pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
A Graphite-Polyurethane Composite Electrode for the Analysis of Furosemide

A graphite-polyurethane composite electrode has been used for the determination of furosemide, a antihypertensive drug, in pharmaceutical samples by anodic oxidation. Cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were used to characterize the electrooxidation process at +1.0 V vs. SCE over a wide pH range, with the result that no adsorption of analyte or products occurs, unlike at other carbon-based electrode materials. Quantification was carried out using cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry, and square-wave voltammetry. Linear ranges were determined (up to 21 mumol L-1 with cyclic voltammetry) as well as limits of detection (0.15 mumol L-1 by differential pulse voltammetry). Four different types of commercial samples were successfully analyzed. Recovery tests were performed which agreed with those obtained by spectrophotometric evaluation. The advantages of this electrode material for repetitive analyzes, due to the fact that no electrode surface renewal is needed owing to the lack of adsorption, are highlighted.http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/elan.20080432
Utilization of public health centres in Portugal: effect of time costs and other determinants. Finite mixture models applied to truncated samples

The impact of time costs on the utilization of medical care has been a subject of theoretical and empirical research since the early 1970s.The main goal of this paper is to show the effect of time costs on the number of visits to general practitioners (GP) in Portuguese public health centres. We measured the elasticity of primary health care utilization relative to the total time spent in the health centre and relative to travel time. We also provided evidence regarding the impact of an appointment delay on the utilization of public GP services.Our data resulted from the application of an endogenous sampling scheme, resulting in a truncated-at-zero data set. To model our dependent variable, number of visits, and accounting for the truncated nature of the data we used a finite mixture model specification.The data were obtained from the most recent implementation in Portugal of the 2003/2004 Europep Survey.The two-component negative binomial II finite mixture model led to the identification of two different latent classes of health centre users: a low-users class that comprises 88% of patients with an estimated utilization mean of 4.3 GP visits per year and a frequent-users class with an estimated utilization mean of 11.1 visits for the remaining 12% of the population.We failed to find any statistically significant elasticity of time cost utilization, when this variable is measured as the total time spent in the health centre. Regarding the effect of an appointment delay on health centre utilization we concluded that individuals respond to this variable by lowering the number of GP visits. This last finding may have policy implications, which will be discussed at the end of the paper. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hec.104
Comparison of experimental and simulation distortions of quenched C-ring test parts

We present a mathematical method for identifying, separating and quantifying the 3D significant distortions. Measurement of a gas quenched C-ring type sample is performed by a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM). Quenching simulation is done with the commercial software Forge 2008 TTT®. After comparisons, we notice that the distortions and their tendencies are the same but not exactly the amplitudes. We only focus on distortions which have a physical origin, like the pincers opening, often observed in the literature. As a first explanation, we underline the role of phase transformations and volume dilatation of the steel during quenchin
Smartphones as experimental tools to measure acoustical and mechanical properties of vibrating rods

Modern smartphones have calculation and sensor capabilities that make them suitable for use as versatile and reliable measurement devices in simple teaching experiments. In this work a smartphone is used, together with low cost materials, in an experiment to measure the frequencies emitted by vibrating rods of different materials, shapes and lengths. The results obtained with the smartphone have been compared with theoretical calculations and the
agreement is good. Alternatively, physics students can perform the experiment described here and use their results to determine the dependencies of the obtained frequencies on the rod characteristics. In this way they will also practice research methods that they will probably use in their professional life
The stability of the spectator, Dirac, and Salpeter equations for mesons

Mesons are made of quark-antiquark pairs held together by the strong force. The one channel spectator, Dirac, and Salpeter equations can each be used to model this pairing. We look at cases where the relativistic kernel of these equations corresponds to a time-like vector exchange, a scalar exchange, or a linear combination of the two. Since the model used in this paper describes mesons which cannot decay physically, the equations must describe stable states. We find that this requirement is not always satisfied, and give a complete discussion of the conditions under which the various equations give unphysical, unstable solutions
Accountability  autonomy  and authenticity: assessing the development waltz conducted to a 'kwaito' beat in Southern Africa

