Dehydration in the TTL estimated from the water vapor match

The match method is applied to the quantification of the dehydration process in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) over the western Pacific. The match pairs are sought from the Soundings of Ozone and Water in the Equatorial Region (SOWER) campaign network observations with the use of isentropic trajectories. For those pairs identified, extensive screening procedures are performed to verify the representativeness of the air parcel and the validity of the isentropic treatment and to check possible water injection by deep convection, consistency between the sonde data and analysis field, and conservation of the ozone content. Among those pairs remaining, we found some cases corresponding to the first quantitative value of dehydration associated with horizontal advection in the TTL. The statistical features on the dehydration for the air parcels advected in the lower TTL are derived from the match pairs. Match analysis indicates that ice nucleation starts before the relative humidity with respect to ice (RHice) reaches the value of 207 ± 81% (1σ) and that the air mass is dehydrated until the RHice reaches 83 ± 30% (1σ). The efficiency of dehydration is estimated as the relaxation time of the relative humidity for the supersaturated air parcel to approach the saturation state. This is empirically estimated from the match pairs as the quantity that reproduces the second water vapor observation given the first observed water vapor amount and the sequence of the saturation mixing ratio of the match air mass exposed during the advection. The relaxation time is found to range from 2 to 3 hours, which agrees with those reported from previous studies

Interfaces in Modified Cellulose Nanocrystals Reinforced Polyethylene Composites

Composites, comprising high density polyethylene (HDPE) reinforced with cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), with difference sources of CNCs (cotton and tunicate) and different types of compatibilisers, have been prepared by melt compounding. The weight fraction of CNCs was varied from 0.5 to 5 wt.%. CNCs are rod shaped nano-sized crystalline fractions of cellulose fibres, with high aspect ratios, that can be obtained via acid hydrolysis of cellulosic material. The Young’s modulus of CNCs around 57-143 GPa depending on the origin of CNCs and this value is comparable to man-made glass fibres (~70 GPa), considering that CNCs has a lower density (1.3-1.6 g cm-3) than glass fibres (2.5 g cm-3). All these properties are highly favourable for using CNCs as a nanofiller/reinforcements in polymer matrix composite materials. Better understanding of cellulose nanocomposites motivate the study to look deeply on interaction between polymer matrix and filler (nanocellulose) hence lead to the advancement of nanocellulose values so that it could be used universally into various biomaterials. In this study, a comparison between two different sources of CNCs demonstrated that the origin of the starting raw cellulosic governs the resulting reinforcing effect via aspect ratio, surface charge and crystallinity index. Unfortunately, the tendency of CNCs to form agglomerates led to difficulties in achieving effective reinforcement especially when simply mixing into a matrix material in the solid state. As a result, it has become clear that new approaches to composite construction will be required if effective composite reinforcement using CNCs is to be achieved. Enhanced mechanical properties of CNCs reinforced HDPE composites with the addition of low loadings of CNCs were reported, compared to neat HDPE samples. Tunicate CNCs reinforced HDPE composites led to higher strength and modulus than cotton CNCs reinforced HDPE composites at the same CNCs concentration. This is thought to be due to the enhanced reinforcing effect of tunicate, due to their much larger aspect ratio (60.7 ± 30.7) compared to cotton (16.3 ± 5.7). The use of maleic anhydride polyethylene and polyethylene oxide as a compatibiliser was found to increase the tensile strength and Young`s modulus of the CNCs reinforced HDPE composites. The mechanical properties of these composites were found to mainly depend on the aspect ratio of CNCs and the interaction of the HDPE matrix and the reinforcement phase. Further studies are conducted to investigate the stress transfer mechanism in CNCs reinforced with HDPE composites using Raman spectroscopy. The peak position of a Raman band located initially at the ~1095 cm-1 position is reported to shift towards a lower wavenumber under the application of tensile deformation. These shifts correspond to the direct deformation of the molecular backbone of cellulose, which is dominated by a C-O stretching mode. Higher Raman band shift rates with respect to tensile strain of this band are observed for the nanocomposites produced using the MAPE and PEO as compatibilisers. This demonstrates that stress is transferred from the matrix to the fillers more effectively with the presence of the compatibiliser, supporting the enhancement of the mechanical properties of the composite. Nanocomposites made from tunicate CNCs shows higher gradient of shift compares to nanocomposites made from cotton CNCs due to higher aspect ratio of tunicate CNCs. Finally, the combination of Raman mapping with chemical images and image analysis has been used to study the morphology of the CNCs in the nanocomposites. The cross-sectional areas of nanocomposite samples were investigated using confocal Raman microscopy. Raman spectroscopy is shown to provide and collect an accurate `fingerprint` of the composition of the cross-sections of the nanocomposites. The conversion of these set of Raman spectra to chemical images provides high contrast and reliability for the image analysis. The image analysis approach allows a quantitative assessment of the degree of mixing and degree of aggregation of CNCs in the HDPE matrix. This analysis showed that CNCs were mixed to varying degrees in the HDPE matrix. These results provide a further step in understanding and inspecting the mechanism of CNCs enhanced polymer matrices

Insurgent images as tools of counter power during the socio-environmental conflict in Tranguil, Chile and the murder of Macarena Valdés

