and simply exposed individuals did not show a significant discrepancy, but they were both significantly different in comparison with normal and DILD patients without history of exposure (p<0.001). 14.3% false negative cases were found, and 4.1% false positive cases (none among normal subjects). We did not se any significant relationships between the amount of silicon and the duration of exposure or the degree of chest X-ray involvement. A study of cytocentrifuge slides from the same subjects by polarizing light microscopy revealed a lower sensitivity (34% false negative cases). (au)

  11. Site determination of Ni atoms in Cu-Al-Ni shape memory alloys by electron channelling enhanced microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakata, Yoshiyuki; Tadaki, Tsugio; Shimizu, Ken-ichi

    1990-01-01

    The crystallographic site of Ni atoms in the parent phase of differently heat-treated Cu-28.6Al-3.7Ni (at.%) shape memory alloys has been examined by electron channelling enhanced microanalysis (ALCHEMI) in order to clarify effects of heat-treatments on the Ni atom site and M s temperature. The heat-treatments were as follows: (a) Quenching into a 10% NaOH solution at 263 K, (b) Quenching into hot water at 363 K and (c) Aging at 523 K for 3.6 ks after treatment (b). The M s temperatures of specimens (a), (b) and (c) were 158, 185 and 259 K, respectively, increasing with lowering quenching rate or aging. ALCHEMI revealed that Ni atoms occupied an identical site in all the three kinds of specimens: The Ni atoms were located at the nearest neighbor sites around Al atoms. This preferential occupation of Ni atoms was attributed to the strong binding force between Ni and Al atoms. Thus, the change in M s temperature due to different heat-treatments was not directly related to the crystallographic site of Ni atoms, but might be caused by the ordering between the next nearest neighbor Cu and Al atoms. (author)

  12. Domain analysis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hjørland, Birger

    2017-01-01

    The domain-analytic approach to knowledge organization (KO) (and to the broader field of library and information science, LIS) is outlined. The article reviews the discussions and proposals on the definition of domains, and provides an example of a domain-analytic study in the field of art studies....... Varieties of domain analysis as well as criticism and controversies are presented and discussed....

  13. Inferring domain-domain interactions from protein-protein interactions with formal concept analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susan Khor

    Full Text Available Identifying reliable domain-domain interactions will increase our ability to predict novel protein-protein interactions, to unravel interactions in protein complexes, and thus gain more information about the function and behavior of genes. One of the challenges of identifying reliable domain-domain interactions is domain promiscuity. Promiscuous domains are domains that can occur in many domain architectures and are therefore found in many proteins. This becomes a problem for a method where the score of a domain-pair is the ratio between observed and expected frequencies because the protein-protein interaction network is sparse. As such, many protein-pairs will be non-interacting and domain-pairs with promiscuous domains will be penalized. This domain promiscuity challenge to the problem of inferring reliable domain-domain interactions from protein-protein interactions has been recognized, and a number of work-arounds have been proposed. This paper reports on an application of Formal Concept Analysis to this problem. It is found that the relationship between formal concepts provides a natural way for rare domains to elevate the rank of promiscuous domain-pairs and enrich highly ranked domain-pairs with reliable domain-domain interactions. This piggybacking of promiscuous domain-pairs onto less promiscuous domain-pairs is possible only with concept lattices whose attribute-labels are not reduced and is enhanced by the presence of proteins that comprise both promiscuous and rare domains.

  14. Inferring Domain-Domain Interactions from Protein-Protein Interactions with Formal Concept Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khor, Susan

    2014-01-01

    Identifying reliable domain-domain interactions will increase our ability to predict novel protein-protein interactions, to unravel interactions in protein complexes, and thus gain more information about the function and behavior of genes. One of the challenges of identifying reliable domain-domain interactions is domain promiscuity. Promiscuous domains are domains that can occur in many domain architectures and are therefore found in many proteins. This becomes a problem for a method where the score of a domain-pair is the ratio between observed and expected frequencies because the protein-protein interaction network is sparse. As such, many protein-pairs will be non-interacting and domain-pairs with promiscuous domains will be penalized. This domain promiscuity challenge to the problem of inferring reliable domain-domain interactions from protein-protein interactions has been recognized, and a number of work-arounds have been proposed. This paper reports on an application of Formal Concept Analysis to this problem. It is found that the relationship between formal concepts provides a natural way for rare domains to elevate the rank of promiscuous domain-pairs and enrich highly ranked domain-pairs with reliable domain-domain interactions. This piggybacking of promiscuous domain-pairs onto less promiscuous domain-pairs is possible only with concept lattices whose attribute-labels are not reduced and is enhanced by the presence of proteins that comprise both promiscuous and rare domains. PMID:24586450

  15. The Public Use Limitation in Eminent Domain: "Handley v. Cook."

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grill, Donna P.

    1979-01-01

    It is time for the courts to rigorously scrutinize allegations of public use in order to protect the property rights of private individuals. Available from West Virginia Law Review, W.V.U. Law Center, Morgantown, WV 26506. (Author)

  16. A semantic-based method for extracting concept definitions from scientific publications: evaluation in the autism phenotype domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hassanpour, Saeed; O'Connor, Martin J; Das, Amar K

    2013-08-12

    A variety of informatics approaches have been developed that use information retrieval, NLP and text-mining techniques to identify biomedical concepts and relations within scientific publications or their sentences. These approaches have not typically addressed the challenge of extracting more complex knowledge such as biomedical definitions. In our efforts to facilitate knowledge acquisition of rule-based definitions of autism phenotypes, we have developed a novel semantic-based text-mining approach that can automatically identify such definitions within text. Using an existing knowledge base of 156 autism phenotype definitions and an annotated corpus of 26 source articles containing such definitions, we evaluated and compared the average rank of correctly identified rule definition or corresponding rule template using both our semantic-based approach and a standard term-based approach. We examined three separate scenarios: (1) the snippet of text contained a definition already in the knowledge base; (2) the snippet contained an alternative definition for a concept in the knowledge base; and (3) the snippet contained a definition not in the knowledge base. Our semantic-based approach had a higher average rank than the term-based approach for each of the three scenarios (scenario 1: 3.8 vs. 5.0; scenario 2: 2.8 vs. 4.9; and scenario 3: 4.5 vs. 6.2), with each comparison significant at the p-value of 0.05 using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Our work shows that leveraging existing domain knowledge in the information extraction of biomedical definitions significantly improves the correct identification of such knowledge within sentences. Our method can thus help researchers rapidly acquire knowledge about biomedical definitions that are specified and evolving within an ever-growing corpus of scientific publications.

  17. Convergence of Corporate and Public Governance

    OpenAIRE

    Gérard Hirigoyen; Radhoine Laouer

    2013-01-01

    By analyzing the differences between the corporate and public governance, theoretical and empirical research seems to indicate that the two domains of governance are far too different to share any common aspect. However, in this particular research, it has been argued that public governance is an application of corporate governance. Thus, the research question entails the description and analysis of this possible conve...

  18. Physical sciences HDR (Accreditation to supervise research) diploma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trocellier, P.

    1987-09-01

    This document briefly reports the educational and professional course, as well as the activities of a researcher in the field of nuclear techniques for surface analysis and micro-analysis. These researches deal with the analytical development of surface characterization analytical tools for solid media in relationship with different application domains: corrosion, volcanology, biology, material science, reprocessing, and so on

  19. Microanalysis of metals in barbs of a snow petrel (Pagodroma Nivea) from the Antarctica using synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Zhouqing; Zhang, Pengfei; Sun, Liguang; Xu, Siqi; Huang, Yuying; He, Wei

    2008-03-01

    For the first time synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence (SR-XRF) microanalysis was performed throughout the total length of 4 single barbs from the primaries and secondaries of a snow petrel (Pagodroma Nivea) collected in the Antarctica. Thirteen elements (S, Mg, K, Ca, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, Sr, Ba, Hg and Pb) were detected somewhere in the barbs. Variations in levels of these elements within and among the barbs were obvious, indicating nonuniform microscale distributions. Factors influencing the fluctuations of the levels of the elements were investigated using a multivariate statistical analysis method. Five factors (F1 being associated with high loadings of Ca, Sr, and Ni, F2 with high loadings of Fe and Ba, F3 with high loadings of Se and Hg, F4 with high loadings of Ca and K, and F5 with high loadings of Zn and Pb) were found to explain about 80% of the total variance. Results from the factor analysis suggested external contamination of Fe, Ba, Pb, Zn and Hg on the feathers of the snow petrel.

  20. Microanalysis of metals in barbs of a snow petrel (Pagodroma Nivea) from the Antarctica using synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xie Zhouqing [Institute of Polar Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China)], E-mail: zqxie@ustc.edu.cn; Zhang Pengfei [Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, City College of New York, New York, NY 10031 (United States); Sun Liguang; Xu Siqi [Institute of Polar Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China); Huang Yuying; He Wei [Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100039 Beijing (China)

    2008-03-15

    For the first time synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence (SR-XRF) microanalysis was performed throughout the total length of 4 single barbs from the primaries and secondaries of a snow petrel (Pagodroma Nivea) collected in the Antarctica. Thirteen elements (S, Mg, K, Ca, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, Sr, Ba, Hg and Pb) were detected somewhere in the barbs. Variations in levels of these elements within and among the barbs were obvious, indicating nonuniform microscale distributions. Factors influencing the fluctuations of the levels of the elements were investigated using a multivariate statistical analysis method. Five factors (F1 being associated with high loadings of Ca, Sr, and Ni, F2 with high loadings of Fe and Ba, F3 with high loadings of Se and Hg, F4 with high loadings of Ca and K, and F5 with high loadings of Zn and Pb) were found to explain about 80% of the total variance. Results from the factor analysis suggested external contamination of Fe, Ba, Pb, Zn and Hg on the feathers of the snow petrel.

  1. Microanalysis of metals in barbs of a snow petrel (Pagodroma Nivea) from the Antarctica using synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xie Zhouqing; Zhang Pengfei; Sun Liguang; Xu Siqi; Huang Yuying; He Wei

    2008-01-01

    For the first time synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence (SR-XRF) microanalysis was performed throughout the total length of 4 single barbs from the primaries and secondaries of a snow petrel (Pagodroma Nivea) collected in the Antarctica. Thirteen elements (S, Mg, K, Ca, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, Sr, Ba, Hg and Pb) were detected somewhere in the barbs. Variations in levels of these elements within and among the barbs were obvious, indicating nonuniform microscale distributions. Factors influencing the fluctuations of the levels of the elements were investigated using a multivariate statistical analysis method. Five factors (F1 being associated with high loadings of Ca, Sr, and Ni, F2 with high loadings of Fe and Ba, F3 with high loadings of Se and Hg, F4 with high loadings of Ca and K, and F5 with high loadings of Zn and Pb) were found to explain about 80% of the total variance. Results from the factor analysis suggested external contamination of Fe, Ba, Pb, Zn and Hg on the feathers of the snow petrel

  2. Language Choice and Use of Malaysian Public University Lecturers in the Education Domain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mei, Tam Lee; Abdullah, Ain Nadzimah; Heng, Chan Swee; Kasim, Zalina Binti Mohd

    2016-01-01

    It is a norm for people from a multilingual and multicultural country such as Malaysia to speak at least two or more languages. Thus, the Malaysian multilingual situation resulted in speakers having to make decisions about which languages are to be used for different purposes in different domains. In order to explain the phenomenon of language…

  3. Measurement of total calcium in neurons by electron probe X-ray microanalysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pivovarova, Natalia B; Andrews, S Brian

    2013-11-20

    In this article the tools, techniques, and instruments appropriate for quantitative measurements of intracellular elemental content using the technique known as electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) are described. Intramitochondrial calcium is a particular focus because of the critical role that mitochondrial calcium overload plays in neurodegenerative diseases. The method is based on the analysis of X-rays generated in an electron microscope (EM) by interaction of an electron beam with the specimen. In order to maintain the native distribution of diffusible elements in electron microscopy specimens, EPMA requires "cryofixation" of tissue followed by the preparation of ultrathin cryosections. Rapid freezing of cultured cells or organotypic slice cultures is carried out by plunge freezing in liquid ethane or by slam freezing against a cold metal block, respectively. Cryosections nominally 80 nm thick are cut dry with a diamond knife at ca. -160 °C, mounted on carbon/pioloform-coated copper grids, and cryotransferred into a cryo-EM using a specialized cryospecimen holder. After visual survey and location mapping at ≤-160 °C and low electron dose, frozen-hydrated cryosections are freeze-dried at -100 °C for ~30 min. Organelle-level images of dried cryosections are recorded, also at low dose, by means of a slow-scan CCD camera and subcellular regions of interest selected for analysis. X-rays emitted from ROIs by a stationary, focused, high-intensity electron probe are collected by an energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrometer, processed by associated electronics, and presented as an X-ray spectrum, that is, a plot of X-ray intensity vs. energy. Additional software facilitates: 1) identification of elemental components by their "characteristic" peak energies and fingerprint; and 2) quantitative analysis by extraction of peak areas/background. This paper concludes with two examples that illustrate typical EPMA applications, one in which mitochondrial calcium analysis

  4. Toxico-Cheminformatics: New and Expanding Public ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    High-throughput screening (HTS) technologies, along with efforts to improve public access to chemical toxicity information resources and to systematize older toxicity studies, have the potential to significantly improve information gathering efforts for chemical assessments and predictive capabilities in toxicology. Important developments include: 1) large and growing public resources that link chemical structures to biological activity and toxicity data in searchable format, and that offer more nuanced and varied representations of activity; 2) standardized relational data models that capture relevant details of chemical treatment and effects of published in vivo experiments; and 3) the generation of large amounts of new data from public efforts that are employing HTS technologies to probe a wide range of bioactivity and cellular processes across large swaths of chemical space. By annotating toxicity data with associated chemical structure information, these efforts link data across diverse study domains (e.g., ‘omics’, HTS, traditional toxicity studies), toxicity domains (carcinogenicity, developmental toxicity, neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, etc) and database sources (EPA, FDA, NCI, DSSTox, PubChem, GEO, ArrayExpress, etc.). Public initiatives are developing systematized data models of toxicity study areas and introducing standardized templates, controlled vocabularies, hierarchical organization, and powerful relational searching capability across capt

  5. Advancing the Certified in Public Health Examination: A Job Task Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurz, Richard S; Yager, Christopher; Yager, James D; Foster, Allison; Breidenbach, Daniel H; Irwin, Zachary

    In 2014, the National Board of Public Health Examiners performed a job task analysis (JTA) to revise the Certified in Public Health (CPH) examination. The objectives of this study were to describe the development, administration, and results of the JTA survey; to present an analysis of the survey results; and to review the implications of this first-ever public health JTA. An advisory committee of public health professionals developed a list of 200 public health job tasks categorized into 10 work domains. The list of tasks was incorporated into a web-based survey, and a snowball sample of public health professionals provided 4850 usable responses. Respondents rated job tasks as essential (4), very important (3), important (2), not very important (1), and never performed (0). The mean task importance ratings ranged from 2.61 to 3.01 (important to very important). The highest mean ratings were for tasks in the ethics domain (mean rating, 3.01). Respondents ranked 10 of the 200 tasks as the most important, with mean task rankings ranging from 2.98 to 3.39. We found subtle differences between male and female respondents and between master of public health and doctor of public health respondents in their rankings. The JTA established a set of job tasks in 10 public health work domains, and the results provided a foundation for refining the CPH examination. Additional steps are needed to further modify the content outline of the examination. An empirical assessment of public health job tasks, using methods such as principal components analysis, may provide additional insight.

  6. Coproduction as a structural transformation of the public sector

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meijer, Albert

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: Coproduction fundamentally changes the roles of citizens and governments. The purpose of this paper is to enhance the theoretical understanding of the transformative changes in the structural order of the public domain that result from the coproduction of public services.

  7. The YARHG domain: an extracellular domain in search of a function.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Penny Coggill

    Full Text Available We have identified a new bacterial protein domain that we hypothesise binds to peptidoglycan. This domain is called the YARHG domain after the most highly conserved sequence-segment. The domain is found in the extracellular space and is likely to be composed of four alpha-helices. The domain is found associated with protein kinase domains, suggesting it is associated with signalling in some bacteria. The domain is also found associated with three different families of peptidases. The large number of different domains that are found associated with YARHG suggests that it is a useful functional module that nature has recombined multiple times.

  8. Materialities of Law: Celebrity Production and the Public Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Esther Milne

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Celebrity production and consumption are powerful socio-economic forces. The celebrity functions as a significant economic resource for the commercial sector and plays a fundamental symbolic role within culture by providing a shared ‘vocabulary’ through which to understand contemporary social relations. A pivotal element of this allure is the process by which the celebrity figure is able to forge an intimate link with its audience, often producing public expressions of profound compassion, respect or revulsion. This process, however, is complicated by emerging participatory media forms whose impact is experienced as new conditions of possibility for celebrity production and consumption. As Marshall argues, video mash-ups of celebrity interviews, such as those of Christian Bale or Tom Cruise, are dramatically changing the relation between celebrity and audience (Marshall, 2006: 640. Meanings produced by these audience remixes challenge the extent to which a celebrity might control her image. So is the celebrity personality, therefore, a public or private commodity? Who owns the celebrity image within remix culture? Although the celebrity figure has been thoroughly researched in relation to its patterns of consumption; semiotic power; and industry construction; less attention has been focused on the forms of celebrity governance enabled by legislative and case law settings. How might the law deal with the significant economic and cultural power exercised within celebrity culture?

  9. .Gov Domains API

    Data.gov (United States)

    General Services Administration — This dataset offers the list of all .gov domains, including state, local, and tribal .gov domains. It does not include .mil domains, or other federal domains outside...

  10. A Cross-Domain Explanation of the Metaphor "Teaching as Persuasion."

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woods, Bradford S.; Demerath, Peter

    2001-01-01

    Examines what the metaphor "teaching as persuasion" would mean in the domains of philosophy, anthropology, and teacher education, asserting that if such a metaphor is to be widely accepted by the educational community and the public, then this discussion is necessary. The metaphor suggests that in teacher education, learning to teach…

  11. Prion-Like Domains in Phagobiota

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    George Tetz

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Prions are molecules characterized by self-propagation, which can undergo a conformational switch leading to the creation of new prions. Prion proteins have originally been associated with the development of mammalian pathologies; however, recently they have been shown to contribute to the environmental adaptation in a variety of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Bacteriophages are widespread and represent the important regulators of microbiota homeostasis and have been shown to be diverse across various bacterial families. Here, we examined whether bacteriophages contain prion-like proteins and whether these prion-like protein domains are involved in the regulation of homeostasis. We used a computational algorithm, prion-like amino acid composition, to detect prion-like domains in 370,617 publicly available bacteriophage protein sequences, which resulted in the identification of 5040 putative prions. We analyzed a set of these prion-like proteins, and observed regularities in their distribution across different phage families, associated with their interactions with the bacterial host cells. We found that prion-like domains could be found across all phages of various groups of bacteria and archaea. The results obtained in this study indicate that bacteriophage prion-like proteins are predominantly involved in the interactions between bacteriophages and bacterial cell, such as those associated with the attachment and penetration of bacteriophage in the cell, and the release of the phage progeny. These data allow the identification of phage prion-like proteins as novel regulators of the interactions between bacteriophages and bacterial cells.

  12. On the Definition of Public Relations: A European View.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vercic, Dejan; van Ruler, Betteke; Butschi, Gerhard; Flodin, Bertil

    2001-01-01

    Introduces the project on the European Public Relations Body of Knowledge (EBOK). Reviews proposals on the definition, dimensions, and domain of public relations. Confronts these with findings from EBOK. Presents ideas on how to bridge the differences. Proposes ideas for further investigation. (SG)

  13. Sweat gland toxicity induced by bis (tributyltin) oxide: an ultrastructural and X-ray microanalysis study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yamamoto, O. [Univ. of Occupational and Environmental Health Japan, Kitakyushu (Japan). Dept. of Dermatology and Occupational Dermatopathology; Doi, Y.; Kudo, H.; Fujimoto, S. [Univ. of Occupational and Environmental Health Japan, Kitakyushu (Japan). Dept. of Anatomy; Yoshizuka, M. [Kurume Univ. (Japan). Dept. of Anatomy

    2000-12-01

    Acute toxicity of bis (tributyltin) oxide in the sweat glands in the rat footpad was investigated by electron microscopy and an energy-dispersive X-ray microanalyzer. Male Wistar rats received an intramuscular injection of 0.5 ml/kg bis (tributyltin) oxide. After 6-8 h, swelling of mitochondria appeared in the secretory cells of the sweat glands. After 12 h, the secretory cells began to show intracytoplasmic edema. After 16-20 h, secretory cells in some sweat glands showed marked hydropic degeneration with swollen cytoplasm. Using X-ray microanalysis, tin peaks were preferentially obtained from the swollen mitochondria of the affected secretory cells. Mitochondria dysfunction due to the toxic effects of bis (tributyltin) oxide induced changes in the secretory cells of rat sweat glands contained three types of cells: degenerating dark cells, regenerating cells carrying injured mitochondria, and light cells which were morphologically very similar to the cells in the transitional portion of the sweat gland. These light cells appeared to differentiate into active secretory cells after settling down in the secretory portion. Based on these observations, we concluded that the cells in the transitional portion could play an important role at least as reserve cells against secretory cell toxicity. In association with the regenerating process of the damaged secretory portions, increased mitotic activities were seen in different areas of all the dermal sweat ducts. The above-mentioned morphological observations for cell damage and subsequent regeneration and renewal of secretory cells in sweat gland intoxication have not been reported so far. (orig.)

  14. Scarcity and Environmental Stress in Public Organizations: A Conjectural Essay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bozeman, Barry; Slusher, E. Allen

    1979-01-01

    Assuming extreme scarcity, arguments are developed that public organizations could be expected to constrain their domain definition, allow domain selection to dictate technology, seek clientele suited to existing technologies, and, in general, take actions that will ensure that existing technologies are employed at capacity. (Author/IRT)

  15. When frames align: The interplay between PR, news media, and the public in times of crisis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Meer, T.G.L.A.; Verhoeven, P.; Beentjes, H.; Vliegenthart, R.

    2014-01-01

    This study focuses on the frame-building process of organizational-crisis situations in the interplay between the domains public relations (PR), news media, and the public. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the crisis frames of the domains align over time. To empirically analyze

  16. Same but not alike: Structure, flexibility and energetics of domains in multi-domain proteins are influenced by the presence of other domains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vishwanath, Sneha; de Brevern, Alexandre G; Srinivasan, Narayanaswamy

    2018-02-01

    The majority of the proteins encoded in the genomes of eukaryotes contain more than one domain. Reasons for high prevalence of multi-domain proteins in various organisms have been attributed to higher stability and functional and folding advantages over single-domain proteins. Despite these advantages, many proteins are composed of only one domain while their homologous domains are part of multi-domain proteins. In the study presented here, differences in the properties of protein domains in single-domain and multi-domain systems and their influence on functions are discussed. We studied 20 pairs of identical protein domains, which were crystallized in two forms (a) tethered to other proteins domains and (b) tethered to fewer protein domains than (a) or not tethered to any protein domain. Results suggest that tethering of domains in multi-domain proteins influences the structural, dynamic and energetic properties of the constituent protein domains. 50% of the protein domain pairs show significant structural deviations while 90% of the protein domain pairs show differences in dynamics and 12% of the residues show differences in the energetics. To gain further insights on the influence of tethering on the function of the domains, 4 pairs of homologous protein domains, where one of them is a full-length single-domain protein and the other protein domain is a part of a multi-domain protein, were studied. Analyses showed that identical and structurally equivalent functional residues show differential dynamics in homologous protein domains; though comparable dynamics between in-silico generated chimera protein and multi-domain proteins were observed. From these observations, the differences observed in the functions of homologous proteins could be attributed to the presence of tethered domain. Overall, we conclude that tethered domains in multi-domain proteins not only provide stability or folding advantages but also influence pathways resulting in differences in

  17. Composition of nasal airway surface liquid in cystic fibrosis and other airway diseases determined by X-ray microanalysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanthanouvong, V; Kozlova, I; Johannesson, M; Nääs, E; Nordvall, S L; Dragomir, A; Roomans, G M

    2006-04-01

    The ionic composition of the airway surface liquid (ASL) in healthy individuals and in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) has been debated. Ion transport properties of the upper airway epithelium are similar to those of the lower airways and it is easier to collect nasal ASL from the nose. ASL was collected with ion exchange beads, and the elemental composition of nasal fluid was determined by X-ray microanalysis in healthy subjects, CF patients, CF heterozygotes, patients with rhinitis, and with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). In healthy subjects, the ionic concentrations were approximately isotonic. In CF patients, CF heterozygotes, rhinitis, and PCD patients, [Na] and [Cl] were significantly higher compared when compared with those in controls. [K] was significantly higher in CF and PCD patients compared with that in controls. Severely affected CF patients had higher ionic concentrations in their nasal ASL than in patients with mild or moderate symptoms. Female CF patients had higher levels of Na, Cl, and K than male patients. As higher salt concentrations in the ASL are also found in other patients with airway diseases involving chronic inflammation, it appears likely that inflammation-induced epithelial damage is important in determining the ionic composition of the ASL. Copyright (c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  18. Public sector leadership: New perspectives for research and practice

    OpenAIRE

    D. Orazi; A.Turrini; G. Valotti

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, we aim to portray the state of the art in public sector leadership in order to recommend directions for research and training practice. To this end, we review the scattered strands of literature on public sector leadership (PSL) and classify them in a single framework. The results of the study suggest that public sector leadership is emerging as a distinctive and autonomous domain in public administration/public management studies, although the debate is still underdeveloped co...

  19. Public debate - radioactive wastes management; Debat public - gestion des dechets radioactifs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2005-07-01

    Between September 2005 and January 2006 a national debate has been organized on the radioactive wastes management. This debate aimed to inform the public and to allow him to give his opinion. This document presents, the reasons of this debate, the operating, the synthesis of the results and technical documents to bring information in the domain of radioactive wastes management. (A.L.B.)

  20. Knowledge-based public health situation awareness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mirhaji, Parsa; Zhang, Jiajie; Srinivasan, Arunkumar; Richesson, Rachel L.; Smith, Jack W.

    2004-09-01

    There have been numerous efforts to create comprehensive databases from multiple sources to monitor the dynamics of public health and most specifically to detect the potential threats of bioterrorism before widespread dissemination. But there are not many evidences for the assertion that these systems are timely and dependable, or can reliably identify man made from natural incident. One must evaluate the value of so called 'syndromic surveillance systems' along with the costs involved in design, development, implementation and maintenance of such systems and the costs involved in investigation of the inevitable false alarms1. In this article we will introduce a new perspective to the problem domain with a shift in paradigm from 'surveillance' toward 'awareness'. As we conceptualize a rather different approach to tackle the problem, we will introduce a different methodology in application of information science, computer science, cognitive science and human-computer interaction concepts in design and development of so called 'public health situation awareness systems'. We will share some of our design and implementation concepts for the prototype system that is under development in the Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Informatics Research, in the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The system is based on a knowledgebase containing ontologies with different layers of abstraction, from multiple domains, that provide the context for information integration, knowledge discovery, interactive data mining, information visualization, information sharing and communications. The modular design of the knowledgebase and its knowledge representation formalism enables incremental evolution of the system from a partial system to a comprehensive knowledgebase of 'public health situation awareness' as it acquires new knowledge through interactions with domain experts or automatic discovery of new knowledge.

  1. Expanding the landscape of chromatin modification (CM-related functional domains and genes in human.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shuye Pu

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Chromatin modification (CM plays a key role in regulating transcription, DNA replication, repair and recombination. However, our knowledge of these processes in humans remains very limited. Here we use computational approaches to study proteins and functional domains involved in CM in humans. We analyze the abundance and the pair-wise domain-domain co-occurrences of 25 well-documented CM domains in 5 model organisms: yeast, worm, fly, mouse and human. Results show that domains involved in histone methylation, DNA methylation, and histone variants are remarkably expanded in metazoan, reflecting the increased demand for cell type-specific gene regulation. We find that CM domains tend to co-occur with a limited number of partner domains and are hence not promiscuous. This property is exploited to identify 47 potentially novel CM domains, including 24 DNA-binding domains, whose role in CM has received little attention so far. Lastly, we use a consensus Machine Learning approach to predict 379 novel CM genes (coding for 329 proteins in humans based on domain compositions. Several of these predictions are supported by very recent experimental studies and others are slated for experimental verification. Identification of novel CM genes and domains in humans will aid our understanding of fundamental epigenetic processes that are important for stem cell differentiation and cancer biology. Information on all the candidate CM domains and genes reported here is publicly available.

  2. Opening of energy markets: consequences on the missions of public utility and of security of supplies in the domain of electric power and gas; Ouverture des marches energetiques: consequences sur les missions de service public et de securite d'approvisionnement pour l'electricite et le gaz

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2001-07-01

    This conference was jointly organized by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the French ministry of economy, finances, and industry (general direction of energy and raw materials, DGEMP). It was organized in 6 sessions dealing with: 1 - the public utility in the domain of energy: definition of the public utility missions, experience feedback about liberalized markets, public utility obligation and pricing regulation; 2 - the new US energy policy and the lessons learnt from the California crisis; 3 - the security of electric power supplies: concepts of security of supplies, opinion of operators, security of power supplies versus liberalization and investments; 4 - security of gas supplies: markets liberalization and investments, long-term contracts and security of supplies; 5 - debate: how to integrate the objectives of public utility and of security of supplies in a competing market; 6 - conclusions. This document brings together the available talks and transparencies presented at the conference. (J.S.)

  3. Domain Engineering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bjørner, Dines

    Before software can be designed we must know its requirements. Before requirements can be expressed we must understand the domain. So it follows, from our dogma, that we must first establish precise descriptions of domains; then, from such descriptions, “derive” at least domain and interface requirements; and from those and machine requirements design the software, or, more generally, the computing systems.

  4. X-ray microanalysis of rotavirus-infected mouse intestine: A new concept of diarrhoeal secretion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spencer, A.J.; Osborne, M.P.; Haddon, S.J.; Collins, J.; Starkey, W.G.; Candy, D.C.; Stephen, J.

    1990-01-01

    Neonatal mice were infected at 7 days of age with rotavirus [epizootic diarrhea of infant mice (EDIM) virus] and killed at 24-h intervals postinfection (PI). Cytoplasmic concentrations of Na, Mg, P, S, Cl, K, and Ca intestinal epithelial cells from infected and age-matched control animals were measured by x-ray microanalysis. In villus tip cells, Ca concentration increased at 24-96 h PI; Na concentration increased at 24-72 h PI; Ca and Na concentrations were near normal by 168 h PI. K concentration decreased 24-72 h PI, and Cl concentration decreased 48-96 h PI. In crypt cells, changes were observed without a discernible pattern: at 96 h PI, Na, Mg, S, and Cl concentrations increased and K concentration decreased; at 120 h PI, the concentrations of all elements except Na and Ca increased. In villus base cells, the mean concentrations of all elements except Ca peaked at 48-72 h PI and at 120 h PI. Na and Cl concentrations increased dramatically in some cells from 48 h PI onward. All the above concentration values were obtained from freeze-dried specimens and expressed in millimoles per kilogram of dry weight. Conversion of a limited number of data, pertaining to villus base cells, from dry weight to wet weight was possible. This conversion revealed that villus base cells in infected animals were more hydrated than corresponding cells from control animals. Also, the Na and Cl concentrations in mmol/kg H2O were significantly higher in villus base cells from infected animals than in those from corresponding controls: 137 +/- 7 versus 38 +/- 4 (Na) and 121 +/- 5 versus 89 +/- 6 (Cl). Wet weight concentrations of other elements were either the same (Mg) or lower (P, S, and K) after infection with virus

  5. X-ray microanalysis of rotavirus-infected mouse intestine: A new concept of diarrhoeal secretion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Spencer, A.J.; Osborne, M.P.; Haddon, S.J.; Collins, J.; Starkey, W.G.; Candy, D.C.; Stephen, J. (Univ. of Birmingham (England))

    1990-05-01

    Neonatal mice were infected at 7 days of age with rotavirus (epizootic diarrhea of infant mice (EDIM) virus) and killed at 24-h intervals postinfection (PI). Cytoplasmic concentrations of Na, Mg, P, S, Cl, K, and Ca intestinal epithelial cells from infected and age-matched control animals were measured by x-ray microanalysis. In villus tip cells, Ca concentration increased at 24-96 h PI; Na concentration increased at 24-72 h PI; Ca and Na concentrations were near normal by 168 h PI. K concentration decreased 24-72 h PI, and Cl concentration decreased 48-96 h PI. In crypt cells, changes were observed without a discernible pattern: at 96 h PI, Na, Mg, S, and Cl concentrations increased and K concentration decreased; at 120 h PI, the concentrations of all elements except Na and Ca increased. In villus base cells, the mean concentrations of all elements except Ca peaked at 48-72 h PI and at 120 h PI. Na and Cl concentrations increased dramatically in some cells from 48 h PI onward. All the above concentration values were obtained from freeze-dried specimens and expressed in millimoles per kilogram of dry weight. Conversion of a limited number of data, pertaining to villus base cells, from dry weight to wet weight was possible. This conversion revealed that villus base cells in infected animals were more hydrated than corresponding cells from control animals. Also, the Na and Cl concentrations in mmol/kg H2O were significantly higher in villus base cells from infected animals than in those from corresponding controls: 137 +/- 7 versus 38 +/- 4 (Na) and 121 +/- 5 versus 89 +/- 6 (Cl). Wet weight concentrations of other elements were either the same (Mg) or lower (P, S, and K) after infection with virus.

  6. A protein domain interaction interface database: InterPare

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lee Jungsul

    2005-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Most proteins function by interacting with other molecules. Their interaction interfaces are highly conserved throughout evolution to avoid undesirable interactions that lead to fatal disorders in cells. Rational drug discovery includes computational methods to identify the interaction sites of lead compounds to the target molecules. Identifying and classifying protein interaction interfaces on a large scale can help researchers discover drug targets more efficiently. Description We introduce a large-scale protein domain interaction interface database called InterPare http://interpare.net. It contains both inter-chain (between chains interfaces and intra-chain (within chain interfaces. InterPare uses three methods to detect interfaces: 1 the geometric distance method for checking the distance between atoms that belong to different domains, 2 Accessible Surface Area (ASA, a method for detecting the buried region of a protein that is detached from a solvent when forming multimers or complexes, and 3 the Voronoi diagram, a computational geometry method that uses a mathematical definition of interface regions. InterPare includes visualization tools to display protein interior, surface, and interaction interfaces. It also provides statistics such as the amino acid propensities of queried protein according to its interior, surface, and interface region. The atom coordinates that belong to interface, surface, and interior regions can be downloaded from the website. Conclusion InterPare is an open and public database server for protein interaction interface information. It contains the large-scale interface data for proteins whose 3D-structures are known. As of November 2004, there were 10,583 (Geometric distance, 10,431 (ASA, and 11,010 (Voronoi diagram entries in the Protein Data Bank (PDB containing interfaces, according to the above three methods. In the case of the geometric distance method, there are 31,620 inter-chain domain-domain

  7. Building credibility in public studies: Lessons learned from the Hanford environmental Dose Reconstruction project may apply to all public studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Till, J.E.

