REMOVED: Explaining the Ultra-High Water Flow Rates Observed in Carbon Nanotube Membranes

n/

Exhaled breath condensate: a novel matrix for biological monitoring to assess occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica

Biological monitoring (BM) is a useful way of determining overall exposures to chemical substances; however, in the case of respirable crystalline silica (RCS), this has not been analytically feasible in conventional biological matrices. The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) as a potential biological matrix in which to determine exposure to RCS. A small pilot study was undertaken collecting EBC from six quarry workers and six occupationally unexposed persons; the samples were analysed using both single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results showed that EBC obtained from the occupationally unexposed persons exhibited low background levels of dissolved silica whilst silica particles of various sizes were present in samples from quarry workers. This is the first study to report EBC as a potential biological matrix that allows differentiation of RCS concentrations between samples from workers and occupationally unexposed controls. The results shown here confirm the presence of RCS in EBC by both spICP-MS and TEM. However, there are difficult analytical challenges still to be overcome before this can be used as a BM method to determine workplace exposure, these are currently being investigated. [Abstract copyright: © Crown copyright 2017.

Exomars entry and descent science

The entry, descent and landing of ExoMars offer a rare (once-per-mission) opportunity to perform in situ investigation of the martian environment over a wide altitude range. We present an initial assessment of the atmospheric science that can be performed using sensors of the Entry, Descent and Landing System (EDLS), over and above the expected engineering information. This is intended to help fulfill the concept of an Atmospheric Parameters Package (APP), as mentioned in the ExoMars draft Science Management Plan [ESA, 2005]. Mars' atmosphere is highly variable in time and space, due to phenomena including inertio-gravity waves, thermal tide effects, dust, solar wind conditions, and diurnal, seasonal and topographic effects. Atmospheric profile measurements, drawing on heritage from the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI), which encountered Titan's atmosphere in 2005 [1], should allow us to address questions of the martian atmosphere's structure, dynamics and variability

Anyonic Bogomol'nyi Solitons in a Gauged O(3) Sigma Model

We introduce the self-dual abelian gauged $O(3)$ sigma models where the Maxwell and Chern-Simons terms constitute the kinetic terms for the gauge field. These models have quite rich structures and various limits. Our models are found to exhibit both symmetric and broken phases of the gauge group. We discuss the pure Chern-Simons limit in some detail and study rotationally symmetric solitons.Comment: 14 pages, 6 Postscript figures uuencoded, written in REVTe

Assessing the phylogeographic history of the montane caddisfly Thremma gallicum using mitochondrial and restriction-site-associated DNA (RAD) mar

Repeated Quaternary glaciations have significantly shaped the present distribution and diversity of several European species in aquatic and terrestrial habitats. To study the phylogeography of freshwater invertebrates, patterns of intraspecific variation have been examined primarily using mitochondrial DNA markers that may yield results unrepresentative of the true species history. Here, population genetic parameters were inferred for a montane aquatic caddisfly, Thremma gallicum, by sequencing a 658-bp fragment of the mitochondrial CO1 gene, and 12,514 nuclear RAD loci. T. gallicum has a highly disjunct distribution in southern and central Europe, with known populations in the Cantabrian Mountains, Pyrenees, Massif Central, and Black Forest. Both datasets represented rangewide sampling of T. gallicum. For the CO1 dataset, this included 352 specimens from 26 populations, and for the RAD dataset, 17 specimens from eight populations. We tested 20 competing phylogeographic scenarios using approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) and estimated genetic diversity patterns. Support for phylogeographic scenarios and diversity estimates differed between datasets with the RAD data favouring a southern origin of extant populations and indicating the Cantabrian Mountains and Massif Central populations to represent highly diverse populations as compared with the Pyrenees and Black Forest populations. The CO1 data supported a vicariance scenario (north–south) and yielded inconsistent diversity estimates. Permutation tests suggest that a few hundred polymorphic RAD SNPs are necessary for reliable parameter estimates. Our results highlight the potential of RAD and ABC-based hypothesis testing to complement phylogeographic studies on non-model species