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Development in Practice on 21 January 2008, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09614520701778348.For the purposes of accountability and uniformity, and as a way of giving insight into their intellectual capital regarding development practices, NGOs in Southern Africa are required by donor agencies to describe their intended activities in very clear, unambiguous terms. These requirements may include the expression of theoretical approaches, the development of logical frameworks, clear objectives, indicators for success, criteria for sustainable development, and relationships to government policies. However, the interface between reality and these planning measures and tools, most often completed without the input and contributions of the communities whom they are to serve/service, produces a much more messy, dynamic, and involved picture of the development process. None the less, the NGOs are still required to be accountable on the basis of their original proposal and planning. The author presents examples of this phenomenon and discusses the challenges facing an evaluator when dealing with competing principles of accountability, autonomy, and authenticity
Consideration of residual stress and geometry during heat treatment to decrease shaft bending

In automotive industry, heat treatment of components is implicitly related to distortion. This phenomenon is particularly obvious in the case of gearbox parts because of their typical geometry and precise requirements. Even if distortion can be anticipated to an extent by experience, it remains complex to comprehend. Scientific literature and industrial experience show that the whole manufacturing process chain has an influence on final heat treatment distortions. This paper presents an approach to estimate the influence of some factors on the distortion, based on the idea of a distortion potential taking into account not only geometry but also the manufacturing process history. Then the idea is developed through experiments on an industrial manufacturing process to understand the impact of residual stress due to machining on shaft bending and teeth distortion during heat treatment. Instead of being measured, residual stress is being neutralized. By comparing lots between each other, connections between gear teeth geometry and manufacturing steps before heat treatment are obtained. As a consequence, geometrical nonconformities roots can be determined more easily thanks to this diagnosis tool, and corrective actions can be applied. Secondly, the influence of product geometry on bending is experimentally considered. Moreover, metallurgical observations enable to explain the influence of workpieces geometry on shaft bending. Thanks to the obtained results, process and product recommendations to decrease shafts bending are proposed
Long Term Trends and Correlates of Antler Anomalies in Roe Deer

Length and structural complexity of antlers provide an indication of individual quality in many ungulates in the context of female mate choice and trophy hunting. Selectivity of hunters for individuals with various antler sizes may have bearing on the population structure. It is less well understood, however, whether and how antler anomalies may signal individual characteristics. We used data on 2,461 roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) males harvested by stalking during 1966–2011 in western Poland to test hypotheses explaining probability of occurrence of accessory, broken, and malformed antlers. By employing a multinomial logistic regression, we showed that the probability of occurrence of broken and malformed antlers increased in males older than 2 years. Probability of occurrence of accessory and, in young males, broken antlers was higher in individuals with increased body weight. Occurrence of malformed antlers decreased over the study period. Contrary to our prediction, we did not detect an effect of distance to forest on the probability of malformed antlers occurring. We conclude that the main premise of compensatory culling is not supported in roe dee
LED-LED portable oxygen gas sensor

A portable instrument for oxygen determination, based on the quenching of phosphorescent octaethylporphyrin by gaseous O2 has been developed using the fluorimetric paired emitter–detector diode technique (FPEDD). The instrument configuration consists of two light emitting diodes (LEDs) facing each other including an interchangeable support containing a phosphorescent membrane in between, in which one of the LEDs is used as the light source (emitter LED) and the other working in reverse bias mode as the light detector. The feasibility of using a LED as a luminescent detector is studied. Its small size allows the integration of the instrument into a portable measurement system. A systematic study of the system capabilities as a portable instrument, was carried out in order to optimize: range, sensitivity, short term and long term stability, dynamical behavior, temperature influence, humidity influence and temporal drift
Simulating Metabolic Processes Using an Architecture Based on Networks of Bio-inspired Processors.

In this work, we propose the Networks of Evolutionary Processors (NEP) [2] as a computational model to solve problems related with biological phenomena. In our first approximation, we simulate biological processes related with cellular signaling and their implications in the metabolism, by using an architecture based on NEP (NEP architecture) and their specializations: Networks of Polarized Evolutionary Processors (NPEP) [1] and NEP Transducers (NEPT) [3]. In particular, we use this architecture to simulate the interplay between cellular processes related with the metabolism as the Krebs cycle and the malate-aspartate shuttle pathway (MAS) both being altered by signaling by calcium
Life cycle assessment of concentrated solar power (CSP) and the influence of hybridising with natural gas

