Reference standardization and triglyceride interference of a new homogeneous HDL-cholesterol assay compared with a former chemical precipitation assay

A homogeneous HDL-c assay (HDL-H), which uses polyethylene glycol-modified enzymes and sulfated alpha-cyclodextrin, was assessed for precision, accuracy, and cholesterol and triglyceride interference. In addition, its analytical performance was compared with that of a phosphotungstic acid (PTA)/MgCl2 precipitation method (HDL-P). Within-run CVs were < or = 1.87%; total CVs were < or = 3.08%. Accuracy was evaluated in fresh normotriglyceridemic sera using the Designated Comparison Method (HDL-H = 1.037 Designated Comparison Method + 4 mg/L; n = 63) and in moderately hypertriglyceridemic sera by using the Reference Method (HDL-H = 1.068 Reference Method - 17 mg/L; n = 41). Mean biases were 4.5% and 2.2%, respectively. In hypertriglyceridemic sera (n = 85), HDL-H concentrations were increasingly positively biased with increasing triglyceride concentrations. The method comparison between HDL-H and HDL-P yielded the following equation: HDL-H = 1.037 HDL-P + 15 mg/L; n = 478. We conclude that HDL-H amply meets the 1998 NCEP recommendations for total error; its precision is superior compared with that of HDL-P, and its average bias remains below +/-5% as long as triglyceride concentrations are < or = 10 g/L and in case of moderate hypercholesterolemia

High Photoluminescence Efficiency and Optically Pumped Lasing in Solution-Processed Mixed Halide Perovskite Semiconductors.

The study of the photophysical properties of organic-metallic lead halide perovskites, which demonstrate excellent photovoltaic performance in devices with electron- and hole-accepting layers, helps to understand their charge photogeneration and recombination mechanism and unravels their potential for other optoelectronic applications. We report surprisingly high photoluminescence (PL) quantum efficiencies, up to 70%, in these solution-processed crystalline films. We find that photoexcitation in the pristine CH3NH3PbI3-xClx perovskite results in free charge carrier formation within 1 ps and that these free charge carriers undergo bimolecular recombination on time scales of 10s to 100s of ns. To exemplify the high luminescence yield of the CH3NH3PbI3-xClx perovskite, we construct and demonstrate the operation of an optically pumped vertical cavity laser comprising a layer of perovskite between a dielectric mirror and evaporated gold top mirrors. These long carrier lifetimes together with exceptionally high luminescence yield are unprecedented in such simply prepared inorganic semiconductors, and we note that these properties are ideally suited for photovoltaic diode operation.We thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the Winton Programme (Cambridge) for the Physics of Sustainability for funding. M.P. wants to thank the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and the Rutherford Foundation of New Zealand for funding.This is the final version. It first appeared at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jz5005285

When a Palearctic bacterium meets a Nearctic insect vector: Genetic and ecological insights into the emergence of the grapevine Flavescence dorée epidemics in Europe

Flavescence dorée (FD) is a European quarantine grapevine disease transmitted by the Deltocephalinae leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus. Whereas this vector had been introduced from North America, the possible European origin of FD phytoplasma needed to be challenged and correlated with ecological and genetic drivers of FD emergence. For that purpose, a survey of genetic diversity of these phytoplasmas in grapevines, S. titanus, black alders, alder leafhoppers and clematis were conducted in five European countries. Out of 132 map genotypes, only 11 were associated to FD outbreaks, three were detected in clematis, whereas 127 were detected in alder trees, alder leafhoppers or in grapevines out of FD outbreaks. Most of the alder trees were found infected, including 8% with FD genotypes M6, M38 and M50, also present in alders neighboring FD-free vineyards and vineyard-free areas. The Macropsinae Oncopsis alni could transmit genotypes unable to achieve transmission by S. titanus, while the Deltocephalinae Allygus spp. and Orientus ishidae transmitted M38 and M50 that proved to be compatible with S. titanus. Variability of vmpA and vmpB adhesin-like genes clearly discriminated 3 genetic clusters. Cluster Vmp-I grouped genotypes only transmitted by O. alni, while clusters Vmp-II and -III grouped genotypes transmitted by Deltocephalinae leafhoppers. Interestingly, adhesin repeated domains evolved independently in cluster Vmp-I, whereas in clusters Vmp-II and-III showed recent duplications. Latex beads coated with various ratio of VmpA of clusters II and I, showed that cluster II VmpA promoted enhanced adhesion to the Deltocephalinae Euscelidius variegatus epithelial cells and were better retained in both E. variegatus and S. titanus midguts. Our data demonstrate that most FD phytoplasmas are endemic to European alders. Their emergence as grapevine epidemic pathogens appeared restricted to some genetic variants pre-existing in alders, whose compatibility to S. titanus correlates with different vmp gene sequences and VmpA binding properties

Collaboration and knowledge exchange between scholars in Britain and the empire, 1830–1914

