Preparing construction supply chains for blockchain technology:An investigation of its potential and future directions

Blockchain, a peer-to-peer, controlled, distributed database structure, has the potential to profoundly affect current business transactions in the construction industry through smart contracts, cryptocurrencies, and reliable asset tracking. The construction industry is often criticized for being slow in embracing emerging technologies and not effectively diffusing them through its supply chains. Often, the extensive fragmentation, traditional procurement structures, destructive competition, lack of collaboration and transparency, low-profit margins, and human resources are shown as the main culprits for this. As blockchain technology makes its presence felt strongly in many other industries like finance and banking, this study investigates the preparation of construction supply chains for blockchain technology through an explorative analysis. Empirical data for the study were collected through semistructured interviews with 17 subject experts. Alongside presenting a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis (SWOT), the study exhibits the requirements for and steps toward a construction supply structure facilitated by blockchain technology

Search for Neutral Supersymmetric Higgs Bosons in ppˉp\bar{p} Collisions at s=1.8\sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV

We present the results of a search for neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with $b$ quarks in $p\bar{p}\to b\bar{b} \phi\to b\bar{b}b\bar{b}$ final states with $91 \pm 7$ pb$^{-1}$ of $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.8$ TeV recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We find no evidence of such a signal and the data is interpreted in the context of the neutral Higgs sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. With basic parameter choices for the supersymmetric scale and the stop quark mixing, we derive 95% C.L. lower mass limits for neutral Higgs bosons for \tb values in excess of 35.Comment: 2 tex files 3 figure

Dissatisfaction with own body makes patients with eating disorders more sensitive to pain

Anna Yamamotova,1 Josef Bulant,2 Vaclav Bocek,3 Hana Papezova2 1Department of Normal, Pathological and Clinical Physiology, Third Faculty of Medicine, 2Department of Psychiatry, First Faculty of Medicine, 3Department of Neurology, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Abstract: Body image represents a multidimensional concept including body image evaluation and perception of body appearance. Disturbances of body image perception are considered to be one of the central aspects of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. There is growing evidence that body image distortion can be associated with changes in pain perception. The aim of our study was to examine the associations between body image perception, body dissatisfaction, and nociception in women with eating disorders and age-matched healthy control women. We measured body dissatisfaction and pain sensitivity in 61 patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition diagnoses of eating disorders (31 anorexia nervosa and 30 bulimia nervosa) and in 30 healthy women. Thermal pain threshold latencies were evaluated using an analgesia meter and body image perception and body dissatisfaction were assessed using Anamorphic Micro software (digital pictures of their own body distorted into larger-body and thinner-body images). Patients with eating disorders overestimated their body size in comparison with healthy controls, but the two groups did not differ in body dissatisfaction. In anorexia and bulimia patient groups, body dissatisfaction (calculated in pixels as desired size/true image size) correlated with pain threshold latencies (r=0.55, p=0.001), while between body image perception (determined as estimation size/true image size) and pain threshold, no correlation was found. Thus, we demonstrated that in patients with eating disorders, pain perception is significantly associated with emotional contrary to sensory (visual) processing of one’s own body image. The more the patients desired to be thin, the more pain-sensitive they were. Our findings based on some shared mechanisms of body dissatisfaction and pain perception support the significance of negative emotions specific for eating disorders and contribute to better understanding of the psychosomatic characteristics of this spectrum of illnesses. Keywords: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, pain perception, body image perception, body dissatisfaction, Anamorphic Micr

Permeability and preparation of micropacked columns Permeability and Preparation of Micropacked Columns

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Optical coherence tomography in interventional cardiology—Research field or future daily routine?

AbstractNowadays, optical coherent tomography (OCT) as the most precise morphologic technique is used in the increasing number of cases, both in routine clinical situations and research projects. Huang and co-workers reported the first clinical use of the 2-dimensional OCT in 1991, suggesting the principle of its use both in ophthalmology and interventional cardiology. The method has developed rapidly since that time. Interventional cardiologists benefit from its detailed intravascular imaging ability, providing real-time information of the intracoronary pathology. Researchers acknowledge the resolution, allowing detailed analysis of vessel structure. Its axial resolution level is approximately 10–15μm, which is far from any other method used in interventional cardiology. The review will address the principle of the method and the main fields of the relatively short history of the OCT use as a routine clinical imaging method. We will summarize the main OCT milestones in the research field and its possible future as well. The review will describe OCT as the method under rapid development that should be considered as a new “gold” or even “platinum” standard for the coronary vessels imaging