FACILE SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF GRAPHENE NANORIBBONS/POLYPYRROLE NANOCOMPOSITE

Carbon is present in various forms such as coal, carbon nanotubes, graphene, diamond etc. Among various forms, carbon nanotubes and graphene have attracted considerable research attention due to their high thermal stability, high mechanical strength and electrical conduction. These properties largely depend on synthesis procedure. In this work, we synthesized graphene nanoribbons using carbon nanotubes for nanocomposites with polypyrrole. Chemical oxidation was used to unzip the carbon nanotubes. These graphene nanoribbons were used to fabricate nanocomposites with polypyrrole for energy storage applications. The synthesized nanocomposites were structurally and electrochemically characterized. The structural characterization was performed using X-ray diffraction, FT-IR, SEM, Raman, TGA, and BET surface area measurements. The electrochemical characterizations of these nanocomposites was carried out using cyclic voltammetry. The electrochemical properties were further analyzed using galvanostatic charge-discharge measurements. The specific capacitance of nanocomposites was observed to decrease with increasing scan rates and current densities. The electrochemical measurements showed the highest specific capacitance of 2,066 F/g for 3PPyGO, which was observed to decrease with increasing scan rates

Ethical Considerations of Online Identities

In the United States, the personal information of private citizens can end up online many times without permission. This personal information can become publicly available via the internet, where algorithmic driven internet search engines serve as a type of aggregation and retrieval system. Personal information from internet search engines can be compiled and used by frontline practitioners within organizations to form a profile i.e. an online identity about private citizens; where the online identity can be used for making decisions which may cause undue harm. It is not clear if organizations and private citizens are aware of the implications of this phenomenon. This paper discusses emerging concerns regarding the use of internet search engines to form online identities for decision-making and provides an ethical framework in the form of a series of questions to help guide the use of internet search engines and online identities in the day-to-day decision-making processes of frontline practitioners within organizations

A community effort to create standards for evaluating tumor subclonal reconstruction

Methods for reconstructing tumor evolution are benchmarked in the DREAM Somatic Mutation Calling Tumour Heterogeneity Challenge. Tumor DNA sequencing data can be interpreted by computational methods that analyze genomic heterogeneity to infer evolutionary dynamics. A growing number of studies have used these approaches to link cancer evolution with clinical progression and response to therapy. Although the inference of tumor phylogenies is rapidly becoming standard practice in cancer genome analyses, standards for evaluating them are lacking. To address this need, we systematically assess methods for reconstructing tumor subclonality. First, we elucidate the main algorithmic problems in subclonal reconstruction and develop quantitative metrics for evaluating them. Then we simulate realistic tumor genomes that harbor all known clonal and subclonal mutation types and processes. Finally, we benchmark 580 tumor reconstructions, varying tumor read depth, tumor type and somatic variant detection. Our analysis provides a baseline for the establishment of gold-standard methods to analyze tumor heterogeneity.Peer reviewe

Clinical outcomes after first-line HIV treatment failure in South Africa: the next cascade of care

Introduction There is limited literature on the appropriateness of viral load (VL) monitoring and management of detectable VL in public health settings in rural South Africa. Methods We analysed data captured in the electronic patient register from HIV‐positive patients ≥ 15 years old initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 17 public sector clinics in rural KwaZulu‐Natal, during 2010–2016. We estimated the completion rate for VL monitoring at 6, 12, and 24 months. We described the cascade of care for those with any VL measurement ≥ 1000 HIV‐1 RNA copies/mL after ≥ 20 weeks on ART, including the following proportions: (1) repeat VL within 6 months; (2) re‐suppressed; (3) switched to second‐line regimen. Results There were 29 384 individuals who initiated ART during the period [69% female, median age 31 years (interquartile range 25–39)]. Of those in care at 6, 12, and 24 months, 40.7% (9861/24 199), 34% (7765/22 807), and 25.5% (4334/16 965) had a VL test at each recommended time‐point, respectively. The VL results were documented at all recommended time‐points for 12% (2730/22 807) and 6.2% (1054/16 965) of ART‐treated patients for 12 and 24 months, respectively. Only 391 (18.3%) of 2135 individuals with VL ≥ 1000 copies/mL on first‐line ART had a repeat VL documenting re‐suppression or were appropriately changed to second‐line with persistent failure. Completion of the treatment failure cascade occurred a median of 338 days after failure was detected. Conclusion We found suboptimal VL monitoring and poor responses to virologic failure in public‐sector ART clinics in rural South Arica. Implications include increased likelihood of morbidity and transmission of drug‐resistant HIV

心理療法の中での夢の持つ意味 : 転機を暗示する夢の紹介

心理面接を継続している中で報告される夢には、さまざまな意味があるが、面接の流れの中でクライエントにとってとても重要な意味のある夢であることがある。本稿では、筆者の経験した継続面接の中で、クライエントの転機を暗示する夢をいくつか経験したので報告するしだいである。夢がこんなにも鮮やかに人に影響を与えるものであるかということを知らされる結果になった

Prevalence of Novel Candidate Sjogren Syndrome Autoantibodies in the Dry Eye Assessment and Management (DREAM) Study.

PurposeTo evaluate the prevalence of novel candidate Sjogren syndrome (SS) autoantibodies [salivary protein-1 (SP-1), parotid secretory protein, carbonic anhydrase 6] in the DRy Eye Assessment and Management (DREAM) cohort, a study evaluating the effectiveness of omega-3 fatty acid supplements for the treatment of dry eye.MethodsParticipants underwent ocular surface examinations and serological testing for traditional and novel SS autoantibodies. Dry eye assessment and management participants were categorized into the following 3 groups: 1) no history of SS or other autoimmune diseases and negative traditional SS autoantibodies (n = 352); 2) no history of SS but a history of other autoimmune diseases (n = 66); and 3) those who met the 2012 American College of Rheumatology SS classification criteria (n = 52).ResultsEleven percent had a history of SS, and 6% of those without a history of SS most likely had undiagnosed SS. The SS group had a higher prevalence of SP-1 autoantibodies than the group without SS or other autoimmune diseases (33% vs. 19%; P = 0.02) but had no difference in carbonic anhydrase 6 (P = 0.31) or parotid secretory protein autoantibodies (P = 0.33). Participants who were positive for the traditional autoantibodies alone or positive for both traditional and novel autoantibodies had the highest scores for corneal (P = 0.002) and conjunctival staining (P < 0.001).ConclusionsData from this multicenter, prospective study demonstrated that one of the novel candidate autoantibodies, SP-1, is associated with underlying SS and that novel autoantibodies may be associated with worse ocular surface disease. Future longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate their utility in screening patients with dry eye for SS

Gestió dels recursos hídrics del Monestir Budista Sakya Tashi Ling

Amb la finalitat de millorar l'autosuficiència hídrica del monestir budista del Garraf Sakya Tashi Ling, es fa una avaluació de l'estat dels recursos hídrics d'aquest sistema, així com els seus usos i punts de consum. L'avaluació s'ha realitzat mitjançant la integració i ús deCon el fin de mejorar la autosuficiencia hídrica del monasterio budista del Garraf Sakya Tashi Ling, se hace una evaluación del estado de los recursos hídricos de esteIn order to improve the water self-sufficiency of Garraf's Buddhist monastery Sakya Tashi Ling, this project provide