2,516 research outputs found
Polymers, environment and sustainable developments:opportunities and recommendations for the coming decade
Identification des discriminations institutionnelles à l'encontre des personnes vivant avec le VIH en Suisse
Formes de discriminations institutionnelle en raison du statut [I. Santé] Restrictions d'accès aux soins: refus ou différences de traitement en raison du statut VIH. Tests nominaux de routine sans consentement, non-confidentialité des données médicales. Contrôle sanitaire, mise en quarantaine, internement obligatoire, ségrégation dans les hôpitaux. Notification obligatoire du statut sérologique au partenaire ou à la famille. Tests sans consentement, refus d'annonce du résultat au patient. Licenciement de professionnels dans le domaine de la santé; etc. [II. Emploi] Test obligatoire à l'embauche ou en cours d'emploi. Questions sur le statut VIH ou le style de vie. Non-respect de la confidentialité. Licenciement ou changement dans les conditions de travail (non-promotion...) liés au statut VIH; etc [III. Justice / Procédure légale] Criminalisation d'un comportement (prostitution, homosexualité...). Inégalités devant la loi. Obstacles au recours légal en cas de discrimination VIH. Différence de jugement due au stat de porteur VIH réel/présumé. [IV. Administration: prisons] Test obligatoire à l'entrée, pendant l'internement, à la sortie de prison. Conditions spéciales de détention. Restrictions dans l'accès aux soins. Service militaire ou civil, police: test obligatoire, licenciement, etc. Non respect de la confidentialité, restrictions au niveau des assurances. Entrée/séjour : test obligatoire, déclaration du statut, certification de séronégativité comme condition d'entrée, de séjour ou de liberté de circulation. Expulsion due au statut VIH sans procédures appropriées. [V. Aide sociale] Refus ou restriction d'accès aux allocations. [VI. Logement public] Test obligatoire, déclaration de statut, certificat séronégativité comme condition pour l'obtention de logement ou droit de rester. [VII. Education] Refus d'accès à l'éducation ou restrictions imposées à cause du statut VIH. Refus d'emploi dans l'enseignement ou résilitation du contrat d'enseignant (>VIH). [VIII. Vie de famille] Test prénuptial et test prénatal obligatoires. Avortement ou stérilisation obligatoire des femmes VIH positives. Retrait ou modification des conditions d'exercer l'autorité parentale, soutien, droits de succession dû au statut VIH. [IX. Assurance] Restrictions d'accès ou de prestations de sécurité sociale sur la base du statut VIH (p. ex. assurances maladie, prestations complémentaires, AVS/AI, CNA). Restrictions pour conclure d'autres assurances (vie, etc)
Biodiversity in a changing climate: a synthesis of current and projected trends in the US
This paper provides a synthesis of the recent literature describing how global biodiversity is being affected by climate change and is projected to respond in the future. Current studies reinforce earlier findings of major climate-change-related impacts on biological systems and document new, more subtle after-effects. For example, many species are shifting their distributions and phenologies at faster rates than were recorded just a few years ago; however, responses are not uniform across species. Shifts have been idiosyncratic and in some cases counterintuitive, promoting new community compositions and altering biotic interactions. Although genetic diversity enhances species\u27 potential to respond to variable conditions, climate change may outpace intrinsic adaptive capacities and increase the relative vulnerabilities of many organisms. Developing effective adaptation strategies for biodiversity conservation will not only require flexible decision-making and management approaches that account for uncertainties in climate projections and ecological responses but will also necessitate coordinated monitoring efforts
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Time resolved spectroscopic investigation of SiD2 + D2: kinetic study
