Recent developments in advanced thermal analysis: sample controlled thermal analysis

The determination of the key physical and chemical properties of a new material is essential.The melting point, glass transition temperature, the number and identification of the different phases it may have, and the temperatures at which they are formed are all of great value, not only in assessing its practical pharmaceutical potential but also as they can form the basis of many routine QC procedures

English Religious Education: Developments, Identity, and Diversity

Received 19 August 2018. Accepted 10 September 2018. Published online 30 September 2018.The aim of this paper is to review the post-confessional history of English religious education. The intention is to be descriptive rather than polemical. Attention is given to the transition of confessional to multi-faith religious education and to subsequent developments. The strengths and weaknesses of phenomenological approaches are considered, and how the focus upon experience that is central to phenomenology was preserved in later educational attempts to further moral and spiritual development through religious education. Finally, attention is given to the reasons for the emergence of citizenship as an important theme in religious education and to more recent issues

Comprehensive geriatric assessment in perioperative care: a protocol for a systematic review and qualitative synthesis

INTRODUCTION: Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is an intervention that has been deployed in the perioperative setting with the aim to improve outcomes for older patients admitted to hospital. Older patients undergoing surgery are more likely to have postoperative complications, a longer hospital stay and be discharged to a care facility. Despite the increasing application of this intervention within surgical services, the evidence for CGA remains limited in this group. The aim of this systematic review is to describe CGA as in intervention applied to surgical populations in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) as well as the outcomes assessed. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A systematic search of RCTs of CGA in surgery will be run in Embase, Medline, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) and Cochrane library. Further articles will be identified from reference lists in relevant studies found in the search. A narrative synthesis will be undertaken outlining specialties included, detailed descriptions of the intervention and outcomes. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: No ethical approval is required. The results of this review will be published and used as the basis of work to optimise this intervention for future trials in surgical populations. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: This review is registered with PROSPERO CRD42020221797

Optimizing H1 cavities for the generation of entangled photon pairs

We report on the theoretical investigation of photonic crystal cavities etched on a suspended membrane for the generation of polarization entangled photon pairs using the biexciton cascade in a single quantum dot. The implementation of spontaneous emission enhancement effect increases the entanglement visibility, while the concomitant preferential funneling of the emission in the cavity mode increases the collection of both entangled photons. We demonstrate and quantify that standard cavity designs present a polarization dependent emission diagram, detrimental to entanglement. The optimization of H1 cavities allows to obtain both high collection efficiencies and polarization independent emission, while keeping high Purcell factors necessary for high quality entangled photon sources

A Gyrochronology and Microvariability Survey of the Milky Way's Older Stars Using Kepler's Two-Wheels Program

Even with the diminished precision possible with only two reaction wheels, the Kepler spacecraft can obtain mmag level, time-resolved photometry of tens of thousands of sources. The presence of such a rich, large data set could be transformative for stellar astronomy. In this white paper, we discuss how rotation periods for a large ensemble of single and binary main- sequence dwarfs can yield a quantitative understanding of the evolution of stellar spin-down over time. This will allow us to calibrate rotation-based ages beyond ~1 Gyr, which is the oldest benchmark that exists today apart from the Sun. Measurement of rotation periods of M dwarfs past the fully-convective boundary will enable extension of gyrochronology to the end of the stellar main-sequence, yielding precise ages ({\sigma} ~10%) for the vast majority of nearby stars. It will also help set constraints on the angular momentum evolution and magnetic field generation in these stars. Our Kepler-based study would be supported by a suite of ongoing and future ground-based observations. Finally, we briefly discuss two ancillary science cases, detection of long-period low-mass eclipsing binaries and microvariability in white dwarfs and hot subdwarf B stars that the Kepler Two-Wheels Program would facilitate.Comment: Kepler white pape

The regulation of cytokine networks in hippocampal CA1 differentiates extinction from those required for the maintenance of contextual fear memory after recall

We investigated the distinctiveness of gene regulatory networks in CA1 associated with the extinction of contextual fear memory (CFM) after recall using Affymetrix GeneChip Rat Genome 230 2.0 Arrays. These data were compared to previously published retrieval and reconsolidation-attributed, and consolidation datasets. A stringent dual normalization and pareto-scaled orthogonal partial least-square discriminant multivariate analysis together with a jack-knifing-based cross-validation approach was used on all datasets to reduce false positives. Consolidation, retrieval and extinction were correlated with distinct patterns of gene expression 2 hours later. Extinction-related gene expression was most distinct from the profile accompanying consolidation. A highly specific feature was the discrete regulation of neuroimmunological gene expression associated with retrieval and extinction. Immunity–associated genes of the tyrosine kinase receptor TGFβ and PDGF, and TNF families’ characterized extinction. Cytokines and proinflammatory interleukins of the IL-1 and IL-6 families were enriched with the no-extinction retrieval condition. We used comparative genomics to predict transcription factor binding sites in proximal promoter regions of the retrieval-regulated genes. Retrieval that does not lead to extinction was associated with NF-κB-mediated gene expression. We confirmed differential NF-κBp65 expression, and activity in all of a representative sample of our candidate genes in the no-extinction condition. The differential regulation of cytokine networks after the acquisition and retrieval of CFM identifies the important contribution that neuroimmune signalling plays in normal hippocampal function. Further, targeting cytokine signalling upon retrieval offers a therapeutic strategy to promote extinction mechanisms in human disorders characterised by dysregulation of associative memory

Non-polaritonic effects in cavity-modified photochemistry

Strong coupling of molecules to vacuum fields has been widely reported to lead to modified chemical properties such as reaction rates. However, some recent attempts to reproduce infrared strong coupling results have not been successful, suggesting that factors other than strong coupling may sometimes be involved. Here we re-examine the first of these vacuum-modified chemistry experiments, in which changes to a molecular photoisomerisation process were attributed to strong coupling of the molecules to visible light. We observed significant variations in photoisomerisation rates for molecules placed in a variety of optical cavity structures, but found no evidence that these changes need to be attributed to strong coupling. Instead, we suggest that the photoisomerisation rates involved are most strongly influenced by the absorption of ultraviolet radiation in the cavity. Our results indicate that care must be taken to rule out non-polaritonic effects before invoking strong coupling to explain any changes of chemical properties arising in cavity-based experiments.Comment: 31 pages, 16 figure