Novel pendant azobenzene/polymer systems for second harmonic generation and optical data storage

New poly(methyl methacrylate)s bearing push–pull azo-moieties, with the azo-dye content ranging from 31 wt% to 100 wt%, are synthesized by (co)polymerization of a methacrylamide-based azo-monomer. The high reactivity of the colored monomer allowed well-balanced structures to be achieved, characterized by a suitable thermal stability. The second harmonic generation efficiency of the poled samples is investigated by means of the SHG Maker fringes setup. Features that hinder the translation of the azo-moiety optical nonlinearity in the material at the macroscopic level are debated. The results underline the role of chromophore–chromophore and chromophore–polymer interactions on the alignment of the azo-moieties. The polarity of the polymer matrix is proven to influence the chromophore–chromophore interactions. Two-photon absorption is employed for gray scale encoding of second harmonic signals on poled thin films, thus pointing out the possibility to employ these new materials for optical data storage applications.

Romanian Tritium for Nuclear Fusion

The demand for tritium is expected to increase when ITER (the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) begins operation in the mid-2020s. Romania is expected to detritiate its CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) units at Cernavoda starting 2024, with the goal of improving radiological safety and reactor performance. Detritiation will result in a significant quantity of tritium being produced and thus Romania has an opportunity to supply tritium for fusion. In this assessment, ITER has been used as a reference device requiring tritium, as the projected tritium extraction schedule from Cernavoda aligns favourably with ITER operation. The findings suggest that Romania is capable of providing a total of 6.2 kg of tritium to ITER over its 20 year operation, generating a potential revenue of $186 M (USD). Opportunities associated with the supply of Romanian helium-3 are also considered as a hedging option, which has the potential to generate$120 M (USD) in the case of zero tritium sales. Greater involvement in future fission-fusion tritium-related activities through experience in tritium technologies is also discussed as a unique opportunity for Romania

Reporting new cases of anaemia in primary care settings in Crete, Greece: a rural practice study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Early diagnosis of anaemia represents an important task within primary care settings. This study reports on the frequency of new cases of anaemia among patients attending rural primary care settings in Crete (Greece) and to offer an estimate of iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) frequency in this study group.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>All patients attending the rural primary health care units of twelve general practitioners (GPs) on the island of Crete for ten consecutive working days were eligible to participate in this study. Hemoglobin (Hb) levels were measured by portable analyzers. Laboratory tests to confirm new cases of anaemia were performed at the University General Hospital of Heraklion.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>One hundred and thirteen out of 541 recruited patients had a low value of Hb according to the initial measurement obtained by the use of the portable analyzer. Forty five (45.5%) of the 99 subjects who underwent laboratory testing had confirmed anaemia. The mean value of the Hb levels in the group with confirmed anaemia, as detected by the portable analyzer was 11.1 g/dl (95% Confidence Interval (CI) from 10.9 to 11.4) and the respective mean value of the Hb levels obtained from the full blood count was 11.4 g/dl (95% CI from 11.2 to 11.7) (<it>P </it>= 0.01). Sixteen out of those 45 patients with anaemia (35.6%) had IDA, with ferritin levels lower than 30 ng/ml.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Keeping in mind that this paper does not deal with specificity or sensitivity figures, it is suggested that in rural and remote settings anaemia is still invisible and point of care testing may have a place to identify it.</p

Exploring the impact of group identity at university on psychological and behavioural outcomes

With respect to supporting student well-being and success, the current research developed a peer support scheme, built on the principles of Social Identity Theory (SIT). This was targeted towards first year undergraduate psychology students, in which measures of collective identity, sense of belonging, group efficacy, happiness and resilience were obtained, along with attendance and academic attainment. Following one academic year of being part of our peer support scheme, participants (N= 90) completed a questionnaire and consented to their attendance and attainment data to be used. It was found that students’ collective identity was positively related to their sense of belonging, group efficacy beliefs and happiness. Further, the sense of belonging was a reliable predictor of happiness, but not attendance or academic attainment. Therefore, there is some evidence to suggest that a SIT-driven peer support scheme can support students’ psychosocial well-being, although more is needed to ascertain whether this could be developed further to observe any course-related outcomes. Theoretical contributions to SIT are therefore presented, in which the insights can be applied to Higher Education beyond the UK

The state of the art: immune-mediated mechanisms of monoclonal antibodies in cancer therapy

A number of antibody products have now become accepted as effective anti-cancer therapies. Despite being mainly designed to act by inhibiting functional tumour antigens, there is increasing evidence that Fc-mediated engagement of the immune system is an important contributor to the efficacy of several of these therapies. The optimisation of this engagement offers the potential not only to augment efficacy against existing targets, but also to exploit non-functional tumour antigens. Antibodies that achieve efficacy wholly or predominantly through Fc-mediated mechanisms, represent rich opportunities for future therapeutics in oncology. This mini review summarises some of the key challenges, which need to be addressed to select the most effective molecules. These include the identification of optimal antibody characteristics and improvement of the drug discovery process, in particular, the relevance and predictive power of existing in vitro and in vivo screening methods. Advances in our understanding of tumour immunobiology and successful application of technologies designed to enhance immune system engagement will further aid this process

