Preparation of ultralow-friction surface films on vanadium diboride.

In this paper, we present a simple annealing procedure (which we refer to as ''flash-annealing'' because of short duration) that results in the formation of an ultralow friction surface film on vanadium diboride (VB{sub 2}) surfaces. This annealing is done in a box furnace at 800 C for a period of 5 min. During annealing, the exposed surface of the VB{sub 2} undergoes oxidation and forms a layer of boron oxide (B{sub 2}O{sub 3}). In open air, the B{sub 2}O{sub 3} layer reacts spontaneously with moisture and forms a boric acid (H{sub 3}BO{sub 3}) film. The friction coefficient of a 440C steel pin against this H{sub 3}BO{sub 3} film is {approx}0.05, compared to 0.8 against the as-received VB{sub 2}. Based on Raman spectroscopy and electron microscopy studies, we elucidate the ultralow friction mechanism of the flash-annealed VB{sub 2} surfaces

On the generalized Davenport constant and the Noether number

Known results on the generalized Davenport constant related to zero-sum sequences over a finite abelian group are extended to the generalized Noether number related to the rings of polynomial invariants of an arbitrary finite group. An improved general upper bound is given on the degrees of polynomial invariants of a non-cyclic finite group which cut out the zero vector.Comment: 14 page

Provision of acute care pathways for older major trauma patients in the UK.

BACKGROUND: The introduction of specific pathways of care for older trauma patients has been shown to decrease hospital length of stay and the overall rate of complications. The extent and scope of pathways and services for older major trauma patients in the UK is not currently known. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to map the current care pathways and provision of services for older people following major trauma in the UK. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of UK hospitals delivering care to major trauma patients (major trauma centres and trauma units). Data were collected on respondent and site characteristics, and local definitions of older trauma patients. To explore pathways for older people with major trauma, four clinical case examples were devised and respondents asked to complete responses that best illustrated the admission pathway for each. RESULTS: Responses from 56 hospitals were included in the analysis, including from 25 (84%) of all major trauma centres (MTCs) in the UK. The majority of respondents defined 'old' by chronological age, most commonly patients 65 years and over. The specialty team with overall responsibility for the patient in trauma units was most likely to be acute medicine or acute surgery. Patients in MTCs were not always admitted under the care of the major trauma service. Assessment by a geriatrician within 72 hours of admission varied in both major trauma centres and trauma units and was associated with increased age. CONCLUSIONS: This survey highlights variability in the admitting specialty team and subsequent management of older major trauma patients across hospitals in the UK. Variability appears to be related to patient condition as well as provision of local resources. Whilst lack of standardisation may be a result of local service configuration this has the potential to impact negatively on quality of care, multi-disciplinary working, and outcomes

Some closure operations in Zariski-Riemann spaces of valuation domains: a survey

In this survey we present several results concerning various topologies that were introduced in recent years on spaces of valuation domains

Human metapneumovirus infection after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Background: The clinical characteristics of human metapneumovirus (hMPV)-associated lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is not well described. We describe the clinical course in eight HSCT recipients suffering from hMPV infection. Methods: We prospectively included all patients with hMPV-associated LRTI after allogeneic HSCT during a period of 1year. hMPV was diagnosed by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). Results: Eight patients with hMPV-associated LRTI were identified from 93 BAL samples. Three of the eight patients had co-infections with other pathogens. The median age of the patients was 45years [interquartile range (IQR) 36.8-53.5], the median time posttransplant was 473days (IQR 251-1,165), 5/8 patients had chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGvHD), and 6/8 patients received immunosuppression. Chest computed tomography (CT) scanning showed a ground-glass pattern in 7/8 patients. Seven of eight patients required hospitalization due to severe symptoms and hypoxemia. All were treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), which was combined with oral ribavirin in six patients. The mortality rate was 12.5% (1/8). Conclusions: hMPV-associated LRTI in allogeneic HSCT recipients are not uncommon and present with unspecific respiratory symptoms, ground-glass pattern in CT scanning, and co-infectio

A computer simulation study of deer in Mendocino County, California

Published October 1967. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Effective Lagrangians and low energy photon-photon scattering

We use the behavior of the photon-photon scattering for photon energies $\omega$ less than the electron mass, $m_e$, to examine the implications of treating the Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian as an effective field theory. Specifically, we determine the $\omega^2/m_e^2$ behavior of the scattering amplitude predicted by including one-loop corrections to the Euler-Heisenberg effective Lagrangian together with the counterterms required by renomalizability. This behavior is compared with the energy dependence obtained by expanding the exact QED photon-photon scattering amplitude. If the introduction of counterterms in the effective field theory is restricted to those determined by renormalizability, the $\omega^2/m_e^2$ dependences of the two expansions differ.Comment: 10 pages, ReVTeX, 2 postscript figures include

Sharks of the order Carcharhiniformes from the British Coniacian, Santonian and Campanian (Upper Cretaceous).

