Resin-supported iridium complex for low-temperature vanillin hydrogenation using formic acid in water

Biorefinery seeks to utilize biomass waste streams as a source of chemical precursors with which to feed the chemical industry. This goal seeks to replace petroleum as the main feedstock,} however this task requires the development of efficient catalysts capable of transforming substances derived from biomass into useful chemical products. In this study{,} we demonstrate that a highly-active iridium complex can be solid-supported and used as a low-temperature catalyst for both the decomposition of formic acid (FA) to produce hydrogen{,} and as a hydrogenation catalyst to produce vanillyl alcohol (VA) and 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (MMP) from vanillin (V); a lignin-derived feedstock. These hydrogenation products are promising precursors for epoxy resins and thus demonstrate an approach for their production without the need for petroleum. In contrast to other catalysts that require temperatures exceeding 100 °C{,} here we accomplish this at a temperature of <50 °C in water under autogenous pressure. This approach provides an avenue towards biorefinery with lower energy demands{, which is central to the decentralization and broad implementation. We found that the high activity of the iridium complex transfers to the solid-support and is capable of accelerating the rate determining step; the decomposition of FA into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The yield of both VA and MMP can be independently tuned depending on the temperature. The simplicity of this approach expands the utility of molecular metal complexes and provides new catalyst opportunities in biorefinery

Characterizing Operations Preserving Separability Measures via Linear Preserver Problems

We use classical results from the theory of linear preserver problems to characterize operators that send the set of pure states with Schmidt rank no greater than k back into itself, extending known results characterizing operators that send separable pure states to separable pure states. We also provide a new proof of an analogous statement in the multipartite setting. We use these results to develop a bipartite version of a classical result about the structure of maps that preserve rank-1 operators and then characterize the isometries for two families of norms that have recently been studied in quantum information theory. We see in particular that for k at least 2 the operator norms induced by states with Schmidt rank k are invariant only under local unitaries, the swap operator and the transpose map. However, in the k = 1 case there is an additional isometry: the partial transpose map.Comment: 16 pages, typos corrected, references added, proof of Theorem 4.3 simplified and clarifie

High Performance Accountable Care: Building on Success and Learning From Experience

Presents the rationale for creating accountable care organizations, promising models, and the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System's recommendations for implementing ACOs widely to achieve improved quality and efficiency

Giant Multipole Resonances in the (3-He,t) Reaction at 200 MeV

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grants NSF PHY 78-22774 A03, NSF PHY 81-14339, and by Indiana Universit

Comparative Effectiveness of a Technology-Facilitated Depression Care Management Model in Safety-Net Primary Care Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: 6-Month Outcomes of a Large Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND: Comorbid depression is a significant challenge for safety-net primary care systems. Team-based collaborative depression care is effective, but complex system factors in safety-net organizations impede adoption and result in persistent disparities in outcomes. Diabetes-Depression Care-management Adoption Trial (DCAT) evaluated whether depression care could be significantly improved by harnessing information and communication technologies to automate routine screening and monitoring of patient symptoms and treatment adherence and allow timely communication with providers. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare 6-month outcomes of a technology-facilitated care model with a usual care model and a supported care model that involved team-based collaborative depression care for safety-net primary care adult patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: DCAT is a translational study in collaboration with Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the second largest safety-net care system in the United States. A comparative effectiveness study with quasi-experimental design was conducted in three groups of adult patients with type 2 diabetes to compare three delivery models: usual care, supported care, and technology-facilitated care. Six-month outcomes included depression and diabetes care measures and patient-reported outcomes. Comparative treatment effects were estimated by linear or logistic regression models that used generalized propensity scores to adjust for sampling bias inherent in the nonrandomized design. RESULTS: DCAT enrolled 1406 patients (484 in usual care, 480 in supported care, and 442 in technology-facilitated care), most of whom were Hispanic or Latino and female. Compared with usual care, both the supported care and technology-facilitated care groups were associated with significant reduction in depressive symptoms measured by scores on the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (least squares estimate, LSE: usual care=6.35, supported care=5.05, technology-facilitated care=5.16; P value: supported care vs usual care=.02, technology-facilitated care vs usual care=.02); decreased prevalence of major depression (odds ratio, OR: supported care vs usual care=0.45, technology-facilitated care vs usual care=0.33; P value: supported care vs usual care=.02, technology-facilitated care vs usual care=.007); and reduced functional disability as measured by Sheehan Disability Scale scores (LSE: usual care=3.21, supported care=2.61, technology-facilitated care=2.59; P value: supported care vs usual care=.04, technology-facilitated care vs usual care=.03). Technology-facilitated care was significantly associated with depression remission (technology-facilitated care vs usual care: OR=2.98, P=.04); increased satisfaction with care for emotional problems among depressed patients (LSE: usual care=3.20, technology-facilitated care=3.70; P=.05); reduced total cholesterol level (LSE: usual care=176.40, technology-facilitated care=160.46; P=.01); improved satisfaction with diabetes care (LSE: usual care=4.01, technology-facilitated care=4.20; P=.05); and increased odds of taking an glycated hemoglobin test (technology-facilitated care vs usual care: OR=3.40, P\u3c.001). CONCLUSIONS: Both the technology-facilitated care and supported care delivery models showed potential to improve 6-month depression and functional disability outcomes. The technology-facilitated care model has a greater likelihood to improve depression remission, patient satisfaction, and diabetes care quality

