Scalar-field quintessence by cosmic shear: CFHT data analysis and forecasts for DUNE

A light scalar field, minimally or not-minimally coupled to the metric field, is a well-defined candidate for the dark energy, overcoming the coincidence problem intrinsic to the cosmological constant and avoiding the difficulties of parameterizations. We present a general description of the weak gravitational lensing valid for every metric theory of gravity, including vector and tensor perturbations for a non-flat spatial metric. Based on this description, we investigate two minimally-coupled scalar field quintessence models using VIRMOS-Descart and CFHTLS cosmic shear data, and forecast the constraints for the proposed space-borne wide-field imager DUNE.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. To appear in proceedings of IRGAC06 (Barcelona, July 06

Classification of image distortions in terms of Petrov types

An observer surrounded by sufficiently small spherical light sources at a fixed distance will see a pattern of elliptical images distributed over the sky, owing to the distortion effect (shearing effect) of the spacetime geometry upon light bundles. In lowest non-trivial order with respect to the distance, this pattern is completely determined by the conformal curvature tensor (Weyl tensor) at the observation event. In this paper we derive formulas that allow to calculate these distortion patterns in terms of the Newman-Penrose formalism. Then we represent the distortion patterns graphically for all Petrov types, and we discuss their dependence on the velocity of the observer.Comment: 22 pages, 8 eps-figures; revised version, parts of Introduction and Conclusions rewritte

Dysphagia in Intensive Care Evaluation (DICE): An International Cross-Sectional Survey.

Dysphagia occurs commonly in the intensive care unit (ICU). Despite the clinical relevance, there is little worldwide research on prevention, assessment, evaluation, and/or treatment of dysphagia for ICU patients. We aimed to gain insight into this international knowledge gap. We conducted a multi-center, international online cross-sectional survey of adult ICUs. Local survey distribution champions were recruited through professional and personal networks. The survey was administered from November 2017 to June 2019 with three emails and a final telephone reminder. Responses were received from 746 ICUs (26 countries). In patients intubated > 48 h, 17% expected a > 50% chance that dysphagia would develop. This proportion increased to 43% in patients intubated > 7 days, and to 52% in tracheotomized patients. Speech-language pathologist (SLP) consultation was available in 66% of ICUs, only 4% reported a dedicated SLP. Although 66% considered a routine post-extubation dysphagia protocol important, most (67%) did not have a protocol. Few ICUs routinely assessed for dysphagia after 48 h of intubation (30%) or tracheostomy (41%). A large proportion (46%) used water swallow screening tests to determine aspiration, few (8%) used instrumental assessments (i.e., flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing). Swallowing exercises were used for dysphagia management by 30% of ICUs. There seems to be limited awareness among ICU practitioners that patients are at risk of dysphagia, particularly as ventilation persists, protocols, routine assessment, and instrumental assessments are generally not used. We recommend the development of a research agenda to increase the quality of evidence and ameliorate the implementation of evidence-based dysphagia protocols by dedicated SLPs

The oxidation reactions of selected functional groups using oxone® as a source of molecular oxygen

Oxidation reactions belong to the group of the most commonly used processes in both organic and inorganic chemistry. The main issues in such transformation are usually safe handling of the oxidants as well as waste generation. Peroxymonosulfuric acid is one of the strongest oxidants. It was described for the first time in 1898 by Heinrich Caro. Nowadays, the commercial sources of KHSO5 are low-cost industrial bulk chemicals, e.g., the triple salt Oxone® (2KHSO5· KHSO4·K2SO4). These products are stable oxidizing agents commonly used in fine chemicals synthesis, and are easy to handle, non-toxic as well as generate non-polluting by-products. Over the past several years the scope of its use has extended. One of the most important transformation that have been made possible with the use of Oxone® are epoxidation and ketone formation. Epoxides and ketones are important synthetic building blocks widely used in the chemical industry for the production of pharmaceutical products, flavours, fragrances, resins, adhesives and paints. The use of Oxone® was demonstrated in several combinations both in classical methods that involved metal catalysis as well as in novel approaches with the use of microwaves and ionic liquids. Over the past 20 years, ionic liquids, together with supercritical fluids and water, have become powerful alternatives to conventional organic solvents. Ionic liquids are salts having in the structure an organic cation and an inorganic or organic anion, with a melting point below 100°C. The advantage of using ionic liquids is a big variety of available structures. Combinations of both ionic liquids and Oxone® offer an interesting alternative to classical oxidation methods used in industry