    1995-01-01

    This article describes the process by which the author came to recognize the importance of openness to the public in environmental studies, during the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project. Using the Dose reconstruction public involvement, the article goes on to describe a general guide to the construction of a new, positive framework for conducting future public studies. The steps include the following: putting the public in the study; building credibility into a public study (1 -search for proof in historical records; 2-define the domain and the exposed population; 3-characterize the material released; 4-identify key materials, pathways and receptors; 5-encouraging public participation; 6 -explaining the meaning of the results) and reconciling scientific and public issues

  8. Building credibility in public studies: Lessons learned from the Hanford environmental Dose Reconstruction project may apply to all public studies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Till, J.E. [Radiological Assessment Corp., Neeses, SC (United States)

    1995-09-01

    This article describes the process by which the author came to recognize the importance of openness to the public in environmental studies, during the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project. Using the Dose reconstruction public involvement, the article goes on to describe a general guide to the construction of a new, positive framework for conducting future public studies. The steps include the following: putting the public in the study; building credibility into a public study (1 -search for proof in historical records; 2-define the domain and the exposed population; 3-characterize the material released; 4-identify key materials, pathways and receptors; 5-encouraging public participation; 6 -explaining the meaning of the results) and reconciling scientific and public issues.

  9. Framing Effects: Dynamics and Task Domains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang

    1996-11-01

    The author examines the mechanisms and dynamics of framing effects in risky choices across three distinct task domains (i.e., life-death, public property, and personal money). The choice outcomes of the problems presented in each of the three task domains had a binary structure of a sure thing vs a gamble of equal expected value; the outcomes differed in their framing conditions and the expected values, raging from 6000, 600, 60, to 6, numerically. It was hypothesized that subjects would become more risk seeking, if the sure outcome was below their aspiration level (the minimum requirement). As predicted, more subjects preferred the gamble when facing the life-death choice problems than facing the counterpart problems presented in the other two task domains. Subjects' risk preference varied categorically along the group size dimension in the life-death domain but changed more linearly over the expected value dimension in the monetary domain. Framing effects were observed in 7 of 13 pairs of problems, showing a positive frame-risk aversion and negative frame-risk seeking relationship. In addition, two types of framing effects were theoretically defined and empirically identified. A bidirectional framing effect involves a reversal in risk preference, and occurs when a decision maker's risk preference is ambiguous or weak. Four bidirectional effects were observed; in each case a majority of subjects preferred the sure outcome under a positive frame but the gamble under a negative frame. In contrast, a unidirectional framing effect refers to a preference shift due to the framing of choice outcomes: A majority of subjects preferred one choice outcome (either the sure thing or the gamble) under both framing conditions, with positive frame augmented the preference for the sure thing and negative frame augmented the preference for the gamble. These findings revealed some dynamic regularities of framing effects and posed implications for developing predictive and testable

  10. Domain decomposition method for solving elliptic problems in unbounded domains

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khoromskij, B.N.; Mazurkevich, G.E.; Zhidkov, E.P.

    1991-01-01

    Computational aspects of the box domain decomposition (DD) method for solving boundary value problems in an unbounded domain are discussed. A new variant of the DD-method for elliptic problems in unbounded domains is suggested. It is based on the partitioning of an unbounded domain adapted to the given asymptotic decay of an unknown function at infinity. The comparison of computational expenditures is given for boundary integral method and the suggested DD-algorithm. 29 refs.; 2 figs.; 2 tabs

  11. Public-Private-Defense Partnering in Critical Infrastructure Protection

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Jaksec, Gregory M

    2006-01-01

    .... The challenge for the DHS is in motivating partnerships across the public, private, and DoD domains, each with different organizational and cultural objectives governed under a federalist system...

  12. The SHOCT domain: a widespread domain under-represented in model organisms.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruth Y Eberhardt

    Full Text Available We have identified a new protein domain, which we have named the SHOCT domain (Short C-terminal domain. This domain is widespread in bacteria with over a thousand examples. But we found it is missing from the most commonly studied model organisms, despite being present in closely related species. It's predominantly C-terminal location, co-occurrence with numerous other domains and short size is reminiscent of the Gram-positive anchor motif, however it is present in a much wider range of species. We suggest several hypotheses about the function of SHOCT, including oligomerisation and nucleic acid binding. Our initial experiments do not support its role as an oligomerisation domain.

  13. Domain-to-domain coupling in voltage-sensing phosphatase.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakata, Souhei; Matsuda, Makoto; Kawanabe, Akira; Okamura, Yasushi

    2017-01-01

    Voltage-sensing phosphatase (VSP) consists of a transmembrane voltage sensor and a cytoplasmic enzyme region. The enzyme region contains the phosphatase and C2 domains, is structurally similar to the tumor suppressor phosphatase PTEN, and catalyzes the dephosphorylation of phosphoinositides. The transmembrane voltage sensor is connected to the phosphatase through a short linker region, and phosphatase activity is induced upon membrane depolarization. Although the detailed molecular characteristics of the voltage sensor domain and the enzyme region have been revealed, little is known how these two regions are coupled. In addition, it is important to know whether mechanism for coupling between the voltage sensor domain and downstream effector function is shared among other voltage sensor domain-containing proteins. Recent studies in which specific amino acid sites were genetically labeled using a fluorescent unnatural amino acid have enabled detection of the local structural changes in the cytoplasmic region of Ciona intestinalis VSP that occur with a change in membrane potential. The results of those studies provide novel insight into how the enzyme activity of the cytoplasmic region of VSP is regulated by the voltage sensor domain.

  14. MIT domain of Vps4 is a Ca2+-dependent phosphoinositide-binding domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iwaya, Naoko; Takasu, Hirotoshi; Goda, Natsuko; Shirakawa, Masahiro; Tanaka, Toshiki; Hamada, Daizo; Hiroaki, Hidekazu

    2013-05-01

    The microtubule interacting and trafficking (MIT) domain is a small protein module that is conserved in proteins of diverged function, such as Vps4, spastin and sorting nexin 15 (SNX15). The molecular function of the MIT domain is protein-protein interaction, in which the domain recognizes peptides containing MIT-interacting motifs. Recently, we identified an evolutionarily related domain, 'variant' MIT domain at the N-terminal region of the microtubule severing enzyme katanin p60. We found that the domain was responsible for binding to microtubules and Ca(2+). Here, we have examined whether the authentic MIT domains also bind Ca(2+). We found that the loop between the first and second α-helices of the MIT domain binds a Ca(2+) ion. Furthermore, the MIT domains derived from Vps4b and SNX15a showed phosphoinositide-binding activities in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner. We propose that the MIT domain is a novel membrane-associating domain involved in endosomal trafficking.

  15. Rock Art and Radiance: Archaeology in the Public Domain as Life-Long Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ouzman, Sven

    The re-invigoration of storytelling in academic and public spheres allows rock art to offer opportunities to various publics, of which archaeologists are part. But how exactly this process of archaeology as lifelong learning is to proceed is not always clear, particularly in the United States. Until the last half decade of the twentieth century,…

  16. Rigorous quantitative elemental microanalysis by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (SEM/EDS) with spectrum processing by NIST DTSA-II

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newbury, Dale E.; Ritchie, Nicholas W. M.

    2014-09-01

    Quantitative electron-excited x-ray microanalysis by scanning electron microscopy/silicon drift detector energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (SEM/SDD-EDS) is capable of achieving high accuracy and high precision equivalent to that of the high spectral resolution wavelength dispersive x-ray spectrometer even when severe peak interference occurs. The throughput of the SDD-EDS enables high count spectra to be measured that are stable in calibration and resolution (peak shape) across the full deadtime range. With this high spectral stability, multiple linear least squares peak fitting is successful for separating overlapping peaks and spectral background. Careful specimen preparation is necessary to remove topography on unknowns and standards. The standards-based matrix correction procedure embedded in the NIST DTSA-II software engine returns quantitative results supported by a complete error budget, including estimates of the uncertainties from measurement statistics and from the physical basis of the matrix corrections. NIST DTSA-II is available free for Java-platforms at: http://www.cstl.nist.gov/div837/837.02/epq/dtsa2/index.html).

  17. Public Interfa(e)ces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cox, Geoff

    2011-01-01

    In the work of Hannah Arendt, the political realm arises out of acting together, in the sharing of speech and action. There has been much recent interest in revisiting Arendt’s ideas, in relation to a reconceptualisation of publicness. In Virno’s work, for instance, this is emphasized because...... as in speech or writing but also something that performs actions? For Kelty, again referring to Arendt, the free software movement is an example of what he calls a “recursive pubic”, to draw attention to emergent and self-organizing public actions. Moreover, publicness is constituted not simply by speaking......, writing, and protesting, but also through modification of the domain or platform through which these practices are enacted. And ordure? The quirky intervention of Dominique Laporte, in History of Shit (first published in French in 1978) verifies that modern power is founded on the aesthetics of the public...

  18. 77 FR 2982 - Request for Measures and Domains To Use in Development of a Standardized Instrument for Use in...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-20

    ... Measures and Domains To Use in Development of a Standardized Instrument for Use in Public Reporting of... Department of Health and Human Services with improving pediatric health care quality measures. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is soliciting the submission of instruments or domains (for example...

  19. Managing and monitoring the public lighting; Gerer et surveiller l`eclairage public

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Laurent, M.

    1997-10-01

    The performances of the public lighting systems is closely dependent of a series of elements and factors from the conceiving to the operation and from the power supply to the light source. This paper takes stocks of the tele-management (centralized technical management), the tele-surveillance (failure detection, energy stealing, self-regulation of light intensity) and of some new technological developments in this domain. (J.S.)

  20. Unconventional funding of urban public transport

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ubbels, B.J.; Nijkamp, P.

    2002-01-01

    In the past decade public authorities have developed a wealth of creative funding mechanisms to support transit systems. This paper offers a taxonomy of various unconventional funding mechanisms (i.e. outside the domain of charges for transit passengers or general taxation schemes), based on a

  1. Conversion of Dielectric Data from the Time Domain to the Frequency Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vladimir Durman

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Polarisation and conduction processes in dielectric systems can be identified by the time domain or the frequency domain measurements. If the systems is a linear one, the results of the time domain measurements can be transformed into the frequency domain, and vice versa. Commonly, the time domain data of the absorption conductivity are transformed into the frequency domain data of the dielectric susceptibility. In practice, the relaxation are mainly evaluated by the frequency domain data. In the time domain, the absorption current measurement were prefered up to now. Recent methods are based on the recovery voltage measurements. In this paper a new method of the recovery data conversion from the time the frequency domain is proposed. The method is based on the analysis of the recovery voltage transient based on the Maxwell equation for the current density in a dielectric. Unlike the previous published solutions, the Laplace fransform was used to derive a formula suitable for practical purposes. the proposed procedure allows also calculating of the insulation resistance and separating the polarisation and conduction losses.

  2. Predicting detection performance with model observers: Fourier domain or spatial domain?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Baiyu; Yu, Lifeng; Leng, Shuai; Kofler, James; Favazza, Christopher; Vrieze, Thomas; McCollough, Cynthia

    2016-02-27

    The use of Fourier domain model observer is challenged by iterative reconstruction (IR), because IR algorithms are nonlinear and IR images have noise texture different from that of FBP. A modified Fourier domain model observer, which incorporates nonlinear noise and resolution properties, has been proposed for IR and needs to be validated with human detection performance. On the other hand, the spatial domain model observer is theoretically applicable to IR, but more computationally intensive than the Fourier domain method. The purpose of this study is to compare the modified Fourier domain model observer to the spatial domain model observer with both FBP and IR images, using human detection performance as the gold standard. A phantom with inserts of various low contrast levels and sizes was repeatedly scanned 100 times on a third-generation, dual-source CT scanner at 5 dose levels and reconstructed using FBP and IR algorithms. The human detection performance of the inserts was measured via a 2-alternative-forced-choice (2AFC) test. In addition, two model observer performances were calculated, including a Fourier domain non-prewhitening model observer and a spatial domain channelized Hotelling observer. The performance of these two mode observers was compared in terms of how well they correlated with human observer performance. Our results demonstrated that the spatial domain model observer correlated well with human observers across various dose levels, object contrast levels, and object sizes. The Fourier domain observer correlated well with human observers using FBP images, but overestimated the detection performance using IR images.

  3. Situation Concerning Public Information about and Involvement in the Decision-Making Processes in the Nuclear Sector. Public Opinion Review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prades, A.; Sala, R.; Lopez, M.

    2006-01-01

    This report summarizes the CIEMAT's contribution to the study S ituation concerning Public Information about and Involvement in the Decision-Making Processes in the Nuclear Sector , contract number TREN/ 04/NUC/ S07.39556 between the European Commission and Mutadis Consultants. The research was composed by Mutadis Consultants and CEPN (Nuclear Protection Evaluation Centre) (France), University of Aberdeen (UK) and CIEMAT (Spain). The objective of the project was to build a detailed overview of the EU situation regarding information and participation practices in the nuclear domain, provide an elaborated assessment, and to produce reporting and recommendations in the field. CIEMAT contribution' focused on the review of public opinion polis. Thus, Eurobarometers Standard Surveys (EBs) were analysed to report about the European citizens' public opinion regarding public Information and participation in the nuclear field. Additionally, the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), and some additional national polis were analysed. In terms of the EU public opinion, the follow up of the public information and participation domains receiving as much attention as necessary. Extremely few questions dealing with the subject were identified in the Eurobarometers, the national polis and the ISSP (International Social Survey Program) surveys reviewed in this study. An unambiguous illustration of this lack of attention is the fact that no questions dealing with public participation issues emerged in the n uclear EBs u ntil 1998. Even though, Eurobarometers (EBs) still provide an invaluable source of information on the topics we are interested on at the EU allowing longitudinal descriptions (trend analysis) of some key issues in our area of interest. (Author) 11 refs

  4. Interaction Design for Public Spaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kortbek, Karen Johanne

    2008-01-01

    In this abstract I describe the doctorial research project "Interaction Design for Public Spaces". The objective of the project is to explore and design interaction contexts in culture related public spaces such as museums, experience centres and festivals. As a perspective on this domain, I...... will focus on the usage of the body as an interaction device. Furthermore, the project will involve a dramaturgic take on communication and design of interactive systems in the pursuit of new ways to stage the interactive contexts. The outcome of the project will be guidelines and conceptual frameworks which...... will help interaction designers when designing for bodily movement, and communicating and staging interactive content in public spaces....

  5. [Linked Data as a tool in the nutrition domain].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Míguez Pérez, R; Santos Gago, J M; Alonso Rorís, V M; Álvarez Sabucedo, L M; Mikic Fonte, F A

    2012-01-01

    Currently, there is a huge amount of information available on Internet that can neither be interpreted nor used by software agents. This fact poses a serious drawback to the potential of tools that deal with data on the current Web. Nevertheless, in recent times, advances in the domain of Semantic Web make possible the development of a new generation of smart applications capable of creating added-value services for the final user. This work shows the technical challenges that must be faced in the area of nutrition in order to transform one or several oldfashion sources of raw data into a web repository based on semantic technologies and linked with external and publicly available data on Internet. This approach makes possible for automatic tools to operate on the top of this information providing new functionalities highly interesting in the domain of public health, such as the automatic generation of menus for children or intelligent dietetic assistants, among others. This article explains the process to create such information support applying the guidelines of the Linked Data initiative and provides insights into the use of tools to make the most of this technology for its adoption in related use cases and environments.

  6. Bodies in Movement in Public Space

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Smith, Shelley

    2014-01-01

    This article explores the sensorial and conceptual perception of space and time, in an urbanity defined by urban life and urban form in movement and flux. Particularly regarding what public spaces and domains can be in contemporary societies and how these can be designed and developed....

  7. Concrete domains

    OpenAIRE

    Kahn, G.; Plotkin, G.D.

    1993-01-01

    This paper introduces the theory of a particular kind of computation domains called concrete domains. The purpose of this theory is to find a satisfactory framework for the notions of coroutine computation and sequentiality of evaluation.

  8. A Logic for Inclusion of Administrative Domains and Administrators in Multi-domain Authorization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iranmanesh, Zeinab; Amini, Morteza; Jalili, Rasool

    Authorization policies for an administrative domain or a composition of multiple domains in multi-domain environments are determined by either one administrator or multiple administrators' cooperation. Several logic-based models for multi-domain environments' authorization have been proposed; however, they have not considered administrators and administrative domains in policies' representation. In this paper, we propose the syntax, proof theory, and semantics of a logic for multi-domain authorization policies including administrators and administrative domains. Considering administrators in policies provides the possibility of presenting composite administration having applicability in many collaborative applications. Indeed, administrators and administrative domains stated in policies can be used in authorization. The presented logic is based on modal logic and utilizes two calculi named the calculus of administrative domains and the calculus of administrators. It is also proved that the logic is sound. A case study is presented signifying the logic application in practical projects.

  9. Quality criteria for electronic publications in medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schulz, S; Auhuber, T; Schrader, U; Klar, R

    1998-01-01

    This paper defines "electronic publications in medicine (EPM)" as computer based training programs, databases, knowledge-based systems, multimedia applications and electronic books running on standard platforms and available by usual distribution channels. A detailed catalogue of quality criteria as a basis for development and evaluation of EPMs is presented. The necessity to raise the quality level of electronic publications is stressed considering aspects of domain knowledge, software engineering, media development, interface design and didactics.

  10. Feature-level domain adaptation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kouw, Wouter M.; Van Der Maaten, Laurens J P; Krijthe, Jesse H.

    2016-01-01

    -level domain adaptation (flda), that models the dependence between the two domains by means of a feature-level transfer model that is trained to describe the transfer from source to target domain. Subsequently, we train a domain-adapted classifier by minimizing the expected loss under the resulting transfer...... modeled via a dropout distribution, which allows the classiffier to adapt to differences in the marginal probability of features in the source and the target domain. Our experiments on several real-world problems show that flda performs on par with state-of-the-art domainadaptation techniques.......Domain adaptation is the supervised learning setting in which the training and test data are sampled from different distributions: training data is sampled from a source domain, whilst test data is sampled from a target domain. This paper proposes and studies an approach, called feature...

  11. PREFACE: Domain wall dynamics in nanostructures Domain wall dynamics in nanostructures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marrows, C. H.; Meier, G.

    2012-01-01

    Domain structures in magnetic materials are ubiquitous and have been studied for decades. The walls that separate them are topological defects in the magnetic order parameter and have a wide variety of complex forms. In general, their investigation is difficult in bulk materials since only the domain structure on the surface of a specimen is visible. Cutting the sample to reveal the interior causes a rearrangement of the domains into a new form. As with many other areas of magnetism, the study of domain wall physics has been revitalised by the advent of nanotechnology. The ability to fabricate nanoscale structures has permitted the formation of simplified and controlled domain patterns; the development of advanced microscopy methods has permitted them to be imaged and then modelled; subjecting them to ultrashort field and current pulses has permitted their dynamics to be explored. The latest results from all of these advances are described in this special issue. Not only has this led to results of great scientific beauty, but also to concepts of great applicability to future information technologies. In this issue the reader will find the latest results for these domain wall dynamics and the high-speed processes of topological structures such as domain walls and magnetic vortices. These dynamics can be driven by the application of magnetic fields, or by flowing currents through spintronic devices using the novel physics of spin-transfer torque. This complexity has been studied using a wide variety of experimental techniques at the edge of the spatial and temporal resolution currently available, and can be described using sophisticated analytical theory and computational modelling. As a result, the dynamics can be engineered to give rise to finely controlled memory and logic devices with new functionality. Moreover, the field is moving to study not only the conventional transition metal ferromagnets, but also complex heterostructures, novel magnets and even other

  12. Time-domain modeling of electromagnetic diffusion with a frequency-domain code

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mulder, W.A.; Wirianto, M.; Slob, E.C.

    2007-01-01

    We modeled time-domain EM measurements of induction currents for marine and land applications with a frequency-domain code. An analysis of the computational complexity of a number of numerical methods shows that frequency-domain modeling followed by a Fourier transform is an attractive choice if a

  13. Dynamics of domain coverage of the protein sequence universe

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    Background The currently known protein sequence space consists of millions of sequences in public databases and is rapidly expanding. Assigning sequences to families leads to a better understanding of protein function and the nature of the protein universe. However, a large portion of the current protein space remains unassigned and is referred to as its “dark matter”. Results Here we suggest that true size of “dark matter” is much larger than stated by current definitions. We propose an approach to reducing the size of “dark matter” by identifying and subtracting regions in protein sequences that are not likely to contain any domain. Conclusions Recent improvements in computational domain modeling result in a decrease, albeit slowly, in the relative size of “dark matter”; however, its absolute size increases substantially with the growth of sequence data. PMID:23157439

  14. Dynamics of domain coverage of the protein sequence universe

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rekapalli Bhanu

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The currently known protein sequence space consists of millions of sequences in public databases and is rapidly expanding. Assigning sequences to families leads to a better understanding of protein function and the nature of the protein universe. However, a large portion of the current protein space remains unassigned and is referred to as its “dark matter”. Results Here we suggest that true size of “dark matter” is much larger than stated by current definitions. We propose an approach to reducing the size of “dark matter” by identifying and subtracting regions in protein sequences that are not likely to contain any domain. Conclusions Recent improvements in computational domain modeling result in a decrease, albeit slowly, in the relative size of “dark matter”; however, its absolute size increases substantially with the growth of sequence data.

  15. Investigation of Optically Modified YBa2Cu3O7–x Films by Means of X-ray Microanalysis Technique

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Artūras JUKNA

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available This work reports on investigation of remnant oxygen content in optically-modified regions of 0.3-mm-thick YBa2Cu3O7–x films, patterned by a laser-writing technique in an inert ambient gas atmosphere at room temperature. A laser-treated region of weak superconductivity with dimensions depending on the size of a laser spot, laser power, and initial content of oxygen is characterized by a lower oxygen content, weaker critical magnetic field, and suppressed both the superconducting critical temperature and the critical current density, as compared to the laser untreated regions. Optically induced (cw-laser, 532-nm-wavelength heating strongly affects a non-uniform distribution of remnant oxygen content in the film, depending both on the optical power and beam’s scanning velocity. A level of oxygen depletion and the size of the oxygen-deficient region have been directly estimated from scanning-electron-microscope spectra with the X-ray microanalysis technique. The results of our measurements were compared with results extracted from electric measurements, assuming a correlation between the remnant oxygen content and the electric transport properties of oxygen-deficient YBa2Cu3O7–x films. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.20.2.6323

  16. Crowdsourcing applications for public health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brabham, Daren C; Ribisl, Kurt M; Kirchner, Thomas R; Bernhardt, Jay M

    2014-02-01

    Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed, problem-solving, and production model that uses the collective intelligence of networked communities for specific purposes. Although its use has benefited many sectors of society, it has yet to be fully realized as a method for improving public health. This paper defines the core components of crowdsourcing and proposes a framework for understanding the potential utility of crowdsourcing in the domain of public health. Four discrete crowdsourcing approaches are described (knowledge discovery and management; distributed human intelligence tasking; broadcast search; and peer-vetted creative production types) and a number of potential applications for crowdsourcing for public health science and practice are enumerated. © 2013 American Journal of Preventive Medicine Published by American Journal of Preventive Medicine All rights reserved.

  17. Situation Concerning Public Information about and Involvement in the Decision-Making Processes in the Nuclear Sector. Public Opinion Review.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Prades, A.; Sala, R.; Lopez, M.

    2006-07-01

    This report summarizes the CIEMAT's contribution to the study {sup S}ituation concerning Public Information about and Involvement in the Decision-Making Processes in the Nuclear Sector{sup ,} contract number TREN/ 04/NUC/ S07.39556 between the European Commission and Mutadis Consultants. The research was composed by Mutadis Consultants and CEPN (Nuclear Protection Evaluation Centre) (France), University of Aberdeen (UK) and CIEMAT (Spain). The objective of the project was to build a detailed overview of the EU situation regarding information and participation practices in the nuclear domain, provide an elaborated assessment, and to produce reporting and recommendations in the field. CIEMAT contribution' focused on the review of public opinion polis. Thus, Eurobarometers Standard Surveys (EBs) were analysed to report about the European citizens' public opinion regarding public Information and participation in the nuclear field. Additionally, the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), and some additional national polis were analysed. In terms of the EU public opinion, the follow up of the public information and participation domains receiving as much attention as necessary. Extremely few questions dealing with the subject were identified in the Eurobarometers, the national polis and the ISSP (International Social Survey Program) surveys reviewed in this study. An unambiguous illustration of this lack of attention is the fact that no questions dealing with public participation issues emerged in the {sup n}uclear EBs{sup u}ntil 1998. Even though, Eurobarometers (EBs) still provide an invaluable source of information on the topics we are interested on at the EU allowing longitudinal descriptions (trend analysis) of some key issues in our area of interest. (Author) 11 refs.

  18. Separated matter and antimatter domains with vanishing domain walls

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dolgov, A.D.; Godunov, S.I.; Rudenko, A.S.; Tkachev, I.I., E-mail: dolgov@fe.infn.it, E-mail: sgodunov@itep.ru, E-mail: a.s.rudenko@inp.nsk.su, E-mail: tkachev@ms2.inr.ac.ru [Physics Department and Laboratory of Cosmology and Elementary Particle Physics, Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova st. 2, Novosibirsk, 630090 (Russian Federation)

    2015-10-01

    We present a model of spontaneous (or dynamical) C and CP violation where it is possible to generate domains of matter and antimatter separated by cosmologically large distances. Such C(CP) violation existed only in the early universe and later it disappeared with the only trace of generated baryonic and/or antibaryonic domains. So the problem of domain walls in this model does not exist. These features are achieved through a postulated form of interaction between inflaton and a new scalar field, realizing short time C(CP) violation.

  19. FIB preparation of a NiO Wedge-Lamella and STEM X-ray microanalysis for the determination of the experimental k(O-Ni) Cliff-Lorimer coefficient.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armigliato, Aldo; Frabboni, Stefano; Gazzadi, Gian Carlo; Rosa, Rodolfo

    2013-02-01

    A method for the fabrication of a wedge-shaped thin NiO lamella by focused ion beam is reported. The starting sample is an oxidized bulk single crystalline, oriented, Ni commercial standard. The lamella is employed for the determination, by analytical electron microscopy at 200 kV of the experimental k(O-Ni) Cliff-Lorimer (G. Cliff & G.W. Lorimer, J Microsc 103, 203-207, 1975) coefficient, according to the extrapolation method by Van Cappellen (E. Van Cappellen, Microsc Microstruct Microanal 1, 1-22, 1990). The result thus obtained is compared to the theoretical k(O-Ni) values either implemented into the commercial software for X-ray microanalysis quantification of the scanning transmission electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectrometry equipment or calculated by the Monte Carlo method. Significant differences among the three values are found. This confirms that for a reliable quantification of binary alloys containing light elements, the choice of the Cliff-Lorimer coefficients is crucial and experimental values are recommended.

  20. The role of nitrogen and sulphur bearing compounds in the wettability of oil reservoir rocks: an approach with nuclear microanalysis and other related surface techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mercier, F.; Toulhoat, N.; Potocek, V.; Trocellier, P.

    1999-01-01

    Oil recovery is strongly influenced by the wettability of the reservoir rock. Some constituents of the crude oil (polar compounds and heavy fractions such as asphaltenes with heteroatoms) are believed to react with the reservoir rock and to condition the local wettability. Therefore, it is important to obtain as much knowledge as possible about the characteristics of the organic matter/mineral interactions. This study is devoted to the description at the microscopic scale of the distribution of some heavy fractions of crude oil (asphaltenes) and nitrogen molecules (pyridine and pyrrole) on model minerals of sandstone reservoir rocks such as silica and clays. Nuclear microanalysis, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and other related microscopic imaging techniques allow to study the distribution and thickness of the organic films. The respective influences of the nature of the mineral substrate and the organic matter are studied. The important role played by the nitrogen compounds in the adsorption of organic matter is emphasized

  1. Mechanisms for integration of information models across related domains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkinson, Rob

    2010-05-01

    It is well recognised that there are opportunities and challenges in cross-disciplinary data integration. A significant barrier, however, is creating a conceptual model of the combined domains and the area of integration. For example, a groundwater domain application may require information from several related domains: geology, hydrology, water policy, etc. Each domain may have its own data holdings and conceptual models, but these will share various common concepts (eg. The concept of an aquifer). These areas of semantic overlap present significant challenges, firstly to choose a single representation (model) of a concept that appears in multiple disparate models,, then to harmonise these other models with the single representation. In addition, models may exist at different levels of abstraction depending on how closely aligned they are with a particular implementation. This makes it hard for modellers in one domain to introduce elements from another domain without either introducing a specific style of implementation, or conversely dealing with a set of abstract patterns that are hard to integrate with existing implementations. Models are easier to integrate if they are broken down into small units, with common concepts implemented using common models from well-known, and predictably managed shared libraries. This vision however requires development of a set of mechanisms (tools and procedures) for implementing and exploiting libraries of model components. These mechanisms need to handle publication, discovery, subscription, versioning and implementation of models in different forms. In this presentation a coherent suite of such mechanisms is proposed, using a scenario based on re-use of geosciences models. This approach forms the basis of a comprehensive strategy to empower domain modellers to create more interoperable systems. The strategy address a range of concerns and practice, and includes methodologies, an accessible toolkit, improvements to available

  2. Characterizing implicit mental health associations across clinical domains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Werntz, Alexandra J; Steinman, Shari A; Glenn, Jeffrey J; Nock, Matthew K; Teachman, Bethany A

    2016-09-01

    Implicit associations are relatively uncontrollable associations between concepts in memory. The current investigation focuses on implicit associations in four mental health domains (alcohol use, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders) and how these implicit associations: a) relate to explicit associations and b) self-reported clinical symptoms within the same domains, and c) vary based on demographic characteristics (age, gender, race, ethnicity, and education). Participants (volunteers over age 18 to a research website) completed implicit association (Implicit Association Tests), explicit association (self + psychopathology or attitudes toward food, using semantic differential items), and symptom measures at the Project Implicit Mental Health website tied to: alcohol use (N = 12,387), anxiety (N = 21,304), depression (N = 24,126), or eating disorders (N = 10,115). Within each domain, implicit associations showed small to moderate associations with explicit associations and symptoms, and predicted self-reported symptoms beyond explicit associations. In general, implicit association strength varied little by race and ethnicity, but showed small ties to age, gender, and education. This research was conducted on a public research and education website, where participants could take more than one of the studies. Among a large and diverse sample, implicit associations in the four domains are congruent with explicit associations and self-reported symptoms, and also add to our prediction of self-reported symptoms over and above explicit associations, pointing to the potential future clinical utility and validity of using implicit association measures with diverse populations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Public health nursing competency in a rural/frontier state.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bigbee, Jeri L; Otterness, Nancy; Gehrke, Pam

    2010-01-01

    To assess the self-reported levels of competency among public health nurses (PHNs) in Idaho. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used. The sample consisted of 124 PHNs, including 30 in leadership roles, currently practicing in Idaho's official public health agencies. Structured interviews were conducted with participants who provided self-ratings in the 8 domains of public health competency as developed by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice and the Quad Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations. The findings indicated that the overall level of competency was most strongly associated with the duration of professional experience. No major differences in the competency levels were found in relation to nurses' level of education or licensure. Nurses in leadership positions reported the highest levels of competency. Rurality, as measured by district population density, was not significantly correlated with competency levels, except in relation to community dimensions of practice skills. The findings suggest that PHNs' self-perceived levels of competence are most strongly influenced by their years of professional experience, particularly in leadership roles. Professional development efforts should focus on the domains with the lowest perceived competency: policy development/program planning skills, analytic assessment skills, and financial planning/management skills.

  4. History of the CERN Web Software Public Releases

    CERN Document Server

    Fluckiger, Francois; CERN. Geneva. IT Department

    2016-01-01

    This note is an extended version of the article “Licencing the Web” (http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/birthweb/licensing-web) published by CERN, Nov 2013, in the “Birth of the Web” series of articles (http://home.cern/topics/birth-web). It describes the successive steps of the public release of the CERN Web software, from public domain to open source, and explains their rationale. It provides in annexes historical documents including release announcement and texts of the licences used by CERN and MIT in public software distributions.

  5. Optimisation of mass ranging for atom probe microanalysis and application to the corrosion processes in Zr alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hudson, D.; Smith, G.D.W.; Gault, B.

    2011-01-01

    Atom probe tomography uses time-of-flight mass spectrometry to identify the chemical nature of atoms from their mass-to-charge-state ratios. Within a mass spectrum, ranges are defined so as to attribute a chemical identity to each peak. The accuracy of atom probe microanalysis relies on the definition of these ranges. Here we propose and compare several automated ranging techniques, tested against simulated mass spectra. The performance of these metrics compare favourably with a trial of users asked to manually range a simplified simulated dataset. The optimised automated ranging procedure was then used to precisely evaluate the very low iron concentration (0.003-0.018 at%) in a zirconium alloy to reveal its behaviour in the matrix during corrosion; oxygen is injected into solution and has the effect of increasing the local iron concentration near the oxide-metal interface, which in turn affects the corrosion properties of the metal substrate. -- Research Highlights: → Realistic simulated mass spectra were generated so as to reproduce experimental data with a perfectly determined composition. → Several metrics were tested against these simulated mass spectra to determine an optimal methodology for ranging mass peaks in atom probe tomography. Systematic automated ranging provides a significant reduction in the deviation between true and measured concentrations compared to manual ranging by multiple users on the same data. → Experimental datasets were subsequently investigated, and Fe has been shown to be distributed as a random solid solution within the matrix of 'as-received' recrystallised ZIRLO, a zirconium alloy.