Silylenes (silanediyls) have made an important impact on organosilicon chemistry even if it is of more recent foundation than carbenes in organic chemistry and much less complete. These species are highly reactive intermediates. They play a central role in the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of various silicon-containing thin films which have a technological importance in microelectronics as well as in the dry etching processes of silicon wafers. Spectroscopic methods have been developed to observe these species, a necessary pre-requisite to their direct monitoring. In this work, deuterated phenylsilane precursor, PhSiD3 was chosen for SiD2 because its analogue phenylsilane, PhSiH3 proved to be a good precursor for SiH2 and the high quality decay signals observed revealed that SiD2 be readily detected from PhSiD3 and that if other decomposition pathways (e.g. PhSiD + D2) are occurring, they do not effect measurements of the rate constants for SiD2. The absorption spectrum of SiD2 formed from the flash photolysis of a mixture of PhSiD3 and SF6 at 193nm were found in the region 17384-17391 cm-1 with strong band at 17387.07 cm-1. This single rotational line of pQ1 was chosen to monitor SiD2 removal. Time-resolved studies of SiD2 have been carried out to obtain rate constants for its bimolecular reactions with D2. The reactions were studied over the pressure range 5-100 Torr (in SF6 bath gas) at four temperatures in the range 298-498K. Single decay from 10 photolysis laser shots were averaged and found to give reasonable first-order kinetics fits. Second order kinetics were obtained by pressure dependence of the pseudo first order decay constants and substance D2 pressures within experimental error. The reaction was found to be weakly pressure dependent at all temperatures, consistent with a third-body mediated association process. In addition, SiH2+ H2 reaction is approximately ca. 60% faster than SiD2+D2 reaction. Theoretical extrapolations (using Lindemann-Hinshelwood model and Rice, Ramsperger, Kassel and Marcus (RRKM) theory) were also carried out and obtained data fitted the Arrhenius equations
The effect of cross-contamination in the sequential interfacial polymerization on the RO performance of polyamide bilayer membranes
International audienceIn this study, hexafluoroalcohol-containing polyamide layer (HFAPA) was prepared on top of a conventional polyamide under-layer (REFPA) via sequential interfacial polymerization (SIP) to improve RO separation behavior, and the performance of the resulting bilayer membrane was thoroughly optimized by investigating the effect of cross-contamination in the SIP process. When several coupons of the polyamide bilayer membrane were prepared by SIP of MPD(aq), TMC(hx) and hexafluoroalcohol-containing diamine (HFAMDA)(aq) in the manner of subsequent membrane dipping, unreacted MPD monomer (mostly captured in the porous PSF support) carried over from the 1st interfacial reaction dissolved and accumulated in the 2nd aqueous solution as verified by UV spectroscopic analysis. The MPD contaminant then participated in the 2nd interfacial reaction, forming copolyamide with HFAMDA monomer onto the REFPA. Depending on the amount of MPD contaminant accumulated in the 2nd aqueous solution, the composition of the resulting co-polyamide in the top-layer varied, causing a significant variation of RO performance; the flux was gradually decreased with the increase of MPD contaminants while the salt rejection slightly increased (from 1st coupon toward 4th coupon). This result indicated that a trace amount of MPD contaminant may be necessary to maximize RO separation behavior. Through in-depth performance evaluation of polyamide bilayer membranes prepared by adding various known-amount of MPD into 2nd HFAMDA solution, and also by applying a frame process (2nd amine solution was applied only top surface of membrane) to eliminate uncontrollable MPD contamination, we have successfully demonstrated consistent RO performance, and identified an optimum material composition to provide superior separation performance. The bilayer membrane prepared by adding 1.2 mol% of MPD to the total amount of HFAMDA in the 2nd aqueous solution showed 99.8% NaCl rejection with the water flux of 45 LMH under the cross-flow filtration performed with 2000 ppm NaCl solution at 400 psi, 25 °C
Georeferencing Flickr photos using language models at different levels of granularity: An evidence based approach
Self-Stabilizing Byzantine Resilient Topology Discovery and Message Delivery
Traditional Byzantine resilient algorithms use vertex disjoint paths to ensure message delivery in the presence of up to f Byzantine nodes. The question of how these paths are identified is related to the fundamental problem of topology discovery. Distributed algorithms for topology discovery cope with a never ending task, dealing with frequent changes in the network topology and unpredictable transient faults. Therefore, algorithms for topology discovery should be self-stabilizing to ensure convergence of the topology information following any such unpredictable sequence of events. We present the first such algorithm that can cope with Byzantine nodes. Starting in an arbitrary global state, and in the presence of f Byzantine nodes, each node is eventually aware of all the other non-Byzantine nodes and their connecting