Low resistance, highly corrugated structures based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with a d-glucopyranoside-derived ionic liquid

Conjugated polymers have gained significant interest as highly conducting organic materials with versatile surface morphology. In this study, we demonstrate that the electrodeposition of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), PEDOT, in the presence of a d-glucopyranoside-derived ionic liquid (IL) results in the formation of highly corrugated three-dimensional structures. The as-formed PEDOT/IL is found to outperform PEDOT electrodeposited in the presence of a conventional electrolyte (KCl) in terms of the low impedance at the biologically relevant frequency (1 kHz) and low charge transfer resistance. Consequently, it can be inferred that the unique surface morphology and beneficial electrochemical performance will facilitate the application of PEDOT/IL in biomedical engineering, especially in the field of neural interfaces and tissue scaffolds.This publication has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland and is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund (13/RC/2073). This project has received funding from the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 713690, National Science Centre in Poland (2016/23/D/ST5/01306) and Rector’s grant in the area of scientific and development research, Silesian University of Technology (04/040/RGJ19/0096). Authors acknowledge the facilities, scientific and technical assistance of the Center for Microscopy & Imaging at the NUIG, a facility that is funded by NUIG and the Irish Government's Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, Cycles 4 and 5, National Development Plan 2007–2013.peer-reviewe

Low resistance, highly corrugated structures based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with a d-glucopyranoside-derived ionic liquid

Conjugated polymers have gained significant interest as highly conducting organic materials with versatile surface morphology. In this study, we demonstrate that the electrodeposition of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), PEDOT, in the presence of a d-glucopyranoside-derived ionic liquid (IL) results in the formation of highly corrugated three-dimensional structures. The as-formed PEDOT/IL is found to outperform PEDOT electrodeposited in the presence of a conventional electrolyte (KCl) in terms of the low impedance at the biologically relevant frequency (1 kHz) and low charge transfer resistance. Consequently, it can be inferred that the unique surface morphology and beneficial electrochemical performance will facilitate the application of PEDOT/IL in biomedical engineering, especially in the field of neural interfaces and tissue scaffolds.This publication has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland and is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund (13/RC/2073). This project has received funding from the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 713690, National Science Centre in Poland (2016/23/D/ST5/01306) and Rector’s grant in the area of scientific and development research, Silesian University of Technology (04/040/RGJ19/0096). Authors acknowledge the facilities, scientific and technical assistance of the Center for Microscopy & Imaging at the NUIG, a facility that is funded by NUIG and the Irish Government's Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, Cycles 4 and 5, National Development Plan 2007–2013.peer-reviewe

Characterization of Transglutaminase 2 activity inhibitors in monocytes in vitro and their effect in a mouse model for multiple sclerosis.

The neurodegenerative disease multiple sclerosis (MS) is pathologically characterized by the massive influx of immune cells into the central nervous system. This contributes to demyelination and axonal damage which causes symptoms such as motor and cognitive dysfunctions. The migration of leukocytes from the blood vessel is orchestrated by a multitude of factors whose determination is essential in reducing cellular influx in MS patients and the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) animal model. The here studied enzyme tissue Transglutaminase (TG2) is present intracellularly, on the cell surface and extracellularly. There it contributes to cellular adhesion and migration via its transamidation activity and possibly by facilitating cellular interaction with the extracellular matrix. Previous data from our group showed reduced motor symptoms and cellular infiltration after using a pharmacological TG2 transamidation activity inhibitor in a rat EAE model. However, it remained elusive if the cross-linking activity of the enzyme resulted in the observed effects. To follow-up, we now characterized two new small molecule TG2 activity inhibitors, BJJF078 and ERW1041E. Both compounds are potent inhibitor of recombinant human and mouse Transglutaminase enzyme activity, mainly TG2 and the close related enzyme TG1. In addition they did not affect the binding of TG2 to the extracellular matrix substrate fibronectin, a process via which TG2 promotes cellular adhesion and migration. We found, that ERW1041E but not BJJF078 resulted in reduced EAE disease motor-symptoms while neither caused apparent changes in pathology (cellular influx), Transglutaminase activity or expression of inflammation related markers in the spinal cord, compared to vehicle treated controls. Although we cannot exclude issues on bioavailability and in vivo efficacy of the used compounds, we hypothesize that extracellular TG1/TG2 activity is of greater importance than (intra-)cellular activity in mouse EAE pathology