Conductive Polymer-Coated 3D Printed Microneedles: Biocompatible Platforms for Minimally Invasive Biosensing Interfaces

\ua9 2023 The Authors. Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.Conductive polymeric microneedle (MN) arrays as biointerface materials show promise for the minimally invasive monitoring of analytes in biodevices and wearables. There is increasing interest in microneedles as electrodes for biosensing, but efforts have been limited to metallic substrates, which lack biological stability and are associated with high manufacturing costs and laborious fabrication methods, which create translational barriers. In this work, additive manufacturing, which provides the user with design flexibility and upscale manufacturing, is employed to fabricate acrylic-based microneedle devices. These microneedle devices are used as platforms to produce intrinsically-conductive, polymer-based surfaces based on polypyrrole (PPy) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). These entirely polymer-based solid microneedle arrays act as dry conductive electrodes while omitting the requirement of a metallic seed layer. Two distinct coating methods of 3D-printed solid microneedles, in situ polymerization and drop casting, enable conductive functionality. The microneedle arrays penetrate ex vivo porcine skin grafts without compromising conductivity or microneedle morphology and demonstrate coating durability over multiple penetration cycles. The non-cytotoxic nature of the conductive microneedles is evaluated using human fibroblast cells. The proposed fabrication strategy offers a compelling approach to manufacturing polymer-based conductive microneedle surfaces that can be further exploited as platforms for biosensing

Magnetic bubble refraction and quasibreathers in inhomogeneous antiferromagnets

The dynamics of magnetic bubble solitons in a two-dimensional isotropic antiferromagnetic spin lattice is studied, in the case where the exchange integral J(x,y) is position dependent. In the near continuum regime, this system is described by the relativistic O(3) sigma model on a spacetime with a spatially inhomogeneous metric, determined by J. The geodesic approximation is used to describe low energy soliton dynamics in this system: n-soliton motion is approximated by geodesic motion in the moduli space of static n-solitons, equipped with the L^2 metric. Explicit formulae for this metric for various natural choices of J(x,y) are obtained. From these it is shown that single soliton trajectories experience refraction, with 1/J analogous to the refractive index, and that this refraction effect allows the construction of simple bubble lenses and bubble guides. The case where J has a disk inhomogeneity (taking the value J_1 outside a disk, and J_2<J_1 inside) is considered in detail. It is argued that, for sufficiently large J_1/J_2 this type of antiferromagnet supports approximate quasibreathers: two or more coincident bubbles confined within the disk which spin internally while their shape undergoes periodic oscillations with a generically incommensurate period.Comment: Conference proceedings paper for talk given at Nonlinear Physics Theory and Experiment IV, Gallipoli, Italy, June 200

Cost-effectiveness of adherence therapy versus health education for people with schizophrenia: randomised controlled trial in four European countries.

BACKGROUND: Non-adherence to anti-psychotics is common, expensive and affects recovery. We therefore examine the cost-effectiveness of adherence therapy for people with schizophrenia by multi-centre randomised trial in Amsterdam, London, Leipzig and Verona. METHODS: Participants received 8 sessions of adherence therapy or health education. We measured lost productivity and use of health/social care, criminal justice system and informal care at baseline and one year to estimate and compare mean total costs from health/social care and societal perspectives. Outcomes were the Short Form 36 (SF-36) mental component score (MCS) and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained (SF-36 and EuroQoL 5 dimension (EQ5D)). Cost-effectiveness was examined for all cost and outcome combinations using cost-effectiveness acceptability curves (CEACs). RESULTS: 409 participants were recruited. There were no cost or outcome differences between adherence therapy and health education. The probability of adherence therapy being cost-effective compared to health education was between 0.3 and 0.6 for the six cost-outcome combinations at the willingness to pay thresholds we examined. CONCLUSIONS: Adherence therapy appears equivalent to health education. It is unclear whether it would have performed differently against a treatment as usual control, whether such an intervention can impact on quality of life in the short-term, or whether it is likely to be cost-effective in some sites but not others. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN01816159.Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources Programme of the European Union (grant number QLG4-CT-2001-01734