Bulk sampling of phosphate-rich horizons within the British Coniacian to Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) yielded very large samples of shark and ray teeth. All of these samples yielded teeth of diverse members of the Carcharhiniformes, which commonly dominate the fauna. The following species are recorded and described: Pseudoscyliorhinus reussi (Herman, 1977) comb. nov., Crassescyliorhinus germanicus (Herman, 1982) gen. nov., Scyliorhinus elongatus (Davis, 1887), Scyliorhinus brumarivulensis sp. nov., ? Palaeoscyllium sp., Prohaploblepharus riegrafi (Müller, 1989) gen. nov., ? Cretascyliorhinus sp., Scyliorhinidae inc. sedis 1, Scyliorhinidae inc. sedis 2, Pteroscyllium hermani sp. nov., Protoscyliorhinus sp., Leptocharias cretaceus sp. nov., Palaeogaleus havreensis Herman, 1977, Paratriakis subserratus sp. nov., Paratriakis tenuis sp. nov., Paratriakis sp. indet. and ? Loxodon sp. Taxa belonging to the families ?Proscylliidae, Leptochariidae, and Carcharhinidae are described from the Cretaceous for the first time. The evolutionary and palaeoecological implications of these newly recognised faunas are discussed

Development and Usability Assessment of a Connected Resistance Exercise Band Application for Strength-Monitoring

Resistance exercise bands are a core component of any physical activity strengthening program. Strength training can mitigate the development of sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass or strength and function with aging. Yet, the adherence of such behavioral exercise strategies in a home-based setting are fraught with issues of monitoring and compliance. Our group developed a Bluetooth-enabled resistance exercise band capable of transmitting data to an open-source platform. In this work, we developed an application to capture this information in real-time, and conducted three usability studies in two mixed-aged groups of participants (n=6 each) and a group of older adults with obesity participating in a weight-loss intervention (n=20). The system was favorable, acceptable and provided iterative information that could assist in future deployment on ubiquitous platforms. Our formative work provides the foundation to deliver home-based monitoring interventions in a high-risk, older adult population

Meneco, a Topology-Based Gap-Filling Tool Applicable to Degraded Genome-Wide Metabolic Networks

International audienceIncreasing amounts of sequence data are becoming available for a wide range of non-model organisms. Investigating and modelling the metabolic behaviour of those organisms is highly relevant to understand their biology and ecology. As sequences are often incomplete and poorly annotated, draft networks of their metabolism largely suffer from incompleteness. Appropriate gap-filling methods to identify and add missing reactions are therefore required to address this issue. However, current tools rely on phenotypic or taxonomic information, or are very sensitive to the stoichiometric balance of metabolic reactions, especially concerning the co-factors. This type of information is often not available or at least prone to errors for newly-explored organisms. Here we introduce Meneco, a tool dedicated to the topological gap-filling of genome-scale draft metabolic networks. Meneco reformulates gap-filling as a qualitative combinatorial optimization problem, omitting constraints raised by the stoichiometry of a metabolic network considered in other methods, and solves this problem using Answer Set Programming. Run on several artificial test sets gathering 10,800 degraded Escherichia coli networks Meneco was able to efficiently identify essential reactions missing in networks at high degradation rates, outperforming the stoichiometry-based tools in scalability. To demonstrate the utility of Meneco we applied it to two case studies. Its application to recent metabolic networks reconstructed for the brown algal model Ectocarpus siliculosus and an associated bacterium Candidatus Phaeomarinobacter ectocarpi revealed several candidate metabolic pathways for algal-bacterial interactions. Then Meneco was used to reconstruct, from transcriptomic and metabolomic data, the first metabolic network for the microalga Euglena mutabilis. These two case studies show that Meneco is a versatile tool to complete draft genome-scale metabolic networks produced from heterogeneous data, and to suggest relevant reactions that explain the metabolic capacity of a biological system