  6. Domain Walls and Matter-Antimatter Domains in the Early Universe

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dolgov A.D.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available We suggest a scenario of spontaneous (or dynamical C and CP violation according to which it is possible to generate domains of matter and antimatter separated by cosmologically large distances. Such C(CP violation existed only in the early universe and later it disappeared with the only trace of generated matter and antimatter domains. So this scenario does not suffer from the problem of domain walls. According to this scenario the width of the domain wall should grow exponentially to prevent annihilation at the domain boundaries. Though there is a classical result obtained by Basu and Vilenkin that the width of the wall tends to the one of the stationary solution (constant physical width. That is why we considered thick domain walls in a de Sitter universe following paper by Basu and Vilenkin. However, we were interested not only in stationary solutions found therein, but also investigated the general case of domain wall evolution with time. When the wall thickness parameter, δ0 , is smaller than H−1/2 where H is the Hubble parameter in de Sitter space-time, then the stationary solutions exist, and initial field configurations tend with time to the stationary ones. However, there are no stationary solutions for δ0>H−1/2 We have calculated numerically the rate of the wall expansion in this case and have found that the width of the wall grows exponentially fast for δ0≫H−1 An explanation for the critical value δ0c=H−1/2 is also proposed.

  7. A flexible and accurate quantification algorithm for electron probe X-ray microanalysis based on thin-film element yields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schalm, O.; Janssens, K.

    2003-04-01

    Quantitative analysis by means of electron probe X-ray microanalysis (EPXMA) of low Z materials such as silicate glasses can be hampered by the fact that ice or other contaminants build up on the Si(Li) detector beryllium window or (in the case of a windowless detector) on the Si(Li) crystal itself. These layers act as an additional absorber in front of the detector crystal, decreasing the detection efficiency at low energies (philosophy often employed in quantitative analysis of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) data. This approach is based on the (experimental) determination of thin-film element yields, rather than starting from infinitely thick and single element calibration standards. These thin-film sensitivity coefficients can also be interpolated to allow quantification of elements for which no suitable standards are available. The change in detector efficiency can be monitored by collecting an X-ray spectrum of one multi-element glass standard. This information is used to adapt the previously determined thin-film sensitivity coefficients to the actual detector efficiency conditions valid on the day that the experiments were carried out. The main advantage of this method is that spectra collected from the standards and from the unknown samples should not be acquired within a short period of time. This new approach is evaluated for glass and metal matrices and is compared with a standard ZAF method.

  8. Public debate - radioactive wastes management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    Between September 2005 and January 2006 a national debate has been organized on the radioactive wastes management. This debate aimed to inform the public and to allow him to give his opinion. This document presents, the reasons of this debate, the operating, the synthesis of the results and technical documents to bring information in the domain of radioactive wastes management. (A.L.B.)

  9. Laboratory Experiments in Teaching Public Economics and Policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Špačková Zuzana

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with classroom experiments in economics, which have been derived from laboratory experiments. These experiments cover a broad range of topics, from strictly economic ones (like market games or auctions to those with overlaps to other domains such as public policy. The paper discusses different methodologies of research and classroom experiments, introduces the benefits of the latter and presents a concrete teaching experiment used in public economics courses at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University. Another link between economic experiments and public policy is outlined here as well, namely the importance of experimental results for public policy makers.

  10. Deciphering the imperative: translating public health quality improvement into organizational performance management gains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beitsch, Leslie M; Yeager, Valerie A; Moran, John

    2015-03-18

    With the launching of the national public health accreditation program under the auspices of the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), health department momentum around quality improvement adoption has accelerated. Domain 9 of the PHAB standards (one of 12 domains) focuses on evaluation and improvement of performance and is acting as a strong driver for quality improvement and performance management implementation within health departments. Widespread adoption of quality improvement activities in public health trails that in other US sectors. Several performance management models have received broad acceptance, including models among government and nonprofits. A model specifically for public health has been developed and is presented herein. All models in current use reinforce customer focus; streamlined, value-added processes; and strategic alignment. All are structured to steer quality improvement efforts toward organizational priorities, ensuring that quality improvement complements performance management. High-performing health departments harness the synergy of quality improvement and performance management, providing powerful tools to achieve public health strategic imperatives.

  11. Domain Decomposition Solvers for Frequency-Domain Finite Element Equations

    KAUST Repository

    Copeland, Dylan

    2010-10-05

    The paper is devoted to fast iterative solvers for frequency-domain finite element equations approximating linear and nonlinear parabolic initial boundary value problems with time-harmonic excitations. Switching from the time domain to the frequency domain allows us to replace the expensive time-integration procedure by the solution of a simple linear elliptic system for the amplitudes belonging to the sine- and to the cosine-excitation or a large nonlinear elliptic system for the Fourier coefficients in the linear and nonlinear case, respectively. The fast solution of the corresponding linear and nonlinear system of finite element equations is crucial for the competitiveness of this method. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

  12. Domain Decomposition Solvers for Frequency-Domain Finite Element Equations

    KAUST Repository

    Copeland, Dylan; Kolmbauer, Michael; Langer, Ulrich

    2010-01-01

    The paper is devoted to fast iterative solvers for frequency-domain finite element equations approximating linear and nonlinear parabolic initial boundary value problems with time-harmonic excitations. Switching from the time domain to the frequency domain allows us to replace the expensive time-integration procedure by the solution of a simple linear elliptic system for the amplitudes belonging to the sine- and to the cosine-excitation or a large nonlinear elliptic system for the Fourier coefficients in the linear and nonlinear case, respectively. The fast solution of the corresponding linear and nonlinear system of finite element equations is crucial for the competitiveness of this method. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

  13. Domain shape instabilities and dendrite domain growth in uniaxial ferroelectrics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shur, Vladimir Ya.; Akhmatkhanov, Andrey R.

    2018-01-01

    The effects of domain wall shape instabilities and the formation of nanodomains in front of moving walls obtained in various uniaxial ferroelectrics are discussed. Special attention is paid to the formation of self-assembled nanoscale and dendrite domain structures under highly non-equilibrium switching conditions. All obtained results are considered in the framework of the unified kinetic approach to domain structure evolution based on the analogy with first-order phase transformation. This article is part of the theme issue `From atomistic interfaces to dendritic patterns'.

  14. The role of public goods in planetary evolution

    Science.gov (United States)

    McInerney, James O.; Erwin, Douglas H.

    2017-11-01

    Biological public goods are broadly shared within an ecosystem and readily available. They appear to be widespread and may have played important roles in the history of life on Earth. Of particular importance to events in the early history of life are the roles of public goods in the merging of genomes, protein domains and even cells. We suggest that public goods facilitated the origin of the eukaryotic cell, a classic major evolutionary transition. The recognition of genomic public goods challenges advocates of a direct graph view of phylogeny, and those who deny that any useful phylogenetic signal persists in modern genomes. Ecological spillovers generate public goods that provide new ecological opportunities. This article is part of the themed issue 'Reconceptualizing the origins of life'.

  15. Word Memory Test Performance Across Cognitive Domains, Psychiatric Presentations, and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rowland, Jared A; Miskey, Holly M; Brearly, Timothy W; Martindale, Sarah L; Shura, Robert D

    2017-05-01

    The current study addressed two aims: (i) determine how Word Memory Test (WMT) performance relates to test performance across numerous cognitive domains and (ii) evaluate how current psychiatric disorders or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) history affects performance on the WMT after excluding participants with poor symptom validity. Participants were 235 Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans (Mage = 35.5) who completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Participants were divided into two groups based on WMT performance (Pass = 193, Fail = 42). Tests were grouped into cognitive domains and an average z-score was calculated for each domain. Significant differences were found between those who passed and those who failed the WMT on the memory, attention, executive function, and motor output domain z-scores. WMT failure was associated with a larger performance decrement in the memory domain than the sensation or visuospatial-construction domains. Participants with a current psychiatric diagnosis or mTBI history were significantly more likely to fail the WMT, even after removing participants with poor symptom validity. Results suggest that the WMT is most appropriate for assessing validity in the domains of attention, executive function, motor output and memory, with little relationship to performance in domains of sensation or visuospatial-construction. Comprehensive cognitive batteries would benefit from inclusion of additional performance validity tests in these domains. Additionally, symptom validity did not explain higher rates of WMT failure in individuals with a current psychiatric diagnosis or mTBI history. Further research is needed to better understand how these conditions may affect WMT performance. Published by Oxford University Press 2016. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

  16. L'apprentissage des langues médiatisé par les technologies (ALMT – Étude d'un domaine de recherche émergent à travers les publications de la revue Alsic Technology-mediated language learning: an emergent research domain under study through the review of a French scientific journal's publications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas Guichon

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Dans cette étude, il est postulé que l'apprentissage des langues médiatisé par les technologies (ALMT est un domaine de recherche qui s'intéresse au développement et à l'intégration des technologies dans l'enseignement-apprentissage d'une langue. Ce domaine étant émergent, la présente recherche vise tout d'abord à comprendre comment s'est formée la communauté de chercheurs autour de cet objet. Puis, à travers l'analyse critique de 79 articles publiés dans la revue en ligne francophone Alsic entre 1998 et 2010, la présente contribution s'emploie à définir les contours épistémologiques de ce domaine en étudiant les moyens de production de connaissance.In this study, it is postulated that technology mediated language learning is a research domain that focuses on the design and integration of technologies for language learning and teaching. Because this domain is emergent, the present study first aims at understanding how a community of researchers has developed around this object. Then, thanks to the critical analysis of 79 articles published in Alsic, a French-speaking online journal, the present article endeavours to define the epistemological contours of this research domain by studying the means employed to produce knowledge.

  17. Quality of determinations obtained from laboratory reference samples used in the calibration of X-ray electron probe microanalysis of silicate minerals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pavlova, Ludmila A.; Suvorova, Ludmila F.; Belozerova, Olga Yu.; Pavlov, Sergey M.

    2003-01-01

    Nine simple minerals and oxides, traditionally used as laboratory reference samples in the electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) of silicate minerals, have been quantitatively evaluated. Three separate series of data, comprising the average concentration, standard deviation, relative standard deviation, confidence interval and the z-score of data quality, were calculated for 21 control samples derived from calibrations obtained from three sets of reference samples: (1) simple minerals; (2) oxides; and (3) certified glass reference materials. No systematic difference was observed between the concentrations obtained from these three calibration sets when analyzed results were compared to certified compositions. The relative standard deviations obtained for each element were smaller than target values for all determinations. The z-score values for all elements determined fell within acceptable limits (-2< z<2) for concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 100%. These experiments show that the quality of data obtained from laboratory reference calibration samples is not inferior to that from certified reference glasses. The quality of results obtained corresponds to the 'applied geochemistry' type of analysis (category 2) as defined in the GeoPT proficiency testing program. Therefore, the laboratory reference samples can be used for calibrating EPMA techniques in the analysis of silicate minerals and for controlling the quality of results

  18. Jahn-teller domains and magnetic domains in Mn2FeO4

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kub, J.; Brabers, V.A.M.; Novák, P.; Gemperle, R.; Simsova, J.

    2000-01-01

    Elastic (Jahn–Teller) domains and magnetic domains in the tetragonal spinel Mn2FeO4 were studied using X-ray double-crystal topography, X-ray diffractometry and the colloid-SEM method. The Jahn–Teller domains of the measured samples are tetragonal with the [0 0 1] c-axis alternating perpendicularly

  19. The extended-domain-eigenfunction method for solving elliptic boundary value problems with annular domains

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aarao, J; Bradshaw-Hajek, B H; Miklavcic, S J; Ward, D A, E-mail: Stan.Miklavcic@unisa.edu.a [School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095 (Australia)

    2010-05-07

    Standard analytical solutions to elliptic boundary value problems on asymmetric domains are rarely, if ever, obtainable. In this paper, we propose a solution technique wherein we embed the original domain into one with simple boundaries where the classical eigenfunction solution approach can be used. The solution in the larger domain, when restricted to the original domain, is then the solution of the original boundary value problem. We call this the extended-domain-eigenfunction method. To illustrate the method's strength and scope, we apply it to Laplace's equation on an annular-like domain.

  20. Between-Domain Relations of Students’ Academic Emotions and Their Judgments of School Domain Similarity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas eGoetz

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available With the aim to deepen our understanding of the between-domain relations of academic emotions, a series of three studies was conducted. We theorized that between-domain relations of trait (i.e., habitual emotions reflected students’ judgments of domain similarities, whereas between-domain relations of state (i.e., momentary emotions did not. This supposition was based on the accessibility model of emotional self-report, according to which individuals’ beliefs tend to strongly impact trait, but not state emotions. The aim of Study 1 (interviews; N = 40; 8th and 11th graders was to gather salient characteristics of academic domains from students’ perspective. In Study 2 (N=1709; 8th and 11th graders the 13 characteristics identified in Study 1 were assessed along with academic emotions in four different domains (mathematics, physics, German, and English using a questionnaire-based trait assessment. With respect to the same domains, state emotions were assessed in Study 3 (N = 121; 8th and 11th graders by employing an experience sampling approach. In line with our initial assumptions, between-domain relations of trait but not state academic emotions reflected between-domain relations of domain characteristics. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

  1. Between-domain relations of students' academic emotions and their judgments of school domain similarity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goetz, Thomas; Haag, Ludwig; Lipnevich, Anastasiya A.; Keller, Melanie M.; Frenzel, Anne C.; Collier, Antonie P. M.

    2014-01-01

    With the aim to deepen our understanding of the between-domain relations of academic emotions, a series of three studies was conducted. We theorized that between-domain relations of trait (i.e., habitual) emotions reflected students' judgments of domain similarities, whereas between-domain relations of state (i.e., momentary) emotions did not. This supposition was based on the accessibility model of emotional self-report, according to which individuals' beliefs tend to strongly impact trait, but not state emotions. The aim of Study 1 (interviews; N = 40; 8th and 11th graders) was to gather salient characteristics of academic domains from students' perspective. In Study 2 (N = 1709; 8th and 11th graders) the 13 characteristics identified in Study 1 were assessed along with academic emotions in four different domains (mathematics, physics, German, and English) using a questionnaire-based trait assessment. With respect to the same domains, state emotions were assessed in Study 3 (N = 121; 8th and 11th graders) by employing an experience sampling approach. In line with our initial assumptions, between-domain relations of trait but not state academic emotions reflected between-domain relations of domain characteristics. Implications for research and practice are discussed. PMID:25374547

  2. Time-Domain Full-Wave Modeling of Nonlinear Air Breakdown in High-Power Microwave Devices and Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-09-30

    distribution is unlimited. 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT This final report describes the effort to develop a discontinuous Galerkin time ...Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. 1.0 SUMMARY In this report, a discontinuous Galerkin time -domain (DGTD) method is developed...public release; distribution is unlimited. [23] S. Yan, C.-P. Lin, R. R. Arslanbekov, V. I. Kolobov, and J.-M. Jin, “A discontinuous Galerkin time

  3. Expansion of protein domain repeats.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asa K Björklund

    2006-08-01

    Full Text Available Many proteins, especially in eukaryotes, contain tandem repeats of several domains from the same family. These repeats have a variety of binding properties and are involved in protein-protein interactions as well as binding to other ligands such as DNA and RNA. The rapid expansion of protein domain repeats is assumed to have evolved through internal tandem duplications. However, the exact mechanisms behind these tandem duplications are not well-understood. Here, we have studied the evolution, function, protein structure, gene structure, and phylogenetic distribution of domain repeats. For this purpose we have assigned Pfam-A domain families to 24 proteomes with more sensitive domain assignments in the repeat regions. These assignments confirmed previous findings that eukaryotes, and in particular vertebrates, contain a much higher fraction of proteins with repeats compared with prokaryotes. The internal sequence similarity in each protein revealed that the domain repeats are often expanded through duplications of several domains at a time, while the duplication of one domain is less common. Many of the repeats appear to have been duplicated in the middle of the repeat region. This is in strong contrast to the evolution of other proteins that mainly works through additions of single domains at either terminus. Further, we found that some domain families show distinct duplication patterns, e.g., nebulin domains have mainly been expanded with a unit of seven domains at a time, while duplications of other domain families involve varying numbers of domains. Finally, no common mechanism for the expansion of all repeats could be detected. We found that the duplication patterns show no dependence on the size of the domains. Further, repeat expansion in some families can possibly be explained by shuffling of exons. However, exon shuffling could not have created all repeats.

  4. Assessing Data Quality in Emergent Domains of Earth Sciences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Darch, P. T.; Borgman, C.

    2016-12-01

    interpret. Incentive structures, including prospects for journal publication, often favor new data over reanalyzing extant datasets. Assessing data quality in emergent domains is extremely difficult and will require adaptations in infrastructure, culture, and incentives.

  5. A reaction time advantage for calculating beliefs over public representations signals domain specificity for 'theory of mind'.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Adam S; German, Tamsin C

    2010-06-01

    In a task where participants' overt task was to track the location of an object across a sequence of events, reaction times to unpredictable probes requiring an inference about a social agent's beliefs about the location of that object were obtained. Reaction times to false belief situations were faster than responses about the (false) contents of a map showing the location of the object (Experiment 1) and about the (false) direction of an arrow signaling the location of the object (Experiment 2). These results are consistent with developmental, neuro-imaging and neuropsychological evidence that there exist domain specific mechanisms within human cognition for encoding and reasoning about mental states. Specialization of these mechanisms may arise from either core cognitive architecture or via the accumulation of expertise in the social domain.

  6. Interoperable domain models : The ISO land administration domain model LADM and its external classes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lemmen, C.H.J.; Van Oosterom, P.J.M.; Uitermark, H.T.; Zevenbergen, J.A.; Cooper, A.K.

    2011-01-01

    This paper provides a brief overview of one of the first spatial domain standards: a standard for the domain of Land Administration (LA). This standard is in the draft stage of development now (May 2011). The development of domain standards is a logical follow up after domain-independent standards,

  7. An Ontology-Based Knowledge Modelling for a Sustainability Assessment Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agnieszka Konys

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability assessment has received more and more attention from researchers and it offers a large number of opportunities to measure and evaluate the level of its accomplishment. However, proper selection of a particular sustainability assessment approach, reflecting problem properties and the evaluator’s preferences, is a complex and important issue. Due to an existing number of different approaches dedicated to assessing, supporting, or measuring the level of sustainability and their structure oriented on the particular domain usage, problems with accurate matching frequently occur. On the other hand, the efficiency of sustainability assessment depends on the available knowledge of the ongoing capabilities. Additionally, actual research trends confirm that knowledge engineering gives a method to handle domain knowledge practically and effectively. Unfortunately, literature studies confirm that there is a lack of knowledge systematization in the sustainability assessment domain, however. The practical application of knowledge-based mechanisms may cover this gap. In this paper, we provide formal, practical and technological guidance to a knowledge management-based approach to sustainability assessment. We propose ontology as a form of knowledge conceptualization and using knowledge engineering, we make gathered knowledge publicly available and reusable, especially in terms of interoperability of collected knowledge.

  8. Finding the Secret of Image Saliency in the Frequency Domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jia; Duan, Ling-Yu; Chen, Xiaowu; Huang, Tiejun; Tian, Yonghong

    2015-12-01

    There are two sides to every story of visual saliency modeling in the frequency domain. On the one hand, image saliency can be effectively estimated by applying simple operations to the frequency spectrum. On the other hand, it is still unclear which part of the frequency spectrum contributes the most to popping-out targets and suppressing distractors. Toward this end, this paper tentatively explores the secret of image saliency in the frequency domain. From the results obtained in several qualitative and quantitative experiments, we find that the secret of visual saliency may mainly hide in the phases of intermediate frequencies. To explain this finding, we reinterpret the concept of discrete Fourier transform from the perspective of template-based contrast computation and thus develop several principles for designing the saliency detector in the frequency domain. Following these principles, we propose a novel approach to design the saliency detector under the assistance of prior knowledge obtained through both unsupervised and supervised learning processes. Experimental results on a public image benchmark show that the learned saliency detector outperforms 18 state-of-the-art approaches in predicting human fixations.

  9. Single-particle characterization of urban aerosol particles collected in three Korean cites using low-Z electron probe X-ray microanalysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ro, Chul-Un; Kim, HyeKyeong; Oh, Keun-Young; Yea, Sun Kyung; Lee, Chong Bum; Jang, Meongdo; Van Grieken, René

    2002-11-15

    A recently developed single-particle analytical technique, called low-Z electron probe X-ray microanalysis (low-Z EPMA), was applied to characterize urban aerosol particles collected in three cities of Korea (Seoul, CheongJu, and ChunCheon) on single days in the winter of 1999. In this study, it is clearly demonstrated that the low-Z EPMA technique can provide detailed and quantitative information on the chemical composition of particles in the urban atmosphere. The collected aerosol particles were analyzed and classified on the basis of their chemical species. Various types of particles were identified, such as soil-derived, carbonaceous, marine-originated, and anthropogenic particles. In the sample collected in Seoul, carbonaceous, aluminosilicates, silicon dioxide, and calcium carbonate aerosol particles were abundantly encountered. In the CheongJu and ChunCheon samples, carbonaceous, aluminosilicates, reacted sea salts, and ammonium sulfate aerosol particles were often seen. However, in the CheongJu sample, ammonium sulfate particles were the most abundant in the fine fraction. Also, calcium sulfate and nitrate particles were significantly observed. In the ChunCheon sample, organic particles were the most abundant in the fine fraction. Also, sodium nitrate particles were seen at high levels. The ChunCheon sample seemed to be strongly influenced by sea-salt aerosols originating from the Yellow Sea, which is located about 115 km away from the city.

  10. County-Level Human Well-Being Index and Domain Scores (2000-2010) plus EQI data set (2000-2005)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The HWBI_Draft_1 is an internal map service being prepared for public release (early FY18). This map services contains mean county-level HWBI, domain, indicators and...

  11. A Domain-Specific Programming Language for Secure Multiparty Computation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Janus Dam; Schwartzbach, Michael Ignatieff

    2007-01-01

    We present a domain-specific programming language for Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC). Information is a resource of vital importance and considerable economic value to individuals, public administration, and private companies. This means that the confidentiality of information is crucial...... on secret values and results are only revealed according to specific protocols. We identify the key linguistic concepts of SMC and bridge the gap between high-level security requirements and low-level cryptographic operations constituting an SMC platform, thus improving the efficiency and security of SMC...

  12. Effects of multi-domain interventions in (prefrail elderly on frailty, functional, and cognitive status: a systematic review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dedeyne L

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Lenore Dedeyne,1 Mieke Deschodt,2–4 Sabine Verschueren,5 Jos Tournoy,1,3 Evelien Gielen1,3 1Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, 2Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 3Department of Geriatric Medicine, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 4Department of Public Health, Institute of Nursing Science, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; 5Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium Background: Frailty is an aging syndrome caused by exceeding a threshold of decline across multiple organ systems leading to a decreased resistance to stressors. Treatment for frailty focuses on multi-domain interventions to target multiple affected functions in order to decrease the adverse outcomes of frailty. No systematic reviews on the effectiveness of multi-domain interventions exist in a well-defined frail population. Objectives: This systematic review aimed to determine the effect of multi-domain compared to mono-domain interventions on frailty status and score, cognition, muscle mass, strength and power, functional and social outcomes in (prefrail elderly (≥65 years. It included interventions targeting two or more domains (physical exercise, nutritional, pharmacological, psychological, or social interventions in participants defined as (prefrail by an operationalized frailty definition. Methods: The databases PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PEDro, CENTRAL, and the Cochrane Central register of Controlled Trials were searched from inception until September 14, 2016. Additional articles were searched by citation search, author search, and reference lists of relevant articles. The protocol for this review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42016032905. Results: Twelve studies were included, reporting a large diversity of interventions in terms of content, duration, and follow-up period. Overall, multi-domain interventions tended to be more

  13. Domain architecture conservation in orthologs

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Background As orthologous proteins are expected to retain function more often than other homologs, they are often used for functional annotation transfer between species. However, ortholog identification methods do not take into account changes in domain architecture, which are likely to modify a protein's function. By domain architecture we refer to the sequential arrangement of domains along a protein sequence. To assess the level of domain architecture conservation among orthologs, we carried out a large-scale study of such events between human and 40 other species spanning the entire evolutionary range. We designed a score to measure domain architecture similarity and used it to analyze differences in domain architecture conservation between orthologs and paralogs relative to the conservation of primary sequence. We also statistically characterized the extents of different types of domain swapping events across pairs of orthologs and paralogs. Results The analysis shows that orthologs exhibit greater domain architecture conservation than paralogous homologs, even when differences in average sequence divergence are compensated for, for homologs that have diverged beyond a certain threshold. We interpret this as an indication of a stronger selective pressure on orthologs than paralogs to retain the domain architecture required for the proteins to perform a specific function. In general, orthologs as well as the closest paralogous homologs have very similar domain architectures, even at large evolutionary separation. The most common domain architecture changes observed in both ortholog and paralog pairs involved insertion/deletion of new domains, while domain shuffling and segment duplication/deletion were very infrequent. Conclusions On the whole, our results support the hypothesis that function conservation between orthologs demands higher domain architecture conservation than other types of homologs, relative to primary sequence conservation. This supports the

  14. Effects of sub-domain structure on initial magnetization curve and domain size distribution of stacked media

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sato, S.; Kumagai, S.; Sugita, R.

    2015-01-01

    In this paper, in order to confirm the sub-domain structure in stacked media demagnetized with in-plane field, initial magnetization curves and magnetic domain size distribution were investigated. Both experimental and simulation results showed that an initial magnetization curve for the medium demagnetized with in-plane field (MDI) initially rose faster than that for the medium demagnetized with perpendicular field (MDP). It is inferred that this is because the MDI has a larger number of domain walls than the MDP due to the existence of the sub-domains, resulting in an increase in the probability of domain wall motion. Dispersion of domain size for the MDI was larger than that for the MDP. This is because sub-domains are formed not only inside the domain but also at the domain boundary region, and they change the position of the domain boundary to affect the domain size. - Highlights: • An initial magnetization curve for MDI initially rose faster than that for MDP. • Dispersion of domain size for the MDI was larger than that for the MDP. • Experimental and simulation results can be explained by existence of sub-domains

  15. A Review of Domain Modelling and Domain Imaging Techniques in Ferroelectric Crystals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John E. Huber

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available The present paper reviews models of domain structure in ferroelectric crystals, thin films and bulk materials. Common crystal structures in ferroelectric materials are described and the theory of compatible domain patterns is introduced. Applications to multi-rank laminates are presented. Alternative models employing phase-field and related techniques are reviewed. The paper then presents methods of observing ferroelectric domain structure, including optical, polarized light, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray and neutron diffraction, atomic force microscopy and piezo-force microscopy. Use of more than one technique for unambiguous identification of the domain structure is also described.

  16. Reassessing Domain Architecture Evolution of Metazoan Proteins: The Contribution of Different Evolutionary Mechanisms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laszlo Patthy

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available In the accompanying papers we have shown that sequence errors of public databases and confusion of paralogs and epaktologs (proteins that are related only through the independent acquisition of the same domain types significantly distort the picture that emerges from comparison of the domain architecture (DA of multidomain Metazoan proteins since they introduce a strong bias in favor of terminal over internal DA change. The issue of whether terminal or internal DA changes occur with greater probability has very important implications for the DA evolution of multidomain proteins since gene fusion can add domains only at terminal positions, whereas domain-shuffling is capable of inserting domains both at internal and terminal positions. As a corollary, overestimation of terminal DA changes may be misinterpreted as evidence for a dominant role of gene fusion in DA evolution. In this manuscript we show that in several recent studies of DA evolution of Metazoa the authors used databases that are significantly contaminated with incomplete, abnormal and mispredicted sequences (e.g., UniProtKB/TrEMBL, EnsEMBL and/or the authors failed to separate paralogs and epaktologs, explaining why these studies concluded that the major mechanism for gains of new domains in metazoan proteins is gene fusion. In contrast with the latter conclusion, our studies on high quality orthologous and paralogous Swiss-Prot sequences confirm that shuffling of mobile domains had a major role in the evolution of multidomain proteins of Metazoa and especially those formed in early vertebrates.

  17. Genomics and X-ray microanalysis indicate that Ca2+ and thiols mediate the aggregation and adhesion of Xylella fastidiosa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leite B.

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available The availability of the genome sequence of the bacterial plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa, the causal agent of citrus variegated chlorosis, is accelerating important investigations concerning its pathogenicity. Plant vessel occlusion is critical for symptom development. The objective of the present study was to search for information that would help to explain the adhesion of X. fastidiosa cells to the xylem. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that adhesion may occur without the fastidium gum, an exopolysaccharide produced by X. fastidiosa, and X-ray microanalysis demonstrated the presence of elemental sulfur both in cells grown in vitro and in cells found inside plant vessels, indicating that the sulfur signal is generated by the pathogen surface. Calcium and magnesium peaks were detected in association with sulfur in occluded vessels. We propose an explanation for the adhesion and aggregation process. Thiol groups, maintained by the enzyme peptide methionine sulfoxide reductase, could be active on the surface of the bacteria and appear to promote cell-cell aggregation by forming disulfide bonds with thiol groups on the surface of adjacent cells. The enzyme methionine sulfoxide reductase has been shown to be an auxiliary component in the adhesiveness of some human pathogens. The negative charge conferred by the ionized thiol group could of itself constitute a mechanism of adhesion by allowing the formation of divalent cation bridges between the negatively charged bacteria and predominantly negatively charged xylem walls.

  18. Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Microanalysis of Set CEM Cement after Application of Different Bleaching Agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samiei, Mohammad; Janani, Maryam; Vahdati, Amin; Alemzadeh, Yalda; Bahari, Mahmoud

    2017-01-01

    The present study evaluated the element distribution in completely set calcium-enriched mixture (CEM) cement after application of 35% carbamide peroxide, 40% hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate as commercial bleaching agents using an energy-dispersive x-ray microanalysis (EDX) system. The surface structure was also observed using the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Twenty completely set CEM cement samples, measuring 4×4 mm 2 , were prepared in the present in vitro study and randomly divided into 4 groups based on the preparation technique as follows: the control group; 35% carbamide peroxide group in contact for 30-60 min for 4 times; 40% hydrogen peroxide group with contact time of 15-20 min for 3 times; and sodium perborate group, where the powder and liquid were mixed and placed on CEM cement surface 4 times. Data were analyzed at a significance level of 0.05 through the one Way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc tests. EDX showed similar element distribution of oxygen, sodium, calcium and carbon in CEM cement with the use of carbamide peroxide and hydroxide peroxide; however, the distribution of silicon was different ( P structure. Sodium perborate was similar to control group due to its weak oxidizing properties. Globular structures and numerous woodpecker holes were observed on the even surface on the carbamide peroxide group. The mean elemental distribution of completely set CEM cement was different when exposed to sodium perborate, carbamide peroxide and hydrogen peroxide.

  19. In-capillary determination of creatinine with electrophoretically mediated microanalysis: characterization of the effects of reagent zone and buffer conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mason, Philip E; Schildt, Derek C; Strein, Timothy G

    2009-01-02

    Previous work has demonstrated proof-of-concept for carrying out the clinically useful Jaffe reaction between creatinine and picrate within a capillary tube using electrophoretically mediated microanalysis (EMMA). Here, it is shown that careful control of reagent plug length as well as concentration and pH of the background electrolyte (BGE) can result in a marked improvement in the sensitivity of this assay. Increasing the length of the picrate reagent zone is shown to give rise to as much as a 3-4-fold enhancement, and increasing the concentration and/or pH of the borate buffer also results in an additional, albeit modest, improvement in sensitivity. Interestingly, borate BGE concentrations approaching 100mM give rise to an unexplained drop in reaction efficiency, an effect which can be avoided by utilizing lower borate concentration with higher pH. The improvements appear to primarily minimize electrodispersion of the picrate reagent, allowing higher picrate concentration in the reaction zone. The same conditions also appear to minimize the electrodispersion of the in-line product as well. With optimized EMMA parameters, the sensitivity of the in-line Jaffe chemistry can be enhanced to an extent that there is no need for the two capillary "high sensitivity" detection system required in previous work. Using optimized conditions, three different human serum samples spanning the expected clinical range of creatinine concentrations were successfully analyzed. Overall, this work illustrates the importance of systematically characterizing the conditions under which EMMA analyses are carried out.

  20. Chemical Shift Assignments of the C-terminal Eps15 Homology Domain-3 EH Domain*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caplan, Steve; Sorgen, Paul L.

    2013-01-01

    The C-terminal Eps15 homology (EH) domain 3 (EHD3) belongs to a eukaryotic family of endocytic regulatory proteins and is involved in the recycling of various receptors from the early endosome to the endocytic recycling compartment or in retrograde transport from the endosomes to the Golgi. EH domains are highly conserved in the EHD family and function as protein-protein interaction units that bind to Asn-Pro-Phe (NPF) motif-containing proteins. The EH domain of EHD1 was the first C-terminal EH domain from the EHD family to be solved by NMR. The differences observed between this domain and proteins with N-terminal EH domains helped describe a mechanism for the differential binding of NPF-containing proteins. Here, structural studies were expanded to include the EHD3 EH domain. While the EHD1 and EHD3 EH domains are highly homologous, they have different protein partners. A comparison of these structures will help determine the selectivity in protein binding between the EHD family members and lead to a better understanding of their unique roles in endocytic regulation. PMID:23754701

  1. Simplicity and Specificity in Language: Domain-General Biases Have Domain-Specific Effects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Culbertson, Jennifer; Kirby, Simon

    2016-01-01

    The extent to which the linguistic system—its architecture, the representations it operates on, the constraints it is subject to—is specific to language has broad implications for cognitive science and its relation to evolutionary biology. Importantly, a given property of the linguistic system can be “specific” to the domain of language in several ways. For example, if the property evolved by natural selection under the pressure of the linguistic function it serves then the property is domain-specific in the sense that its design is tailored for language. Equally though, if that property evolved to serve a different function or if that property is domain-general, it may nevertheless interact with the linguistic system in a way that is unique. This gives a second sense in which a property can be thought of as specific to language. An evolutionary approach to the language faculty might at first blush appear to favor domain-specificity in the first sense, with individual properties of the language faculty being specifically linguistic adaptations. However, we argue that interactions between learning, culture, and biological evolution mean any domain-specific adaptations that evolve will take the form of weak biases rather than hard constraints. Turning to the latter sense of domain-specificity, we highlight a very general bias, simplicity, which operates widely in cognition and yet interacts with linguistic representations in domain-specific ways. PMID:26793132

  2. A Framework for Text Mining in Scientometric Study: A Case Study in Biomedicine Publications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silalahi, V. M. M.; Hardiyati, R.; Nadhiroh, I. M.; Handayani, T.; Rahmaida, R.; Amelia, M.

