How Can the European Federation for Colposcopy Promote High Quality Colposcopy Throughout Europe?

Since its inception in 1998, the European Federation for Colposcopy (EFC) now comprises 26 member societies. Its principle aim is to promote high quality colposcopy throughout Europe with special emphasis on training, education and treatment. This review summarises EFC’s activities and achievements to date

Dewetting Dynamics of a Solid Microsphere by Emulsion Drops

A novel micropipet technique was developed to quantify the dewetting dynamics of individual microsphere particles by emulsified viscous crude oil drops in aqueous media. This technique allowed dynamic microscale receding contact angles of water to be measured in situ for solid–oil–water systems. System parameters, including modification of glass microspheres and characteristics of oil drops, were varied to study their effect on dewetting dynamics of the systems. Increasing solvent dosage in viscous oil was found to decrease static receding contact angle of water for clean and bitumen-treated glass surfaces, but showed a negligible effect on static receding contact angle for ethyl cellulose (EC)-treated glass surface. Interestingly, dynamic dewetting behavior exhibited a strong dependence on surface modification and the addition of solvent to viscous oil. No dewetting dynamics was observed for clean hydrophilic glass surface. For bitumen- or EC-treated glass surfaces, more rapid dewetting dynamics of water were determined with increasing addition of solvent to viscous oil. Both de Gennes viscous dissipation hydrodynamic and the Blake/Haynes molecular-kinetic models were developed for the current system to understand the observed dynamic dewetting characteristics

Amination of Diazocarbonyl Compounds: N–H Insertion under Metal-Free Conditions

Transition-metal-free intermolecular N–H insertion of α-diazocarbonyl compounds is reported. Among the series of nitrogen sources examined, dibenzenesulfonimide was found to be the choice in terms of the yields and the reaction time. Primary mechanistic experiments suggest that a pathway involving a sequence of protonation and nucleophilic substitution was preferred

Understanding the Liberation of Asphaltenes on the Muscovite Surface

Separation of heavy hydrocarbons from mineral surfaces is the key step for unconventional oil production and remediation of oil-contaminated soils. The presence of asphaltene and the coexistence of mineral rocks are considered as the most challenge during the above separation processes. Herein, the liberation of asphaltenes (and/or heavy oil) on the muscovite [KAl₂(Si₃Al)­O₁₀(OH)₂)] surface has been systematically investigated through instrumental characterization and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. It is observed that, quite different from that on the silica surface, asphaltenes can flake off from the muscovite surface as a result of the weaker adhesion force between asphaltenes and the muscovite surface. This liberation pattern was also found to be influenced by the addition of other oil fractions. The micro force measurements by atomic force microscopy show that the adhesion force between asphaltenes and muscovite is weaker than that between asphaltenes and silica in both air and water. Assisted by the MD simulation, it is found that the detachment of asphaltenes is highly dependent upon the mineral types and the presence of the water film on the mineral surfaces. Although the van der Waals force is found to be the main force between asphaltenes and mineral surfaces, the presence of potassium ions (K⁺) on the muscovite surface could increase the percentage of the electrostatic forces in the total force. Furthermore, the presence of a 0.4 nm water layer (in the air) between asphaltenes and the muscovite surface could reduce their interactions dramatically compared to that in a vacuum state. This finding suggests that the presence of water between the mineral surface and oil is beneficial for the separation of oil from the mineral surface. In addition, the asphaltene molecules are found to contact with the silica surface by face-to-face (aromatic ring) form, while a much more perpendicular orientation of the asphaltene molecules on the muscovite surface

Distribution of Saturates, Aromatics, Resins, and Asphaltenes Fractions in the Bituminous Layer of Athabasca Oil Sands

The composition and distribution of saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes (SARA) fractions in the bituminous layer on the surface of Athabasca oil sands were identified using elemental analysis (EA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with an energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). The contents of elements sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) and the ratios of carbon/sulfur (C/S) and carbon/nitrogen (C/N) were characterized as potential indicators for evaluating the distribution of SARA fractions in the bituminous layer. Results indicated that saturates and aromatics tend to deposit at the outer bituminous layer, while asphaltenes and resins were inclined to distribute at the inner layer. Results also suggested that the distribution of SARA fractions was thermodynamically dependent and susceptible to thermal treatment. On the basis of the experimental results, a conceptual distribution model was proposed, which is supposed to serve as a basis for future studies on the liberation of bitumen from oil sands and the operation conditions for oil sands processing

Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of the Accessory Sex Gland and Testis from the Chinese Mitten Crab (<em>Eriocheir sinensis</em>)

<div><p>The accessory sex gland (ASG) is an important component of the male reproductive system, which functions to enhance the fertility of spermatozoa during male reproduction. Certain proteins secreted by the ASG are known to bind to the spermatozoa membrane and affect its function. The ASG gene expression profile in Chinese mitten crab (<em>Eriocheir sinensis</em>) has not been extensively studied, and limited genetic research has been conducted on this species. The advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies enables the generation of genomic resources within a short period of time and at minimal cost. In the present study, we performed <em>de novo</em> transcriptome sequencing to produce a comprehensive transcript dataset for the ASG of <em>E. sinensis</em> using Illumina sequencing technology. This analysis yielded a total of 33,221,284 sequencing reads, including 2.6 Gb of total nucleotides. Reads were assembled into 85,913 contigs (average 218 bp), or 58,567 scaffold sequences (average 292 bp), that identified 37,955 unigenes (average 385 bp). We assembled all unigenes and compared them with the published testis transcriptome from <em>E. sinensis</em>. In order to identify which genes may be involved in ASG function, as it pertains to modification of spermatozoa, we compared the ASG and testis transcriptome of <em>E. sinensis</em>. Our analysis identified specific genes with both higher and lower tissue expression levels in the two tissues, and the functions of these genes were analyzed to elucidate their potential roles during maturation of spermatozoa. Availability of detailed transcriptome data from ASG and testis in <em>E. sinensis</em> can assist our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved with spermatozoa conservation, transport, maturation and capacitation and potentially acrosome activation.</p> </div

The three subplots are shown for the two classes, i.e., horizontal axis-of-motion stimuli and vertical axis-of-motion stimuli.

<p>A: a difference map between the two stimulus conditions. B: the reconstructed condition difference map between the two stimulus conditions using our approach. C: the iterative curve of decoding accuracy rates in Experiment 2.</p

Voxels selected by our method with a significance level of 0.05 (corrected with cluster size 10) in Experiment 3.

<p>The red clusters corresponded to the “old people” stimulus condition, and the blue clusters corresponded to the “young people” stimulus condition.</p

N-heterocyclic carbene-catalyzed regio- and stereoselective hydrothiolation reaction of alkynes

<p>N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have been utilized as Brønsted base to catalyze the hydrothiolation reaction between alkynes and thiols to produce the vinyl sulfides stereoselectively.</p

Results of our SPL algorithm at different noise levels.

<p>A: accuracy curve for localizing informative features obtained by the sparse representation-based SPL algorithm with different noise levels. B: 8 ROC curves corresponding to 8 noise levels respectively. C: accuracy curve for predicting the labels of the independent test sets generated at different noise levels.</p