communication links. Using the topology information, nodes can, for example, route messages across the network and deliver messages from one end user to another. We present the first deterministic, cryptographic-assumptions-free, self-stabilizing, Byzantine-resilient algorithms for network topology discovery and end-to-end message delivery. We also consider the task of r-neighborhood discovery for the case in which and the degree of nodes are bounded by constants. The use of r-neighborhood discovery facilitates polynomial time, communication and space solutions for the above tasks. The obtained algorithms can be used to authenticate parties, in particular during the establishment of private secrets, thus forming public key schemes that are resistant to man-in-the-middle attacks of the compromised Byzantine nodes. A polynomial and efficient end-to-end algorithm that is based on the established private secrets can be employed in between periodical re-establishments of the secrets
Candida tropicalis biofilms matrix - involvement on its resistance to amphotericin B
Candida tropicalis has emerged as one of the most prevalent fungal pathogens, and its ability to form biofilms has
been considered one of the most important virulence factors, since they represent high tolerance to antifungal
agents. However, the mechanisms of biofilm resistance to antifungal agents remain poorly understood. Thus,
the main goal of this study was to infer about the ability of amphotericin B (AMB) to control and combat
C. tropicalis biofilms. Additionally, it was also intended to determine the influence of matrix components in bio-
film resistance. AMB was unable to totally prevent biofilm formation and to eradicate C. tropicalis preformed
biofilms. Moreover, AMB led to a significant increase of the biofilm production due to an augment of the total protein
and carbohydrate contents of the matrix. The C. tropicalis biofilm matrix assumes an important role on its resistance
to AMB.This work was supported by the Programa Operacional, Fatores de competitividade and by national funds through Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia on the scope of the projects FCT PTDC/SAU-MIC/119069/2010, RECI/EBB-EBI/0179/2012, and PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013. The authors also thank the Project "BioHealth - Biotechnology and Bioengineering approaches to improve health quality; Ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000027, co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2 - O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER
Biosurfactant production by Bacillus subtilis using corn steep liquor as culture medium
In this work, biosurfactant production by Bacillus subtilis #573 was evaluated using corn steep liquor (CSL) as culture medium. The best results were obtained in a culture medium consisting of 10% (v/v) of CSL, with a biosurfactant production of about 1.3 g/l. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing biosurfactant production by B. subtilis using CSL as culture medium. Subsequently, the effect of different metals (iron, manganese, and magnesium) on biosurfactant production was evaluated using the medium CSL 10%. It was found that for all the metals tested, the biosurfactant production was increased (up to 4.1, 4.4, and 3.5 g/l for iron, manganese, and magnesium, respectively). When the culture medium was supplemented with the optimum concentration of the three metals simultaneously, the biosurfactant production was increased up to 4.8 g/l. Furthermore, the biosurfactant exhibited a good performance in oil recovery assays when compared with chemical surfactants, which suggests its possible application in microbial enhanced oil recovery or bioremediation.The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Strategic Project PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013 and project ref. RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (project number FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462) funded by Fundacao para aCiencia e a Tecnologia, and from AdI (Agencia de Inovacao, S.A.), through the project BIOCLEAN - "Development of biosurfactant- based products for surfaces cleaning and desinfection in the food industry" (QREN Ref. 30215)
Comparison of life quality of pregnant adolescents with that of pregnant adults in Turkey
Objectives. This study aimed to determine the quality of life of pregnant adolescents aged < 20 years and pregnant adults aged between 20-29 years, to evaluate the effects of gestational periods on the quality of life, and to compare the quality of life scores of pregnant adolescents and adults
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