    2018-04-01

    The data of Indonesians research publications in the domain of biomedicine has been collected to be text mined for the purpose of a scientometric study. The goal is to build a predictive model that provides a classification of research publications on the potency for downstreaming. The model is based on the drug development processes adapted from the literatures. An effort is described to build the conceptual model and the development of a corpus on the research publications in the domain of Indonesian biomedicine. Then an investigation is conducted relating to the problems associated with building a corpus and validating the model. Based on our experience, a framework is proposed to manage the scientometric study based on text mining. Our method shows the effectiveness of conducting a scientometric study based on text mining in order to get a valid classification model. This valid model is mainly supported by the iterative and close interactions with the domain experts starting from identifying the issues, building a conceptual model, to the labelling, validation and results interpretation.

  3. Clustering of physical inactivity in leisure, work, commuting and household domains among Brazilian adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Del Duca, G F; Nahas, M V; de Sousa, T F; Mota, J; Hallal, P C; Peres, K G

    2013-06-01

    To identify the clustering of physical inactivity in leisure, work, commuting and household contexts, and the sociodemographic factors associated with the clustering of inactive behaviour in different domains among Brazilian adults. Cross-sectional population-based study. The study was performed in Florianopolis, capital of Santa Catarina, one of the southern states of Brazil, from September 2009 to January 2010. Adults aged 20-59 years were interviewed. Physical inactivity in each domain was defined as non-participation in specific physical activities, using a validated Brazilian questionnaire. Clustering of physical inactivity was identified by the ratio between observed prevalence and expected prevalence of 16 different combinations. Multinomial logistic regression was used in the analysis of sociodemographic factors associated with clustering of physical inactivity. Of the 1720 interviewees, the greatest differences between the observed and expected proportions were observed in simultaneous physical inactivity in the leisure and household domains for men, and physical inactivity in the leisure domain alone for women (59% and 88%, respectively); these differences were higher than expected if the behaviours were independent. Physical inactivity in two or more domains was observed more frequently in men and in individuals with a higher per-capita family income. Ageing was associated with physical inactivity in three or four domains. Physical inactivity was observed in different domains according to gender. Men and older individuals with a higher per-capita family income were more likely to exhibit physical inactivity when all domains were considered together. Copyright © 2013 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Understanding public (misunderstanding of tDCS for enhancement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Yenisa Cabrera

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available In order to gain insight into the public’s perspective on using the minimally invasive technique transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS as an enhancement tool, we analyzed and compared online comments in key popular press articles from two different periods (pre-commercialization and post-commercialization. The main conclusion drawn from this exploratory investigation is that public perception regarding tDCS has shifted from misunderstanding to cautionary realism. This change in attitude can be explained as moving from a focus on an emergent technology to a focus on its applications, benefits, and risks as the technology becomes more grounded within the public domain. Future governance of tDCS should include the concerns and enthusiasms of the public.Keywords: cognitive enhancement, neuroethics, public understanding, transcranial direct current stimulation, brain stimulation, public policy.

  5. (Br-SCMM) Brazilian Smart City Maturity Model: A Perspective from the Health Domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afonso, Ricardo Alexandre; dos Santos Brito, Kellyton; Holanda do Nascimento, Clóvis; Campos da Costa, Luciana; Álvaro, Alexandre; Cardoso Garcia, Vinicius

    2015-01-01

    The term definition "Smart City" still allows various interpretations, and this causes some difficulty in establishing parameters to measure how smart the cities can be. This paper presents a Maturity Model that uses a set of minimum domains and indicators that aim to encourage cities of different sizes to identify their potential and improve processes and public policies.

  6. The framing of scientific domains

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dam Christensen, Hans

    2014-01-01

    domains, and UNISIST helps understanding this navigation. Design/methodology/approach The UNISIST models are tentatively applied to the domain of art history at three stages, respectively two modern, partially overlapping domains, as well as an outline of an art historical domain anno c1820...

  7. Protein domain organisation: adding order.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kummerfeld, Sarah K; Teichmann, Sarah A

    2009-01-29

    Domains are the building blocks of proteins. During evolution, they have been duplicated, fused and recombined, to produce proteins with novel structures and functions. Structural and genome-scale studies have shown that pairs or groups of domains observed together in a protein are almost always found in only one N to C terminal order and are the result of a single recombination event that has been propagated by duplication of the multi-domain unit. Previous studies of domain organisation have used graph theory to represent the co-occurrence of domains within proteins. We build on this approach by adding directionality to the graphs and connecting nodes based on their relative order in the protein. Most of the time, the linear order of domains is conserved. However, using the directed graph representation we have identified non-linear features of domain organization that are over-represented in genomes. Recognising these patterns and unravelling how they have arisen may allow us to understand the functional relationships between domains and understand how the protein repertoire has evolved. We identify groups of domains that are not linearly conserved, but instead have been shuffled during evolution so that they occur in multiple different orders. We consider 192 genomes across all three kingdoms of life and use domain and protein annotation to understand their functional significance. To identify these features and assess their statistical significance, we represent the linear order of domains in proteins as a directed graph and apply graph theoretical methods. We describe two higher-order patterns of domain organisation: clusters and bi-directionally associated domain pairs and explore their functional importance and phylogenetic conservation. Taking into account the order of domains, we have derived a novel picture of global protein organization. We found that all genomes have a higher than expected degree of clustering and more domain pairs in forward and

  8. Protein domain organisation: adding order

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kummerfeld Sarah K

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Domains are the building blocks of proteins. During evolution, they have been duplicated, fused and recombined, to produce proteins with novel structures and functions. Structural and genome-scale studies have shown that pairs or groups of domains observed together in a protein are almost always found in only one N to C terminal order and are the result of a single recombination event that has been propagated by duplication of the multi-domain unit. Previous studies of domain organisation have used graph theory to represent the co-occurrence of domains within proteins. We build on this approach by adding directionality to the graphs and connecting nodes based on their relative order in the protein. Most of the time, the linear order of domains is conserved. However, using the directed graph representation we have identified non-linear features of domain organization that are over-represented in genomes. Recognising these patterns and unravelling how they have arisen may allow us to understand the functional relationships between domains and understand how the protein repertoire has evolved. Results We identify groups of domains that are not linearly conserved, but instead have been shuffled during evolution so that they occur in multiple different orders. We consider 192 genomes across all three kingdoms of life and use domain and protein annotation to understand their functional significance. To identify these features and assess their statistical significance, we represent the linear order of domains in proteins as a directed graph and apply graph theoretical methods. We describe two higher-order patterns of domain organisation: clusters and bi-directionally associated domain pairs and explore their functional importance and phylogenetic conservation. Conclusion Taking into account the order of domains, we have derived a novel picture of global protein organization. We found that all genomes have a higher than expected

  9. Public Administration Teaching and Interdisciplinarity: Considering the Consequences

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Waldt, Gerrit

    2014-01-01

    Public administration is a highly diverse and evolving field of scientific inquiry. The study domain is characterised further by often-competing paradigmatic perspectives and seemingly endless teaching modalities. There seems to be an increasing realisation that answers to complex societal challenges cannot be solved within the knowledge…

  10. Models of education in medicine, public health, and engineering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia, Patricia; Armstrong, Robert; Zaman, Muhammad H

    2014-09-12

    Discussion on global health in both the academic and the public domain has focused largely on research, capacity building, and service delivery. Although these efforts along with financial commitments from public and private partners have contributed to a broader appreciation and understanding of global health challenges, the reflection of global health in academic training has largely been lacking. However, integrative models are beginning to appear. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  11. Insights into function of PSI domains from structure of the Met receptor PSI domain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kozlov, Guennadi; Perreault, Audrey; Schrag, Joseph D.; Park, Morag; Cygler, Miroslaw; Gehring, Kalle; Ekiel, Irena

    2004-01-01

    PSI domains are cysteine-rich modules found in extracellular fragments of hundreds of signaling proteins, including plexins, semaphorins, integrins, and attractins. Here, we report the solution structure of the PSI domain from the human Met receptor, a receptor tyrosine kinase critical for proliferation, motility, and differentiation. The structure represents a cysteine knot with short regions of secondary structure including a three-stranded antiparallel β-sheet and two α-helices. All eight cysteines are involved in disulfide bonds with the pattern consistent with that for the PSI domain from Sema4D. Comparison with the Sema4D structure identifies a structurally conserved core comprising the N-terminal half of the PSI domain. Interestingly, this part links adjacent SEMA and immunoglobulin domains in the Sema4D structure, suggesting that the PSI domain serves as a wedge between propeller and immunoglobulin domains and is responsible for the correct positioning of the ligand-binding site of the receptor

  12. Resource Unavailability (RU) Per Domain Behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Karagiannis, Georgios; Westberg, L.; Bader, A.; Tschofenig, Hannes; Tschofenig, H.

    2006-01-01

    This draft specifies a Per Domain Behavior that provides the ability to Diffserv nodes located outside Diffserv domain(s), e.g., receiver or other Diffserv enabled router to detect when the resources provided by the Diffserv domain(s) are not available. The unavailability of resources in the domain

  13. Publication trends in neuroimaging of minimally conscious states

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alex Garnett

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available We used existing and customized bibliometric and scientometric methods to analyze publication trends in neuroimaging research of minimally conscious states and describe the domain in terms of its geographic, contributor, and content features. We considered publication rates for the years 2002–2011, author interconnections, the rate at which new authors are added, and the domains that inform the work of author contributors. We also provided a content analysis of clinical and ethical themes within the relevant literature. We found a 27% growth in the number of papers over the period of study, professional diversity among a wide range of peripheral author contributors but only few authors who dominate the field, and few new technical paradigms and clinical themes that would fundamentally expand the landscape. The results inform both the science of consciousness as well as parallel ethics and policy studies of the potential for translational challenges of neuroimaging in research and health care of people with disordered states of consciousness.

  14. The NIMH Research Domain Criteria Initiative: Background, Issues, and Pragmatics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kozak, Michael J; Cuthbert, Bruce N

    2016-03-01

    This article describes the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative. The description includes background, rationale, goals, and the way the initiative has been developed and organized. The central RDoC concepts are summarized and the current matrix of constructs that have been vetted by workshops of extramural scientists is depicted. A number of theoretical and methodological issues that can arise in connection with the nature of RDoC constructs are highlighted: subjectivism and heterophenomenology, desynchrony and theoretical neutrality among units of analysis, theoretical reductionism, endophenotypes, biomarkers, neural circuits, construct "grain size," and analytic challenges. The importance of linking RDoC constructs to psychiatric clinical problems is discussed. Some pragmatics of incorporating RDoC concepts into applications for NIMH research funding are considered, including sampling design. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

  15. Recovering protein-protein and domain-domain interactions from aggregation of IP-MS proteomics of coregulator complexes.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amin R Mazloom

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Coregulator proteins (CoRegs are part of multi-protein complexes that transiently assemble with transcription factors and chromatin modifiers to regulate gene expression. In this study we analyzed data from 3,290 immuno-precipitations (IP followed by mass spectrometry (MS applied to human cell lines aimed at identifying CoRegs complexes. Using the semi-quantitative spectral counts, we scored binary protein-protein and domain-domain associations with several equations. Unlike previous applications, our methods scored prey-prey protein-protein interactions regardless of the baits used. We also predicted domain-domain interactions underlying predicted protein-protein interactions. The quality of predicted protein-protein and domain-domain interactions was evaluated using known binary interactions from the literature, whereas one protein-protein interaction, between STRN and CTTNBP2NL, was validated experimentally; and one domain-domain interaction, between the HEAT domain of PPP2R1A and the Pkinase domain of STK25, was validated using molecular docking simulations. The scoring schemes presented here recovered known, and predicted many new, complexes, protein-protein, and domain-domain interactions. The networks that resulted from the predictions are provided as a web-based interactive application at http://maayanlab.net/HT-IP-MS-2-PPI-DDI/.

  16. Scanning electron microscopy and micro-analyses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brisset, F.; Repoux, L.; Ruste, J.; Grillon, F.; Robaut, F.

    2008-01-01

    Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the related micro-analyses are involved in extremely various domains, from the academic environments to the industrial ones. The overall theoretical bases, the main technical characteristics, and some complements of information about practical usage and maintenance are developed in this book. high-vacuum and controlled-vacuum electron microscopes are thoroughly presented, as well as the last generation of EDS (energy dispersive spectrometer) and WDS (wavelength dispersive spectrometer) micro-analysers. Beside these main topics, other analysis or observation techniques are approached, such as EBSD (electron backscattering diffraction), 3-D imaging, FIB (focussed ion beams), Monte-Carlo simulations, in-situ tests etc.. This book, in French language, is the only one which treats of this subject in such an exhaustive way. It represents the actualized and totally updated version of a previous edition of 1979. It gathers the lectures given in 2006 at the summer school of Saint Martin d'Heres (France). Content: 1 - electron-matter interactions; 2 - characteristic X-radiation, Bremsstrahlung; 3 - electron guns in SEM; 4 - elements of electronic optics; 5 - vacuum techniques; 6 - detectors used in SEM; 7 - image formation and optimization in SEM; 7a - SEM practical instructions for use; 8 - controlled pressure microscopy; 8a - applications; 9 - energy selection X-spectrometers (energy dispersive spectrometers - EDS); 9a - EDS analysis; 9b - X-EDS mapping; 10 - technological aspects of WDS; 11 - processing of EDS and WDS spectra; 12 - X-microanalysis quantifying methods; 12a - quantitative WDS microanalysis of very light elements; 13 - statistics: precision and detection limits in microanalysis; 14 - analysis of stratified samples; 15 - crystallography applied to EBSD; 16 - EBSD: history, principle and applications; 16a - EBSD analysis; 17 - Monte Carlo simulation; 18 - insulating samples in SEM and X-ray microanalysis; 18a - insulating

  17. Full waveform inversion in the frequency domain using classified time-domain residual wavefields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Son, Woohyun; Koo, Nam-Hyung; Kim, Byoung-Yeop; Lee, Ho-Young; Joo, Yonghwan

    2017-04-01

    We perform the acoustic full waveform inversion in the frequency domain using residual wavefields that have been separated in the time domain. We sort the residual wavefields in the time domain according to the order of absolute amplitudes. Then, the residual wavefields are separated into several groups in the time domain. To analyze the characteristics of the residual wavefields, we compare the residual wavefields of conventional method with those of our residual separation method. From the residual analysis, the amplitude spectrum obtained from the trace before separation appears to have little energy at the lower frequency bands. However, the amplitude spectrum obtained from our strategy is regularized by the separation process, which means that the low-frequency components are emphasized. Therefore, our method helps to emphasize low-frequency components of residual wavefields. Then, we generate the frequency-domain residual wavefields by taking the Fourier transform of the separated time-domain residual wavefields. With these wavefields, we perform the gradient-based full waveform inversion in the frequency domain using back-propagation technique. Through a comparison of gradient directions, we confirm that our separation method can better describe the sub-salt image than the conventional approach. The proposed method is tested on the SEG/EAGE salt-dome model. The inversion results show that our algorithm is better than the conventional gradient based waveform inversion in the frequency domain, especially for deeper parts of the velocity model.

  18. Apoplastic domains and sub-domains in the shoots of etiolated corn seedlings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Epel, B. L.; Bandurski, R. S.

    1990-01-01

    Light Green, an apoplastic probe, was applied to the cut mesocotyl base or to the cut coleoptile apex of etiolated seedlings of Zea mays L. cv. Silver Queen. Probe transport was measured and its tissue distribution determined. In the mesocotyl, there is an apoplastic barrier between cortex and stele. This barrier creates two apoplastic domains which are non-communicating. A kinetic barrier exists between the apoplast of the mesocotyl stele and that of the coleoptile. This kinetic barrier is not absolute and there is limited communication between the apoplasts of the two regions. This kinetic barrier effectively creates two sub-domains. In the coleoptile, there is communication between the apoplast of the vascular strands and that of the surrounding cortical tissue. No apoplastic communication was observed between the coleoptile cortex and the mesocotyl cortex. Thus, the apoplastic space of the coleoptile cortex is a sub-domain of the integrated coleoptile domain and is separate from that of the apoplastic domain of the mesocotyl cortex.

  19. Complementary microanalysis of Zn, Mn and Fe in the chelicera of spiders and scorpions using scanning MeV-ion and electron microprobes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schofield, R.; Lefevre, H.; Shaffer, M.

    1989-01-01

    Energy-loss scanning transmission ion microscopy (ELSTIM or just STIM), PIXE and electron microprobe techniques are used to investigate certain minor element accumulations in a few spiders and scorpions. STIM and PIXE are used to survey the unsectioned specimens, while electron microprobe techniques are used for higher resolution investigations of several sections of the specimens. Concentration values measured using STIM and PIXE are found to be in satisfactory agreement with those measured using electron probe microanalysis. A garden spider Araneous diadematus is found to contain high concentrations of zinc in a thin layer near the surface of its fangs (reaching 23% of dry weight), and manganese in its marginal teeth (about 5% of dry weight). A wolf spider Alopecosa kochi is found to have similar concentrations of zinc in a layer near the surface of it's fang, and concentrations of manganese reaching 1.5% in a layer beneath the zinc containing layer. A scorpion Centruroides sp. is found to contain high concentrations of iron (reaching 8%) and zinc (reaching 24%) in the tips of teeth on the cheliceral fingers, and manganese (about 5%) in the stinger. The hypothesis that these elements simply harden the cuticle does not appear to explain their segregation patterns. (orig.)

  20. X-ray microanalysis of Plasmodium falciparum and infected red blood cells: effects of qinghaosu and chloroquine on potassium, sodium, and phosphorus composition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, P.; Ye, Z.; Van Dyke, K.; Kirk, R.G.

    1988-01-01

    Cryosections of human red blood cells infected by Plasmodium falciparum were analyzed by energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis to determine the elemental composition of the parasites and their red cell hosts separately. The effects of two antimalarial drugs, qinghaosu and chloroquine, on potassium, sodium, and phosphorus concentrations were studied. Malarial infection causes a decrease in potassium concentration and an increase in sodium concentration in the host red cells. The drastic change in the cation composition, however, occurs only in red cells infected by late stage parasites (late trophozoite and schizont). Red cells infected by early stage parasites (ring stage) show only small changes in sodium concentration. Furthermore, the noninfected red cells in parasitized cultures show no difference in composition from those of normal red cells. Treatment of the parasitized cultures with qinghaosu (10(-6) M) or chloroquine (10(-6) M) for 8 hr causes phosphorus concentration of both early and late parasites to decrease. An 8 hr treatment with qinghaosu also produces a reduction in potassium and an increase in sodium concentrations in early and late parasites. In contrast, 8 hr treatment with chloroquine only causes a change in the sodium and potassium concentrations of the late stage parasites and does not affect the early stage parasites

  1. Towards a minimal generic set of domains of functioning and health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cieza, Alarcos; Oberhauser, Cornelia; Bickenbach, Jerome; Chatterji, Somnath; Stucki, Gerold

    2014-03-03

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has argued that functioning, and, more concretely, functioning domains constitute the operationalization that best captures our intuitive notion of health. Functioning is, therefore, a major public-health goal. A great deal of data about functioning is already available. Nonetheless, it is not possible to compare and optimally utilize this information. One potential approach to address this challenge is to propose a generic and minimal set of functioning domains that captures the experience of individuals and populations with respect to functioning and health. The objective of this investigation was to identify a minimal generic set of ICF domains suitable for describing functioning in adults at both the individual and population levels. We performed a psychometric study using data from: 1) the German National Health Interview and Examination Survey 1998, 2) the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007/2008, and 3) the ICF Core Set studies. Random Forests and Group Lasso regression were applied using one self-reported general-health question as a dependent variable. The domains selected were compared to those of the World Health Survey (WHS) developed by the WHO. Seven domains of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) are proposed as a minimal generic set of functioning and health: energy and drive functions, emotional functions, sensation of pain, carrying out daily routine, walking, moving around, and remunerative employment. The WHS domains of self-care, cognition, interpersonal activities, and vision were not included in our selection. The minimal generic set proposed in this study is the starting point to address one of the most important challenges in health measurement--the comparability of data across studies and countries. It also represents the first step in developing a common metric of health to link information from the general population to information

  2. DIMA 3.0: Domain Interaction Map.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Qibin; Pagel, Philipp; Vilne, Baiba; Frishman, Dmitrij

    2011-01-01

    Domain Interaction MAp (DIMA, available at http://webclu.bio.wzw.tum.de/dima) is a database of predicted and known interactions between protein domains. It integrates 5807 structurally known interactions imported from the iPfam and 3did databases and 46,900 domain interactions predicted by four computational methods: domain phylogenetic profiling, domain pair exclusion algorithm correlated mutations and domain interaction prediction in a discriminative way. Additionally predictions are filtered to exclude those domain pairs that are reported as non-interacting by the Negatome database. The DIMA Web site allows to calculate domain interaction networks either for a domain of interest or for entire organisms, and to explore them interactively using the Flash-based Cytoscape Web software.

  3. Domain fusion analysis by applying relational algebra to protein sequence and domain databases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Truong, Kevin; Ikura, Mitsuhiko

    2003-05-06

    Domain fusion analysis is a useful method to predict functionally linked proteins that may be involved in direct protein-protein interactions or in the same metabolic or signaling pathway. As separate domain databases like BLOCKS, PROSITE, Pfam, SMART, PRINTS-S, ProDom, TIGRFAMs, and amalgamated domain databases like InterPro continue to grow in size and quality, a computational method to perform domain fusion analysis that leverages on these efforts will become increasingly powerful. This paper proposes a computational method employing relational algebra to find domain fusions in protein sequence databases. The feasibility of this method was illustrated on the SWISS-PROT+TrEMBL sequence database using domain predictions from the Pfam HMM (hidden Markov model) database. We identified 235 and 189 putative functionally linked protein partners in H. sapiens and S. cerevisiae, respectively. From scientific literature, we were able to confirm many of these functional linkages, while the remainder offer testable experimental hypothesis. Results can be viewed at http://calcium.uhnres.utoronto.ca/pi. As the analysis can be computed quickly on any relational database that supports standard SQL (structured query language), it can be dynamically updated along with the sequence and domain databases, thereby improving the quality of predictions over time.

  4. SA's ailing public health sector 'responding to treatment'? | Bateman ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Only one of the most vital patient care domains in public healthcare facilities today meets minimum local and international standards – that of positive caring staff attitudes – but while patient waiting times have increased, other critical areas show 'marginal to good' improvements.

  5. Single-domain versus two-domain configuration in thin ferromagnetic prisms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pini, Maria Gloria; Politi, Paolo

    2007-01-01

    Thin ferromagnetic elements in the form of rectangular prisms are theoretically investigated in order to study the transition from single-domain to two-domain state, with changing the in-plane aspect ratio p. We address two main questions: first, how general is the transition; second, how the critical value p c depends on the physical parameters. We use two complementary methods: discrete-lattice calculations and a micromagnetic continuum approach. Ultrathin films do not appear to split in two domains. Instead, thicker films may undergo the above transition. We have used the continuum approach to analyze recent magnetic force microscopy observations in 30nm-thick patterned permalloy elements, finding a good agreement for p c

  6. The Corporate Governance Framework & its Application to Privatizations of Public Enterprises

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kenourgios, Dimitris; Samitas, Aristidis; Konstantopoulos, Nikolaos

    2007-12-01

    This paper is an attempt to evaluate the application of Corporate Governance framework issue within Public domain. It is an attempt to quantify the compliance of Greek companies with international best practices.

  7. Topological domain walls in helimagnets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schoenherr, P.; Müller, J.; Köhler, L.; Rosch, A.; Kanazawa, N.; Tokura, Y.; Garst, M.; Meier, D.

    2018-05-01

    Domain walls naturally arise whenever a symmetry is spontaneously broken. They interconnect regions with different realizations of the broken symmetry, promoting structure formation from cosmological length scales to the atomic level1,2. In ferroelectric and ferromagnetic materials, domain walls with unique functionalities emerge, holding great promise for nanoelectronics and spintronics applications3-5. These walls are usually of Ising, Bloch or Néel type and separate homogeneously ordered domains. Here we demonstrate that a wide variety of new domain walls occurs in the presence of spatially modulated domain states. Using magnetic force microscopy and micromagnetic simulations, we show three fundamental classes of domain walls to arise in the near-room-temperature helimagnet iron germanium. In contrast to conventional ferroics, the domain walls exhibit a well-defined inner structure, which—analogous to cholesteric liquid crystals—consists of topological disclination and dislocation defects. Similar to the magnetic skyrmions that form in the same material6,7, the domain walls can carry a finite topological charge, permitting an efficient coupling to spin currents and contributions to a topological Hall effect. Our study establishes a new family of magnetic nano-objects with non-trivial topology, opening the door to innovative device concepts based on helimagnetic domain walls.

  8. Personal Establishment and Accomplishment of Public Service Values

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mirko PEČARIČ

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Public objectives are mostly developed within public administrations, which despite apparent Weberian rationality work mainly evolutionarily, i.e. by imitation of what already works in other areas and what randomly brings good results. The rule of law that is fundamental to the Western democratic order cannot work without morality and legal values. If we want workable values, we must understand them at their core, which is not the domain of law. The starting point is an individual who operates primarily on the basis of his personal characteristics regardless of all the present theories of the public administration. Entering into the unknown with full preparedness for the changes will be the motto of the future public administration. We are much closer to such a stance if we know how the public service values are really established and implemented.

  9. Prediction Reweighting for Domain Adaptation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shuang Li; Shiji Song; Gao Huang

    2017-07-01

    There are plenty of classification methods that perform well when training and testing data are drawn from the same distribution. However, in real applications, this condition may be violated, which causes degradation of classification accuracy. Domain adaptation is an effective approach to address this problem. In this paper, we propose a general domain adaptation framework from the perspective of prediction reweighting, from which a novel approach is derived. Different from the major domain adaptation methods, our idea is to reweight predictions of the training classifier on testing data according to their signed distance to the domain separator, which is a classifier that distinguishes training data (from source domain) and testing data (from target domain). We then propagate the labels of target instances with larger weights to ones with smaller weights by introducing a manifold regularization method. It can be proved that our reweighting scheme effectively brings the source and target domains closer to each other in an appropriate sense, such that classification in target domain becomes easier. The proposed method can be implemented efficiently by a simple two-stage algorithm, and the target classifier has a closed-form solution. The effectiveness of our approach is verified by the experiments on artificial datasets and two standard benchmarks, a visual object recognition task and a cross-domain sentiment analysis of text. Experimental results demonstrate that our method is competitive with the state-of-the-art domain adaptation algorithms.

  10. A localized interaction surface for voltage-sensing domains on the pore domain of a K+ channel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li-Smerin, Y; Hackos, D H; Swartz, K J

    2000-02-01

    Voltage-gated K+ channels contain a central pore domain and four surrounding voltage-sensing domains. How and where changes in the structure of the voltage-sensing domains couple to the pore domain so as to gate ion conduction is not understood. The crystal structure of KcsA, a bacterial K+ channel homologous to the pore domain of voltage-gated K+ channels, provides a starting point for addressing this question. Guided by this structure, we used tryptophan-scanning mutagenesis on the transmembrane shell of the pore domain in the Shaker voltage-gated K+ channel to localize potential protein-protein and protein-lipid interfaces. Some mutants cause only minor changes in gating and when mapped onto the KcsA structure cluster away from the interface between pore domain subunits. In contrast, mutants producing large changes in gating tend to cluster near this interface. These results imply that voltage-sensing domains interact with localized regions near the interface between adjacent pore domain subunits.

  11. Supersymmetric domain walls

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bergshoeff, Eric A.; Kleinschmidt, Axel; Riccioni, Fabio

    2012-01-01

    We classify the half-supersymmetric "domain walls," i.e., branes of codimension one, in toroidally compactified IIA/IIB string theory and show to which gauged supergravity theory each of these domain walls belong. We use as input the requirement of supersymmetric Wess-Zumino terms, the properties of

  12. On the Origins of Disorganized Attachment and Internal Working Models: Paper II. An Empirical Microanalysis of 4-Month Mother-Infant Interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beebe, Beatrice; Lachmann, Frank; Markese, Sara; Buck, Karen A.; Bahrick, Lorraine E.; Chen, Henian; Cohen, Patricia; Andrews, Howard; Feldstein, Stanley; Jaffe, Joseph

    2012-01-01

    A microanalysis of 4-month mother-infant face-to-face communication predicted 12-month infant disorganized (vs. secure) attachment outcomes in an urban community sample. We documented a dyadic systems view of the roles of both partners, the roles of both self- and interactive contingency, and the importance of attention, orientation and touch, and as well as facial and vocal affect, in the co-construction of attachment disorganization. The analysis of different communication modalities identified striking intrapersonal and interpersonal intermodal discordance or conflict, in the context of intensely distressed infants, as the central feature of future disorganized dyads at 4 months. Lowered maternal contingent coordination, and failures of maternal affective correspondence, constituted maternal emotional withdrawal from distressed infants. This maternal withdrawal compromises infant interactive agency and emotional coherence. We characterize of the nature of emerging internal working models of future disorganized infants as follows: Future disorganized infants represent states of not being sensed and known by their mothers, particularly in moments of distress; they represent confusion about both their own and their mothers’ basic emotional organization, and about their mothers’ response to their distress. This internal working model sets a trajectory in development which may disturb the fundamental integration of the person. The remarkable specificity of our findings has the potential to lead to more finely-focused clinical interventions. PMID:23066334

  13. Study of the carburization of an austenitic steel through optical and scanning electron microscopy, microhardness and X ray microanalysis of C

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Champigny, Michel; Gauvain, Danielle; Meny, Lucienne

    1977-01-01

    Carburization tests of 316 L stainless steel have been performed in liquid sodium at 550, 600 and 650 0 C; the depth of penetration of carbon is of the order of 300 μm. The structure of the carburized layer has been studied through optical and scanning electron microscopy: the carbides precipitate first within the grain boundaries, making a nearly continuous superficial carbide layer. The Vickers and Knoop (under 50 g load) microhardness measurements determine the depth of carburization with an error of +-50μm. Though the tensile strength does not vary much with the carburization, the striction, and then the deformation capability, is highly decreased. The variation of the concentration in carbon versus distance has been measured by quantitative X ray microanalysis, using diamond as a standard; the best experimental conditions, regarding the overlapping of the Cr 2 Lα and Ni 3 Lα lines with CK line have been chosen, and the minimum contamination during the measurements has been performed. The results have been confirmed by the analysis of carbon in Fe Ni standards containing less than 1 w/o carbon. The results are discussed with the published data. This work shows that: the increase of microhardness is not related in a simple way with the carbon content of the stainless steel; the carbon concentration can be measured quickly with an error of +-5% when 0,2 [fr

  14. Are public opinion polls self-fulfilling prophecies?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Rothschild

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Psychologists have long observed that people conform to majority opinion, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the ‘bandwagon effect’. In the political domain people learn about prevailing public opinion via ubiquitous polls, which may produce a bandwagon effect. Newer types of information – published probabilities derived from prediction market contract prices and aggregated polling summaries – may have similar effects. Consequently, polls can become self-fulfilling prophecies whereby majorities, whether in support of candidates or policies, grow in a cascading manner. Despite increased attention to whether the measurement of public opinion can itself affect public opinion, the existing empirical literature is surprisingly limited on the bandwagon effects of polls. To address this gap, we conducted an experiment on a diverse national sample in which we randomly assigned people to receive information about different levels of support for three public policies. We find that public opinion as expressed through polls affects individual-level attitudes, although the size of the effect depends on issue characteristics.

  15. Music therapy microanalysis of parent-infant interaction in a three-month-old infant later diagnosed with autism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ferdinando Suvini

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Background Infant research literature has described for a long time the main aspects of parentese (motherese and fatherese referring to musicality and specifically to musical language. It is believed that there is a deep analogy between the vital affects experienced by the child during interaction with the parent and the type of parentese that is a direct representation of them. Disruption of parentese has been described in early autism. The aim of this paper was to achieve a better understanding of this disruptive process. Participants and procedure Sequences of parent-infant interaction extracted from one home movie of a child later diagnosed with autism were analyzed in a micro-musical way in order to create a musical score that allows the description of parent-infant interaction in a new way (considering form, pulse, rhythm, melody, timbre and silence. Results Musical microanalysis is able to highlight features not brought out by other kinds of analysis. The first fragment is dominated by the anxiety of the mother, who attempts to stimulate the unresponsive infant. In the second fragment there is a change in musicality parallel to changes in the relationship: the mother participates in and coordinates the infant’s experience through rhythm, prosody and musical dynamics. This change persists in the third fragment. Conclusions Musical transcription of parent-infant interactions has allowed us to highlight changes occurring in a short time during early interactions and to get a closer view of the disruptive process created by autism. This kind of research represents a potential shift in autism research, by focusing on dynamic parent-infant interactions instead of single behaviors of the child or of the parent. The usefulness of Stern’s concept of intersubjective communion is discussed.

  16. An evaluation of public school district tobacco policies in St. Louis County, Missouri.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbero, Colleen; Moreland-Russell, Sarah; Bach, Laura E; Cyr, Julianne

    2013-08-01

    One way to address tobacco use by youth is for primary and secondary schools to adopt and implement comprehensive tobacco policies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the comprehensiveness of tobacco policies in St. Louis County, Missouri public school districts. We evaluated the strength of tobacco policies from all 23 public school districts located in the county using the Center for Tobacco Policy Research's School Tobacco Policy Index, a standardized tool for rating school tobacco policies. The districts averaged a score of 24.4 of 40 possible points on the Index. Policies scored highest on the Tobacco-Free Environment domain and lowest on the Enforcement domain. Policies averaged about half of the total possible points for the Prevention and Treatment Services and Policy Organization domains. Despite more than a decade of efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve school tobacco policies, this study shows that policies in St. Louis County districts have yet to meet the standard of comprehensiveness. It is recommended that schools adopt policies that are comprehensive and that address all domains of the School Tobacco Policy Index. © 2013, American School Health Association.

  17. PREFACE: 22nd International Congress on X-Ray Optics and Microanalysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Falkenberg, Gerald; Schroer, Christian G.