Purpose Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants based on parabolic troughs utilize auxiliary fuels (usually natural gas) to facilitate start-up operations, avoid freezing of HTF and increase power output. This practice has a significant effect on the environmental performance of the technology. The aim of this paper is to quantify the sustainability of CSP and to analyse how this is affected by hybridisation with different natural gas (NG) inputs. \ud
Methods A complete Life Cycle (LC) inventory was gathered for a commercial wet-cooled 50 MWe CSP plant based on parabolic troughs. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate the environmental performance of the plant operating with different NG inputs (between 0 and 35% of gross electricity generation). ReCiPe Europe (H) was used as LCA methodology. CML 2 baseline 2000 World and ReCiPe Europe E were used for comparative purposes. Cumulative Energy Demands (CED) and Energy Payback Times (EPT) were also determined for each scenario. \ud
Results and discussion Operation of CSP using solar energy only produced the following environmental profile: climate change 26.6 kg CO2 eq/KWh, human toxicity 13.1 kg 1,4-DB eq/KWh, marine ecotoxicity 276 g 1,4-DB eq/KWh, natural land transformation 0.005 m2/KWh, eutrophication 10.1 g P eq/KWh, acidification 166 g SO2 eq/KWh. Most of these impacts are associated with extraction of raw materials and manufacturing of plant components. The utilization NG transformed the environmental profile of the technology, placing increasing weight on impacts related to its operation and maintenance. Significantly higher impacts were observed on categories like climate change (311 kg CO2 eq/MWh when using 35 % NG), natural land transformation, terrestrial acidification and fossil depletion. Despite its fossil nature, the use of NG had a beneficial effect on other impact categories (human and marine toxicity, freshwater eutrophication and natural land transformation) due to the higher electricity output achieved. The overall environmental performance of CSP significantly deteriorated with the use of NG (single score 3.52 pt in solar only operation compared to 36.1 pt when using 35 % NG). Other sustainability parameters like EPT and CED also increased substantially as a result of higher NG inputs. Quasilinear second-degree polynomial relationships were calculated between various environmental performance parameters and NG contributions. \ud
Conclusions Energy input from auxiliary NG determines the environmental profile of the CSP plant. Aggregated analysis shows a deleterious effect on the overall environmental performance of the technology as a result of NG utilization. This is due primarily to higher impacts on environmental categories like climate change, natural land transformation, fossil fuel depletion and terrestrial acidification. NG may be used in a more sustainable and cost-effective manner in combined cycle power plants, which achieve higher energy conversion efficiencies
Evolutionary maintenance of selfish homing endonuclease genes in the absence of horizontal transfer

Homing endonuclease genes are "selfish" mobile genetic elements whose endonuclease promotes the spread of its own gene by creating a break at a specific target site and using the host machinery to repair the break by copying and  inserting the gene at this site. Horizontal transfer across the boundary of a species or population within which mating  takes place has been thought to be necessary for their evolutionary persistence. This is based on the assumption that  they will become fixed in a host population, where opportunities of homing will disappear, and become susceptible to degeneration. To test this hypothesis, we modeled behavior of a homing endonuclease gene that moves during meiosis through double-strand break repair. We mathematically explored conditions for persistence of the homing endonuclease gene and elucidated their parameter dependence as phase diagrams. We found that, if the cost of the pseudogene is  lower than that of the homing endonuclease gene, the 2 forms can persist in a population through autonomous periodic oscillation. If the cost of the pseudogene is higher, 2 types of dynamics appear that enable evolutionary persistence:  bistability dependent on initial frequency or fixation irrespective of initial frequency. The prediction of long persistence in the absence of horizontal transfer was confirmed by stochastic simulations in finite populations. The average time to extinction of the endonuclease gene was found to be thousands of meiotic generations or more based on realistic parameter values. These results provide a solid theoretical basis for an understanding of these and other extremely selfish elements
Diagnosing lepton-nonuniversality in b → sℓℓ

Ratios of branching fractions of semileptonic B decays, ( B → Hμμ ) over ( B → Hee ) with H  =  K ,  K ∗ ,  X s ,  K 0 (1430),  ϕ , . . . are sensitive probes of lepton universality. In the Standard Model, the underlying flavor changing neutral current process b → sℓℓ is lepton flavor universal. However models with new flavor violating physics above the weak scale can give substantial non-universal contributions. The leading contributions from such new physics can be parametrized by effective dimension six operators involving left- or right-handed quarks. We show that in the double ratios R X s / R K $$ {R_X}_{{}_s}/{R}_K $$ , R K  ∗ / R K and R ϕ / R K the dependence on new physics coupling to left-handed quarks cancels out. Thus a measurement of any of these double ratios is a clean probe of flavor nonuniversal physics coupling to right-handed quarks. We also point out that the observables R X s $$ {R_X}_{{}_s} $$ , R K  ∗ , R K 0 1430 $$ {R}_K{{}_{{}_0}}_{(1430)} $$ and R ϕ depend on the same combination of Wilson coefficients and therefore satisfy simple consistency relations
Exact N 3 LO results for qq ′ → H + X