In recent years there has been a growing interest among historians in the British Empire as a space of knowledge production and circulation. Much of this work assumes that scholarly cooperation and collaboration between individuals and institutions within the Empire had the effect (and often also the aim) of strengthening both imperial ties and the idea of empire. This chapter argues, however, that many examples of scholarly travel, exchange, and collaboration were undertaken with very different goals in mind. In particular, it highlights the continuing importance of an ideal of scientific internationalism, which stressed the benefits of scholarship for the whole of humanity and prioritized the needs and goals of individual academic and scientific disciplines. As the chapter shows, some scholars even went on to develop nuanced critiques of the imperial project while using the very structures of empire to further their own individual, disciplinary and institutional goals

80,000,000 hooligans. Discourses of resistance to racism and xenophobia in German punk lyrics 1991-1994

The late eighties and early nineties in Germany were not only marked by the fall of the Wall and German unification, but also by the dramatization of the political issue of asylum, resulting in outbreaks of xenophobic violence. In the context of the asylum debate of the early nineties, a number of punk bands produced songs between 1991 and 1994 which criticise the xenophobic climate created by the asylum debate and undermine an exculpatory official discourse about the violent attacks. The lyrics of these songs will be analysed as instances of counter-discourse emerging from a subcultural sphere that nurtures a critical distance towards hegemonic public and political discourse, arguing that Critical Discourse Analysis should pay more attention to defiance of hegemonic discourse

Survey of Leafhopper Species in Almond Orchards Infected with Almond Witches'-Broom Phytoplasma in Lebanon

Leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae) account for more than 80% of all “Auchenorrhynchous” vectors that transmit phytoplasmas. The leafhopper populations in two almond witches'-broom phytoplasma (AlmWB) infected sites: Tanboureet (south of Lebanon) and Bourj El Yahoudieh (north of Lebanon) were surveyed using yellow sticky traps. The survey revealed that the most abundant species was Asymmetrasca decedens, which represented 82.4% of all the leafhoppers sampled. Potential phytoplasma vectors in members of the subfamilies Aphrodinae, Deltocephalinae, and Megophthalminae were present in very low numbers including: Aphrodes makarovi, Cicadulina bipunctella, Euscelidius mundus, Fieberiella macchiae, Allygus theryi, Circulifer haematoceps, Neoaliturus transversalis, and Megophthalmus scabripennis. Allygus theryi (Horváth) (Deltocephalinae) was reported for the first time in Lebanon. Nested PCR analysis and sequencing showed that Asymmetrasca decedens, Empoasca decipiens, Fieberiella macchiae, Euscelidius mundus, Thamnottetix seclusis, Balclutha sp., Lylatina inexpectata, Allygus sp., and Annoplotettix danutae were nine potential carriers of AlmWB phytoplasma. Although the detection of phytoplasmas in an insect does not prove a definite vector relationship, the technique is useful in narrowing the search for potential vectors. The importance of this information for management of AlmWB is discussed

Organizing Engineering Work - A Comparative-Analysis

This article analyzes the organization of engineering work in six industrial capitalist countries. It identifies four major models for the organization of engineering work; the engineering profession did not succeed in achieving professional “closure” in any of the six countries under review. A review of the historical evolution of the organization of engineering work in each of the six countries reveals that engineering has been shaped by a complex interaction among the profession itself, employers, the state, labor, and preindustrial forces. However, none of the national variations on the four models for organizing engineering labor is stable or without internal contradiction because of the ambiguous “intermediate” position of engineers

Effects of Crystalline Anisotropy and Indenter Size on Nanoindentation by Multiscale Simulation

Nanoindentation processes in single crystal Ag thin film under different crystallographic orientations and various indenter widths are simulated by the quasicontinuum method. The nanoindentation deformation processes under influences of crystalline anisotropy and indenter size are investigated about hardness, load distribution, critical load for first dislocation emission and strain energy under the indenter. The simulation results are compared with previous experimental results and Rice-Thomson (R-T) dislocation model solution. It is shown that entirely different dislocation activities are presented under the effect of crystalline anisotropy during nanoindentation. The sharp load drops in the load–displacement curves are caused by the different dislocation activities. Both crystalline anisotropy and indenter size are found to have distinct effect on hardness, contact stress distribution, critical load for first dislocation emission and strain energy under the indenter. The above quantities are decreased at the indenter into Ag thin film along the crystal orientation with more favorable slip directions that easy trigger slip systems; whereas those will increase at the indenter into Ag thin film along the crystal orientation with less or without favorable slip directions that hard trigger slip systems. The results are shown to be in good agreement with experimental results and R-T dislocation model solution

Approaching the socialist factory and its workforce: considerations from fieldwork in (former) Yugoslavia

The socialist factory, as the ‘incubator’ of the new socialist (wo)man, is a productive entry point for the study of socialist modernization and its contradictions. By outlining some theoretical and methodological insights gathered through field-research in factories in former Yugoslavia, we seek to connect the state of labour history in the Balkans to recent breakthroughs made by labour historians of other socialist countries. The first part of this article sketches some of the specificities of the Yugoslav self-managed factory and its heterogeneous workforce. It presents the ambiguous relationship between workers and the factory and demonstrates the variety of life trajectories for workers in Yugoslav state-socialism (from model communists to alienated workers). The second part engages with the available sources for conducting research inside and outside the factory advocating an approach which combines factory and local archives, print media and oral history