    2014-04-01

    ICXOM22 The 22nd edition of the International Congress on X-ray Optics and Microanalysis (ICXOM 22) was held from 2-6 September 2013, in Hamburg, Germany. The congress was organized by scientists from DESY in collaboration with TU Dresden and Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, who also formed the scientific advisory board. The congress was hosted in the historical lecture hall building of the University of Hamburg located in the city center. ICXOM22 was attended by about 210 registered participants, including 67 students, and was open for listeners. The attendance was split between 26 countries (Germany 120, rest of Europe 57, America 20, Asia 8, Australia 6). The ICXOM series is a forum for the discussion of new developments in instrumentation, methods and applications in the fields of micro- and nano-analysis by means of X-ray beams. Following the trend of the last 10 years, the conference focusses more and more on synchrotron radiation rather than X-ray laboratory sources. Besides micro-beam X-ray fluorescence and absorption spectroscopy, different methods based on diffraction and full-field imaging were covered. Newly introduced to the ICXOM series was scanning coherent X-ray diffraction imaging, which was shown to evolve into a mature method for the imaging of nanostructures, defects and strain fields. New developments on fast X-ray detectors were discussed (Lambda, Maia) and advances in X-ray optics — like the generation of a sub 5nm point focus by Multilayer Zone plates — were presented. Talks on micro- and nano-analysis applications were distributed in special sessions on bio-imaging, Earth and environmental sciences, and Cultural heritage. The congress featured nine keynote and ten plenary talks, 56 talks in 14 parallel sessions and about 120 posters in three afternoon sessions. Seventeen commercial exhibitors exposed related X-ray instrumentation products, and two luncheon seminars on detector electronics were given. This allowed us to keep the student

  18. Interoperable domain models: the ISO land administration domain model LADM and its external classes

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Lemmen, CHJ

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides a brief overview of one of the first spatial domain standards: a standard for the domain of Land Administration (LA). This standard is in the draft stage of development now (May 2011). The development of domain standards is a...

  19. Multifunctionalities driven by ferroic domains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, J. C.; Huang, Y. L.; He, Q.; Chu, Y. H.

    2014-08-01

    Considerable attention has been paid to ferroic systems in pursuit of advanced applications in past decades. Most recently, the emergence and development of multiferroics, which exhibit the coexistence of different ferroic natures, has offered a new route to create functionalities in the system. In this manuscript, we step from domain engineering to explore a roadmap for discovering intriguing phenomena and multifunctionalities driven by periodic domain patters. As-grown periodic domains, offering exotic order parameters, periodic local perturbations and the capability of tailoring local spin, charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom, are introduced as modeling templates for fundamental studies and novel applications. We discuss related significant findings on ferroic domain, nanoscopic domain walls, and conjunct heterostructures based on the well-organized domain patterns, and end with future prospects and challenges in the field.

  20. Single-particle characterization of 'Asian Dust' certified reference materials using low-Z particle electron probe X-ray microanalysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hwang, Hee Jin; Ro, Chul-Un

    2006-01-01

    In order to clearly elucidate whether Asian Dust particles experience chemical modification during long-range transport, it is necessary to characterize soil particles where Asian Dust particles originate. If chemical compositions of source soil particles are well characterized, then chemical compositions of Asian Dust particles collected outside source regions can be compared with those of source soil particles in order to find out the occurrence of chemical modification. Asian Dust particles are chemically and morphologically heterogeneous, and thus the average composition and the average aerodynamic diameter (obtainable by bulk analysis) are not much relevant if the chemical modifications of the particles must be followed. The major elemental composition and abundance of the particle types that are potential subjects of chemical modification can only be obtained using single-particle analysis. A single particle analytical technique, named low-Z particle electron probe X-ray microanalysis (low-Z particle EPMA), was applied to characterize two certified reference materials (CRMs) for Asian Dust particles, which were collected from a loess plateau area and a desert of China. The CRMs were defined by bulk analyses to provide certified concentrations for 13 chemical elements. Using the low-Z particle EPMA technique, the concentrations of major chemical species such as aluminosilicates, SiO 2 , CaCO 3 , and carbonaceous species were obtained. Elemental concentrations obtained by the low-Z particle EPMA are close to the certified values, with considering that the single particle and bulk analyses employ very different approaches. There are still some discrepancies between those concentration values, resulting from analyses of particles with different sizes, different sample amounts analyzed, and uncertainties involved in the single particle analysis

  1. Text Processing of Domain-Related Information for Individuals with High and Low Domain Knowledge.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spilich, George J.; And Others

    1979-01-01

    The way in which previously acquired knowledge affects the processing on new domain-related information was investigated. Text processing was studied in two groups differing in knowledge of the domain of baseball. A knowledge structure for the domain was constructed, and text propositions were classified. (SW)

  2. Do we develop public health leaders?- association between public health competencies and emotional intelligence: a cross-sectional study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Czabanowska, Katarzyna; Malho, André; Schröder-Bäck, Peter; Popa, Daniela; Burazeri, Genc

    2014-04-17

    Professional development of public health leaders requires a form of instruction which is competency-based to help them develop the abilities to address complex and evolving demands of health care systems. Concurrently, emotional intelligence (EI) is a key to organisational success. Our aim was twofold: i) to assess the relationship between the level of self-assessed public health and EI competencies among Master of European Public Health (MEPH) students and graduates at Maastricht University, and; ii) to determine the relationship between different groups of public health competencies and specific EI skills. A cross-sectional study was conducted including all recent MEPH graduates and students from 2009-2012, out of 67 eligible candidates N = 51 were contacted and N = 33 responded (11 males and 22 females; overall response: 64.7%).Two validated tools were employed: i) public health competencies self-assessment questionnaire, and; ii) Assessing Emotions Scale. Females scored higher than males in all seven domains of the self-assessed key public health competencies (NS) and emotional intelligence competences (P = 0.022). Overall, the mean value of public health competencies was the lowest in students with "staff" preferences and the highest among students with mixed job preferences (P leadership.

  3. Functional interchangeability of late domains, late domain cofactors and ubiquitin in viral budding.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Zhadina

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available The membrane scission event that separates nascent enveloped virions from host cell membranes often requires the ESCRT pathway, which can be engaged through the action of peptide motifs, termed late (L- domains, in viral proteins. Viral PTAP and YPDL-like L-domains bind directly to the ESCRT-I and ALIX components of the ESCRT pathway, while PPxY motifs bind Nedd4-like, HECT-domain containing, ubiquitin ligases (e.g. WWP1. It has been unclear precisely how ubiquitin ligase recruitment ultimately leads to particle release. Here, using a lysine-free viral Gag protein derived from the prototypic foamy virus (PFV, where attachment of ubiquitin to Gag can be controlled, we show that several different HECT domains can replace the WWP1 HECT domain in chimeric ubiquitin ligases and drive budding. Moreover, artificial recruitment of isolated HECT domains to Gag is sufficient to stimulate budding. Conversely, the HECT domain becomes dispensable if the other domains of WWP1 are directly fused to an ESCRT-1 protein. In each case where budding is driven by a HECT domain, its catalytic activity is essential, but Gag ubiquitination is dispensable, suggesting that ubiquitin ligation to trans-acting proteins drives budding. Paradoxically, however, we also demonstrate that direct fusion of a ubiquitin moiety to the C-terminus of PFV Gag can also promote budding, suggesting that ubiquitination of Gag can substitute for ubiquitination of trans-acting proteins. Depletion of Tsg101 and ALIX inhibits budding that is dependent on ubiquitin that is fused to Gag, or ligated to trans-acting proteins through the action of a PPxY motif. These studies underscore the flexibility in the ways that the ESCRT pathway can be engaged, and suggest a model in which the identity of the protein to which ubiquitin is attached is not critical for subsequent recruitment of ubiquitin-binding components of the ESCRT pathway and viral budding to proceed.

  4. The public utility contract between the French government and EDF; Le contrat de service public entre l'Etat et EDF

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2005-07-01

    The public utility contract as foreseen by article 1 of the law from August 9, 2004 was signed on October 24, 2005. It represents the reference of EDF's (Electricite de France) commitments for its different activities of power producer-supplier and network manager. It precises also the commitments of the manager of the public energy transportation system (RTE EDF-Transport). It describes the level of commitment of EDF group over the 2005-2006-2007 era and precises the financial compensation modalities of its public utility missions and of its commitments as described in the contract. The public utility plan indicates the level of investments planned by EDF in the domain of power generation and networks. This document gathers: the talk given by D. de Villepin, Prime Minister, during the signature of the contract, the talk and presentation (slides) given by P. Gadonneix, head of EDF, the public utility contract between the government and EDF, and the public utility plan. (J.S.)

  5. Imagining Moral Bioenhancement Practices: Drawing Inspiration from Moral Education, Public Health Ethics, and Forensic Psychiatry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Specker, Jona; Schermer, Maartje H N

    2017-07-01

    In this article, we consider contexts or domains in which (future) moral bioenhancement interventions possibly or most likely will be implemented. By looking closely at similar or related existing practices and their relevant ethical frameworks, we hope to identify ethical considerations that are relevant for evaluating potential moral bioenhancement interventions. We examine, first, debates on the proper scope of moral education; second, proposals for identifying early risk factors for antisocial behaviour; and third, the difficult balancing of individual freedom and third party concerns in (forensic) psychiatry. In imagining moral bioenhancement in practice, we observe that unlike other forms of enhancement, moral enhancement fundamentally asks how the interests and preferences of the individual and the interests of others should be weighed (in view of public safety and managing public risk). Highly diverse domains such as education, mental health, and the judicial domain might be involved, and moral bioenhancement might challenge existing institutional settings. Given these highly varied contexts and domains, it appears unlikely that there will be a distinct set of practices that will be referred to as "moral bioenhancement."

  6. KEJAHATAN NAMA DOMAIN BERKAITAN DENGAN MEREK

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Nizar

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Indonesia already has an ITE Law governing domain names in general terms and on certain provisions in chapter VI, but the regulation of domain name crimes is not regulated in the ITE Law as mandated in the academic draft of the ITE Bill. The absence of regulation of domain name norm in the ITE Law creates problems with registrant of domain name (registrant which deliberately register the domain name is bad faith. The characteristic of a crime in a domain name relating to the mark is that the registered domain name has an equation in essence with another party’s well-known brand, the act of doing so by exploiting a reputation for well-known or previously commercially valuable names as domain names for addresses for sites (websites it manages. The Prosecutor may include articles of the KUHP in filing his indictment before the Court during the absence of special regulatory provisions concerning domain name crime.

  7. Ligand binding by PDZ domains

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chi, Celestine N.; Bach, Anders; Strømgaard, Kristian

    2012-01-01

    , for example, are particularly rich in these domains. The general function of PDZ domains is to bring proteins together within the appropriate cellular compartment, thereby facilitating scaffolding, signaling, and trafficking events. The many functions of PDZ domains under normal physiological as well...... as pathological conditions have been reviewed recently. In this review, we focus on the molecular details of how PDZ domains bind their protein ligands and their potential as drug targets in this context....

  8. Does the Assessment of Recovery Capital scale reflect a single or multiple domains?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arndt S

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Stephan Arndt,1–3 Ethan Sahker,1,4 Suzy Hedden1 1Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation, 2Department of Psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine, 3Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health, 4Department of Psychological and Quantitative Foundations, Counseling Psychology Program College of Education, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA Objective: The goal of this study was to determine whether the 50-item Assessment of Recovery Capital scale represents a single general measure or whether multiple domains might be psychometrically useful for research or clinical applications. Methods: Data are from a cross-sectional de-identified existing program evaluation information data set with 1,138 clients entering substance use disorder treatment. Principal components and iterated factor analysis were used on the domain scores. Multiple group factor analysis provided a quasi-confirmatory factor analysis. Results: The solution accounted for 75.24% of the total variance, suggesting that 10 factors provide a reasonably good fit. However, Tucker’s congruence coefficients between the factor structure and defining weights (0.41–0.52 suggested a poor fit to the hypothesized 10-domain structure. Principal components of the 10-domain scores yielded one factor whose eigenvalue was greater than one (5.93, accounting for 75.8% of the common variance. A few domains had perceptible but small unique variance components suggesting that a few of the domains may warrant enrichment. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that there is one general factor, with a caveat. Using the 10 measures inflates the chance for Type I errors. Using one general measure avoids this issue, is simple to interpret, and could reduce the number of items. However, those seeking to maximally predict later recovery success may need to use the full instrument and all 10 domains. Keywords: social support, psychometrics, quality of life

  9. Resolution enhancement of robust Bayesian pre-stack inversion in the frequency domain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yin, Xingyao; Li, Kun; Zong, Zhaoyun

    2016-10-01

    AVO/AVA (amplitude variation with an offset or angle) inversion is one of the most practical and useful approaches to estimating model parameters. So far, publications on AVO inversion in the Fourier domain have been quite limited in view of its poor stability and sensitivity to noise compared with time-domain inversion. For the resolution and stability of AVO inversion in the Fourier domain, a novel robust Bayesian pre-stack AVO inversion based on the mixed domain formulation of stationary convolution is proposed which could solve the instability and achieve superior resolution. The Fourier operator will be integrated into the objective equation and it avoids the Fourier inverse transform in our inversion process. Furthermore, the background constraints of model parameters are taken into consideration to improve the stability and reliability of inversion which could compensate for the low-frequency components of seismic signals. Besides, the different frequency components of seismic signals can realize decoupling automatically. This will help us to solve the inverse problem by means of multi-component successive iterations and the convergence precision of the inverse problem could be improved. So, superior resolution compared with the conventional time-domain pre-stack inversion could be achieved easily. Synthetic tests illustrate that the proposed method could achieve high-resolution results with a high degree of agreement with the theoretical model and verify the quality of anti-noise. Finally, applications on a field data case demonstrate that the proposed method could obtain stable inversion results of elastic parameters from pre-stack seismic data in conformity with the real logging data.

  10. Active Learning by Design: An Undergraduate Introductory Public Health Course

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karin eYeatts

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Principles of active learning were used to design and implement an introductory public health course. Students were introduced to the breadth and practice of public health through team and individual-based activities. Team assignments covered topics in epidemiology, biostatistics, health behavior, nutrition, maternal and child health, environment, and health policy. Students developed an appreciation of the population perspective through an experience trip and related intervention project in a public health area of their choice. Students experienced several key critical component elements of a public health undergraduate major; they cover key public health domains, experience public health practice, and integrated concepts with their assignments. In this paper, course assignments, lessons learned, and student successes are described. Given the increased growth in the undergraduate public health major, these active learning assignments may be of interest to undergraduate public health programs at both liberal arts colleges and research universities.

  11. Polar Domain Discovery with Sparkler

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duerr, R.; Khalsa, S. J. S.; Mattmann, C. A.; Ottilingam, N. K.; Singh, K.; Lopez, L. A.

    2017-12-01

    The scientific web is vast and ever growing. It encompasses millions of textual, scientific and multimedia documents describing research in a multitude of scientific streams. Most of these documents are hidden behind forms which require user action to retrieve and thus can't be directly accessed by content crawlers. These documents are hosted on web servers across the world, most often on outdated hardware and network infrastructure. Hence it is difficult and time-consuming to aggregate documents from the scientific web, especially those relevant to a specific domain. Thus generating meaningful domain-specific insights is currently difficult. We present an automated discovery system (Figure 1) using Sparkler, an open-source, extensible, horizontally scalable crawler which facilitates high throughput and focused crawling of documents pertinent to a particular domain such as information about polar regions. With this set of highly domain relevant documents, we show that it is possible to answer analytical questions about that domain. Our domain discovery algorithm leverages prior domain knowledge to reach out to commercial/scientific search engines to generate seed URLs. Subject matter experts then annotate these seed URLs manually on a scale from highly relevant to irrelevant. We leverage this annotated dataset to train a machine learning model which predicts the `domain relevance' of a given document. We extend Sparkler with this model to focus crawling on documents relevant to that domain. Sparkler avoids disruption of service by 1) partitioning URLs by hostname such that every node gets a different host to crawl and by 2) inserting delays between subsequent requests. With an NSF-funded supercomputer Wrangler, we scaled our domain discovery pipeline to crawl about 200k polar specific documents from the scientific web, within a day.

  12. The politics of public domain : Ethical urbanism around marketplaces in London, Amsterdam & Istanbul

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Janssens, F.

    2017-01-01

    New marketplaces pop up every day in cities around the world. As catalysts for gentrification, however, these new marketplaces are often celebrated at the expense of the public markets that they replace. This replacement is symptomatic of today's urban governance, which is characterised by what I

  13. Attentional Control Buffers the Effect of Public Speaking Anxiety on Performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Christopher R; Fazio, Russell H; Vasey, Michael W

    2012-09-01

    We explored dispositional differences in the ability to self-regulate attentional processes in the domain of public speaking. Participants first completed measures of speech anxiety and attentional control. In a second session, participants prepared and performed a short speech. Fear of public speaking negatively impacted performance only for those low in attentional control. Thus, attentional control appears to act as a buffer that facilitates successful self-regulation despite performance anxiety.

  14. Blocking-resistant communication through domain fronting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fifield David

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available We describe “domain fronting,” a versatile censorship circumvention technique that hides the remote endpoint of a communication. Domain fronting works at the application layer, using HTTPS, to communicate with a forbidden host while appearing to communicate with some other host, permitted by the censor. The key idea is the use of different domain names at different layers of communication. One domain appears on the “outside” of an HTTPS request—in the DNS request and TLS Server Name Indication—while another domain appears on the “inside”—in the HTTP Host header, invisible to the censor under HTTPS encryption. A censor, unable to distinguish fronted and nonfronted traffic to a domain, must choose between allowing circumvention traffic and blocking the domain entirely, which results in expensive collateral damage. Domain fronting is easy to deploy and use and does not require special cooperation by network intermediaries. We identify a number of hard-to-block web services, such as content delivery networks, that support domain-fronted connections and are useful for censorship circumvention. Domain fronting, in various forms, is now a circumvention workhorse. We describe several months of deployment experience in the Tor, Lantern, and Psiphon circumvention systems, whose domain-fronting transports now connect thousands of users daily and transfer many terabytes per month.

  15. Surveillance in Public Transport Systems using Wireless Sensor Networks

    OpenAIRE

    KALOGERAS Athanasios; ANDRITSOS Fivos; CHATZIGIANNAKIS Ioannis; KONSTANTINOPOULOS Panagiotis A.

    2009-01-01

    Prompt availability of critical information to the right people is the main factor for the management of any emergency situation. However, despite the numerous investments in the domain of public safety and security, recent events demonstrate that, both in Europe and US, this is still an open issue.

  16. SH3 Domains Differentially Stimulate Distinct Dynamin I Assembly Modes and G Domain Activity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sai Krishnan

    Full Text Available Dynamin I is a highly regulated GTPase enzyme enriched in nerve terminals which mediates vesicle fission during synaptic vesicle endocytosis. One regulatory mechanism involves its interactions with proteins containing Src homology 3 (SH3 domains. At least 30 SH3 domain-containing proteins bind dynamin at its proline-rich domain (PRD. Those that stimulate dynamin activity act by promoting its oligomerisation. We undertook a systematic parallel screening of 13 glutathione-S-transferase (GST-tagged endocytosis-related SH3 domains on dynamin binding, GTPase activity and oligomerisation. No correlation was found between dynamin binding and their potency to stimulate GTPase activity. There was limited correlation between the extent of their ability to stimulate dynamin activity and the level of oligomerisation, indicating an as yet uncharacterised allosteric coupling of the PRD and G domain. We examined the two variants, dynamin Iab and Ibb, which differ in the alternately splice middle domain α2 helix. They responded differently to the panel of SH3s, with the extent of stimulation between the splice variants varying greatly between the SH3s. This study reveals that SH3 binding can act as a heterotropic allosteric regulator of the G domain via the middle domain α2 helix, suggesting an involvement of this helix in communicating the PRD-mediated allostery. This indicates that SH3 binding both stabilises multiple conformations of the tetrameric building block of dynamin, and promotes assembly of dynamin-SH3 complexes with distinct rates of GTP hydrolysis.

  17. Public Engagement Through Shared Immersion: Participating in the Processes of Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Jessica Janice; Maroothynaden, Jason; Bello, Fernando; Kneebone, Roger

    2013-10-01

    Recently, the literature has emphasized the aims and logistics of public engagement, rather than its epistemic and cultural processes. In this conceptual article, we use our work on surgical simulation to describe a process that has moved from the classroom and the research laboratory into the public sphere. We propose an innovative shared immersion model for framing the relationship between engagement activities and research. Our model thus frames the public engagement experience as a participative encounter, which brings visitor and researcher together in a shared (surgical) experience mediated by experts from a range of domains.

  18. An ontological approach to domain engineering

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Falbo, R.A.; Guizzardi, G.; Duarte, K.

    2002-01-01

    Domain engineering aims to support systematic reuse, focusing on modeling common knowledge in a problem domain. Ontologies have also been pointed as holding great promise for software reuse. In this paper, we present ODE (Ontology-based Domain Engineering), an ontological approach for domain

  19. Ferroelectric negative capacitance domain dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffmann, Michael; Khan, Asif Islam; Serrao, Claudy; Lu, Zhongyuan; Salahuddin, Sayeef; Pešić, Milan; Slesazeck, Stefan; Schroeder, Uwe; Mikolajick, Thomas

    2018-05-01

    Transient negative capacitance effects in epitaxial ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 capacitors are investigated with a focus on the dynamical switching behavior governed by domain nucleation and growth. Voltage pulses are applied to a series connection of the ferroelectric capacitor and a resistor to directly measure the ferroelectric negative capacitance during switching. A time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau approach is used to investigate the underlying domain dynamics. The transient negative capacitance is shown to originate from reverse domain nucleation and unrestricted domain growth. However, with the onset of domain coalescence, the capacitance becomes positive again. The persistence of the negative capacitance state is therefore limited by the speed of domain wall motion. By changing the applied electric field, capacitor area or external resistance, this domain wall velocity can be varied predictably over several orders of magnitude. Additionally, detailed insights into the intrinsic material properties of the ferroelectric are obtainable through these measurements. A new method for reliable extraction of the average negative capacitance of the ferroelectric is presented. Furthermore, a simple analytical model is developed, which accurately describes the negative capacitance transient time as a function of the material properties and the experimental boundary conditions.

  20. Functional domains of plant chimeric calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase: regulation by autoinhibitory and visinin-like domains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramachandiran, S.; Takezawa, D.; Wang, W.; Poovaiah, B. W.

    1997-01-01

    A novel calcium-binding calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CCaMK) with a catalytic domain, calmodulin-binding domain, and a neural visinin-like domain was cloned and characterized from plants [Patil et al., (1995) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 4797-4801; Takezawa et al. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 8126-8132]. The mechanisms of CCaMK activation by calcium and calcium/calmodulin were investigated using various deletion mutants. The use of deletion mutants of CCaMK lacking either one, two, or all three calcium-binding EF hands indicated that all three calcium-binding sites in the visinin-like domain were crucial for the full calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase activity. As each calcium-binding EF hand was deleted, there was a gradual reduction in calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase activity from 100 to 4%. Another mutant (amino acids 1-322) which lacks both the visinin-like domain containing three EF hands and the calmodulin-binding domain was constitutively active, indicating the presence of an autoinhibitory domain around the calmodulin-binding domain. By using various synthetic peptides and the constitutively active mutant, we have shown that CCaMK contains an autoinhibitory domain within the residues 322-340 which overlaps its calmodulin-binding domain. Kinetic studies with both ATP and the GS peptide substrate suggest that the autoinhibitory domain of CCaMK interacts only with the peptide substrate binding motif of the catalytic domain, but not with the ATP-binding motif.

  1. Summarization by domain ontology navigation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andreasen, Troels; Bulskov, Henrik

    2013-01-01

    of the subject. In between these two extremes, conceptual summaries encompass selected concepts derived using background knowledge. We address in this paper an approach where conceptual summaries are provided through a conceptualization as given by an ontology. The ontology guiding the summarization can...... be a simple taxonomy or a generative domain ontology. A domain ontology can be provided by a preanalysis of a domain corpus and can be used to condense improved summaries that better reflects the conceptualization of a given domain....

  2. Ferroelectric domain continuity over grain boundaries

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mantri, Sukriti; Oddershede, Jette; Damjanovic, Dragan

    2017-01-01

    Formation and mobility of domain walls in ferroelectric materials is responsible for many of their electrical and mechanical properties. Domain wall continuity across grain boundaries has been observed since the 1950's and is speculated to affect the grain boundary-domain interactions, thereby...... impacting macroscopic ferroelectric properties in polycrystalline systems. However detailed studies of such correlated domain structures across grain boundaries are limited. In this work, we have developed the mathematical requirements for domain wall plane matching at grain boundaries of any given...... orientation. We have also incorporated the effect of grain boundary ferroelectric polarization charge created when any two domains meet at the grain boundary plane. The probability of domain wall continuity for three specific grain misorientations is studied. Use of this knowledge to optimize processing...

  3. Study on k-shortest paths with behavioral impedance domain from the intermodal public transportation system perspective

    OpenAIRE

    Pereira, Hernane Borges de Barros; Pérez Vidal, Lluís; Lozada, Eleazar G. Madrid

    2003-01-01

    Behavioral impedance domain consists of a theory on route planning for pedestrians, within which constraint management is considered. The goal of this paper is to present the k-shortest path model using the behavioral impedance approach. After the mathematical model building, optimization problem and resolution problem by a behavioral impedance algorithm, it is discussed how behavioral impedance cost function is embedded in the k-shortest path model. From the pedestrian's route planning persp...

  4. Domain-specific languages in perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    J. Heering (Jan); M. Mernik (Marjan)

    2007-01-01

    textabstractDomain-specific languages (DSLs) are languages tailored to a specific application domain. They offer substantial gains in expressiveness and ease of use compared with general-purpose languages in their domain of application. Although the use of DSLs is by no means new, it is receiving

  5. Detecting atypical examples of known domain types by sequence similarity searching: the SBASE domain library approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhir, Somdutta; Pacurar, Mircea; Franklin, Dino; Gáspári, Zoltán; Kertész-Farkas, Attila; Kocsor, András; Eisenhaber, Frank; Pongor, Sándor

    2010-11-01

    SBASE is a project initiated to detect known domain types and predicting domain architectures using sequence similarity searching (Simon et al., Protein Seq Data Anal, 5: 39-42, 1992, Pongor et al, Nucl. Acids. Res. 21:3111-3115, 1992). The current approach uses a curated collection of domain sequences - the SBASE domain library - and standard similarity search algorithms, followed by postprocessing which is based on a simple statistics of the domain similarity network (http://hydra.icgeb.trieste.it/sbase/). It is especially useful in detecting rare, atypical examples of known domain types which are sometimes missed even by more sophisticated methodologies. This approach does not require multiple alignment or machine learning techniques, and can be a useful complement to other domain detection methodologies. This article gives an overview of the project history as well as of the concepts and principles developed within this the project.

  6. Public health: disconnections between policy, practice and research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kok Gerjo

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Public health includes policy, practice and research but to sufficiently connect academic research, practice and public health policy appears to be difficult. Collaboration between policy, practice and research is imperative to obtaining more solid evidence in public health. However, the three domains do not easily work together because they emanate from three more or less independent 'niches'. Work cycles of each niche have the same successive steps: problem recognition, approach formulation, implementation, and evaluation, but are differently worked out. So far, the research has focused on agenda-setting which belongs to the first step, as expressed by Kingdon, and on the use of academic knowledge in policy makers' decision-making processes which belongs to the fourth step, as elaborated by Weiss. In addition, there are more steps in the policy-making process where exchange is needed. Method A qualitative descriptive research was conducted by literature search. We analyzed the four steps of the policy, practice and research work cycles. Next, we interpreted the main conflicting aspects as disconnections for each step. Results There are some conspicuous differences that strengthen the niche character of each domain and hamper integration and collaboration. Disconnections ranged from formulating priorities in problem statements to power roles, appraisal of evidence, work attitudes, work pace, transparency of goals, evaluation and continuation strategies and public accountability. Creating awareness of these disconnections may result in more compatibility between researchers, policy makers and practitioners. Conclusion We provide an analysis that can be used by public health services-related researchers, practitioners and policy makers to be aware of the risk for disconnections. A synthesis of the social, practical and scientific relevance of public health problems should be the starting point for a dialogue that seeks to

  7. EH domain of EHD1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kieken, Fabien; Jovic, Marko; Naslavsky, Naava; Caplan, Steve, E-mail: scaplan@unmc.edu; Sorgen, Paul L. [University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Eppley Cancer Center (United States)], E-mail: psorgen@unmc.edu

    2007-12-15

    EHD1 is a member of the mammalian C-terminal Eps15 homology domain (EH) containing protein family, and regulates the recycling of various receptors from the endocytic recycling compartment to the plasma membrane. The EH domain of EHD1 binds to proteins containing either an Asn-Pro-Phe or Asp-Pro-Phe motif, and plays an important role in the subcellular localization and function of EHD1. Thus far, the structures of five N-terminal EH domains from other proteins have been solved, but to date, the structure of the EH domains from the four C-terminal EHD family paralogs remains unknown. In this study, we have assigned the 133 C-terminal residues of EHD1, which includes the EH domain, and solved its solution structure. While the overall structure resembles that of the second of the three N-terminal Eps15 EH domains, potentially significant differences in surface charge and the structure of the tripeptide-binding pocket are discussed.

  8. EH domain of EHD1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kieken, Fabien; Jovic, Marko; Naslavsky, Naava; Caplan, Steve; Sorgen, Paul L.

    2007-01-01

    EHD1 is a member of the mammalian C-terminal Eps15 homology domain (EH) containing protein family, and regulates the recycling of various receptors from the endocytic recycling compartment to the plasma membrane. The EH domain of EHD1 binds to proteins containing either an Asn-Pro-Phe or Asp-Pro-Phe motif, and plays an important role in the subcellular localization and function of EHD1. Thus far, the structures of five N-terminal EH domains from other proteins have been solved, but to date, the structure of the EH domains from the four C-terminal EHD family paralogs remains unknown. In this study, we have assigned the 133 C-terminal residues of EHD1, which includes the EH domain, and solved its solution structure. While the overall structure resembles that of the second of the three N-terminal Eps15 EH domains, potentially significant differences in surface charge and the structure of the tripeptide-binding pocket are discussed

  9. A Highly Accurate Regular Domain Collocation Method for Solving Potential Problems in the Irregular Doubly Connected Domains

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhao-Qing Wang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Embedding the irregular doubly connected domain into an annular regular region, the unknown functions can be approximated by the barycentric Lagrange interpolation in the regular region. A highly accurate regular domain collocation method is proposed for solving potential problems on the irregular doubly connected domain in polar coordinate system. The formulations of regular domain collocation method are constructed by using barycentric Lagrange interpolation collocation method on the regular domain in polar coordinate system. The boundary conditions are discretized by barycentric Lagrange interpolation within the regular domain. An additional method is used to impose the boundary conditions. The least square method can be used to solve the overconstrained equations. The function values of points in the irregular doubly connected domain can be calculated by barycentric Lagrange interpolation within the regular domain. Some numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the presented method.

  10. Descriptive epidemiology of domain-specific sitting in working adults: the Stormont Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clemes, Stacy A; Houdmont, Jonathan; Munir, Fehmidah; Wilson, Kelly; Kerr, Robert; Addley, Ken

    2016-03-01

    Given links between sedentary behaviour and unfavourable health outcomes, there is a need to understand the influence of socio-demographic factors on sedentary behaviour to inform effective interventions. This study examined domain-specific sitting times reported across socio-demographic groups of office workers. The analyses are cross-sectional and based on a survey conducted within the Stormont Study, which is tracking employees in the Northern Ireland Civil Service. Participants self-reported their daily sitting times across multiple domains (work, TV, travel, PC use and leisure) on workdays and non-workdays, along with their physical activity and socio-demographic variables (sex, age, marital status, BMI, educational attainment and work pattern). Total and domain-specific sitting on workdays and non-workdays were compared across socio-demographic groups using multivariate analyses of covariance. Completed responses were obtained from 4436 participants. For the whole sample, total daily sitting times were higher on workdays in comparison to non-workdays (625 ± 168 versus 469 ± 210 min/day, P leisure-time sitting. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  11. Structure and dynamics of the human pleckstrin DEP domain: distinct molecular features of a novel DEP domain subfamily.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Civera, Concepcion; Simon, Bernd; Stier, Gunter; Sattler, Michael; Macias, Maria J

    2005-02-01

    Pleckstrin1 is a major substrate for protein kinase C in platelets and leukocytes, and comprises a central DEP (disheveled, Egl-10, pleckstrin) domain, which is flanked by two PH (pleckstrin homology) domains. DEP domains display a unique alpha/beta fold and have been implicated in membrane binding utilizing different mechanisms. Using multiple sequence alignments and phylogenetic tree reconstructions, we find that 6 subfamilies of the DEP domain exist, of which pleckstrin represents a novel and distinct subfamily. To clarify structural determinants of the DEP fold and to gain further insight into the role of the DEP domain, we determined the three-dimensional structure of the pleckstrin DEP domain using heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy. Pleckstrin DEP shares main structural features with the DEP domains of disheveled and Epac, which belong to different DEP subfamilies. However, the pleckstrin DEP fold is distinct from these structures and contains an additional, short helix alpha4 inserted in the beta4-beta5 loop that exhibits increased backbone mobility as judged by NMR relaxation measurements. Based on sequence conservation, the helix alpha4 may also be present in the DEP domains of regulator of G-protein signaling (RGS) proteins, which are members of the same DEP subfamily. In pleckstrin, the DEP domain is surrounded by two PH domains. Structural analysis and charge complementarity suggest that the DEP domain may interact with the N-terminal PH domain in pleckstrin. Phosphorylation of the PH-DEP linker, which is required for pleckstrin function, could regulate such an intramolecular interaction. This suggests a role of the pleckstrin DEP domain in intramolecular domain interactions, which is distinct from the functions of other DEP domain subfamilies found so far.

  12. The Bone Dysplasia Ontology: integrating genotype and phenotype information in the skeletal dysplasia domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Groza Tudor

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Skeletal dysplasias are a rare and heterogeneous group of genetic disorders affecting skeletal development. Patients with skeletal dysplasias suffer from many complex medical issues including degenerative joint disease and neurological complications. Because the data and expertise associated with this field is both sparse and disparate, significant benefits will potentially accrue from the availability of an ontology that provides a shared conceptualisation of the domain knowledge and enables data integration, cross-referencing and advanced reasoning across the relevant but distributed data sources. Results We introduce the design considerations and implementation details of the Bone Dysplasia Ontology. We also describe the different components of the ontology, including a comprehensive and formal representation of the skeletal dysplasia domain as well as the related genotypes and phenotypes. We then briefly describe SKELETOME, a community-driven knowledge curation platform that is underpinned by the Bone Dysplasia Ontology. SKELETOME enables domain experts to use, refine and extend and apply the ontology without any prior ontology engineering experience--to advance the body of knowledge in the skeletal dysplasia field. Conclusions The Bone Dysplasia Ontology represents the most comprehensive structured knowledge source for the skeletal dysplasias domain. It provides the means for integrating and annotating clinical and research data, not only at the generic domain knowledge level, but also at the level of individual patient case studies. It enables links between individual cases and publicly available genotype and phenotype resources based on a community-driven curation process that ensures a shared conceptualisation of the domain knowledge and its continuous incremental evolution.

