Micro-Scale, Meso-Scale, Macro-Scale, and Temporal Scale: Comparing the Relative Importance for Robbery Risk in New York City

We compare the relative importance of four dimensions for explaining the micro location of robberies: 1) the micro spatial scale of street segments; 2) the meso spatial scale surrounding the street segment; 3) the temporal pattern, and 4) the macro-scale of the surrounding 2.5 miles. This study uses crime, business, and land use data from New York City and aggregates it to street segments and hours of the day. Although the measures capturing the micro-scale of the street segment explained the largest amount of unique variance, the measures capturing temporal scale across hours of the day (and weekdays) explained the next largest amount of unique variance. The measures of the characteristics in the 2.5 miles macro scale explained the next largest amount of unique variance, and combined with the measures at the meso-scale explained nearly as much of the variance as the street segment measures

Novel sol–gel preparation of (PO)–(CaO)–(NaO)–(TiO) bioresorbable glasses (X = 0.05, 0.1, and 0.15)

Quaternary phosphate-based glasses in the PO–CaO–NaO–TiO system with a fixed PO and CaO content of 40 and 25 mol% respectively have been successfully synthesised via sol–gel method and bulk, transparent samples were obtained. The structure, elemental proportion, and thermal properties of stabilised sol–gel glasses have been characterised using X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), P nuclear magnetic resonance (P NMR), titanium K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES), fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The XRD results confirmed the amorphous nature for all stabilized sol–gel derived glasses. The EDX result shows the relatively low loss of phosphorus during the sol–gel process and Ti K-edge XANES confirmed titanium in the glass structure is in mainly six-fold coordination environment. The P NMR and FTIR results revealed that the glass structure consist of mainly Q and Q phosphate units and the Ti cation was acting as a cross-linking between phosphate units. In addition DTA results confirmed a decrease in the glass transition and crystallisation temperature with increasing NaO content. Ion release studies also demonstrated a decrease in degradation rates with increasing TiO content therefore supporting the use of these glasses for biomedical applications that require a degree of control over glass degradation. These sol–gel glasses also offer the potential to incorporate proactive molecules for drug delivery application due to the low synthesis temperature employed

Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic studies of an antimicrobial protein from Pharbitis nil

An antimicrobial protein from seeds of Pharbitis nil (Pn-AMP) which shows an antifungal activity towards several agriculturally important plant pathogens has been crystallized in the presence of equimolar N-acetylglucosamine with sodium citrate as precipitant. The crystal belongs to the hexagonal space group P6(1)22 (or P6(5)22), with unit-cell parameters a = b = 29.33 (5), c = 133.44 (12) Angstrom. Native data were collected using a crystal at 100 K to a resolution of 1.78 Angstrom.open2

Synthesis of highly elastic biocompatible polyurethanes based on bio-based isosorbide and poly(tetramethylene glycol) and their properties.

Bio-based high elastic polyurethanes were prepared from hexamethylene diisocyanate and various ratios of isosorbide to poly(tetramethylene glycol) as a diol by a simple one-shot bulk polymerization without a catalyst. Successful synthesis of the polyurethanes was confirmed by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy and (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance. Thermal properties were determined by differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. The glass transition temperature was -47.8℃. The test results showed that the poly(tetramethylene glycol)/isosorbide-based elastomer exhibited not only excellent stress-strain properties but also superior resilience to the existing polyether-based polyurethane elastomers. The static and dynamic properties of the polyether/isosorbide-based thermoplastic elastomer were more suitable for dynamic applications. Moreover, such rigid diols impart biocompatible and bioactive properties to thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers. Degradation tests performed at 37℃ in phosphate buffer solution showed a mass loss of 4-9% after 8 weeks, except for the polyurethane with the lowest isosorbide content, which showed an initial rapid weight loss. These polyurethanes offer significant promise due to soft, flexible and biocompatible properties for soft tissue augmentation and regeneration

Facile preparation of antibacterial, highly elastic silvered polyurethane nanofiber fabrics using silver carbamate and their dermal wound healing properties

In this study, polycarbonate diol/isosorbide-based antibacterial polyurethane nanofiber fabrics containing Ag nanoparticles were prepared by electrospinning process. Bio-based highly elastic polyurethane was prepared from hexamethylene diisocyanate and isosorbide/polycarbonate diol (8/2) by a simple one-shot bulk polymerization. Ag nanoparticles were formed using simple thermal reduction of silver 2-ethylhexylcarbamate at 120℃. The structural and morphological properties of polyurethane/Ag nanofibers were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The polyurethane nanofiber fabrics were flexible, with breaking strains from 355% to 950% under 7.28 to 23.1 MPa tensile stress. The antibacterial effects of the treated polyurethane/Ag fabrics against Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus were examined and found to be excellent. Cell proliferation using the immortalized human keratinocyte HaCaT cell line was performed in order to determine cell viability in the presence of polyurethane and polyurethane/Ag fabrics, showing cytocompatiblility and a lack of toxicity

