Preparation of Lanthanum Oxide and Lanthanum Oxycarbonate Layers on Titanium by Electrodeposition with Organic Solution

Layers of lanthanum oxide and lanthanum oxycarbonate were prepared on titanium by electrodeposition with organic solution. Four voltages ranging from 200 to 1000 V were applied for the electrodeposition at three concentrations of lanthanum ions. The organic solution was isobutanol and titanium foils were used as anodes and cathodes. Currents were monitored during the electrodeposition. Deposition layers were calcined at 700 K for 30 min or at 900 K for 60 and 200 min. The morphology and composition of the deposition layers were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Calcined deposition layers were assayed to be lanthanum oxycarbonate and lanthanum oxide. The average crystallite size was in the vicinity of 8 nm. Sizes of lanthanum oxycarbonate agglomerates in layers with 30 min electrodeposition and calcination at 700 K were ranging from 25 to 75 nm. Yields of lanthanum oxycarbonate at three concentrations of lanthanum ions were shown to be better at 400 V

Evaluation Indicators for Priorities of Standardization in Traditional Medicine: using Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP)

The entire manuscript is available for download as a single PDF file. Higher-resolution images are unavailable. For assistance, please contact [email protected]. Fieldwork Team: Philippe Beaujard (Director of Research, French National Centre for Scientific Research). Technical Team: Dr. Vika Zafrin (Digital Scholarship Librarian, BU Libraries), Eleni Castro (OpenBU and Electronic Theses & Dissertations Librarian, BU Libraries), Dr. Fallou Ngom (Director of the African Studies Center), Dr. Peter Quella (Assistant Director, African Studies Center), Mustapha Hashim Kurfi (PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science), and Zachary Gersten (Research Assistant, African Studies Center). This collection of Malagasy Ajami materials is copied as part of the African Studies Center’s African Ajami Library. This project is partly funded by the BU African Studies Center. We thank Dr. Tim Longman, past Director of the African Studies Center, and the entire African Studies team for their support. For Inquiries: Please contact Professor Fallou Ngom ([email protected]).The material is the fourth part of the second of two texts copied and owned by Jean, a diviner-healer (called ombiasy in Malagasy). Jean belonged to the Anakara Clan and lived in a village called Vatomasina in the Antemoro region (in the valley of the Matatàña River). The original author of the material is unknown. The material was photographed between 1983 and 1990. The material was written on paper school notebooks. While the exact content of material is unknown, it is believed to contain guidance for charms, divination, and healing through prayers, geomancy, and astrology

Revisiting the Seasonal Variations of Sea-Air CO2 Fluxes in the Northern East China Sea

Temperature, salinity, chlorophyll a (Chl-a), nitrate, and sea-air differences of CO2 partial pressure (ΔpCO2) were extensively investigated in the northern East China Sea (ECS) during seven research cruises from 2003 to 2009. The ΔpCO2 showed large intraseasonal variation in the spring and summer. In spring, the areal mean ΔpCO2 in May 2004 was almost half of that in April 2008, probably associated with differences in sea surface temperature (SST). In summer, the areal mean ΔpCO2 in August 2003 was also twice as large as that in July 2006. In addition, ΔpCO2 exhibited large seasonal variation with positive values in autumn and negative values in other seasons. The positive ΔpCO2 in autumn was ascribed to vertical mixing with CO2-enriched subsurface waters and relatively high SST in this season. The annually integrated sea-air CO2 flux in the northern ECS was -2.2 ± 2.1 mol m-2 yr-1, indicating CO2 absorption from atmosphere to the sea, which was more than two times lower than the previous estimate (Shim et al. 2007) reported for the same region. This large difference was presumably responsible for the underestimation of winter CO2 influx by Shim et al. (2007) and the large interannual variation of CO2 flux. The CO2 influx in the ECS was twice that estimated for continental shelves worldwide, suggesting that the ECS acts as a strong sink of atmospheric CO2 compared to other continental shelves

Submillimeter Observations of Dense Clumps in the Infrared Dark Cloud G049.40-00.01

We obtained 350 and 850 micron continuum maps of the infrared dark cloud G049.40-00.01. Twenty-one dense clumps were identified within G049.40-00.01 based on the 350 micron continuum map with an angular resolution of about 9.6". We present submillimeter continuum maps and report physical properties of the clumps. The masses of clumps range from 50 to 600 M_sun. About 70% of the clumps are associated with bright 24 micron emission sources, and they may contain protostars. The most massive two clumps show extended, enhanced 4.5 micron emission indicating vigorous star-forming activity. The clump size-mass distribution suggests that many of them are forming high mass stars. G049.40-00.01 contains numerous objects in various evolutionary stages of star formation, from pre-protostellar clumps to HII regions.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication in Ap