  13. Theorising Public and Private Spheres

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sima Remina

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The 19th century saw an expression of women’s ardent desire for freedom, emancipation and assertion in the public space. Women hardly managed to assert themselves at all in the public sphere, as any deviation from their traditional role was seen as unnatural. The human soul knows no gender distinctions, so we can say that women face the same desire for fulfillment as men do. Today, women are more and more encouraged to develop their skills by undertaking activities within the public space that are different from those that form part of traditional domestic chores. The woman of the 19th century felt the need to be useful to society, to make her contribution visible in a variety of domains. A woman does not have to become masculine to get power. If she is successful in any important job, this does not mean that she thinks like a man, but that she thinks like a woman. Women have broken through the walls that cut them off from public life, activity and ambition. There are no hindrances that can prevent women from taking their place in society.

  14. Using theory to explore facilitators and barriers to delayed prescribing in Australia: a qualitative study using the Theoretical Domains Framework and the Behaviour Change Wheel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sargent, Lucy; McCullough, Amanda; Del Mar, Chris; Lowe, John

    2017-02-13

    Delayed antibiotic prescribing reduces antibiotic use for acute respiratory infections in trials in general practice, but the uptake in clinical practice is low. The aim of the study was to identify facilitators and barriers to general practitioners' (GPs') use of delayed prescribing and to gain pharmacists' and the public's views about delayed prescribing in Australia. This study used the Theoretical Domains Framework and the Behaviour Change Wheel to explore facilitators and barriers to delayed prescribing in Australia. Forty-three semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with general practitioners, pharmacists and patients were conducted. Responses were coded into domains of the Theoretical Domains Framework, and specific criteria from the Behaviour Change Wheel were used to identify which domains were relevant to increasing the use of delayed prescribing by GPs. The interviews revealed nine key domains that influence GPs' use of delayed prescribing: knowledge; cognitive and interpersonal skills; memory, attention and decision-making processes; optimism; beliefs about consequences; intentions; goals; emotion; and social influences: GPs knew about delayed prescribing; however, they did not use it consistently, preferring to bring patients back for review and only using it with patients in a highly selective way. Pharmacists would support GPs and the public in delayed prescribing but would fill the prescription if people insisted. The public said they would delay taking their antibiotics if asked by their GP and given the right information on managing symptoms and when to take antibiotics. Using a theory-driven approach, we identified nine key domains that influence GPs' willingness to provide a delayed prescription to patients with an acute respiratory infection presenting to general practice. These data can be used to develop a structured intervention to change this behaviour and thus reduce antibiotic use for acute respiratory infections in general practice.

  15. Ferromagnetic and twin domains in LCMO manganites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jung, G.; Markovich, V.; Mogilyanski, D.; Beek, C. van der; Mukovskii, Y.M.

    2005-01-01

    Ferromagnetic and twin domains in lightly Ca-doped La 1-x Ca x MnO 3 single crystals have been visualized and investigated by means of the magneto-optical technique. Both types of domains became visible below the Curie temperature. The dominant structures seen in applied magnetic field are associated with magneto-crystalline anisotropy and twin domains. In a marked difference to the twin domains which appear only in applied magnetic field, ferromagnetic domains show up in zero applied field and are characterized by oppositely oriented spontaneous magnetization in adjacent domains. Ferromagnetic domains take form of almost periodic, corrugated strip-like structures. The corrugation of the ferromagnetic domain pattern is enforced by the underlying twin domains

  16. Source Apportionment of Atmospheric Particles by Electron Probe X-Ray Microanalysis and Receptor Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Borm, Werner August

    Electron probe X-ray microanalysis (EPXMA) in combination with an automation system and an energy-dispersive X-ray detection system was used to analyse thousands of microscopical particles, originating from the ambient atmosphere. The huge amount of data was processed by a newly developed X-ray correction method and a number of data reduction procedures. A standardless ZAF procedure for EPXMA was developed for quick semi-quantitative analysis of particles starting from simple corrections, valid for bulk samples and modified taking into account the particle finit diameter, assuming a spherical shape. Tested on a limited database of bulk and particulate samples, the compromise between calculation speed and accuracy yielded for elements with Z > 14 accuracies on concentrations less than 10% while absolute deviations remained below 4 weight%, thus being only important for low concentrations. Next, the possibilities for the use of supervised and unsupervised multivariate particle classification were investigated for source apportionment of individual particles. In a detailed study of the unsupervised cluster analysis technique several aspects were considered, that have a severe influence on the final cluster analysis results, i.e. data acquisition, X-ray peak identification, data normalization, scaling, variable selection, similarity measure, cluster strategy, cluster significance and error propagation. A supervised approach was developed using an expert system-like approach in which identification rules are builded to describe the particle classes in a unique manner. Applications are presented for particles sampled (1) near a zinc smelter (Vieille-Montagne, Balen, Belgium), analyzed for heavy metals, (2) in an urban aerosol (Antwerp, Belgium), analyzed for over 20 elements and (3) in a rural aerosol originating from a swiss mountain area (Bern). Thus is was possible to pinpoint a number of known and unknown sources and characterize their emissions in terms of particles

  17. Convergence of Corporate and Public Governance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gérard Hirigoyen

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available By analyzing the differences between the corporate and public governance, theoretical and empirical research seems to indicate that the two domains of governance are far too different to share any common aspect. However, in this particular research, it has been argued that public governance is an application of corporate governance. Thus, the research question entails the description and analysis of this possible convergence of the two. Extensive research from literature on corporate governance has been undertaken to establish a relationship between the boards process and the roles that acts as a framework to bridge the gap separating corporate governance from public governance. Corporate governance, at a global level, exists in the for-profit as well as nonprofit organizations. Thus, the definition of this concept needs to be viewed from “an innovative” eye, considering the relationship between the process of the board and roles as characteristic of the public organization and private ones. As the private as well as public organizations are an application of corporate governance, the difference between the two gets narrowed. For the purpose of this research, the case of the French hospitals’ board has been taken into consideration. The members of the public board have been considered for the board process to perform their roles.

  18. Chemometric classification of gunshot residues based on energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis and inductively coupled plasma analysis with mass-spectrometric detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Steffen, S.; Otto, M.; Niewoehner, L.; Barth, M.; Brozek-Mucha, Z.; Biegstraaten, J.; Horvath, R.

    2007-01-01

    A gunshot residue sample that was collected from an object or a suspected person is automatically searched for gunshot residue relevant particles. Particle data (such as size, morphology, position on the sample for manual relocation, etc.) as well as the corresponding X-ray spectra and images are stored. According to these data, particles are classified by the analysis-software into different groups: 'gunshot residue characteristic', 'consistent with gunshot residue' and environmental particles, respectively. Potential gunshot residue particles are manually checked and - if necessary - confirmed by the operating forensic scientist. As there are continuing developments on the ammunition market worldwide, it becomes more and more difficult to assign a detected particle to a particular ammunition brand. As well, the differentiation towards environmental particles similar to gunshot residue is getting more complex. To keep external conditions unchanged, gunshot residue particles were collected using a specially designed shooting device for the test shots revealing defined shooting distances between the weapon's muzzle and the target. The data obtained as X-ray spectra of a number of particles (3000 per ammunition brand) were reduced by Fast Fourier Transformation and subjected to a chemometric evaluation by means of regularized discriminant analysis. In addition to the scanning electron microscopy in combination with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis results, isotope ratio measurements based on inductively coupled plasma analysis with mass-spectrometric detection were carried out to provide a supplementary feature for an even lower risk of misclassification

  19. Chemometric classification of gunshot residues based on energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis and inductively coupled plasma analysis with mass-spectrometric detection

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Steffen, S. [Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), Forensic Science Institute KT23, Thaerstr. 11, D - 65193 Wiesbaden (Germany); Otto, M. [TU Bergakademie Freiberg (TU BAF), Institute for Analytical Chemistry, Leipziger Str. 29, D - 09599 Freiberg (Germany)], E-mail: matthias.otto@chemie.tu-freiberg.de; Niewoehner, L.; Barth, M. [Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), Forensic Science Institute KT23, Thaerstr. 11, D - 65193 Wiesbaden (Germany); Brozek-Mucha, Z. [Instytut Ekspertyz Sadowych (IES), Westerplatte St. 9, PL - 31-033 Krakow (Poland); Biegstraaten, J. [Nederlands Forensisch Instituut (NFI), Fysische Technologie, Laan van Ypenburg 6, NL-2497 GB Den Haag (Netherlands); Horvath, R. [Kriminalisticky a Expertizny Ustav (KEU PZ), Institute of Forensic Science, Sklabinska 1, SK - 812 72 Bratislava (Slovakia)

    2007-09-15

    A gunshot residue sample that was collected from an object or a suspected person is automatically searched for gunshot residue relevant particles. Particle data (such as size, morphology, position on the sample for manual relocation, etc.) as well as the corresponding X-ray spectra and images are stored. According to these data, particles are classified by the analysis-software into different groups: 'gunshot residue characteristic', 'consistent with gunshot residue' and environmental particles, respectively. Potential gunshot residue particles are manually checked and - if necessary - confirmed by the operating forensic scientist. As there are continuing developments on the ammunition market worldwide, it becomes more and more difficult to assign a detected particle to a particular ammunition brand. As well, the differentiation towards environmental particles similar to gunshot residue is getting more complex. To keep external conditions unchanged, gunshot residue particles were collected using a specially designed shooting device for the test shots revealing defined shooting distances between the weapon's muzzle and the target. The data obtained as X-ray spectra of a number of particles (3000 per ammunition brand) were reduced by Fast Fourier Transformation and subjected to a chemometric evaluation by means of regularized discriminant analysis. In addition to the scanning electron microscopy in combination with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis results, isotope ratio measurements based on inductively coupled plasma analysis with mass-spectrometric detection were carried out to provide a supplementary feature for an even lower risk of misclassification.

  20. Telling and measuring urban floods: event reconstruction by means of public-domain media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macchia, S.; Gallo, E.; Claps, P.

    2012-04-01

    In the last decade, the diffusion of mobile telephones and ond of low-cost digital cameras have changed the public approach to catastrophes. As regards floods, it has become widespread the availability of images and videos taken in urban areas. Searching into Youtube or Youreporter, for example, one can understand how often citizen are considering to report even scary events. Nowadays these amateurs videos are often used in news world reports, which often increase or dampen the public perception of flood risk. More importantly, these amateur videos can play a crucial role in a didactic and technical representation of media flooding problems. The question so arise: why don't use the amateur videos for civil protection purposes? This work shows a new way to use flood images and videos to obtain technical data and spread safety information. Specifically, we show how to determine the height and speed of water flow, which have been achieved in some places during Genoa flood - 4th November 2011 - For this event we have downloaded more than 50 videos from different websites, where the authors have provided information about the time of recording, the geographical coordinates and the height above ground of the point of recording. The support by Google tools, such as Google maps and StreetWiew © has allowed us to geographically locate the recording points, so to put together shots and slides necessary to put together a whole reconstruction of the event. Future research will be in the direction of using these videos to generate a tool for the Google platforms, in order to address an easily achievable, yet accurate, information to the public, so to warn people on how to behave in front of imminent floods.

  1. Domain-Specific Control of Selective Attention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Szu-Hung; Yeh, Yei-Yu

    2014-01-01

    Previous research has shown that loading information on working memory affects selective attention. However, whether the load effect on selective attention is domain-general or domain-specific remains unresolved. The domain-general effect refers to the findings that load in one content (e.g. phonological) domain in working memory influences processing in another content (e.g., visuospatial) domain. Attentional control supervises selection regardless of information domain. The domain-specific effect refers to the constraint of influence only when maintenance and processing operate in the same domain. Selective attention operates in a specific content domain. This study is designed to resolve this controversy. Across three experiments, we manipulated the type of representation maintained in working memory and the type of representation upon which the participants must exert control to resolve conflict and select a target into the focus of attention. In Experiments 1a and 1b, participants maintained digits and nonverbalized objects, respectively, in working memory while selecting a target in a letter array. In Experiment 2, we presented auditory digits with a letter flanker task to exclude the involvement of resource competition within the same input modality. In Experiments 3a and 3b, we replaced the letter flanker task with an object flanker task while manipulating the memory load on object and digit representation, respectively. The results consistently showed that memory load modulated distractibility only when the stimuli of the two tasks were represented in the same domain. The magnitude of distractor interference was larger under high load than under low load, reflecting a lower efficacy of information prioritization. When the stimuli of the two tasks were represented in different domains, memory load did not modulate distractibility. Control of processing priority in selective attention demands domain-specific resources. PMID:24866977

  2. Public health and health promotion capacity at national and regional level: a review of conceptual frameworks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christoph Aluttis

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The concept of capacity building for public health has gained much attention during the last decade. National as well as international organizations increasingly focus their efforts on capacity building to improve performance in the health sector. During the past two decades, a variety of conceptual frameworks have been developed which describe relevant dimensions for public health capacity. Notably, these frameworks differ in design and conceptualization. This paper therefore reviews the existing conceptual frameworks and integrates them into one framework, which contains the most relevant dimensions for public health capacity at the country or regional level. A comprehensive literature search was performed to identify frameworks addressing public health capacity building at the national or regional level. We content-analysed these frameworks to identify the core dimensions of public health capacity. The dimensions were subsequently synthesized into a set of thematic areas to construct a conceptual framework which describes the most relevant dimensions for capacities at the national or regional level. The systematic review resulted in the identification of seven core domains for public health capacity: resources, organizational structures, workforce, partnerships, leadership and governance, knowledge development and country specific context. Accordingly, these dimensions were used to construct a framework, which describes these core domains more in detail. Our research shows that although there is no generally agreed upon model of public health capacity, a number of key domains for public health and health promotion capacity are consistently recurring in existing frameworks, regardless of their geographical location or thematic area. As only little work on the core concepts of public health capacities has yet taken place, this study adds value to the discourse by identifying these consistencies across existing frameworks and by synthesising

  3. Domain wall engineering through exchange bias

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Albisetti, E.; Petti, D.

    2016-01-01

    The control of the structure and position of magnetic domain walls is at the basis of the development of different magnetic devices and architectures. Several nanofabrication techniques have been proposed to geometrically confine and shape domain wall structures; however, a fine tuning of the position and micromagnetic configuration is hardly achieved, especially in continuous films. This work shows that, by controlling the unidirectional anisotropy of a continuous ferromagnetic film through exchange bias, domain walls whose spin arrangement is generally not favored by dipolar and exchange interactions can be created. Micromagnetic simulations reveal that the domain wall width, position and profile can be tuned by establishing an abrupt change in the direction and magnitude of the exchange bias field set in the system. - Highlights: • Micromagnetic simulations study domain walls in exchange biased thin films. • Novel domain wall configurations can be stabilized via exchange bias. • Domain walls nucleate at the boundary of regions with different exchange bias. • Domain wall width and spin profile are controlled by tuning the exchange bias.

  4. Frequency Domain Image Filtering Using CUDA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Awais Rajput

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we investigate the implementation of image filtering in frequency domain using NVIDIA?s CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture. In contrast to signal and image filtering in spatial domain which uses convolution operations and hence is more compute-intensive for filters having larger spatial extent, the frequency domain filtering uses FFT (Fast Fourier Transform which is much faster and significantly reduces the computational complexity of the filtering. We implement the frequency domain filtering on CPU and GPU respectively and analyze the speed-up obtained from the CUDA?s parallel processing paradigm. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of frequency domain filtering on CUDA, we implement three frequency domain filters, i.e., Butterworth, low-pass and Gaussian for processing different sizes of images on CPU and GPU respectively and perform the GPU vs. CPU benchmarks. The results presented in this paper show that the frequency domain filtering with CUDA achieves significant speed-up over the CPU processing in frequency domain with the same level of (output image quality on both the processing architectures

  5. Frequency domain image filtering using cuda

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rajput, M.A.; Khan, U.A.

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, we investigate the implementation of image filtering in frequency domain using NVIDIA's CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture). In contrast to signal and image filtering in spatial domain which uses convolution operations and hence is more compute-intensive for filters having larger spatial extent, the frequency domain filtering uses FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) which is much faster and significantly reduces the computational complexity of the filtering. We implement the frequency domain filtering on CPU and GPU respectively and analyze the speed-up obtained from the CUDA's parallel processing paradigm. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of frequency domain filtering on CUDA, we implement three frequency domain filters, i.e., Butter worth, low-pass and Gaussian for processing different sizes of images on CPU and GPU respectively and perform the GPU vs. CPU benchmarks. The results presented in this paper show that the frequency domain filtering with CUDA achieves significant speed-up over the CPU processing in frequency domain with the same level of (output) image quality on both the processing architectures. (author)

  6. MTBP, the partner of Treslin, contains a novel DNA-binding domain that is essential for proper initiation of DNA replication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumagai, Akiko; Dunphy, William G

    2017-11-01

    Treslin, which is essential for incorporation of Cdc45 into the replicative helicase, possesses a partner called MTBP (Mdm2-binding protein). We have analyzed Xenopus and human MTBP to assess its role in DNA replication. Depletion of MTBP from Xenopus egg extracts, which also removes Treslin, abolishes DNA replication. These extracts be can rescued with recombinant Treslin-MTBP but not Treslin or MTBP alone. Thus, Treslin-MTBP is collectively necessary for replication. We have identified a C-terminal region of MTBP (the CTM domain) that binds efficiently to both double-stranded DNA and G-quadruplex (G4) DNA. This domain also exhibits homology with budding yeast Sld7. Mutants of MTBP without a functional CTM domain are defective for DNA replication in Xenopus egg extracts. These mutants display an impaired localization to chromatin and the inability to support loading of Cdc45. Human cells harboring such a mutant also display severe S-phase defects. Thus, the CTM domain of MTBP plays a critical role in localizing Treslin-MTBP to the replication apparatus for initiation. © 2017 Kumagai and Dunphy. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). Two months after publication it is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

  7. A framework to evaluate information quality in Public Administration websites

    OpenAIRE

    Geraci, Filippo; Martinelli, Maurizio; Pellegrini, Marco; Serrecchia, Michela

    2013-01-01

    The paper presents a framework aimed at assessing the capacity of Public Administration bodies (PA) to offer a good quality of information and service on their web portals. Our framework is based on the extraction of ".it? domain names registered by Italian public institutions and the subsequent analysis of their relative websites. The analysis foresees an automatic gathering of the web pages of PA portals by means of web crawling and an assessment of the quality of their online information s...

  8. Individual globular domains and domain unfolding visualized in overstretched titin molecules with atomic force microscopy.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zsolt Mártonfalvi

    Full Text Available Titin is a giant elastomeric protein responsible for the generation of passive muscle force. Mechanical force unfolds titin's globular domains, but the exact structure of the overstretched titin molecule is not known. Here we analyzed, by using high-resolution atomic force microscopy, the structure of titin molecules overstretched with receding meniscus. The axial contour of the molecules was interrupted by topographical gaps with a mean width of 27.7 nm that corresponds well to the length of an unfolded globular (immunoglobulin and fibronectin domain. The wide gap-width distribution suggests, however, that additional mechanisms such as partial domain unfolding and the unfolding of neighboring domain multimers may also be present. In the folded regions we resolved globules with an average spacing of 5.9 nm, which is consistent with a titin chain composed globular domains with extended interdomain linker regions. Topographical analysis allowed us to allocate the most distal unfolded titin region to the kinase domain, suggesting that this domain systematically unfolds when the molecule is exposed to overstretching forces. The observations support the prediction that upon the action of stretching forces the N-terminal ß-sheet of the titin kinase unfolds, thus exposing the enzyme's ATP-binding site and hence contributing to the molecule's mechanosensory function.

  9. Quantifying information transfer by protein domains: Analysis of the Fyn SH2 domain structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Serrano Luis

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Efficient communication between distant sites within a protein is essential for cooperative biological response. Although often associated with large allosteric movements, more subtle changes in protein dynamics can also induce long-range correlations. However, an appropriate formalism that directly relates protein structural dynamics to information exchange between functional sites is still lacking. Results Here we introduce a method to analyze protein dynamics within the framework of information theory and show that signal transduction within proteins can be considered as a particular instance of communication over a noisy channel. In particular, we analyze the conformational correlations between protein residues and apply the concept of mutual information to quantify information exchange. Mapping out changes of mutual information on the protein structure then allows visualizing how distal communication is achieved. We illustrate the approach by analyzing information transfer by the SH2 domain of Fyn tyrosine kinase, obtained from Monte Carlo dynamics simulations. Our analysis reveals that the Fyn SH2 domain forms a noisy communication channel that couples residues located in the phosphopeptide and specificity binding sites and a number of residues at the other side of the domain near the linkers that connect the SH2 domain to the SH3 and kinase domains. We find that for this particular domain, communication is affected by a series of contiguous residues that connect distal sites by crossing the core of the SH2 domain. Conclusion As a result, our method provides a means to directly map the exchange of biological information on the structure of protein domains, making it clear how binding triggers conformational changes in the protein structure. As such it provides a structural road, next to the existing attempts at sequence level, to predict long-range interactions within protein structures.

  10. Suitability of public use secondary data sets to study multiple activities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Putnam, Michelle; Morrow-Howell, Nancy; Inoue, Megumi; Greenfield, Jennifer C; Chen, Huajuan; Lee, YungSoo

    2014-10-01

    The aims of this study were to inventory activity items within and across U.S. public use data sets, to identify gaps in represented activity domains and challenges in interpreting domains, and to assess the potential for studying multiple activity engagement among older adults using existing data. We engaged in content analysis of activity measures of 5U.S. public use data sets with nationally representative samples of older adults. Data sets included the Health & Retirement Survey (HRS), Americans' Changing Lives Survey (ACL), Midlife in the United States Survey (MIDUS), the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics survey (PSID). Two waves of each data set were analyzed. We identified 13 distinct activity domains across the 5 data sets, with substantial differences in representation of those domains among the data sets, and variance in the number and type of activity measures included in each. Our findings indicate that although it is possible to study multiple activity engagement within existing data sets, fuller sets of activity measures need to be developed in order to evaluate the portfolio of activities older adults engage in and the relationship of these portfolios to health and wellness outcomes. Importantly, clearer conceptual models of activity broadly conceived are required to guide this work. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  11. Engaging the public in decision-making. A Swiss approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Herrmann, A.

    1998-01-01

    The Swiss public is still involved in main decisions which may be concern them. The nuclear industry knows a lot about the difficulties of advancing with projects such as repository or new plants. The temptation is very high to change the existing law to simplify the procedure of authorization. But this would be a very bad way to circumvent the distrust of public against nuclear projects. Everywhere today politicians are promoting the empowerment of responsible citizens: in health care, consumers decision and so on. In the domain of nuclear concerns this empowerment is extremely important: especially in this field the public has rights and needs which must be taken into account. (R.P.)

  12. Phylogeny of the TRAF/MATH domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zapata, Juan M; Martínez-García, Vanesa; Lefebvre, Sophie

    2007-01-01

    The TNF-receptor associated factor (TRAF) domain (TD), also known as the meprin and TRAF-C homology (MATH) domain is a fold of seven anti-parallel p-helices that participates in protein-protein interactions. This fold is broadly represented among eukaryotes, where it is found associated with a discrete set of protein-domains. Virtually all protein families encompassing a TRAF/MATH domain seem to be involved in the regulation of protein processing and ubiquitination, strongly suggesting a parallel evolution of the TRAF/MATH domain and certain proteolysis pathways in eukaryotes. The restricted number of living organisms for which we have information of their genetic and protein make-up limits the scope and analysis of the MATH domain in evolution. However, the available information allows us to get a glimpse on the origins, distribution and evolution of the TRAF/MATH domain, which will be overviewed in this chapter.

  13. A micromagnetic study of domain structure modeling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuo, Tetsuji; Mimuro, Naoki; Shimasaki, Masaaki

    2008-01-01

    To develop a mesoscopic model for magnetic-domain behavior, a domain structure model (DSM) was examined and compared with a micromagnetic simulation. The domain structure of this model is given by several domains with uniform magnetization vectors and domain walls. The directions of magnetization vectors and the locations of domain walls are determined so as to minimize the magnetic total energy of the magnetic material. The DSM was modified to improve its representation capability for domain behavior. The domain wall energy is multiplied by a vanishing factor to represent the disappearance of magnetic domain. The sequential quadratic programming procedure is divided into two steps to improve an energy minimization process. A comparison with micromagnetic simulation shows that the modified DSM improves the representation accuracy of the magnetization process

  14. Texture of lipid bilayer domains

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Uffe Bernchou; Brewer, Jonathan R.; Midtiby, Henrik Skov

    2009-01-01

    We investigate the texture of gel (g) domains in binary lipid membranes composed of the phospholipids DPPC and DOPC. Lateral organization of lipid bilayer membranes is a topic of fundamental and biological importance. Whereas questions related to size and composition of fluid membrane domain...... are well studied, the possibility of texture in gel domains has so far not been examined. When using polarized light for two-photon excitation of the fluorescent lipid probe Laurdan, the emission intensity is highly sensitive to the angle between the polarization and the tilt orientation of lipid acyl...... chains. By imaging the intensity variations as a function of the polarization angle, we map the lateral variations of the lipid tilt within domains. Results reveal that gel domains are composed of subdomains with different lipid tilt directions. We have applied a Fourier decomposition method...

  15. The insurance industry and public-private collaborations as a vector to develop and spread EO technologies and techniques in the domain of Food Security: The Swiss Re case.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coutu, S.; Ragaz, M.; Mäder, D.; Hammer, P.; Andriesse, M.; Güttinger, U.; Feyen, H.

    2017-12-01

    The insurance industry has been contributing to the resilient development of agriculture in multiple regions of the globe since the beginning of the 19th Century. It also has from the very beginning of the development of EO Sciences, kept a very close eye on the development of technologies and techniques in this domain. Recent advances in this area such as increased satellite imagery resolution, faster computation time and Big Data management combined with the ground-based knowledge from the insurance industry have offered farmers not only tools permitting better crop management, but also reliable and live yield coverage. This study presents several of these applications at different scales (industrial farming and micro-farming) and in different climate regions, with an emphasis on the limit of current products. Some of these limits such as lack of access of to ground data, R&D efforts or understanding of ground needs could be quickly overcome through closer public-private or private-private collaborations. However, despite a clear benefit for the Food Security nexus and potential win-win situations, those collaborations are not always simple to develop. We present here successful but also disappointing collaboration cases based on the Swiss Re experience, as a global insurance leader. As a conclusion, we highlight how academia, NGOs, governmental organization, start-ups and the insurance industry can get together to foster the development of EO in the domain of Food Security, and bring cutting-edge science to game changing industrial applications.

  16. On the structure of order domains

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Geil, Olav; Pellikaan, Ruud

    2002-01-01

    The notion of an order domain is generalized. The behaviour of an order domain by taking a subalgebra, the extension of scalars, and the tensor product is studied. The relation of an order domain with valuation theory, Gröbner algebras, and graded structures is given. The theory of Gröbner bases...... for order domains is developed and used to show that the factor ring theorem and its converse, the presentation theorem, hold. The dimension of an order domain is related to the rank of its value semigroup....

  17. A chemokine-binding domain in the tumor necrosis factor receptor from variola (smallpox) virus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alejo, Alí; Ruiz-Argüello, M Begoña; Ho, Yin; Smith, Vincent P; Saraiva, Margarida; Alcami, Antonio

    2006-04-11

    Variola virus (VaV) is the causative agent of smallpox, one of the most devastating diseases encountered by man, that was eradicated in 1980. The deliberate release of VaV would have catastrophic consequences on global public health. However, the mechanisms that contribute to smallpox pathogenesis are poorly understood at the molecular level. The ability of viruses to evade the host defense mechanisms is an important determinant of viral pathogenesis. Here we show that the tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) homologue CrmB encoded by VaV functions not only as a soluble decoy TNFR but also as a highly specific binding protein for several chemokines that mediate recruitment of immune cells to mucosal surfaces and the skin, sites of virus entry and viral replication at late stages of smallpox. CrmB binds chemokines through its C-terminal domain, which is unrelated to TNFRs, was named smallpox virus-encoded chemokine receptor (SECRET) domain and uncovers a family of poxvirus chemokine inhibitors. An active SECRET domain was found in another viral TNFR (CrmD) and three secreted proteins encoded by orthopoxviruses. These findings identify a previously undescribed chemokine-binding and inhibitory domain unrelated to host chemokine receptors and a mechanism of immune modulation in VaV that may influence smallpox pathogenesis.

  18. A chemokine-binding domain in the tumor necrosis factor receptor from variola (smallpox) virus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alejo, Alí; Ruiz-Argüello, M. Begoña; Ho, Yin; Smith, Vincent P.; Saraiva, Margarida; Alcami, Antonio

    2006-01-01

    Variola virus (VaV) is the causative agent of smallpox, one of the most devastating diseases encountered by man, that was eradicated in 1980. The deliberate release of VaV would have catastrophic consequences on global public health. However, the mechanisms that contribute to smallpox pathogenesis are poorly understood at the molecular level. The ability of viruses to evade the host defense mechanisms is an important determinant of viral pathogenesis. Here we show that the tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) homologue CrmB encoded by VaV functions not only as a soluble decoy TNFR but also as a highly specific binding protein for several chemokines that mediate recruitment of immune cells to mucosal surfaces and the skin, sites of virus entry and viral replication at late stages of smallpox. CrmB binds chemokines through its C-terminal domain, which is unrelated to TNFRs, was named smallpox virus-encoded chemokine receptor (SECRET) domain and uncovers a family of poxvirus chemokine inhibitors. An active SECRET domain was found in another viral TNFR (CrmD) and three secreted proteins encoded by orthopoxviruses. These findings identify a previously undescribed chemokine-binding and inhibitory domain unrelated to host chemokine receptors and a mechanism of immune modulation in VaV that may influence smallpox pathogenesis. PMID:16581912

  19. Public/privé : la (redistribution des rôles dans la production des espaces publics à Paris et à Berlin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antoine Fleury

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Cet article se propose d’évaluer quelles sont les réalités de la privatisation des espaces publics au sein des métropoles européennes, en examinant la distribution des rôles entre acteurs publics et privés, à Paris et Berlin. La confrontation de ces deux cas conduit à relativiser la privatisation des espaces publics dans les métropoles européennes, en tout cas en ce qui concerne l’intervention du secteur privé dans leur production. Alors que le recours au privé demeure limité à quelques morceaux de ville et varie d’une ville à l’autre, l’investissement public global dans le domaine des espaces publics demeure considérable. Les formes et modes de l’action publique ont en outre été profondément renouvelés depuis les années 1980. Pour autant, si les pouvoirs publics gardent une place prépondérante dans ce domaine, c’est de plus en plus en associant les acteurs privés dans toute leur diversité, des acteurs économiques aux résidants et aux acteurs locaux, en passant par les professionnels de la ville. C’est finalement avec cette ouverture aux résidants et aux acteurs locaux que se dessinent plus précisément des tendances à la privatisation au sein des métropoles européennes, les intérêts privés pesant fortement sur les décisions des élus, les enjeux locaux pouvant s’inscrire en contradiction avec ce qui fait la ville dans son ensemble.The present article focuses on the privatisation of public spaces in European metropoles (Paris, Berlin in looking at task distribution between public and private actors. Confronting both cities sheds a new light on privatisation practices in European metropoles, at least as far as the private sector’s intervention in producing public spaces is concerned. Private actors intervene in relatively limited areas, with no general pattern. On the contrary, public investment in public spaces remains considerable. Furthermore, patterns form and modes of public action

  20. CATHEDRAL: a fast and effective algorithm to predict folds and domain boundaries from multidomain protein structures.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oliver C Redfern

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available We present CATHEDRAL, an iterative protocol for determining the location of previously observed protein folds in novel multidomain protein structures. CATHEDRAL builds on the features of a fast secondary-structure-based method (using graph theory to locate known folds within a multidomain context and a residue-based, double-dynamic programming algorithm, which is used to align members of the target fold groups against the query protein structure to identify the closest relative and assign domain boundaries. To increase the fidelity of the assignments, a support vector machine is used to provide an optimal scoring scheme. Once a domain is verified, it is excised, and the search protocol is repeated in an iterative fashion until all recognisable domains have been identified. We have performed an initial benchmark of CATHEDRAL against other publicly available structure comparison methods using a consensus dataset of domains derived from the CATH and SCOP domain classifications. CATHEDRAL shows superior performance in fold recognition and alignment accuracy when compared with many equivalent methods. If a novel multidomain structure contains a known fold, CATHEDRAL will locate it in 90% of cases, with <1% false positives. For nearly 80% of assigned domains in a manually validated test set, the boundaries were correctly delineated within a tolerance of ten residues. For the remaining cases, previously classified domains were very remotely related to the query chain so that embellishments to the core of the fold caused significant differences in domain sizes and manual refinement of the boundaries was necessary. To put this performance in context, a well-established sequence method based on hidden Markov models was only able to detect 65% of domains, with 33% of the subsequent boundaries assigned within ten residues. Since, on average, 50% of newly determined protein structures contain more than one domain unit, and typically 90% or more of these

  1. Epithelium-Stroma Classification via Convolutional Neural Networks and Unsupervised Domain Adaptation in Histopathological Images.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Yue; Zheng, Han; Liu, Chi; Ding, Xinghao; Rohde, Gustavo K

    2017-11-01

    Epithelium-stroma classification is a necessary preprocessing step in histopathological image analysis. Current deep learning based recognition methods for histology data require collection of large volumes of labeled data in order to train a new neural network when there are changes to the image acquisition procedure. However, it is extremely expensive for pathologists to manually label sufficient volumes of data for each pathology study in a professional manner, which results in limitations in real-world applications. A very simple but effective deep learning method, that introduces the concept of unsupervised domain adaptation to a simple convolutional neural network (CNN), has been proposed in this paper. Inspired by transfer learning, our paper assumes that the training data and testing data follow different distributions, and there is an adaptation operation to more accurately estimate the kernels in CNN in feature extraction, in order to enhance performance by transferring knowledge from labeled data in source domain to unlabeled data in target domain. The model has been evaluated using three independent public epithelium-stroma datasets by cross-dataset validations. The experimental results demonstrate that for epithelium-stroma classification, the proposed framework outperforms the state-of-the-art deep neural network model, and it also achieves better performance than other existing deep domain adaptation methods. The proposed model can be considered to be a better option for real-world applications in histopathological image analysis, since there is no longer a requirement for large-scale labeled data in each specified domain.