We compute the contribution to the total cross section for the inclusive production of a Standard Model Higgs boson induced by two quarks with different flavour in the initial state. Our calculation is exact in the Higgs boson mass and the partonic center-of-mass energy. We describe the reduction to master integrals, the construction of a canonical basis, and the solution of the corresponding differential equations. Our analytic result contains both Harmonic Polylogarithms and iterated integrals with additional letters in the alphabet
A Bound Quantum Particle in a Riemann-Cartan space with Topological Defects and Planar Potential

Starting from a continuum theory of defects, that is the analogous to three-dimensional Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble gravity, we consider a charged particle with spin 1/2 propagating in a uniform magnetic field coincident with a wedge dispiration of finite extent. We assume the particle is bound in the vicinity of the dispiration by long range attractive (harmonic) and short range (inverse square) repulsive potentials. Moreover, we consider the effects of spin-torsion and spin-magnetic field interactions. Exact expressions for the energy eigenfunctions and eigenvalues are determined. The limit, in which the defect region becomes singular, is considered and comparison with the electromagnetic Aharonov-Bohm effect is made
E1- and E2-S of 12 alpha,gamma 0 16 O from gamma-ray angular distributions with a 4pi detector array

postscript file : 43 pages to appear in PRC : 19 pages in PRC - 1st preprint CSNSM 2004-02; 2nd preprint IPHC 06-001A new experiment to determine the thermonuclear cross section of the 12C(alpha,gamma_0)16O reaction has been performed in regular kinematics using an intense alpha-particle beam of up to 340 muA from the Stuttgart DYNAMITRON. For the first time a 4pi-Germanium-detector setup has been used to measure the angular distribution of the gamma rays at all angles simultaneously. It consisted of an array of 9 EUROGAM HPGe detectors in close geometry, actively shielded individually with BGO crystals. The 12C targets were isotopically enriched by magnetic separation during implantation. The depth profiles of the implanted carbon in the 12C targets have been determined by Rutherford backscattering for purposes of cross section normalization and absolute determination of the E1 and E2 S factors. Angular distributions of the gamma decay to the 16O ground state have been measured in the energy range E_c.m.= 1.30-2.78 MeV and in the angular range (lab.) 30-130 degre. From these distributions, astrophysical E1 and E2 S-factor functions vs. energy have been calculated, both of which are indispensable for the modeling of this reaction and the extrapolation towards lower energies. The separation of the E1 and E2 capture channels has been done both by taking the phase value phi_12 as a free parameter and by fixing it using the results of elastic alpha-particle scattering on 12C in the same energy range
A high-throughput direct FRET-based assay for analysing apoptotic proteases using flow cytometry and fluorescence-lifetime measurements

International audienceCytometry is a versatile and powerful method applicable to different fields, particularly pharmacology and biomedical studies. Based on the data obtained, cytometric studies are classified into high-throughput (HTP) or high-content screening (HCS) groups. However, assays combining the advantages of both are required to facilitate research. In this study, we developed a high-throughput system to profile cellular populations in terms of time- or dose-dependent responses to apoptotic stimulations, since apoptotic inducers are potent anti-cancer drugs. We previously established assay systems involving protease to monitor live cells for apoptosis using tuneable FRET-based bioprobes. These assays can be used for microscopic analyses or fluorescence-activated cell sorting. In this study, we developed FRET-based bioprobes to detect the activity of the apoptotic markers caspase-3 and caspase-9 via changes in bioprobe fluorescence lifetimes using a flow cytometer for direct estimation of FRET efficiencies. Different patterns of changes in the fluorescence lifetimes of these markers during apoptosis were observed, indicating a relationship between discrete steps in the apoptosis process. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of evaluating collective cellular dynamics during apoptosis
Global a priori convergence theory for reduced-basis approximations of single-parameter symmetric coercive elliptic partial differential equations

International audienceWe consider "Lagrangian" reduced-basis methods for single-parameter symmetric coercive elliptic partial differential equations. We show that, for a logarithmic-(quasi-)uniform distribution of sample points, the reduced-basis approximation converges exponentially to the exact solution uniformly in parameter space. Furthermore, the convergence rate depends only weakly on the continuity-coercivity ratio of the operator: thus very low- dimensional approximations yield accurate solutions even for very wide parametric ranges. Numerical tests (reported elsewhere) corroborate the theoretical preditions