226 research outputs found
Surface Modification of Polyethylene with Multi-End-Functional Polyethylene Additives
We have prepared and characterized a series of multifluorocarbon end-functional polyethylene additives, which when blended with polyethylene matrices increase surface hydrophobicity and lipophobicity. Water contact angles of >112° were observed on spin-cast blended film surfaces containing less than 1% fluorocarbon in the bulk, compared to 98° in the absence of any additive. Crystallinity in these films gives rise to surface roughness that is an order of magnitude greater than is typical for amorphous spin-cast films but is too little to give rise to superhydrophobicity. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirms the enrichment of the multifluorocarbon additives at the air surface by up to 80 times the bulk concentration. Ion beam analysis was used to quantify the surface excess of the additives as a function of composition, functionality, and molecular weight of either blend component. In some cases, an excess of the additives was also found at the substrate interface, indicating phase separation into self-stratified layers. The combination of neutron reflectometry and ion beam analysis allowed the surface excess to be quantified above and below the melting point of the blended films. In these films, where the melting temperatures of the additive and matrix components are relatively similar (within 15 °C), the surface excess is almost independent of whether the blended film is semicrystalline or molten, suggesting that the additive undergoes cocrystallization with the matrix when the blended films are allowed to cool below the melting point
Cost and cost-effectiveness analysis of mass drug administration compared to school-based targeted preventive chemotherapy for hookworm control in Dak Lak province, Vietnam
Background: School-based targeted preventive chemotherapy (PC), the main strategy for soil-transmitted helminths (STH) control, excludes other at-risk populations including adults and preschool children. Mass drug administration (MDA), covering all age groups, would bring additional health benefits but also requires greater investment. This cost survey and cost-effectiveness analysis compared MDA with school-based targeted PC for STH control in Dak Lak, Vietnam, where STH are endemic. Methods: A cost survey was conducted in 2020 to estimate the total and per person economic and financial cost of each strategy. Monte Carlo simulation accounted for uncertainty in cost estimates. The primary effectiveness measure was hookworm-related disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted, and secondary measures were hookworm infection-years averted and moderate-to-heavy intensity hookworm infection-years averted. A Markov model was used to determine the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of MDA compared to school-based targeted PC using a government payer perspective and a ten-year time horizon. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses (PSA) were performed. Costs are reported in 2020 USD (0.27 for MDA and 472,000 per year, while school-based targeted PC will cost 28.55 per DALY averted; 4.54 per moderate-to-heavy intensity hookworm infection-years averted. MDA was cost-effective in all PSA iterations. Interpretation: In areas where hookworm predominates and adults suffer a significant burden of infection, MDA is cost effective compared to school based targeted PC and is the best strategy to achieve global targets. \</p
The European construction social partners: gender equality in theory and practice
This article explores the social partners' role in the gender equality
agenda in construction at skilled operative level. It draws on a survey of the
European construction social partners that investigated the presence of women in
skilled trades and the policies, collective agreements and practices that play a role in women's integration. The responses indicate that the construction industry still
displays inertia and conservatism, and that the social partners corroborate rather
than counter this. They express a 'discourse' of gender equality, but this does not
automatically lead to equal opportunity policies or programmes. The social partners
have the platform to make inroads and to change the industry from within, but need
further encouragement to put this on their agenda
An empirical study of normative dissociation in musical and non-musical everyday life experiences
Dissociative experiences involving music have received little research attention outside the field of
ethnomusicology. This paper examines the psychological characteristics of normative dissociation
(detachment) across musical and non-musical experiences in âreal worldâ, everyday settings. It draws
upon a subset of data arising from an empirical project designed to compare transformative shifts of
consciousness, with and without music in daily life, and the ways in which use of music may facilitate
the processes of dissociation and absorption. Twenty participants kept unstructured diaries for two weeks,
recording free descriptions of involving experiences of any kind as soon as possible after their occurrence.
All descriptions were subsequently subjected to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
Results suggest that dissociative experiences are a familiar occurrence in everyday life. Diary
entries highlight an established practice of actively sought detachment from self, surroundings or
activity, suggesting that, together with absorption, the processes of derealization (altered perception
of surroundings) and depersonalization (detachment from self) constitute common means of selfregulation
in daily life. Music emerges as a particularly versatile facilitator of dissociative experience
because of its semantic ambiguity, portability, and the variety of ways in which it may mediate
perception, so facilitating an altered relationship to self and environmen
Phase II, open-label study of encorafenib plus binimetinib in patients with BRAFV600-mutant metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer
PURPOSE The combination of encorafenib (BRAF inhibitor) plus binimetinib (MEK inhibitor) has demonstrated clinical efficacy with an acceptable safety profile in patients with BRAF(V600E/K)-mutant metastatic melanoma. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of encorafenib plus binimetinib in patients with BRAF(V600E)-mutant metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).METHODS In this ongoing, open-label, single-arm, phase II study, patients with BRAF(V600E)-mutant metastatic NSCLC received oral encorafenib 450 mg once daily plus binimetinib 45 mg twice daily in 28-day cycles. The primary end point was confirmed objective response rate (ORR) by independent radiology review (IRR). Secondary end points included duration of response (DOR), disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival, time to response, and safety.RESULTS At data cutoff, 98 patients (59 treatment-naive and 39 previously treated) with BRAF(V600E)-mutant metastatic NSCLC received encorafenib plus binimetinib. Median duration of treatment was 9.2 months with encorafenib and 8.4 months with binimetinib. ORR by IRR was 75% (95% CI, 62 to 85) in treatment-naive and 46% (95% CI, 30 to 63) in previously treated patients; median DOR was not estimable (NE; 95% CI, 23.1 to NE) and 16.7 months (95% CI, 7.4 to NE), respectively. DCR after 24 weeks was 64% in treatment-naive and 41% in previously treated patients. Median PFS was NE (95% CI, 15.7 to NE) in treatment-naive and 9.3 months (95% CI, 6.2 to NE) in previously treated patients. The most frequent treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) were nausea (50%), diarrhea (43%), and fatigue (32%). TRAEs led to dose reductions in 24 (24%) and permanent discontinuation of encorafenib plus binimetinib in 15 (15%) patients. One grade 5 TRAE of intracranial hemorrhage was reported. Interactive visualization of the data presented in this article is available at the PHAROS dashboard ().CONCLUSION For patients with treatment-naive and previously treated BRAF(V600E)-mutant metastatic NSCLC, encorafenib plus binimetinib showed a meaningful clinical benefit with a safety profile consistent with that observed in the approved indication in melanoma.Pathogenesis and treatment of chronic pulmonary disease
Measurement of the cross section for isolated-photon plus jet production in pp collisions at âs=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector
The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in protonâproton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fbâ1. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti- algorithm with radius parameter and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photonâjet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photonâjet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Jetphox and Sherpa are compared to the measurements
Measurement of the View the tt production cross-section using eÎŒ events with b-tagged jets in pp collisions at âs = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section (ÏttÂŻ) with a data sample of 3.2 fbâ1 of protonâproton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of âs = 13 TeV, collected in 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This measurement uses events with an opposite-charge electronâmuon pair in the final state. Jets containing b-quarks are tagged using an algorithm based on track impact parameters and reconstructed secondary vertices. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets are counted and used to determine simultaneously ÏttÂŻ and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section is measured to be:
ÏttÂŻ = 818 ± 8 (stat) ± 27 (syst) ± 19 (lumi) ± 12 (beam) pb,
where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the LHC beam energy, giving a total relative uncertainty of 4.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. A fiducial measurement corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons is also presented
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