  2. Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Bensmail, Halima; Gao, Xin

    2012-11-19

    Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods. To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods. The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications.

  3. Réforme des budgets publics en Chine - phase II | IDRC ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    orientation à donner aux réformes, facilitera les expériences de budgétisation participative dans toute la Chine, favorisera les échanges d'idées entre les organismes oeuvrant dans le domaine des finances et des budgets publics et informera les élus, ...

  4. Opening, at the Senate, of the discussion on the public service of the electric power; Ouverture du debat devant le Senat sur le service public de l'electricite

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2000-01-01

    This paper presents a chronological account of the talks presented since october 1999 and concerning the public service of the electrical power. The author criticizes the different law articles law of the law project and the government policy in this domain. In particular he analyses:1) the public service missions; 2) the part of EDF as an integrated enterprise of production, transport and distribution of electric power; 3) the public policy of the energy; 4) the gradual and controlled opening of the market to the competition. (A.L.B.)

  5. Diagrammatic Representations in Domain-Specific Languages

    OpenAIRE

    Tourlas, Konstantinos

    2002-01-01

    One emerging approach to reducing the labour and costs of software development favours the specialisation of techniques to particular application domains. The rationale is that programs within a given domain often share enough common features and assumptions to enable the incorporation of substantial support mechanisms into domain-specific programming languages and associated tools. Instead of being machine-oriented, algorithmic implementations, programs in many domain-speci...

  6. Domain wall networks on solitons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sutcliffe, Paul

    2003-01-01

    Domain wall networks on the surface of a soliton are studied in a simple theory. It consists of two complex scalar fields, in 3+1 dimensions, with a global U(1)xZ n symmetry, where n>2. Solutions are computed numerically in which one of the fields forms a Q ball and the other field forms a network of domain walls localized on the surface of the Q ball. Examples are presented in which the domain walls lie along the edges of a spherical polyhedron, forming junctions at its vertices. It is explained why only a small restricted class of polyhedra can arise as domain wall networks

  7. Management strategies of the financial-economical crisis in the hotel’s domain

    OpenAIRE

    Carmen IORDACHE

    2013-01-01

    During the crises period, the advertising budgets in the hotel’s domain are considerable reducing. If, in the beggining, the hotels offer important sums to promote the brand’s image, with the aim of going public, during the crises period they focuse on tactical and advertising campaignes. Realizing the place and the role of the hotels’s industry like a part of the tourist activity, this paper wants to tap the responsible management problem of the financial-economical crises which affects the ...

  8. Positioning Continuing Education: Boundaries and Intersections between the Domains Continuing Education, Knowledge Translation, Patient Safety and Quality Improvement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kitto, Simon; Bell, Mary; Peller, Jennifer; Sargeant, Joan; Etchells, Edward; Reeves, Scott; Silver, Ivan

    2013-01-01

    Public and professional concern about health care quality, safety and efficiency is growing. Continuing education, knowledge translation, patient safety and quality improvement have made concerted efforts to address these issues. However, a coordinated and integrated effort across these domains is lacking. This article explores and discusses the…

  9. Towards Domain-specific Flow-based Languages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zarrin, Bahram; Baumeister, Hubert; Sarjoughian, Hessam S.

    2018-01-01

    describe their problems and solutions, instead of using general purpose programming languages. The goal of these languages is to improve the productivity and efficiency of the development and simulation of concurrent scientific models and systems. Moreover, they help to expose parallelism and to specify...... the concurrency within a component or across different independent components. In this paper, we introduce the concept of domain-specific flowbased languages which allows domain experts to use flow-based languages adapted to a particular problem domain. Flow-based programming is used to support concurrency, while......Due to the significant growth of the demand for data-intensive computing, in addition to the emergence of new parallel and distributed computing technologies, scientists and domain experts are leveraging languages specialized for their problem domain, i.e., domain-specific languages, to help them...

  10. Architecture for an advanced biomedical collaboration domain for the European paediatric cancer research community (ABCD-4-E).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nitzlnader, Michael; Falgenhauer, Markus; Gossy, Christian; Schreier, Günter

    2015-01-01

    Today, progress in biomedical research often depends on large, interdisciplinary research projects and tailored information and communication technology (ICT) support. In the context of the European Network for Cancer Research in Children and Adolescents (ENCCA) project the exchange of data between data source (Source Domain) and data consumer (Consumer Domain) systems in a distributed computing environment needs to be facilitated. This work presents the requirements and the corresponding solution architecture of the Advanced Biomedical Collaboration Domain for Europe (ABCD-4-E). The proposed concept utilises public as well as private cloud systems, the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) framework and web-based applications to provide the core capabilities in accordance with privacy and security needs. The utility of crucial parts of the concept was evaluated by prototypic implementation. A discussion of the design indicates that the requirements of ENCCA are fully met. A whole system demonstration is currently being prepared to verify that ABCD-4-E has the potential to evolve into a domain-bridging collaboration platform in the future.

  11. Improving the Effectiveness of Speaker Verification Domain Adaptation With Inadequate In-Domain Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-08-20

    M speakers. We seek a probabilistic solution to domain adap- tation, and so we encode knowledge of the out-of-domain data in prior distributions...the VB solution from (16)-(21) becomes: µ =αȳ + (1− α)µout, (24) Σa =α ( 1 NT NT∑ n=1 〈ynyTn 〉 − ȳȳT ) + (1− α) Σouta (25) + α (1− α) ( ȳ − µout...non- English languages and from unseen channels. An inadequate in-domain set was provided, which consisted of 2272 samples from 1164 speakers, and

  12. The SPOR Domain, a Widely Conserved Peptidoglycan Binding Domain That Targets Proteins to the Site of Cell Division.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yahashiri, Atsushi; Jorgenson, Matthew A; Weiss, David S

    2017-07-15

    Sporulation-related repeat (SPOR) domains are small peptidoglycan (PG) binding domains found in thousands of bacterial proteins. The name "SPOR domain" stems from the fact that several early examples came from proteins involved in sporulation, but SPOR domain proteins are quite diverse and contribute to a variety of processes that involve remodeling of the PG sacculus, especially with respect to cell division. SPOR domains target proteins to the division site by binding to regions of PG devoid of stem peptides ("denuded" glycans), which in turn are enriched in septal PG by the intense, localized activity of cell wall amidases involved in daughter cell separation. This targeting mechanism sets SPOR domain proteins apart from most other septal ring proteins, which localize via protein-protein interactions. In addition to SPOR domains, bacteria contain several other PG-binding domains that can exploit features of the cell wall to target proteins to specific subcellular sites. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

  13. Frequency-domain and time-domain methods for feedback nonlinear systems and applications to chaos control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Duan Zhisheng; Wang Jinzhi; Yang Ying; Huang Lin

    2009-01-01

    This paper surveys frequency-domain and time-domain methods for feedback nonlinear systems and their possible applications to chaos control, coupled systems and complex dynamical networks. The absolute stability of Lur'e systems with single equilibrium and global properties of a class of pendulum-like systems with multi-equilibria are discussed. Time-domain and frequency-domain criteria for the convergence of solutions are presented. Some latest results on analysis and control of nonlinear systems with multiple equilibria and applications to chaos control are reviewed. Finally, new chaotic oscillating phenomena are shown in a pendulum-like system and a new nonlinear system with an attraction/repulsion function.

  14. Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

    KAUST Repository

    Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

    2012-11-19

    Background: Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods.Results: To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods.Conclusion: The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications. 2012 Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

  15. Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

    KAUST Repository

    Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Bensmail, Halima; Gao, Xin

    2012-01-01

    Background: Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods.Results: To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods.Conclusion: The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications. 2012 Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

  16. Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Jim

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods. Results To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods. Conclusion The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications.

  17. Quality of life domains affected in women with breast cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sabrina Nunes Garcia

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the quality of life of women suffering from breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy in public and private health care systems. METHOD: It is an observational, prospective study with 64 women suffering from breast cancer. Data was collected with two instruments: Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 and Breast Cancer Module BR23. By applying Mann Whitney and Friedman's statistical tests, p values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The significant results in public health care systems were: physical functions, pain symptom, body image, systemic effects and outlook for the future. In private health care systems, the results were sexual, social functions and body image. Women's quality of life was harmed by chemotherapy in both institutions. CONCLUSION: The quality of life of women has been harmed as a result of the chemotherapy treatment in both institutions, but in different domains, indicating the type of nursing care that should be provided according to the characteristics of each group.

  18. Contesting the African Public Sphere: A Philosophical Re-imaging of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... Crow is to situate them within broader analytical frameworks. By adopting the basic methods of philosophical inquiry – exposition, critical analysis and reconstruction – the issues are lifted from the domain of fiction to the space of systematized knowledge directed at presenting a comprehensive notion of the African public ...

  19. Does protecting humans protect the environment? A crude examination for UK nuclear power plants and the marine environment using information in the public domain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brownless, G P

    2008-01-01

    Current activity around radiological protection of the environment implies concerns over the effectiveness of the current approach to this-namely if humans are adequately protected, then so are non-human species. This study uses models and data currently available in the public domain to carry out a 'quick and dirty' examination of whether protecting humans does indeed imply that other species are well protected. Using marine discharges and human habits data for operational coastal UK nuclear power stations, this study compares doses to humans and a set of reference non-human species. The study concludes that the availability of data and models, and consequent ease of studying potential effects on non-humans (as well as humans), vindicates recent efforts in this area, and that these imply a high level of protection, in general, for non-human biota from UK nuclear power station marine discharges. In general terms, the study finds that protection of non-human biota relies on taking ingestion and external exposure doses to humans into account; where only one of these pathways is considered, the level of protection of non-human biota through protection of humans would depend on the radionuclide(s) in question.

  20. Anisotropy of domain wall resistance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viret; Samson; Warin; Marty; Ott; Sondergard; Klein; Fermon

    2000-10-30

    The resistive effect of domain walls in FePd films with perpendicular anisotropy was studied experimentally as a function of field and temperature. The films were grown directly on MgO substrates, which induces an unusual virgin magnetic configuration composed of 60 nm wide parallel stripe domains. This allowed us to carry out the first measurements of the anisotropy of domain wall resistivity in the two configurations of current perpendicular and parallel to the walls. At 18 K, we find 8.2% and 1.3% for the domain wall magnetoresistance normalized to the wall width (8 nm) in these two respective configurations. These values are consistent with the predictions of Levy and Zhang.

  1. Human-computer interface incorporating personal and application domains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Thomas G [Albuquerque, NM

    2011-03-29

    The present invention provides a human-computer interface. The interface includes provision of an application domain, for example corresponding to a three-dimensional application. The user is allowed to navigate and interact with the application domain. The interface also includes a personal domain, offering the user controls and interaction distinct from the application domain. The separation into two domains allows the most suitable interface methods in each: for example, three-dimensional navigation in the application domain, and two- or three-dimensional controls in the personal domain. Transitions between the application domain and the personal domain are under control of the user, and the transition method is substantially independent of the navigation in the application domain. For example, the user can fly through a three-dimensional application domain, and always move to the personal domain by moving a cursor near one extreme of the display.

  2. Non-slipping domains of a pulled spool

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wagner, Clemens; Vaterlaus, Andreas

    2014-01-01

    We have investigated the pulled spool by considering pulling angles up to 360 ∘ . Our focus was on downward pulling forces with pulling angles in the range of 180 ∘ to 360 ∘ . In this range we have found a domain of pulling angles where the spool never starts to slip independent of the strength of the pulling force. The size of the domain depends on the static friction coefficient and on the moment of inertia of the spool. The non-slipping domain is mainly formed around the critical angle where the static friction force becomes zero. For low static friction the non-slipping domain decays into two different domains. We have determined the limiting angles of the non-slipping domains and explored the transitions from a single domain to two separated domains in parameter space. (paper)

  3. Image-domain full waveform inversion

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Sanzong

    2013-08-20

    The main difficulty with the data-domain full waveform inversion (FWI) is that it tends to get stuck in the local minima associated with the waveform misfit function. This is because the waveform misfit function is highly nonlinear with respect to changes in velocity model. To reduce this nonlinearity, we define the image-domain objective function to minimize the difference of the suboffset-domain common image gathers (CIGs) obtained by migrating the observed data and the calculated data. The derivation shows that the gradient of this new objective function is the combination of the gradient of the conventional FWI and the image-domain differential semblance optimization (DSO). Compared to the conventional FWI, the imagedomain FWI is immune to cycle skipping problems by smearing the nonzero suboffset images along wavepath. It also can avoid the edge effects and the gradient artifacts that are inherent in DSO due to the falsely over-penalized focused images. This is achieved by subtracting the focused image associated with the calculated data from the unfocused image associated with the observed data in the image-domain misfit function. The numerical results of the Marmousi model show that image-domain FWI is less sensitive the initial model than the conventional FWI. © 2013 SEG.

  4. Image-domain full waveform inversion

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Sanzong; Schuster, Gerard T.

    2013-01-01

    The main difficulty with the data-domain full waveform inversion (FWI) is that it tends to get stuck in the local minima associated with the waveform misfit function. This is because the waveform misfit function is highly nonlinear with respect to changes in velocity model. To reduce this nonlinearity, we define the image-domain objective function to minimize the difference of the suboffset-domain common image gathers (CIGs) obtained by migrating the observed data and the calculated data. The derivation shows that the gradient of this new objective function is the combination of the gradient of the conventional FWI and the image-domain differential semblance optimization (DSO). Compared to the conventional FWI, the imagedomain FWI is immune to cycle skipping problems by smearing the nonzero suboffset images along wavepath. It also can avoid the edge effects and the gradient artifacts that are inherent in DSO due to the falsely over-penalized focused images. This is achieved by subtracting the focused image associated with the calculated data from the unfocused image associated with the observed data in the image-domain misfit function. The numerical results of the Marmousi model show that image-domain FWI is less sensitive the initial model than the conventional FWI. © 2013 SEG.

  5. Misunderstood misunderstanding: social identities and public uptake of science

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wynne, B.

    1992-01-01

    This paper draws general insights into the public reception of scientific knowledge from a case study of Cumbrian sheep farmers' responses to scientific advice about the restrictions introduced after the Chernobyl radioactive fallout. The analysis identifies several substantive factors which influence the credibility of scientific communication. Starting from the now-accepted point that public uptake of science depends primarily upon the trust and credibility public groups are prepared to invest in scientific institutions and representatives, the paper observes that these are contingent upon the social relationships and identities which people feel to be affected by scientific knowledge, which never comes free of social interests or implications. The case study shows laypeople capable of extensive informal reflection upon their social relationships towards scientific experts, and on the epistemological status of their own 'local' knowledge in relation to 'outside' knowledge. Public uptake of science might be improved if scientific institutions expressed an equivalent reflexive discourse in the public domain. (author)

  6. Clients’ perceptions of the quality of care in Mexico City’s public-sector legal abortion program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becker, Davida; Díaz-Olavarrieta, Claudia; Juárez, Clara; García, Sandra G.; Sanhueza, Patricio; Harper, Cynthia C.

    2014-01-01

    Context In 2007 the Mexico City legislature made the groundbreaking decision to legalize first trimester abortion. Limited research has been conducted to understand clients’ perceptions of the abortion services available in public sector facilities. Methods We measured clients’ perceptions of quality of care at three public sector sites in Mexico City in 2009 (n=402). We assessed six domains of quality of care (client-staff interaction, information provision, technical competence, post-abortion contraceptive services, accessibility, and the facility environment), and conducted ordinal logistic regression analysis to identify which domains were important to women for their overall evaluation of care. We measured the association of overall service evaluation with socio-demographic factors and abortion-visit characteristics, in addition to specific quality of care domains. Results Clients reported a high quality of care for abortion services with an overall mean rating of 8.8 out of 10. Multivariable analysis showed that important domains for high evaluation included client perception of doctor as technically skilled (pabortion and post-abortion emotions (pabortion care in Mexico City. Strategies to improve clients’ service experiences should focus on improving counseling, service accessibility and waiting time. PMID:22227626

  7. Generic domain models in software engineering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maiden, Neil

    1992-01-01

    This paper outlines three research directions related to domain-specific software development: (1) reuse of generic models for domain-specific software development; (2) empirical evidence to determine these generic models, namely elicitation of mental knowledge schema possessed by expert software developers; and (3) exploitation of generic domain models to assist modelling of specific applications. It focuses on knowledge acquisition for domain-specific software development, with emphasis on tool support for the most important phases of software development.

  8. BIOMedical Search Engine Framework: Lightweight and customized implementation of domain-specific biomedical search engines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jácome, Alberto G; Fdez-Riverola, Florentino; Lourenço, Anália

    2016-07-01

    Text mining and semantic analysis approaches can be applied to the construction of biomedical domain-specific search engines and provide an attractive alternative to create personalized and enhanced search experiences. Therefore, this work introduces the new open-source BIOMedical Search Engine Framework for the fast and lightweight development of domain-specific search engines. The rationale behind this framework is to incorporate core features typically available in search engine frameworks with flexible and extensible technologies to retrieve biomedical documents, annotate meaningful domain concepts, and develop highly customized Web search interfaces. The BIOMedical Search Engine Framework integrates taggers for major biomedical concepts, such as diseases, drugs, genes, proteins, compounds and organisms, and enables the use of domain-specific controlled vocabulary. Technologies from the Typesafe Reactive Platform, the AngularJS JavaScript framework and the Bootstrap HTML/CSS framework support the customization of the domain-oriented search application. Moreover, the RESTful API of the BIOMedical Search Engine Framework allows the integration of the search engine into existing systems or a complete web interface personalization. The construction of the Smart Drug Search is described as proof-of-concept of the BIOMedical Search Engine Framework. This public search engine catalogs scientific literature about antimicrobial resistance, microbial virulence and topics alike. The keyword-based queries of the users are transformed into concepts and search results are presented and ranked accordingly. The semantic graph view portraits all the concepts found in the results, and the researcher may look into the relevance of different concepts, the strength of direct relations, and non-trivial, indirect relations. The number of occurrences of the concept shows its importance to the query, and the frequency of concept co-occurrence is indicative of biological relations

  9. Towards quality criteria for regional public health reporting: concept mapping with Dutch experts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Bon-Martens, Marja J H; Achterberg, Peter W; van de Goor, Ien A M; van Oers, Hans A M

    2012-06-01

    In the Netherlands, municipal health assessments are carried out by 28 Regional Health Services, serving 418 municipalities. In the absence of guidelines, regional public health reports were developed in two pilot regions on the basis of the model and experience of national health reporting. Though they were well received and positively evaluated, it was not clear which specific characteristics determined 'good public health reporting'. Therefore, this study was set up to develop a theoretical framework for the quality of regional public health reporting in The Netherlands. Using concept mapping as a standardized tool for conceptualization, 35 relevant reporting experts formulated short statements in two different brainstorming sessions, describing specific quality criteria of regional public health reports. After the removal of duplicates, the list was supplemented with international criteria, and the statements were sent to each participant for rating and sorting. The results were processed statistically and represented graphically. The output was discussed and interpreted, leading to the final concept map. The final concept map consisted of 97 criteria, grouped into 13 clusters, and plotted in two dimensions: a 'product' dimension, ranging from 'production' to 'content', and a 'context' dimension, ranging from 'science' to 'policy'. The three most important clusters were: (i) 'solution orientation', (ii) 'policy relevance' and (iii) 'policy impact'. This study provided a theoretical framework for the quality of regional public health reporting, indicating relevant domains and criteria. Further work should translate domains and criteria into operational indicators for evaluating regional public health reports.

  10. Interaction Between the Biotin Carboxyl Carrier Domain and the Biotin Carboxylase Domain in Pyruvate Carboxylase from Rhizobium etli†

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lietzan, Adam D.; Menefee, Ann L.; Zeczycki, Tonya N.; Kumar, Sudhanshu; Attwood, Paul V.; Wallace, John C.; Cleland, W. Wallace; Maurice, Martin St.

    2011-01-01

    Pyruvate carboxylase (PC) catalyzes the ATP-dependent carboxylation of pyruvate to oxaloacetate, an important anaplerotic reaction in mammalian tissues. To effect catalysis, the tethered biotin of PC must gain access to active sites in both the biotin carboxylase domain and the carboxyl transferase domain. Previous studies have demonstrated that a mutation of threonine 882 to alanine in PC from Rhizobium etli renders the carboxyl transferase domain inactive and favors the positioning of biotin in the biotin carboxylase domain. We report the 2.4 Å resolution X-ray crystal structure of the Rhizobium etli PC T882A mutant which reveals the first high-resolution description of the domain interaction between the biotin carboxyl carrier protein domain and the biotin carboxylase domain. The overall quaternary arrangement of Rhizobium etli PC remains highly asymmetrical and is independent of the presence of allosteric activator. While biotin is observed in the biotin carboxylase domain, its access to the active site is precluded by the interaction between Arg353 and Glu248, revealing a mechanism for regulating carboxybiotin access to the BC domain active site. The binding location for the biotin carboxyl carrier protein domain demonstrates that tethered biotin cannot bind in the biotin carboxylase domain active site in the same orientation as free biotin, helping to explain the difference in catalysis observed between tethered biotin and free biotin substrates in biotin carboxylase enzymes. Electron density located in the biotin carboxylase domain active site is assigned to phosphonoacetate, offering a probable location for the putative carboxyphosphate intermediate formed during biotin carboxylation. The insights gained from the T882A Rhizobium etli PC crystal structure provide a new series of catalytic snapshots in PC and offer a revised perspective on catalysis in the biotin-dependent enzyme family. PMID:21958016

  11. NENIMF: Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility - A Multi-User Facility for SIMS Microanalysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Layne, G. D.; Shimizu, N.

    2002-12-01

    The MIT-Brown-Harvard Regional Ion Microprobe Facility was one of the earliest multi-user facilities enabled by Dan Weill's Instrumentation and Facilities Program - and began with the delivery of a Cameca IMS 3f ion microprobe to MIT in 1978. The Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility (NENIMF) is the direct descendant of this original facility. Now housed at WHOI, the facility incorporates both the original IMS 3f, and a new generation, high transmission-high resolution instrument - the Cameca IMS 1270. Purchased with support from NSF, and from a consortium of academic institutions in the Northeast (The American Museum of Natural History, Brown University, The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, MIT, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, WHOI) - this latest instrument was delivered and installed during 1996. NENIMF continues to be supported by NSF EAR I&F as a multi-user facility for geochemical research. Work at NENIMF has extended the original design strength of the IMS 1270 for microanalytical U-Pb zircon geochronology to a wide variety of novel and improved techniques for geochemical research. Isotope microanalysis for studies in volcanology and petrology is currently the largest single component of facility activity. This includes the direct measurement of Pb isotopes in melt inclusions, an application developed at NENIMF, which is making an increasingly significant contribution to our understanding of basalt petrogenesis. This same technique has also been extended to the determination of Pb isotopes in detrital feldspar grains, for the study of sedimentary provenance and tectonics of the Himalayas and other terrains. The determination of δ11B in volcanic melt inclusions has also proven to be a powerful tool in the modeling of subduction-related magmatism. The recent development of δ34S and δ37Cl determination in glasses is being applied to studies of the behavior of these volatile elements in both natural and experimental systems. Other recent undertakings

  12. The public utility contract between the French government and EDF

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    The public utility contract as foreseen by article 1 of the law from August 9, 2004 was signed on October 24, 2005. It represents the reference of EDF's (Electricite de France) commitments for its different activities of power producer-supplier and network manager. It precises also the commitments of the manager of the public energy transportation system (RTE EDF-Transport). It describes the level of commitment of EDF group over the 2005-2006-2007 era and precises the financial compensation modalities of its public utility missions and of its commitments as described in the contract. The public utility plan indicates the level of investments planned by EDF in the domain of power generation and networks. This document gathers: the talk given by D. de Villepin, Prime Minister, during the signature of the contract, the talk and presentation (slides) given by P. Gadonneix, head of EDF, the public utility contract between the government and EDF, and the public utility plan. (J.S.)

  13. Effective elements of school health promotion across behavioral domains: a systematic review of reviews

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peters Louk WH

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Most school health education programs focus on a single behavioral domain. Integrative programs that address multiple behaviors may be more efficient, but only if the elements of change are similar for these behaviors. The objective of this study was to examine which effective elements of school health education are similar across three particular behavioral domains. Methods A systematic review of reviews of the effectiveness of school-based health promotion programs was conducted for the domains of substance abuse, sexual behavior, and nutrition. The literature search spanned the time period between 1995 and October 2006 and included three databases, websites of review centers and backward search. Fifty-five reviews and meta-analyses met predetermined relevance and publication criteria and were included. Data was extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second reviewer. A standardized data extraction form was used, with detailed attention to effective elements pertaining to program goals, development, content, methods, facilitator, components and intensity. Two assessors rated the quality of reviews as strong, moderate or weak. We included only strong and moderate reviews in two types of analysis: one based on interpretation of conflicting results, the other on a specific vote-counting rule. Results Thirty six reviews were rated strong, 6 moderate, and 13 weak. A multitude of effective elements was identified in the included reviews and many elements were similar for two or more domains. In both types of analysis, five elements with evidence from strong reviews were found to be similar for all three domains: use of theory; addressing social influences, especially social norms; addressing cognitive-behavioral skills; training of facilitators; and multiple components. Two additional elements had positive results in all domains with the rule-based method of analysis, but had inconclusive results in at least one domain with

  14. A thermodynamic definition of protein domains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Porter, Lauren L; Rose, George D

    2012-06-12

    Protein domains are conspicuous structural units in globular proteins, and their identification has been a topic of intense biochemical interest dating back to the earliest crystal structures. Numerous disparate domain identification algorithms have been proposed, all involving some combination of visual intuition and/or structure-based decomposition. Instead, we present a rigorous, thermodynamically-based approach that redefines domains as cooperative chain segments. In greater detail, most small proteins fold with high cooperativity, meaning that the equilibrium population is dominated by completely folded and completely unfolded molecules, with a negligible subpopulation of partially folded intermediates. Here, we redefine structural domains in thermodynamic terms as cooperative folding units, based on m-values, which measure the cooperativity of a protein or its substructures. In our analysis, a domain is equated to a contiguous segment of the folded protein whose m-value is largely unaffected when that segment is excised from its parent structure. Defined in this way, a domain is a self-contained cooperative unit; i.e., its cooperativity depends primarily upon intrasegment interactions, not intersegment interactions. Implementing this concept computationally, the domains in a large representative set of proteins were identified; all exhibit consistency with experimental findings. Specifically, our domain divisions correspond to the experimentally determined equilibrium folding intermediates in a set of nine proteins. The approach was also proofed against a representative set of 71 additional proteins, again with confirmatory results. Our reframed interpretation of a protein domain transforms an indeterminate structural phenomenon into a quantifiable molecular property grounded in solution thermodynamics.

  15. Public health education in South Asia: a basis for structuring a master degree course.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karkee, Rajendra

    2014-01-01

    Countries in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) lack enough public health workforces to address their poor public health situation. Recently, there have been efforts to develop capacity building in public health in these countries by producing competent public health workforce through public health institutes and schools. Considering the wide nature of public health, the public health education and curricula should be linked with skills, knowledge, and competencies needed for public health practice and professionalism. The 3 domains of public health practice and the 10 essential public health services provide an operational framework to explore this link between public health practice and public health education. This framework incorporates five core areas of public health education. A master degree course in public health can be structured by incorporating these core areas as basic and reinforcing one of these areas as an elective followed by a dissertation work.

  16. Using context to improve protein domain identification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Llinás Manuel

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Identifying domains in protein sequences is an important step in protein structural and functional annotation. Existing domain recognition methods typically evaluate each domain prediction independently of the rest. However, the majority of proteins are multidomain, and pairwise domain co-occurrences are highly specific and non-transitive. Results Here, we demonstrate how to exploit domain co-occurrence to boost weak domain predictions that appear in previously observed combinations, while penalizing higher confidence domains if such combinations have never been observed. Our framework, Domain Prediction Using Context (dPUC, incorporates pairwise "context" scores between domains, along with traditional domain scores and thresholds, and improves domain prediction across a variety of organisms from bacteria to protozoa and metazoa. Among the genomes we tested, dPUC is most successful at improving predictions for the poorly-annotated malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, for which over 38% of the genome is currently unannotated. Our approach enables high-confidence annotations in this organism and the identification of orthologs to many core machinery proteins conserved in all eukaryotes, including those involved in ribosomal assembly and other RNA processing events, which surprisingly had not been previously known. Conclusions Overall, our results demonstrate that this new context-based approach will provide significant improvements in domain and function prediction, especially for poorly understood genomes for which the need for additional annotations is greatest. Source code for the algorithm is available under a GPL open source license at http://compbio.cs.princeton.edu/dpuc/. Pre-computed results for our test organisms and a web server are also available at that location.

  17. A Domain Standard for Land Administration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lemmen, C.; Van Oosterom, P.; Van der Molen, P.

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents the design of a Domain Model for Land Administration (LA). As a result a formal International Standard is available: ISO 19152 Geographic Information – Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) (ISO, 2012). Domain specific standardisation is needed to capture the semantics of the

  18. A Framework for Supporting Survivability, Network Planning and Cross-Layer Optimization in Future Multi-Domain Terabit Networks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baldin, Ilya [Renaissance Computing Inst. (RENCI), Chapel Hill, NC (United States); Huang, Shu [Renaissance Computing Inst. (RENCI), Chapel Hill, NC (United States); Gopidi, Rajesh [Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)

    2015-01-28

    This final project report describes the accomplishments, products and publications from the award. It includes the overview of the project goals to devise a framework for managing resources in multi-domain, multi-layer networks, as well the details of the mathematical problem formulation and the description of the prototype built to prove the concept.

  19. Accessibility of GI for Public Participation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arleth, Mette; Campagna, Michele

    2005-01-01

    The paper reports an ongoing comparative study on the accessibility of Geographic Information at public authorities’ websites in Denmark and Italy. The purpose of the study is twofold; to give an idea of the latest development and diffusion of GI on public authorities websites, and to identify...... critical factors for success or failure of the applications. First part of the study therefore consists of a mapping of the level of accessibility of GI in the two countries as a comparative analysis. The focus of the mapping is mainly on the use of geographic information as support to citizens......’ involvement in spatial e-government and planning processes. Then, in the reminder of the paper, a comparative analysis is proposed outlining similarities and divergences in critical success factors in the two examined domains....

  20. Cross-Genome Comparisons of Newly Identified Domains in Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Domain Architectures with Other Mycoplasma species

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chandra Sekhar Reddy Chilamakuri

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Accurate functional annotation of protein sequences is hampered by important factors such as the failure of sequence search methods to identify relationships and the inherent diversity in function of proteins related at low sequence similarities. Earlier, we had employed intermediate sequence search approach to establish new domain relationships in the unassigned regions of gene products at the whole genome level by taking Mycoplasma gallisepticum as a specific example and established new domain relationships. In this paper, we report a detailed comparison of the conservation status of the domain and domain architectures of the gene products that bear our newly predicted domains amongst 14 other Mycoplasma genomes and reported the probable implications for the organisms. Some of the domain associations, observed in Mycoplasma that afflict humans and other non-human primates, are involved in regulation of solute transport and DNA binding suggesting specific modes of host-pathogen interactions.

  1. IMPLICATIONS OF CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN LOCAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION UPON CITIZENS SATISFACTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bente Florina Maria

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The satisfaction of citizens considering public services depends on the way the authorities identify and offer solutions to fulfil citizens expectations, which are at least identical or even superior to the services offered in private domain. In addition, the worldwide governments are forced to adapt to the pressure exercised by the changes that appear in the demographic, technologic and economic environment, by the growing expectations of citizens and the necessity of lowering the taxes. As a consequence, the public system is starting to adopt the solutions that the citizens identified for the developing of the public policies, implying and making the community responsible in the act of governing.

  2. Domain-General Factors Influencing Numerical and Arithmetic Processing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    André Knops

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This special issue contains 18 articles that address the question how numerical processes interact with domain-general factors. We start the editorial with a discussion of how to define domain-general versus domain-specific factors and then discuss the contributions to this special issue grouped into two core numerical domains that are subject to domain-general influences (see Figure 1. The first group of contributions addresses the question how numbers interact with spatial factors. The second group of contributions is concerned with factors that determine and predict arithmetic understanding, performance and development. This special issue shows that domain-general (Table 1a as well as domain-specific (Table 1b abilities influence numerical and arithmetic performance virtually at all levels and make it clear that for the field of numerical cognition a sole focus on one or several domain-specific factors like the approximate number system or spatial-numerical associations is not sufficient. Vice versa, in most studies that included domain-general and domain-specific variables, domain-specific numerical variables predicted arithmetic performance above and beyond domain-general variables. Therefore, a sole focus on domain-general aspects such as, for example, working memory, to explain, predict and foster arithmetic learning is also not sufficient. Based on the articles in this special issue we conclude that both domain-general and domain-specific factors contribute to numerical cognition. But the how, why and when of their contribution still needs to be better understood. We hope that this special issue may be helpful to readers in constraining future theory and model building about the interplay of domain-specific and domain-general factors.

  3. Public health and allied career choices for AYUSH graduates in India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janmejaya Samal

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction Until the very recent time majority of AYUSH graduates were limited to their own field of study with few exceptions in to the field of public health and allied areas. The reasons could be lack of awareness, unavailability of suitable job opportunity or a sense of insecurity in a relatively new and offbeat domain of work. However more recently, there has been a paradigm shift; with increase in information access, awareness of job opportunities and a great degree of professional and personal satisfaction. This has led to a huge rush of these graduates in to the field of public health and allied areas. Objective ToexplorepublichealthandalliedcareerchoicesforAYUSHgraduateswithspecialreferencetothe scopes and opportunities in each of these fields. Methodology Review based study. Information was obtained by systematic search process using internet based Google, Google Scholar search engines. Discussion The results obtained were pertinent to the domain of public health and allied careers including Public health and related areas such as; Health and Hospital Management, Health Policy, Health Economics, Heath Care Financing, Epidemiology, Medical Sociology, Clinical Research, Pharmaceutical Management etc. it is observed that the placement and job opportunities are much more because of the rapid expansion of health care industry in India with endeavors from public and private stakeholders. There has been a multimillion dollars investment by various national and international donor agencies, pharmaceutical sector, central and state governments and the development partners. Conclusion AYUSH graduates can definitely find this field interesting as well as challenging and job opportunities may not be a problem for the right one.

  4. Compensating for Incomplete Domain Knowledge

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Scott, Lynn M; Drezner, Steve; Rue, Rachel; Reyes, Jesse

    2007-01-01

    .... First, many senior leader positions require experience in more than one functional or operational domain, but it is difficult to develop a corps of senior leaders with all the required combinations of domain knowledge...