Caring for Alaska Native prostate cancer survivors in primary care: a survey of Alaska Tribal Health System providers.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the constraints of optimizing health care for prostate cancer survivors in Alaska primary care. OBJECTIVE: To describe the experiences and attitudes of primary care providers within the Alaska Tribal Health System (ATHS) regarding the care of prostate cancer survivors. DESIGN: In late October 2011, we emailed a 22-item electronic survey to 268 ATHS primary care providers regarding the frequency of Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) monitoring for a hypothetical prostate cancer survivor; who should be responsible for the patient's life-long prostate cancer surveillance; who should support the patient's emotional and medical needs as a survivor; and providers' level of comfort addressing recurrence monitoring, erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, androgen deprivation therapy, and emotional needs. We used simple logistic regression to examine the association between provider characteristics and their responses to the survivorship survey items. RESULTS: Of 221 individuals who were successfully contacted, a total of 114 responded (52% response rate). Most ATHS providers indicated they would order a PSA test every 12 months (69%) and believed that, ideally, the hypothetical patient's primary care provider should be responsible for his life-long prostate cancer surveillance (60%). Most providers reported feeling either "moderately" or "very" comfortable addressing topics such as prostate cancer recurrence (59%), erectile dysfunction (64%), urinary incontinence (63%), and emotional needs (61%) with prostate cancer survivors. These results varied somewhat by provider characteristics including female sex, years in practice, and the number of prostate cancer survivors seen in their practice. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that most primary care providers in Alaska are poised to assume the care of prostate cancer survivors locally. However, we also found that large minorities of providers do not feel confident in their ability to manage common issues in prostate cancer survivorship, implying that continued access to specialists with more expert knowledge would be beneficial

Nanotechnology in dentistry: prevention, diagnosis, and therapy

Ensanya Ali Abou Neel,1–3 Laurent Bozec,3 Roman A Perez,4,5 Hae-Won Kim,4–6 Jonathan C Knowles3,5 1Division of Biomaterials, Operative Dentistry Department, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 2Biomaterials Department, Faculty of Dentistry, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt; 3UCL Eastman Dental Institute, Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, London, UK; 4Institute of Tissue Regenerative Engineering (ITREN), 5Department of Nanobiomedical Science and BK21 Plus NBM Global Research Center for Regenerative Medicine, 6Department of Biomaterials Science, College of Dentistry, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea Abstract: Nanotechnology has rapidly expanded into all areas of science; it offers significant alternative ways to solve scientific and medical questions and problems. In dentistry, nanotechnology has been exploited in the development of restorative materials with some significant success. This review discusses nanointerfaces that could compromise the longevity of dental restorations, and how nanotechnolgy has been employed to modify them for providing long-term successful restorations. It also focuses on some challenging areas in dentistry, eg, oral biofilm and cancers, and how nanotechnology overcomes these challenges. The recent advances in nanodentistry and innovations in oral health-related diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic methods required to maintain and obtain perfect oral health, have been discussed. The recent advances in nanotechnology could hold promise in bringing a paradigm shift in dental field. Although there are numerous complex therapies being developed to treat many diseases, their clinical use requires careful consideration of the expense of synthesis and implementation. Keywords: nanotechnology, nanointerfaces, biofilm-related oral diseases, tissue engineering, drug delivery, toxicit

Stability of central finite difference schemes for the Heston PDE

This paper deals with stability in the numerical solution of the prominent Heston partial differential equation from mathematical finance. We study the well-known central second-order finite difference discretization, which leads to large semi-discrete systems with non-normal matrices A. By employing the logarithmic spectral norm we prove practical, rigorous stability bounds. Our theoretical stability results are illustrated by ample numerical experiments

Coherent and Dynamic Beam Splitting based on Light Storage in Cold Atoms

We demonstrate a coherent and dynamic beam splitter based on light storage in cold atoms. An input weak laser pulse is first stored in a cold atom ensemble via electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). A set of counter-propagating control fields, applied at a later time, retrieves the stored pulse into two output spatial modes. The high visibility interference between the two output pulses clearly demonstrates that the beam splitting process is coherent. Furthermore, by manipulating the control lasers, it is possible to dynamically control the storage time, the power splitting ratio, the relative phase, and the optical frequencies of the output pulses. With further improvements, the active beam splitter demonstrated in this work might have applications in photonic photonic quantum information and in all-optical information processing.1174Ysciescopu