475 research outputs found
Synthesis of Spinel Ferrites in Radiofrequency Thermal Plasma Reactor
Formation of nanosized zinc-ferrites and nickel-zinc ferrites from iron- and
zinc oxide powders and corresponding nitrate solutions, respectively, was studied in RF
thermal plasma conditions. The products were characterized for chemical composition,
phase conditions, particle size distribution, morphologies and saturation magnetization.
Effects of synthesis conditions on properties of products were studied in details
Synthesis of Zinc Ferrites in RF Thermal Plasma Reactor
Formation of nanosized zinc ferrite spinels was studied
from iron- and zinc oxide powders and corresponding
nitrate solutions, respectively in a radiofrequency thermal
plasma reactor. From the viewpoint of applications,
the research was motivated by the potential use of these
materials in advanced magnetic devices on the one
hand, and by their biomedical applications such as drug
carriers or agents for cancer treatment by hyperthermia
on the other. In this work effects of synthesis conditions
on properties of products were studied in details. The
products were characterised for chemical composition,
phase conditions, particle size distribution, morphologies
and saturation magnetisation. Most products exhibited
ferrimagnetic behaviour. Correlations among domain-
and particle sizes were also investigated. Conditions
for the synthesis of nanosized, inverse zinc ferrites
of high saturation magnetisation were established. It
was proved that in thermal plasma conditions normal
and inverse ferrites could be produced in a single step
process
Economic Sustainability and Intergenerational Fairness: A New Taxonomy of Indicators
The aim of this paper is to facilitate informed choice about indicators of economic sustainability and intergenerational fairness and decisions about their uses. We focus on four issues. First, we found that the same type of indicator measured at different levels - such as the general government, the (market) economy or the total economy, which includes both the market economy and the household economy - often leads to different conclusions. Second, sustainability analysis is frequently built on exogenously set age limits even though it is obvious that old age does not everywhere start at age 65; it did not always start there where it does today; and most likely it will not start there in the future. Third, we use our taxonomy of more than 80 indicators to spot holes, shortcomings and absences. Fourth, we show some structural differences between indicators of sustainability and fairness
The protection of the State secret in the legal history of Europe
The legal regulation of the protection of the state secret have appeared relatively late in European legal history over the last two centuries. The secrecy provisions have always been in accordance with the standards of the given age, in most cases relatively neutral regulations, and a certain development arc can be observed. It can be seen in the gradual modernization of the rules and, on the other hand, in the increase in the number of guarantee elements from the end of the socialist era. With regard to criminal law, there is a tendency for criminal offenses regarding to state to gradually less and less severe. The various rules of state secrecy and related crimes has eased in most European countries' criminal law regulation since 1989
Heart rate variability analysis
The expansion of heart rate variability analysis has been facilitated by the remarkable development of computer sciences and digital signal processing during the last thirty years. The beat-to-beat fluctuation of the heart rate originates from the momentary summing of sympathetic and parasympathetic influences on the sinus node. According to the extensive associations of the autonomic nervous system, several factors affect heart rate and its variability such as posture, respiration frequency, age, gender, physical or mental load, pain, numerous disease conditions, and different drugs. Heart rate variability can be quantitatively measured by time domain and frequency domain methods that are detailed in the paper. Non-linear methods have not spread in the clinical practice yet. Various cardiovascular and other pathologies as well as different forms of mental and physical load are associated with altered heart rate variability offering the possibility of predicting disease outcome and assessing stress
Pose Estimation for Vehicle-mounted Cameras via Horizontal and Vertical Planes
We propose two novel solvers for estimating the egomotion of a calibrated
camera mounted to a moving vehicle from a single affine correspondence via
recovering special homographies. For the first class of solvers, the sought
plane is expected to be perpendicular to one of the camera axes. For the second
class, the plane is orthogonal to the ground with unknown normal, e.g., it is a
building facade. Both methods are solved via a linear system with a small
coefficient matrix, thus, being extremely efficient. Both the minimal and
over-determined cases can be solved by the proposed methods. They are tested on
synthetic data and on publicly available real-world datasets. The novel methods
are more accurate or comparable to the traditional algorithms and are faster
when included in state of the art robust estimators
Domination of the rectangular queen's graph
The queen's graph has the squares of the
chessboard as its vertices; two squares are adjacent if they are in the same
row, column, or diagonal of the board. A set of squares of
is a dominating set for if every square of is
either in or adjacent to a square in . The minimum size of a dominating
set of is the domination number, denoted by . Values of
are given here, in each case with a file of minimum dominating sets (often all
of them, up to symmetry) in an online appendix at
https://www.combinatorics.org/ojs/index.php/eljc/article/view/v26i4p45/HTML. In
these ranges for and , monotonicity fails once: . Lower bounds on are given. In
particular, if then . A set of squares is independent if no two of its squares
are adjacent. The minimum size of an independent dominating set of is the independent domination number, denoted by .
Values of are given here,
in each case with some minimum dominating sets. In these ranges for and
, monotonicity fails twice: , and
Key Components of the Complement Lectin Pathway Are Not Only Required for the Development of Inflammatory Arthritis but Also Regulate the Transcription of Factor D
The complement system plays an important role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Besides driving lectin pathway (LP) activation, the mannan-binding lectin (MBL)-associated serine proteases (MASPs) also play a key role in regulating the alternative pathway (AP). We evaluated the effects of N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc)-conjugated MASP-1 and MASP-2 duplexes in vitro and in mice with and without arthritis to examine whether knockdown of MASP-1 and MASP-2 expression affects the development of arthritis. GalNAc-siRNAs for MASP-1 and MASP-2 demonstrated robust silencing of MASP-1 or MASP-2 at pM concentrations in vitro. To evaluate the impact of silencing in arthritic mice, we used the collagen antibody-induced arthritis (CAIA) mouse model of RA. Mice were injected a 10 mg/kg dose of GalNAc-siRNAs 3x s.q. prior to the induction of CAIA. Liver gene expression was examined using qRT-PCR, and protein levels were confirmed in the circulation by sandwich immunoassays and Western blot. At day 10, CAIA mice separately treated with MASP-1 and MASP-2 duplexes had a specific reduction in expression of liver MASP-1 (70-95%, p < 0.05) and MASP-2 (90%, p < 0.05) mRNA, respectively. MASP-1-siRNA treatment resulted in a 95% reduction in levels of MASP-1 protein in circulation with no effect on MASP-2 levels and clinical disease activity (CDA). In mice injected with MASP-2 duplex, there was a significant (p < 0.05) 90% decrease in ex vivo C4b deposition on mannan, with nearly complete elimination of MASP-2 in the circulation. MASP-2 silencing initially significantly decreased CDA by 60% but subsequently changed to a 40% decrease vs. control. Unexpectedly, GalNAc-siRNA-mediated knockdown of MASP-1 and MASP-2 revealed a marked effect of these proteins on the transcription of FD under normal physiological conditions, whereas LPS-induced inflammatory conditions reversed this effect on FD levels. LPS is recognized by Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), we found MBL not only binds to TLR4 an interaction with a Kd of 907 nM but also upregulated FD expression in differentiated adipocytes. We show that MASP-2 knockdown impairs the development of RA and that the interrelationship between proteins of the LP and the AP may extend to the transcriptional modulation of the FD gene
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