254 research outputs found
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
[KAl<sub>2</sub>(Si<sub>3</sub>Al)O<sub>10</sub>(OH)<sub>2</sub>)]
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<sup>+</sup>) 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
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