Recombinant humanised anti-HER2/neu antibody (Herceptin®) induces cellular death of glioblastomas

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains the most devastating primary tumour in neuro-oncology. Targeting of the human epithelial receptor type 2 (HER2)-neu receptor by specific antibodies is a recent well-established therapy for breast tumours. Human epithelial receptor type 2/neu is a transmembrane tyrosine/kinase receptor that appears to be important for the regulation of cancer growth. Human epithelial receptor type 2/neu is not expressed in the adult central nervous system, but its expression increases with the degree of astrocytoma anaplasia. The specificity of HER2/neu for tumoral astrocytomas leads us to study in vitro treatment of GBM with anti-HER2/neu antibody. We used human GBM cell lines expressing HER2/neu (A172 express HER2/neu more than U251MG) or not (U87MG) and monoclonal humanised antibody against HER2/neu (Herceptin®). Human epithelial receptor type 2/neu expression was measured by immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. Direct antibody effect, complement-dependent cytotoxicity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity were evaluated by different cytometric assays. We have shown, for the first time, the ability of anti-HER2/neu antibodies to induce apoptosis and cellular-dependent cytotoxicity of HER2/neu-expressing GBM cell lines. The results decreased from A172 to U251 and were negative for U87MG, in accordance with the decreasing density of HER2/neu receptors

A Fluctuation-Driven Mechanism for Slow Decision Processes in Reverberant Networks

The spike activity of cells in some cortical areas has been found to be correlated with reaction times and behavioral responses during two-choice decision tasks. These experimental findings have motivated the study of biologically plausible winner-take-all network models, in which strong recurrent excitation and feedback inhibition allow the network to form a categorical choice upon stimulation. Choice formation corresponds in these models to the transition from the spontaneous state of the network to a state where neurons selective for one of the choices fire at a high rate and inhibit the activity of the other neurons. This transition has been traditionally induced by an increase in the external input that destabilizes the spontaneous state of the network and forces its relaxation to a decision state. Here we explore a different mechanism by which the system can undergo such transitions while keeping the spontaneous state stable, based on an escape induced by finite-size noise from the spontaneous state. This decision mechanism naturally arises for low stimulus strengths and leads to exponentially distributed decision times when the amount of noise in the system is small. Furthermore, we show using numerical simulations that mean decision times follow in this regime an exponential dependence on the amplitude of noise. The escape mechanism provides thus a dynamical basis for the wide range and variability of decision times observed experimentally

Study of spin-isospin responses of radioactive nuclei with the background-reduced neutron spectrometer, PANDORA

The status of a project to measure spin-isospin responses of neutron drip-line nuclei using a new low-energy neutron detector, PANDORA (Particle Analyzer Neutron Detector Of Real-time Acquisition), is reported. The performance of PANDORA was characterized by the 6He(p,n)6Li reaction in inverse kinematics at the HIMAC facility in Chiba. Observation of the strong transition to the ground state in 6Li is discussed. Preliminary results of 11Li(p,n)11Be and 14Be(p,n)14B experiments in inverse kinematics at RI Beam Factory (RIBF) of RIKEN Nishina Center are also presented including the exotic decay channel of 11Be→9Li + d. Details of the experimental setup based on PANDORA and the SAMURAI large-acceptance magnetic spectrometer, as well as the combined data-acquisition system are described. The neutron-gamma discrimination capability of PANDORA was evaluated, Figure-of-Merit (FoM) values higher than those found in the literature for similar materials were derived from experimental data

A questionnaire-based (UM-PDHQ) study of hallucinations in Parkinson's disease

Background: Hallucinations occur in 20-40% of PD patients and have been associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes (i.e., nursing home placement, increased mortality). Hallucinations, like other non-motor features of PD, are not well recognized in routine primary/secondary clinical practice. So far, there has been no instrument for uniform characterization of hallucinations in PD. To this end, we developed the University of Miami Parkinson's disease Hallucinations Questionnaire (UM-PDHQ) that allows comprehensive assessment of hallucinations in clinical or research settings.Methods: The UM-PDHQ is composed of 6 quantitative and 14 qualitative items. For our study PD patients of all ages and in all stages of the disease were recruited over an 18-month period. The UPDRS, MMSE, and Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories were used for comparisons.Results and Discussion: Seventy consecutive PD patients were included in the analyses. Thirty-one (44.3%) were classified as hallucinators and 39 as non-hallucinators. No significant group differences were observed in terms of demographics, disease characteristics, stage, education, depressive/anxiety scores or cognitive functioning (MMSE) between hallucinators and non-hallucinators. Single mode hallucinations were reported in 20/31 (visual/14, auditory/4, olfactory/2) whereas multiple modalities were reported in 11/31 patients. The most common hallucinatory experience was a whole person followed by small animals, insects and reptiles.Conclusion: Using the UM-PDHQ, we were able to define the key characteristics of hallucinations in PD in our cohort. Future directions include the validation of the quantitative part of the questionnaire than will serve as a rating scale for severity of hallucinations