El siguiente caso de estudio muestra, a través de producciones gráficas, las prácticas de auto comunicación y mediaciones que contribuyeron en la apertura del cerco medial chileno, a dos años del asesinato de una activista mapuche durante de la ejecución de un proyecto hidroeléctrico. El diseño cualitativo contempla el análisis inductivo de 29 imágenes de murales, ilustraciones y panfletos que funcionaron como herramientas de contrapoder en ese contexto de protesta.This is a case study that exemplifies, through graphic productions, self-communication practices and mediations that opened the Chilean medial fence, two years after the murder of a Mapuche activist during the execution of a hydroelectric project. The qualitative design is an inductive analysis of 29 images of street wall paintings, illustrations and pamphlets that function as counterpower tools in the context of protest.FONDECYT 115054

Should prophylactic thrombolysis be routine in clinical practice? Evidence from an autopsy case of septicemia

BACKGROUND: Central venous catheters provide easy access for intravenous infusion and nutrition, but they can bring about complications such as catheter-related infections. Infected central venous catheters often cause nosocomial bloodstream infections with high morbidity and mortality. However, most of the morphological data that have been published are derived from in vitro and in vivo studies and few reports of direct evidence obtained from patient-derived samples have been described. Here we present visual evidence of catheter-related candidemia. To our knowledge, this is the first reported conventional histopathological evidence of a Candida-infected intraluminal thrombus in a patient’s central venous catheter. CASE PRESENTATION: A 62-year-old Japanese female with obstructive jaundice, gastrointestinal bleeding, and liver metastasis from pancreatic head cancer was given an implantable subcutaneous central venous port for nutrition and chemotherapy administration. High fever ensued on day 16 after the central venous port insertion and blood cultures revealed Candida albicans. Although the patient was given 300 mg/day of fosfluconazole according to the suggestion of the infection control team, she died from respiratory failure. Postmortem computed tomography revealed findings consistent with acute respiratory distress syndrome, suggesting that the patient’s course was complicated by catheter-related sepsis. Autopsy revealed a subcutaneous abscess around the port, from which C. albicans was cultured. However, no catheter-adherent thrombus, thrombosis of the great central veins, or endocardial vegetations were detected in the patient. Histological analysis revealed scattered abscesses in several organs including lungs and kidneys. Hyaline membrane formation and Candida colonies were found in the lungs. The central venous port tube, together with the part of the subclavian vein into which it had been inserted, was involved in an intraluminal fibrin thrombus containing neutrophils and macrophages, indicating that the thrombus existed while the patient was alive. Histopathological examination following use of the periodic acid-Schiff reagent and the Grocott stain revealed scattered Candida in the thrombus. CONCLUSIONS: Prophylactic thrombolysis should be encouraged to prevent central venous catheter-related candidiasis in clinical practice

Characterization of Quasi L∞/L2 Hankel Norms of Sampled-Data Systems

This paper is concerned with the Hankel operator of sampled-data systems. The Hankel operator is usually defined as a mapping from the past input to the future output and its norm plays an important role in evaluating the performance of systems. Since the continuous-time mapping between the input and output is periodically time-varying (h -periodic, where h denotes the sampling period) in sampled-data systems, it matters when to take the time instant separating the past and the future when we define the Hankel operator for sampled-data systems. This paper takes an arbitrary Θ ϵ [0,h) as such an instant, and considers the quasi L∞/L2 Hankel operator defined as the mapping from the past input in L2(-∞ Θ) to the future output in L∞Θ ∞). The norm of this operator, which we call the quasi L∞/L2 Hankel norm at Θ is then characterized in such a way that its numerical computation becomes possible. Then, regarding the computation of the L∞L2 Hankel norm defined as the supremum of the quasi L∞L2 Hankel norms over Θ ϵ [0,h), some relationship is discussed between the arguments through such characterization and an alternative method developed in an earlier paper that is free from the computations of quasi L∞/L2 Hankel norms. A numerical example is studied to confirm the validity of the arguments in this paper. © 201711Ysciescopu

Refoldable Foldamers:Global Conformational Switching by Deletion or Insertion of a Single Hydrogen Bond

Small changes in the structure of a foldamer may lead to gross changes in conformational preference. We show that the simple insertion or deletion of a single hydrogen bond by changes in pH or by photochemical deprotection is sufficient to refold a helical oligomer, interconverting M and P screw‐sense preference. As a consequence of the switch, information may be transmitted to a remote catalytic site, selectively directing the formation of either of two enantiomeric products by a reaction involving 1,22‐remote intermolecular asymmetric induction

Elton and the Study of Tudor Dynasty

In March of 1996, the symposium was held in the Institute of Historical Research of London University. The theme of this symposium was 'Eltonian legacy'. G.R.Elton was the authority of the study of Tudor dynasty who died in 1994. His famous book was Tudor Revolution in Government (Cambridge, 1953) in which he emphasized on the radical change of the administration in 1530's and tbe important role of T.Cromwell in this change. Since then, there had been the controversy of his theory. One of the purposes in the symposium was to locate his study in the history of British historical study. What was the Eltonian legacy? In this article, I'll examine the Eltonian legacy on the basis of the argument of this symposium and the recent study of Tudor dynasty in the view of the history of administration, parliament, politics. The conclusion is as follows ; We can't accept his theory as it is, which is the objection to be critisized. But the attractive point of his argument is the sharp critical mind and new point of view. His capacity to examine materials is the point in which he should be appraised, too. One of the subjects for further study of Tudor dynasty is to relate his study of the central government with the new study of local government to define the state formation in early modern England