Individualized ibuprofen treatment using serial B-type natriuretic peptide measurement for symptomatic patent ductus arteriosus in very preterm infants

PurposePlasma level of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), an emerging, sensitive, and specific biomarker of hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), rapidly decreases in infants receiving cyclooxygenase inhibitors for ductal closure. We investigated the usefulness of serial BNP measurement as a guide for individual identification of early constrictive responses to ibuprofen in preterm infants with symptomatic PDA (sPDA).MethodsBefore March 2010, the standard course of pharmacological treatment was initiated with indomethacin (or ibuprofen) and routinely followed by 2 additional doses at intervals of 24 hours. After April 2010, individualized pharmacological treatment was used, starting with the first dose of ibuprofen and withholding additional ibuprofen doses if the BNP concentration was <600 pg/mL and clinical symptoms of PDA improved.ResultsThe BNP-guided group received significantly fewer doses of ibuprofen than the standard group did during the first course of treatment and the entire study period. The need for further doses of cyclooxygenase inhibitors and for surgical ligation was not significantly different between the 2 groups. No significant differences were seen in clinical outcomes and/or complications related to sPDA and/or pharmacological treatment.ConclusionIndividualized BNP-guided pharmacological treatment may be used clinically to avoid unnecessary doses of cyclooxygenase inhibitors without increasing the ductal closure failure and the short-term morbidity related to sPDA

History of Seoul&rsquo;s Parks and Green Space Policies: Focusing on Policy Changes in Urban Development

Globally, urban areas have been expanding rapidly since industrialization. In South Korea, urban policy has evolved according to urban development, but the change in parks and green spaces policy for a pleasant urban environment is insignificant. The purpose of this study is to present the direction of the Seoul Metropolitan Government&rsquo;s parks and green spaces policy in terms of green infrastructure, by examining urban policies and changes in the parks and green spaces policy of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The research method established the concepts of urbanization, green park areas, and green infrastructure, focusing on a literature review. The trends in urban development in South Korea and abroad, the correlation between urban development and green park areas, and changes in the parks and green spaces policy of Seoul are examined. The study found that urbanization in South Korea has augmented since 1960, and the parks and green spaces policy has also focused on quantitative expansion. As the era of local autonomy passed, there were remarkable policy changes tailored to citizens&rsquo; needs, and major policy directions were determined according to the political inclinations of policymakers. The era of low growth adopted the policy of introducing green park areas as green infrastructure to solve urban environmental problems, and parks and green spaces policies as strategic plans to re-naturalize smart green cities and urban infrastructure, and to increase urban resilience using advanced technology. Future research is expected regarding consistent policy implementation measures linked to the state-regions, such as analyzing citizens&rsquo; perceptions of policies to solve urban problems and taking practical measures for the implementation of parks and green spaces policies to expand green infrastructure. The implication of the study is that the green infrastructure strategy is important as a solution to urban environmental issues such as climate change. Therefore, there should be a will of policymakers and strong institutional support for continuous policy promotion

Prediction of Drug Classes with a Deep Neural Network using Drug Targets and Chemical Structure Data

Drugs are classified according to their biological and chemical reactions, and the systems that they target. Thus, an accurate and efficient prediction method for drug class discovery would reveal key properties of candidate drugs, significantly conserving time and resources in drug repositioning and design. Previous approaches, based on data mining or statistics, required complicated feature construction in advance. Knowing that deep learning can identifying patterns in high-dimensional datasets without elaborate feature selection or engineering, we constructed a model for predicting drug classes using deep neural networks - with biological and chemical structure data. Our proposed model outperforms previous learning-based methods in terms of prediction accuracy.N

An Efficient Addressing Scheme and Its Routing Algorithm for a Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Network

So far, various addressing and routing algorithms have been extensively studied for wireless sensor networks (WSNs), but many of them were limited to cover less than hundreds of sensor nodes. It is largely due to stringent requirements for fully distributed coordination among sensor nodes, leading to the wasteful use of available address space. As there is a growing need for a large-scale WSN, it will be extremely challenging to support more than thousands of nodes, using existing standard bodies. Moreover, it is highly unlikely to change the existing standards, primarily due to backward compatibility issue. In response, we propose an elegant addressing scheme and its routing algorithm. While maintaining the existing address scheme, it tackles the wastage problem and achieves no additional memory storage during a routing. We also present an adaptive routing algorithm for location-aware applications, using our addressing scheme. Through a series of simulations, we prove that our approach can achieve two times lesser routing time than the existing standard in a ZigBee network