  5. Heliborne time domain electromagnetic system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bhattacharya, S.

    2009-01-01

    Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD), are using heliborne and ground time domain electromagnetic (TDEM) system for the exploration of deep seated unconformity type uranium deposits. Uranium has been explored in various parts of the world like Athabasca basin using time domain electromagnetic system. AMD has identified some areas in India where such deposits are available. Apart from uranium exploration, the TDEM systems are used for the exploration of deep seated minerals like diamonds. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is involved in the indigenous design of the heliborne time domain system since this system is useful for DAE and also it has a scope of wide application. In this paper we discuss about the principle of time domain electromagnetic systems, their capabilities and the development and problems of such system for various other mineral exploration. (author)

  6. Evolutionary dynamics of protein domain architecture in plants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Xue-Cheng

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Protein domains are the structural, functional and evolutionary units of the protein. Protein domain architectures are the linear arrangements of domain(s in individual proteins. Although the evolutionary history of protein domain architecture has been extensively studied in microorganisms, the evolutionary dynamics of domain architecture in the plant kingdom remains largely undefined. To address this question, we analyzed the lineage-based protein domain architecture content in 14 completed green plant genomes. Results Our analyses show that all 14 plant genomes maintain similar distributions of species-specific, single-domain, and multi-domain architectures. Approximately 65% of plant domain architectures are universally present in all plant lineages, while the remaining architectures are lineage-specific. Clear examples are seen of both the loss and gain of specific protein architectures in higher plants. There has been a dynamic, lineage-wise expansion of domain architectures during plant evolution. The data suggest that this expansion can be largely explained by changes in nuclear ploidy resulting from rounds of whole genome duplications. Indeed, there has been a decrease in the number of unique domain architectures when the genomes were normalized into a presumed ancestral genome that has not undergone whole genome duplications. Conclusions Our data show the conservation of universal domain architectures in all available plant genomes, indicating the presence of an evolutionarily conserved, core set of protein components. However, the occurrence of lineage-specific domain architectures indicates that domain architecture diversity has been maintained beyond these core components in plant genomes. Although several features of genome-wide domain architecture content are conserved in plants, the data clearly demonstrate lineage-wise, progressive changes and expansions of individual protein domain architectures, reinforcing

  7. On Domain Registries and Website Content

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schwemer, Sebastian Felix

    2018-01-01

    such as Internet access service providers, hosting platforms, and websites that link to content. This article shows that in recent years, however, that the (secondary) liability of domain registries and registrars, and more specifically country code top-level domain registries (ccTLDs) for website content, has...... been tested in several EU Member States. The article investigates tendencies in the national lower-court jurisprudence and explores to what extent the liability exemption regime of the E-Commerce Directive applies to domain registries. The analysis concludes that whereas domain registries fall under...

  8. Entropy based classifier for cross-domain opinion mining

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jyoti S. Deshmukh

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, the growth of social network has increased the interest of people in analyzing reviews and opinions for products before they buy them. Consequently, this has given rise to the domain adaptation as a prominent area of research in sentiment analysis. A classifier trained from one domain often gives poor results on data from another domain. Expression of sentiment is different in every domain. The labeling cost of each domain separately is very high as well as time consuming. Therefore, this study has proposed an approach that extracts and classifies opinion words from one domain called source domain and predicts opinion words of another domain called target domain using a semi-supervised approach, which combines modified maximum entropy and bipartite graph clustering. A comparison of opinion classification on reviews on four different product domains is presented. The results demonstrate that the proposed method performs relatively well in comparison to the other methods. Comparison of SentiWordNet of domain-specific and domain-independent words reveals that on an average 72.6% and 88.4% words, respectively, are correctly classified.

  9. Lessons Learned through the Development and Publication of AstroImageJ

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collins, Karen

    2018-01-01

    As lead author of the scientific image processing software package AstroImageJ (AIJ), I will discuss the reasoning behind why we decided to release AIJ to the public, and the lessons we learned related to the development, publication, distribution, and support of AIJ. I will also summarize the AIJ code language selection, code documentation and testing approaches, code distribution, update, and support facilities used, and the code citation and licensing decisions. Since AIJ was initially developed as part of my graduate research and was my first scientific open source software publication, many of my experiences and difficulties encountered may parallel those of others new to scientific software publication. Finally, I will discuss the benefits and disadvantages of releasing scientific software that I now recognize after having AIJ in the public domain for more than five years.

  10. Structural and functional analysis of multi-interface domains.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liang Zhao

    Full Text Available A multi-interface domain is a domain that can shape multiple and distinctive binding sites to contact with many other domains, forming a hub in domain-domain interaction networks. The functions played by the multiple interfaces are usually different, but there is no strict bijection between the functions and interfaces as some subsets of the interfaces play the same function. This work applies graph theory and algorithms to discover fingerprints for the multiple interfaces of a domain and to establish associations between the interfaces and functions, based on a huge set of multi-interface proteins from PDB. We found that about 40% of proteins have the multi-interface property, however the involved multi-interface domains account for only a tiny fraction (1.8% of the total number of domains. The interfaces of these domains are distinguishable in terms of their fingerprints, indicating the functional specificity of the multiple interfaces in a domain. Furthermore, we observed that both cooperative and distinctive structural patterns, which will be useful for protein engineering, exist in the multiple interfaces of a domain.

  11. Trusted Domain

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hjorth, Theis Solberg; Torbensen, Rune

    2012-01-01

    remote access via IP-based devices such as smartphones. The Trusted Domain platform fits existing legacy technologies by managing their interoperability and access controls, and it seeks to avoid the security issues of relying on third-party servers outside the home. It is a distributed system...... of wireless standards, limited resources of embedded systems, etc. Taking these challenges into account, we present a Trusted Domain home automation platform, which dynamically and securely connects heterogeneous networks of Short-Range Wireless devices via simple non-expert user. interactions, and allows......In the digital age of home automation and with the proliferation of mobile Internet access, the intelligent home and its devices should be accessible at any time from anywhere. There are many challenges such as security, privacy, ease of configuration, incompatible legacy devices, a wealth...

  12. A wavelet domain adaptive image watermarking method based on chaotic encryption

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Fang; Liu, Jian; Cao, Hanqiang; Yang, Jun

    2009-10-01

    A digital watermarking technique is a specific branch of steganography, which can be used in various applications, provides a novel way to solve security problems for multimedia information. In this paper, we proposed a kind of wavelet domain adaptive image digital watermarking method using chaotic stream encrypt and human eye visual property. The secret information that can be seen as a watermarking is hidden into a host image, which can be publicly accessed, so the transportation of the secret information will not attract the attention of illegal receiver. The experimental results show that the method is invisible and robust against some image processing.

  13. Database Concepts in a Domain Ontology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gorskis Henrihs

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available There are multiple approaches for mapping from a domain ontology to a database in the task of ontology-based data access. For that purpose, external mapping documents are most commonly used. These documents describe how the data necessary for the description of ontology individuals and other values, are to be obtained from the database. The present paper investigates the use of special database concepts. These concepts are not separated from the domain ontology; they are mixed with domain concepts to form a combined application ontology. By creating natural relationships between database concepts and domain concepts, mapping can be implemented more easily and with a specific purpose. The paper also investigates how the use of such database concepts in addition to domain concepts impacts ontology building and data retrieval.

  14. 78 FR 23260 - Request for Measures and Domains To Use in Development of a Standardized Instrument for Use in...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-18

    ... Measures and Domains To Use in Development of a Standardized Instrument for Use in Public Reporting of the... AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), HHS. ACTION: Notice of request for measures... pediatric health care quality measures. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is requesting...

  15. Separating Cognitive and Content Domains in Mathematical Competence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harks, Birgit; Klieme, Eckhard; Hartig, Johannes; Leiss, Dominik

    2014-01-01

    The present study investigates the empirical separability of mathematical (a) content domains, (b) cognitive domains, and (c) content-specific cognitive domains. There were 122 items representing two content domains (linear equations vs. theorem of Pythagoras) combined with two cognitive domains (modeling competence vs. technical competence)…

  16. Domains and naïve theories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gelman, Susan A; Noles, Nicholaus S

    2011-09-01

    Human cognition entails domain-specific cognitive processes that influence memory, attention, categorization, problem-solving, reasoning, and knowledge organization. This article examines domain-specific causal theories, which are of particular interest for permitting an examination of how knowledge structures change over time. We first describe the properties of commonsense theories, and how commonsense theories differ from scientific theories, illustrating with children's classification of biological and nonbiological kinds. We next consider the implications of domain-specificity for broader issues regarding cognitive development and conceptual change. We then examine the extent to which domain-specific theories interact, and how people reconcile competing causal frameworks. Future directions for research include examining how different content domains interact, the nature of theory change, the role of context (including culture, language, and social interaction) in inducing different frameworks, and the neural bases for domain-specific reasoning. WIREs Cogni Sci 2011 2 490-502 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.124 This article is categorized under: Psychology > Reasoning and Decision Making. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  17. Hydrophobic interaction between the SH2 domain and the kinase domain is required for the activation of Csk.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mikkola, Esa T; Gahmberg, Carl G

    2010-06-18

    The protein tyrosine kinase C-terminal Src kinase (Csk) is activated by the engagement of its Src homology (SH) 2 domain. However, the molecular mechanism required for this is not completely understood. The crystal structure of the active Csk indicates that Csk could be activated by contact between the SH2 domain and the beta3-alphaC loop in the N-terminal lobe of the kinase domain. To study the importance of this interaction for the SH2-domain-mediated activation of Csk, we mutated the amino acid residues forming the contacts between the SH2 domain and the beta3-alphaC loop. The mutation of the beta3-alphaC loop Ala228 to glycine and of the SH2 domain Tyr116, Tyr133, Leu138, and Leu149 to alanine resulted in the inability of the SH2 domain ligand to activate Csk. Furthermore, the overexpressed Csk mutants A228G, Y133A/Y116A, L138A, and L149A were unable to efficiently inactivate endogenous Src in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. The results suggest that the SH2-domain-mediated activation of Csk is dependent on the binding of the beta3-alphaC loop Ala228 to the hydrophobic pocket formed by the side chains of Tyr116, Tyr133, Leu138, and Leu149 on the surface of the SH2 domain. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Domain Discretization and Circle Packings

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dias, Kealey

    A circle packing is a configuration of circles which are tangent with one another in a prescribed pattern determined by a combinatorial triangulation, where the configuration fills a planar domain or a two-dimensional surface. The vertices in the triangulation correspond to centers of circles...... to domain discretization problems such as triangulation and unstructured mesh generation techniques. We wish to ask ourselves the question: given a cloud of points in the plane (we restrict ourselves to planar domains), is it possible to construct a circle packing preserving the positions of the vertices...... and constrained meshes having predefined vertices as constraints. A standard method of two-dimensional mesh generation involves conformal mapping of the surface or domain to standardized shapes, such as a disk. Since circle packing is a new technique for constructing discrete conformal mappings, it is possible...

  19. FY1995 ultrafast photonic devices using dielectric domain superlattice; 1995 nendo yudentai domain chokoshi wo mochiita chokosoku photonic device

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1997-03-31

    All optical wavelength conversion around 1550nm is of great importance for the wavelength division multiplexing optical communication system. A dielectric domain superlattice, which has a periodically domain inverted structure, has a wide potential for the various nonlinear interactions such as second harmonic generation (SHG) and difference frequency generation (DFG). The purpose of our research is to establish the theoretical bases and fabrication processes of the guided-wave wavelength converter based on the DFG by domain-inverted LiTaO{sub 3}. We have investigated basic characteristics of guided-wave DFG devices and developed the domain-inversion process by an electric field poling utilizing a liquid electrolyte consisting of LiCI in deionized water as a electrode for applying the electric field to LiTaO{sub 3} substrate. By controlling the injection current for the domain inversion precisely, we fabricated successfully uniform domain-inverted structures. 0.5mm-thick domain-inverted LiTaO{sub 3} of 7.8, 17.2 and 21.3 {mu}m periods and 0.5 duty ratio were obtained by optimizing electrode structure and the domain-inversion process. Waveguide structures can increase the conversion efficiency of DFG by several orders of magnitude over bulk interactions. We have also developed waveguide fabrication process for the domain-inverted LiTaO{sub 3} substrate. Low loss proton-exchanged waveguides were formed by annealed proton exchange technique without a degradation of the domain inversion structure. Domain-controlled nonlinear optics by designing the ferroelectric domain structure of LiTaO{sub 3} and LiNbO{sub 3} make it possible to extend all the spectral range from ultra-violet to far-infrared and THz wave region. (NEDO)

  20. Mechanistic insights into phosphoprotein-binding FHA domains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liang, Xiangyang; Van Doren, Steven R

    2008-08-01

    [Structure: see text]. FHA domains are protein modules that switch signals in diverse biological pathways by monitoring the phosphorylation of threonine residues of target proteins. As part of the effort to gain insight into cellular avoidance of cancer, FHA domains involved in the cellular response to DNA damage have been especially well-characterized. The complete protein where the FHA domain resides and the interaction partners determine the nature of the signaling. Thus, a key biochemical question is how do FHA domains pick out their partners from among thousands of alternatives in the cell? This Account discusses the structure, affinity, and specificity of FHA domains and the formation of their functional structure. Although FHA domains share sequence identity at only five loop residues, they all fold into a beta-sandwich of two beta-sheets. The conserved arginine and serine of the recognition loops recognize the phosphorylation of the threonine targeted. Side chains emanating from loops that join beta-strand 4 with 5, 6 with 7, or 10 with 11 make specific contacts with amino acids of the ligand that tailor sequence preferences. Many FHA domains choose a partner in extended conformation, somewhat according to the residue three after the phosphothreonine in sequence (pT + 3 position). One group of FHA domains chooses a short carboxylate-containing side chain at pT + 3. Another group chooses a long, branched aliphatic side chain. A third group prefers other hydrophobic or uncharged polar side chains at pT + 3. However, another FHA domain instead chooses on the basis of pT - 2, pT - 3, and pT + 1 positions. An FHA domain from a marker of human cancer instead chooses a much longer protein fragment that adds a beta-strand to its beta-sheet and that presents hydrophobic residues from a novel helix to the usual recognition surface. This novel recognition site and more remote sites for the binding of other types of protein partners were predicted for the entire family

  1. Classification of domains of closed operators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lassner, G.; Timmermann, W.

    1975-01-01

    The structure of domains of determining closed operators in the Hilbert space by means of sequence spaces is investigated. The final classification provides three classes of these domains. Necessary and sufficient conditions of equivalence of these domains are obtained in the form of equivalency of corresponding sequences of natural numbers. Connection with the perturbation theory is mentioned [ru

  2. The dynamics of the asymmetric motion of domain walls of sandwich domain structure in a Fe-based amorphous ribbon

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhmetko, D.N., E-mail: sergey.zhmetko@gmail.com [Department of Physics, Zaporizhzhya National University, 66 Zhukovsky Street, 69063 Zaporizhzhya (Ukraine); Zhmetko, S.D. [Department of Physics, Zaporizhzhya National University, 66 Zhukovsky Street, 69063 Zaporizhzhya (Ukraine); Troschenkov, Y.N. [Institute for Magnetism, 36-b Vernadsky Boulevard, 03142 Kyiv (Ukraine); Matsura, A.V. [Department of Physics, Zaporizhzhya National University, 66 Zhukovsky Street, 69063 Zaporizhzhya (Ukraine)

    2013-08-15

    The frequency dependence of asymmetry of the domain walls velocity relative to the middle plane of amorphous ribbon is investigated. An additional pressure of the same direction acting on each domain wall caused by dependence of eddy current damping on the coordinate of the domain wall is revealed. The microscopic mechanisms of this additional pressure are considered. - Highlights: ► Additional pressure on the domain wall, caused by inhomogeneity of its damping. ► Asymmetry of the coordinate of the nucleation of domain walls and their damping. ► Connection between the components of additional pressure and its direction. ► Interaction of domain walls with the surface defects of the amorphous ribbon.

  3. The dynamics of the asymmetric motion of domain walls of sandwich domain structure in a Fe-based amorphous ribbon

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhmetko, D.N.; Zhmetko, S.D.; Troschenkov, Y.N.; Matsura, A.V.

    2013-01-01

    The frequency dependence of asymmetry of the domain walls velocity relative to the middle plane of amorphous ribbon is investigated. An additional pressure of the same direction acting on each domain wall caused by dependence of eddy current damping on the coordinate of the domain wall is revealed. The microscopic mechanisms of this additional pressure are considered. - Highlights: ► Additional pressure on the domain wall, caused by inhomogeneity of its damping. ► Asymmetry of the coordinate of the nucleation of domain walls and their damping. ► Connection between the components of additional pressure and its direction. ► Interaction of domain walls with the surface defects of the amorphous ribbon

  4. Systematic review of public health branding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, W Douglas; Blitstein, Jonathan; Hersey, James C; Renaud, Jeanette; Yaroch, Amy L

    2008-12-01

    Brands build relationships between consumers and products, services, or lifestyles by providing beneficial exchanges and adding value to their objects. Brands can be measured through associations that consumers hold for products and services. Public health brands are the associations that individuals hold for health behaviors, or lifestyles that embody multiple health behaviors. We systematically reviewed the literature on public health brands; developed a methodology for describing branded health messages and campaigns; and examined specific branding strategies across a range of topic areas, campaigns, and global settings. We searched the literature for published studies on public health branding available through all relevant, major online publication databases. Public health branding was operationalized as any manuscripts in the health, social science, and business literature on branding or brands in health promotion marketing. We developed formalized decision rules and applied them in identifying articles for review. We initially identified 154 articles and reviewed a final set of 37, 10 from Africa, Australia, and Europe. Branded health campaigns spanned most of the major domains of public health and numerous communication strategies and evaluation methodologies. Most studies provided clear information on planning, development, and evaluation of the branding effort, while some provided minimal information. Branded health messages typically are theory based, and there is a body of evidence on their behavior change effectiveness, especially in nutrition, tobacco control, and HIV/AIDS. More rigorous research is needed, however, on how branded health messages impact specific populations and behaviors.

  5. N-Terminal Domains in Two-Domain Proteins Are Biased to Be Shorter and Predicted to Fold Faster Than Their C-Terminal Counterparts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Etai Jacob

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Computational analysis of proteomes in all kingdoms of life reveals a strong tendency for N-terminal domains in two-domain proteins to have shorter sequences than their neighboring C-terminal domains. Given that folding rates are affected by chain length, we asked whether the tendency for N-terminal domains to be shorter than their neighboring C-terminal domains reflects selection for faster-folding N-terminal domains. Calculations of absolute contact order, another predictor of folding rate, provide additional evidence that N-terminal domains tend to fold faster than their neighboring C-terminal domains. A possible explanation for this bias, which is more pronounced in prokaryotes than in eukaryotes, is that faster folding of N-terminal domains reduces the risk for protein aggregation during folding by preventing formation of nonnative interdomain interactions. This explanation is supported by our finding that two-domain proteins with a shorter N-terminal domain are much more abundant than those with a shorter C-terminal domain.

  6. Public health informatics in India: the potential and the challenges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Athavale, A V; Zodpey, Sanjay P

    2010-01-01

    Public health informatics is emerging as a new and distinct specialty area in the global scenario within the broader discipline of health informatics. The potential role of informatics in reducing health disparities in underserved populations has been identified by a number of reports from all over the world. The article discusses the scope, the limitations, and future perspective of this novice discipline in context to India. It also highlights information and technology related tools namely Geographical Information Systems, Telemedicine and Electronic Medical Record/Electronic Health Record. India needs to leverage its "technology" oriented growth until now (e.g., few satellite-based telemedicine projects, etc.) simultaneously toward development of "information"-based public health informatics systems in future. Under the rapidly evolving scenario of global public health, the future of the public health governance and population health in India would depend upon building and integrating the comprehensive and responsive domain of public health informatics.

  7. Poster project to emphasize public health in the pharmacy curriculum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelsch, Michael P; Werremeyer, Amy B

    2011-02-10

    To implement and assess a required public health poster project in a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program. Third-year PharmD students collaborated in pairs to research a public health topic relating to pharmacy practice. Each student group prepared an informational poster, while receiving feedback from a faculty mentor at each stage of the project. The students presented their completed posters at a statewide pharmacy conference. Faculty members evaluated the posters with a grading rubric, and students completed a survey instrument that assessed the overall experience. In general, faculty members rated the class highly across all domains of the grading rubric. The class generally agreed that the poster project increased their awareness of public health issues related to pharmacy practice, overall knowledge of public health, and presentation skills. The implementation of a poster project was well received by students and faculty members as an effective method for enhancing public health instruction in the PharmD program at North Dakota State University.

  8. Associations among adolescent risk behaviours and self-esteem in six domains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wild, Lauren G; Flisher, Alan J; Bhana, Arvin; Lombard, Carl

    2004-11-01

    This study investigated associations among adolescents' self-esteem in 6 domains (peers, school, family, sports/athletics, body image and global self-worth) and risk behaviours related to substance use, bullying, suicidality and sexuality. A multistage stratified sampling strategy was used to select a representative sample of 939 English-, Afrikaans- and Xhosa-speaking students in Grades 8 and 11 at public high schools in Cape Town, South Africa. Participants completed the multidimensional Self-Esteem Questionnaire (SEQ; DuBois, Felner, Brand, Phillips, & Lease, 1996) and a self-report questionnaire containing items about demographic characteristics and participation in a range of risk behaviours. It included questions about their use of tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, solvents and other substances, bullying, suicidal ideation and attempts, and risky sexual behaviour. Data was analysed using a series of logistic regression models, with the estimation of model parameters being done through generalised estimation equations. Scores on each self-esteem scale were significantly associated with at least one risk behaviour in male and female adolescents after controlling for the sampling strategy, grade and race. However, specific self-esteem domains were differentially related to particular risk behaviours. After taking the correlations between the self-esteem scales into account, low self-esteem in the family and school contexts and high self-esteem in the peer domain were significantly independently associated with multiple risk behaviours in adolescents of both sexes. Low body-image self-esteem and global self-worth were also uniquely associated with risk behaviours in girls, but not in boys. Overall, the findings suggest that interventions that aim to protect adolescents from engaging in risk behaviours by increasing their self-esteem are likely to be most effective and cost-efficient if they are aimed at the family and school domains.

  9. Who are more responsive? Mixed-methods comparison of public and private sector physicians in rural Bangladesh.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joarder, Taufique; George, Asha; Sarker, Malabika; Ahmed, Saifuddin; Peters, David H

    2017-11-01

    Responsiveness of physicians (ROPs) reflects the social actions by physicians to meet the legitimate expectations of health care users. Responsiveness is important since it improves understanding and care seeking by users, as well as fostering trust in health systems rather than replicating discrimination and entrenching inequality. Given widespread public and private sector health care provision in Bangladesh, we undertook a mixed-methods study comparing responsiveness of public and private physicians in rural Bangladesh. The study included in-depth interviews with physicians (n = 12, seven public, five private) and patients (n = 7, three male, four female); focus group discussions with users (four sessions, two male and two female); and observations in consultation rooms of public and private sector physicians (1 week in each setting). This was followed by structured observation of patient consultations with 195 public and 198 private physicians using the ROPs Scale, consisting of five domains (Friendliness; Respecting; Informing and guiding; Gaining trust; and Financial sensitivity). Qualitative data were analysed by framework analysis and quantitative data were analyzed using two-sample t-test, multiple linear regression, multivariate analysis of variance, and descriptive discriminant analyses. The mean responsiveness score of public sector physicians was statistically different from private sector physicians: -0.29 vs 0.29, i.e. a difference of - 0.58 (P-value private sector, according to qualitative findings, neither of the sectors performed optimally. Private physicians scored higher in Friendliness, Respecting and Informing and guiding; while public sector physicians scored higher in other domains. 'Respecting' domain was found as the most important. Unlike findings from other studies in Bangladesh, instead of seeing one sector as better than the other, this study identified areas of responsiveness where each sector needs improvements. © The Author

  10. Differences between time domain and Fourier domain optical coherence tomography in imaging tissues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, W; Wu, X

    2017-11-01

    It has been numerously demonstrated that both time domain and Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) can generate high-resolution depth-resolved images of living tissues and cells. In this work, we compare the common points and differences between two methods when the continuous and random properties of live tissue are taken into account. It is found that when relationships that exist between the scattered light and tissue structures are taken into account, spectral interference measurements in Fourier domain OCT (FDOCT) is more advantageous than interference fringe envelope measurements in time domain OCT (TDOCT) in the cases where continuous property of tissue is taken into account. It is also demonstrated that when random property of tissue is taken into account FDOCT measures the Fourier transform of the spatial correlation function of the refractive index and speckle phenomena will limit the effective limiting imaging resolution in both TDOCT and FDOCT. Finally, the effective limiting resolution of both TDOCT and FDOCT are given which can be used to estimate the effective limiting resolution in various practical applications. © 2017 The Authors Journal of Microscopy © 2017 Royal Microscopical Society.

  11. Big Social Data in Public Health

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Kjeld S.; Mukkamala, Raghava Rao; Hussain, Abid

    2016-01-01

    We introduce the notion of "Socially Shared Health Information" (SSHI) referring to the phenomena of users and health organizations explicitly sharing health related information on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In order to investigate the phenomena of SSHI, in this paper, we...... present a multi-method case study of the organizational strategies for and user engagement with the Facebook page of the official portal for the public Danish Healthcare Services (Sundheds.dk). We analysed qualitative data in the form of a semi-structured interview with the social media editor of Sundhed.......dk and netnographic observations, and quantitative data from the full historic fetch of the official Facebook wall. Our results show a good alignment between the organizational and social media strategies of the public Danish Healthcare Services but point out the lack of domain-specific metrics to measure its...

  12. A flexible and accurate quantification algorithm for electron probe X-ray microanalysis based on thin-film element yields

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schalm, O.; Janssens, K.

    2003-01-01

    Quantitative analysis by means of electron probe X-ray microanalysis (EPXMA) of low Z materials such as silicate glasses can be hampered by the fact that ice or other contaminants build up on the Si(Li) detector beryllium window or (in the case of a windowless detector) on the Si(Li) crystal itself. These layers act as an additional absorber in front of the detector crystal, decreasing the detection efficiency at low energies (<5 keV). Since the layer thickness gradually changes with time, also the detector efficiency in the low energy region is not constant. Using the normal ZAF approach to quantification of EPXMA data is cumbersome in these conditions, because spectra from reference materials and from unknown samples must be acquired within a fairly short period of time in order to avoid the effect of the change in efficiency. To avoid this problem, an alternative approach to quantification of EPXMA data is proposed, following a philosophy often employed in quantitative analysis of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) data. This approach is based on the (experimental) determination of thin-film element yields, rather than starting from infinitely thick and single element calibration standards. These thin-film sensitivity coefficients can also be interpolated to allow quantification of elements for which no suitable standards are available. The change in detector efficiency can be monitored by collecting an X-ray spectrum of one multi-element glass standard. This information is used to adapt the previously determined thin-film sensitivity coefficients to the actual detector efficiency conditions valid on the day that the experiments were carried out. The main advantage of this method is that spectra collected from the standards and from the unknown samples should not be acquired within a short period of time. This new approach is evaluated for glass and metal matrices and is compared with a standard ZAF method

  13. Cooperative interactions between paired domain and homeodomain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jun, S; Desplan, C

    1996-09-01

    The Pax proteins are a family of transcriptional regulators involved in many developmental processes in all higher eukaryotes. They are characterized by the presence of a paired domain (PD), a bipartite DNA binding domain composed of two helix-turn-helix (HTH) motifs,the PAI and RED domains. The PD is also often associated with a homeodomain (HD) which is itself able to form homo- and hetero-dimers on DNA. Many of these proteins therefore contain three HTH motifs each able to recognize DNA. However, all PDs recognize highly related DNA sequences, and most HDs also recognize almost identical sites. We show here that different Pax proteins use multiple combinations of their HTHs to recognize several types of target sites. For instance, the Drosophila Paired protein can bind, in vitro, exclusively through its PAI domain, or through a dimer of its HD, or through cooperative interaction between PAI domain and HD. However, prd function in vivo requires the synergistic action of both the PAI domain and the HD. Pax proteins with only a PD appear to require both PAI and RED domains, while a Pax-6 isoform and a new Pax protein, Lune, may rely on the RED domain and HD. We propose a model by which Pax proteins recognize different target genes in vivo through various combinations of their DNA binding domains, thus expanding their recognition repertoire.

  14. Using data warehousing and OLAP in public health care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hristovski, D; Rogac, M; Markota, M

    2000-01-01

    The paper describes the possibilities of using data warehousing and OLAP technologies in public health care in general and then our own experience with these technologies gained during the implementation of a data warehouse of outpatient data at the national level. Such a data warehouse serves as a basis for advanced decision support systems based on statistical, OLAP or data mining methods. We used OLAP to enable interactive exploration and analysis of the data. We found out that data warehousing and OLAP are suitable for the domain of public health and that they enable new analytical possibilities in addition to the traditional statistical approaches.

  15. Progress in Public Health Emergency Preparedness-United States, 2001-2016.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murthy, Bhavini Patel; Molinari, Noelle-Angelique M; LeBlanc, Tanya T; Vagi, Sara J; Avchen, Rachel N

    2017-09-01

    To evaluate the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) program's progress toward meeting public health preparedness capability standards in state, local, and territorial health departments. All 62 PHEP awardees completed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's self-administered PHEP Impact Assessment as part of program review measuring public health preparedness capability before September 11, 2001 (9/11), and in 2014. We collected additional self-reported capability self-assessments from 2016. We analyzed trends in congressional funding for public health preparedness from 2001 to 2016. Before 9/11, most PHEP awardees reported limited preparedness capabilities, but considerable progress was reported by 2016. The number of jurisdictions reporting established capability functions within the countermeasures and mitigation domain had the largest increase, almost 200%, by 2014. However, more than 20% of jurisdictions still reported underdeveloped coordination between the health system and public health agencies in 2016. Challenges and barriers to building PHEP capabilities included lack of trained personnel, plans, and sustained resources. Considerable progress in public health preparedness capability was observed from before 9/11 to 2016. Support, sustainment, and advancement of public health preparedness capability is critical to ensure a strong public health infrastructure.

  16. Thermal Loss of High-Q Antennas in Time Domain vs. Frequency Domain Solver

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bahramzy, Pevand; Pedersen, Gert Frølund

    2014-01-01

    High-Q structures pose great challenges to their loss simulations in Time Domain Solvers (TDS). Therefore, in this work the thermal loss of high-Q antennas is calculated both in TDS and Frequency Domain Solver (FDS), which are then compared with each other and with the actual measurements....... The thermal loss calculation in FDS is shown to be more accurate for high-Q antennas....

  17. A mountainscape which isn't there - public private partnerships in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Koch, Christian

    2007-01-01

      Private public partnerships are hesitant innovations, with a complex cross sectorial origin and domain. This is also the case in Denmark: In a first round, a PPP variant, sale and lease back, developed among municipalities from the late nineties, but was halted because of a scandal in 2002....... In 2004 the government launched an action plan, and PPP are emerging again, this time in several variants. Drawing on multiple perspectives, public services are viewed as a network of mixed players across sectors like construction, management consulting and finance, accompanied by a set of regulatory...

  18. The importance of gold-electrode-adjacent stationary high-field Boeer domains for the photoconductivity of CdS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Boeer, Karl Wolfgang [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)

    2015-06-15

    When the electron density decreases stronger than linearly with the electric field in photoconductive CdS due to field quenching, high-field domains must occur that remain attached to either the cathode or anode in slit electrode geometry with blocking cathodes. These Boeer domains{sup 1} are easily seen by their shift in optical absorption due to the Franz-Keldysh effect and offer unique opportunities to analyze field dependent parameters within the range of constant electron density and electric field, such as the carrier density or mobility as a function of the field, and give information of the light dependent work function. They also provide insight why a 200 Aa thick cover layer of CdS on top of a CdTe solar cell increases its efficiency from 8 to 16%. The behavior of these Boeer domains escapes conventional current voltage analyses except for their visual observation, while other high-field domains with their current fluctuations or oscillations are easily observed and are the subjects of thousands of publications and many books. In this review we will exclude detailed discussion of dynamic domains, but include some new specifics that help to understand the mechanisms of the Boeer domains and their applications. Only properties at low optical excitation intensities are discussed that exclude Joules heating. Within the p-type regime of the anode-adjacent domain extremely steep electronic quenching signal becomes visible that could signalize an intrinsic donor level slightly above the middle of the band gap that may be responsible for not allowing CdS to ever become p-type by doping. (copyright 2015 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

  19. Exploring the affective domain in the teaching of mathematics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schmidt, Maria Christina Secher; Nissen, Stine Karen; Tonnesen, Pia Beck

    2015-01-01

    The paper presents the initial constructs of a study being carried out within the Danish public school (primary education) during the fall of 2015. It is based on a substudy conducted in connection with a study of the Early Mathematics Intervention Program for Marginal Groups in Denmark (TMTM i.e....... The methodology forms the basis for a qualitative approach toward gaining insight into the affective domain, which contributes to a field of research significantly dominated by quantitative approaches........e. Tidlig Matematikindsats Til Marginalgrupper). The 12-week intervention was implemented by 82 mathematics teachers in 41 schools in 31 different Danish municipalities. The presentation focuses on the development of a methodology aimed at capturing young students’ voices and views on mathematics...

  20. Protein domain analysis of genomic sequence data reveals regulation of LRR related domains in plant transpiration in Ficus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lang, Tiange; Yin, Kangquan; Liu, Jinyu; Cao, Kunfang; Cannon, Charles H; Du, Fang K

    2014-01-01

    Predicting protein domains is essential for understanding a protein's function at the molecular level. However, up till now, there has been no direct and straightforward method for predicting protein domains in species without a reference genome sequence. In this study, we developed a functionality with a set of programs that can predict protein domains directly from genomic sequence data without a reference genome. Using whole genome sequence data, the programming functionality mainly comprised DNA assembly in combination with next-generation sequencing (NGS) assembly methods and traditional methods, peptide prediction and protein domain prediction. The proposed new functionality avoids problems associated with de novo assembly due to micro reads and small single repeats. Furthermore, we applied our functionality for the prediction of leucine rich repeat (LRR) domains in four species of Ficus with no reference genome, based on NGS genomic data. We found that the LRRNT_2 and LRR_8 domains are related to plant transpiration efficiency, as indicated by the stomata index, in the four species of Ficus. The programming functionality established in this study provides new insights for protein domain prediction, which is particularly timely in the current age of NGS data expansion.