Detection of Neptune-size planetary candidates with CoRoT data. Comparison with the planet occurrence rate derived from Kepler

[Abridged] Context. The CoRoT space mission has been searching for transiting planets since the end of December 2006. Aims. We aim to investigate the capability of CoRoT to detect small-size transiting planets in short-period orbits, and to compare the number of CoRoT planets with 2 \leq R_p \leq 4 Rearth with the occurrence rate of small-size planets provided by the distribution of Kepler planetary candidates (Howard et al. 2012). Methods. We performed a test that simulates transits of super-Earths and Neptunes in real CoRoT light curves and searches for them blindly by using the LAM transit detection pipeline. Results. The CoRoT detection rate of planets with radius between 2 and 4 Rearth and orbital period P \leq 20 days is 59% (31%) around stars brighter than r'=14.0 (15.5). By properly taking the CoRoT detection rate for Neptune-size planets and the transit probability into account, we found that according to the Kepler planet occurrence rate, CoRoT should have discovered 12 \pm 2 Neptunes orbiting G and K dwarfs with P \leq 17 days in six observational runs. This estimate must be compared with the validated Neptune CoRoT-24b and five CoRoT planetary candidates in the considered range of planetary radii. We thus found a disagreement with expectations from Kepler at 3 \sigma or 5 \sigma, assuming a blend fraction of 0% (six Neptunes) and 100% (one Neptune) for these candidates. Conclusions. This underabundance of CoRoT Neptunes with respect to Kepler may be due to several reasons. Regardless of the origin of the disagreement, which needs to be investigated in more detail, the noticeable deficiency of CoRoT Neptunes at short orbital periods seems to indirectly support the general trend found in Kepler data, i.e. that the frequency of small-size planets increases with increasing orbital periods and decreasing planet radii.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

The EBLM project – VIII. First results for M-dwarf mass, radius, and effective temperature measurements using CHEOPS light curves

The accuracy of theoretical mass, radius, and effective temperature values for M-dwarf stars is an active topic of debate. Differences between observed and theoretical values have raised the possibility that current theoretical stellar structure and evolution models are inaccurate towards the low-mass end of the main sequence. To explore this issue, we use the CHEOPS satellite to obtain high-precision light curves of eclipsing binaries with low-mass stellar companions. We use these light curves combined with the spectroscopic orbit for the solar-type companion to measure the mass, radius, and effective temperature of the M-dwarf star. Here, we present the analysis of three eclipsing binaries. We use the pycheops data analysis software to fit the observed transit and eclipse events of each system. Two of our systems were also observed by the TESS satellite – we similarly analyse these light curves for comparison. We find consistent results between CHEOPS and TESS, presenting three stellar radii and two stellar effective temperature values of low-mass stellar objects. These initial results from our on-going observing programme with CHEOPS show that we can expect to have ∼24 new mass, radius, and effective temperature measurements for very low-mass stars within the next few years

Removing systematics from the CoRoT light curves: I. Magnitude-Dependent Zero Point

This paper presents an analysis that searched for systematic effects within the CoRoT exoplanet field light curves. The analysis identified a systematic effect that modified the zero point of most CoRoT exposures as a function of stellar magnitude. We could find this effect only after preparing a set of learning light curves that were relatively free of stellar and instrumental noise. Correcting for this effect, rejecting outliers that appear in almost every exposure, and applying SysRem, reduced the stellar RMS by about 20 %, without attenuating transit signals.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic