Wettability study and surface characterizacion by confocal laser scanning microscopy of rotary-peeled wood veneers

[ES]El objetivo de este trabajo fue estudiar las propiedades superficiales de chapas obtenidas por desenrollo de cinco especies de maderas duras: okume, ayous, chopo, fromager y eucalipto, y comparar el comportamiento de ambas caras de las chapas. Se han determinado los ángulos de contacto de equilibrio y se ha determinado la energía libre superficial de la madera así como sus componentes polar y dispersa. Asimismo, mediante microscopía de barrido láser confocal se ha evaluado la rugosidad superficial. La energía libre superficial osciló entre 49-64 mJ/m2 y disminuyó en el orden okume > fromager > chopo> ayous ~ eucalipto, lo que indica un descenso de la capacidad de mojado en ese orden. El okume con el mayor valor de la energía libre superficial y los menores valores del ángulo de contacto de equilibrio se confirmó como la especie con las mejores propiedades de mojado, siendo además la que presentó los mayores valores de los parámetros de rugosidad superficial. Comparando las propiedades superficiales para las dos caras de las chapas se encontró que dependieron de la especie, pero en general, con la excepción de la rugosidad, las diferencias no fueron muy significativas siendo los mayores cambios para las chapas de okume que presentaron un mejor mojado en su cara interior.[EN]The aim of this work was to study the surface properties of rotary-peeled veneers of five species of hardwoods: okume, ayous, poplar, fromager and eucalyptus and to compare the behavior of both sides of the veneers. The equilibrium contact angles were determined together with the wood surface free energy and its polar and disperse components. Additionally, surface roughness was evaluated using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Surface free energy ranged from 49-64 mJ/m2 and decreased in the order okume> fromager> poplar> eucalyptus ~ ayous, indicating a decrease in wettability in that order. Okume wood with the highest value of the surface free energy and the lowest values of the equilibrium contact angle was confirmed as the species with the best wetting properties, and also presented the highest values of surface roughness parameters. In general, there were not significant differences between the properties of both sides of the veneers, except for roughness. The largest differences were obtained for okume veneers whose interior side showed higher wettability

The roles of personality and resilience in associations between combat experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder among Canadian Armed Forces Veterans

Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Veterans encounter unique challenges associated with their service. Exposure to service-related traumatic events places them at risk for developing adverse mental health outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Our research aimed to assess whether the HEXACO personality model and resilience impacted associations between combat experiences and PTSD symptomatology in CAF Veterans in the past month. We recruited a sample of 245 CAF Veterans (81 % men; Mage = 48.47, SDage = 10.34) to complete a battery of questionnaires. PTSD symptoms were significantly associated with more combat experience, lower resilience, lower extraversion, higher emotionality, and lower agreeableness. However, personality traits did not moderate the relationship between combat experiences and PTSD symptoms. Overall, this research can be used to enhance researchers\u27 and clinicians\u27 understanding of personality traits as risk and protective factors for PTSD symptoms

Physical and psychological challenges faced by military, medical and public safety personnel relief workers supporting natural disaster operations: a systematic review

Natural disasters, including floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes, result in devastating consequences at the individual and community levels. To date, much of the research reflecting the consequences of natural disasters focuses heavily on victims, with little attention paid to the personnel responding to such disasters. We conducted a systematic review of the challenges faced by military, medical and public safety personnel supporting natural disaster relief operations. Specifically, we report on the current evidence reflecting challenges faced, as well as positive outcomes experienced by military, medical and public safety personnel following deployment to natural disasters. The review included 382 studies. A large proportion of the studies documented experiences of medical workers, followed by volunteers from humanitarian organizations and military personnel. The most frequently reported challenges across the studies were structural (i.e., interactions with the infrastructure or structural institutions), followed by resource limitations, psychological, physical, and social challenges. Over 60% of the articles reviewed documented positive or transformative outcomes following engagement in relief work (e.g., the provision of additional resources, support, and training), as well as self-growth and fulfillment. The current results emphasize the importance of pre-deployment training to better prepare relief workers to manage expected challenges, as well as post-deployment supportive services to mitigate adverse outcomes and support relief workers’ well-being

La lección del Nunca Más. Una aproximación interdisciplinar al contenido y alcance jurídico internacional de la obligación estatal de garantizar la no repetición a través de la educación en memoria. Informe Final

Conceptualmente, el proyecto giró en torno a las garantías de no repetición, es decir: medidas orientadas a evitar futuros incumplimientos del Derecho internacional, de muy diversa naturaleza, pues virtualmente pueden consistir en cualquier cosa (siempre que no resulte abusiva), aunque las más habituales en la práctica internacional son la adopción/derogación/reforma de legislación o de medidas administrativas y las medidas de carácter institucional (relativas a la existencia, organización o funcionamiento de órganos del Estado). Cuando un Estado incumple una obligación internacional –y, por tanto, comete un hecho internacionalmente ilícito–, la principal consecuencia que surge para él es la obligación de reparar, en cualquier de sus tres formas –restitución (o, en su caso, compensación por equivalencia), indemnización o satisfacción (reparación moral)–. Además, en circunstancias excepcionales, tendría también la obligación de ofrecer garantías de no repetición1. Esas “circunstancias excepcionales” vienen en esencia delimitadas por la existencia de violaciones graves de normas imperativas de Derecho internacional, como ocurre cuando se lesionan de manera flagrante o sistemática derechos humanos fundamentales, prácticas que a su vez están tipificadas como crímenes internacionales (genocidio o crímenes contra la humanidad). Por tanto, cuando en el interior de un Estado se cometen atrocidades de esa naturaleza, bien por parte de las propias autoridades estatales, bien por parte de actores no estatales cuyo comportamiento no ha sido prevenido o reprimido por el Estado, surgiría para este la obligación de ofrecer garantías de no repetición

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass