Synthesis of molybdenum oxide nanoparticles by nanosecond laser ablation

Phothermal therapy (PTT) is one of the most promising techniques to treat cancer. Finding the ideal PTT agent nanomaterial has remained a challenge and has brought the interest of several researchers. In this work, we report the synthesis of molybdenum oxide (MoOx) nanoparticles (NPs), which exhibit absorption in the biological optical window ~840 nm, by using the laser ablation of solids in liquids (LASL) technique with nanosecond (ns) pulses. A Nd:YAG laser was used to synthesize the NPs in deionized (DI) water, free of surfactants or additives, which were optically characterized by absorption spectroscopy and TEM-EDX microscopy. Semi spherical NPs with a suitable average size and shape for potential use as PTT agents were obtained by laser ablation and ablation + fragmentation. The calculated band gap is 3.1 eV, which corresponds to MoO3. Micro-Raman spectroscopy studies determined that these NPs are composed of amorphous molybdenum oxide hydrates (MoO3 · xH2O)

Decentralized ellipsoidal state estimation for linear model predictive control of an irrigation canal

A centralized linear MPC is used to stabilize an irrigation system whose operation is represented by an integrator-delay model. Since not all the state variables can be measured, a decentralized ellipsoidal estimation strategy is proposed. This approach keeps the quality of a centralized estimation and reduces significantly the computation time for the systems considered. An adaptation of Test Canal 1, developed by the ASCE Task Committee on Canal Automation Algorithms, is used as a case study to show the performance of the proposed methodology.Fil: Rodriguez Aguilar, Leandro Pedro Faustino. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan; ArgentinaFil: Maestre, J. M.. Universidad de Sevilla. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería; EspañaFil: Camacho, E. F.. Universidad de Sevilla. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería; EspañaFil: Sanchez, Mabel Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; Argentin

Analysis of the elastic scattering measured with a 23.7 MeV 7Be beam on a 9Be target.

We present new data for the reaction 7Be+9Be measured at Elab =23.7 MeV. The elastic scattering angular distribution has been analyzed using the phenomenological optical model and the coupled-channels method. In the latter approach, we assumed a two-cluster model of the 7Be nucleus, and we included explicitly the ground state and first excited state of this nucleus. The contribution of the inelastic excitation of the 7Be nucleus to the quasielastic cross sections has been investigated.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC). España FPA2006-13807-c02-01Spanish Consolider-Ingenio programme CPAN CSD2007-0004

The effect of bathymetry interaction with waves and sea currents on the loading and thrust of a tidal turbine

This paper reports work undertaken to advance analytical methods used to evaluate the influence of bathymetry on wave- current interactions with tidal turbines. The model takes in to account the wave transformation due to a sudden depth change in the sea level. The functions developed provide solutions for wave transformation by changes in bathymetry to find how this change effects the torque and thrust exerted over a tidal turbine. Costal site data for the west coast of the US, from the US DoE, has been used to access the robustness of these analytical methods. The high resolution data sets used have monitored wave, sea and climatic conditions over a period of 8 years

A tale of two cities: Aedes Mosquito surveillance across the Texas-Mexico Border

Cross border situations complicate epidemiologic risk assessments in transboundary regions such as the US-Mexico border. Countries have different health policies, mosquito control policies, and mosquito surveillance systems. We established a binational Aedes mosquito surveillance program in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and McAllen, Texas by replicating a part of the Mexican Integrated Vector Monitoring System (IVMS) across the international border. The entomologic surveillance of the IVMSs is based on ova collection cups (ovitraps) and for the binational project, the surveillance protocol was modified to include an Autocidal Gravid Ovitrap (AGO) in the center of every city-block (100 m2) distribution of four ovitraps. We measured the weekly abun-dance of Aedes eggs and adult females in 72 clusters (cluster = one AGO and four ovitraps) in Reynosa and 67 clusters in McAllen from Epidemiologic Week (EW) 17 to EW 36. The mean weekly egg counts were 34 and 22 in McAllen and Reynosa respectively. The female adult mosquito counts were more than 5 in 12 out of 20 (60%) weeks in McAllen, and in 5 out of 16 (31%) weeks in Reynosa. For every increase of one female mosquito, the egg counts in the corresponding ovitraps increased by 2.33% (95% HDI: 2.31%–-2.42%) in McAllen and by 0.6% (95% HDI: 0.5%–0.62%) in Reynosa. Counter knowledge, weekly increase of temperature had a negative influence in adult and egg counts in Reynosa and McAllen. Precipitation had a positive influence on egg counts in McAllen

An Active Isodicentric X Chromosome in a Case of Refractory Anaemia with Ring Sideroblasts Associated with Marked Thrombocytosis

Refractory anaemia with ring sideroblasts and marked thrombocytosis (RARS-T) is a provisional entity in the World Health Organization (WHO) classification. It displays features characteristic of both myelodysplastic syndrome and myeloproliferative neoplasia plus ring sideroblasts ≥15% and marked thrombocytosis. Most patients with RARS-T show a normal karyotype. We report a 76-year-old woman diagnosed with RARS-T (76% of ring sideroblasts) with JAK2 (V617F) mutation and a load of 30–40%. Classical and molecular cytogenetic (FISH) studies of a bone marrow sample revealed the presence of isodicentric X chromosome [(idic(X)(q13)]. Moreover, HUMARA assay showed the idic(X)(q13) as the active X chromosome. This finding was correlated with the cytochemical finding of ring sideroblasts. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of an active isodicentric X in a woman with RARS-T

Changes in flavonoid content of grapefruit juice caused by thermal treatment and storage

The effect of conventional and microwave pasteurization on the main flavonoids present in grapefruit juice and their stability throughout 2 months of refrigerated and frozen storage was evaluated. Individual flavonoids were analyzed by HPLC. The results showed that naringin, narirutin, quercetin and naringenin were the most abundant flavonoids in grapefruit juice. In general, although every pasteurization treatment caused a significant reduction in the content of all the studied flavonoids, the treated samples were more stable during storage. While fresh squeezed juice (FS) and conventional pasteurized juice (CP) were better preserved under refrigeration conditions, microwave pasteurized juice (MP) conserved better when frozen stored. In fact, after 2 months, frozen MP samples showed the greatest flavonoid retention. From this point of view, microwave treatment can be considered a good alternative to conventional pasteurization. Industrial relevance: Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds present in fruits and vegetables relevant not only in terms of quality, as they influence the visual appearance and taste, but also from a therapeutical point of view, as they appear to be associated with the prevention of degenerative diseases. The consumption of grapefruit juice is fairly widespread among the population. Traditionally, juices have been pasteurized by heat treatment to prolong their shelf life. However, this process may cause irreversible losses of nutritional quality and antioxidant activity and, in consequence, may affect their health-related properties. In this sense, the use of microwaves can be considered an alternative to conventional thermal pasteurization. Microwave energy was applied as alternative to conventional heating for grapefruit juice pasteurization. The results obtained in this study showed that when the effect of pasteurization process and storage is considered together, the use of microwave energy led to a greater retention of all the analyzed flavonoids, thereby representing a good alternative to conventional pasteurization. In this case, frozen storage of processed product would be recommended to better preserve these compounds. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The authors wish to thank the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia and FEDER for their financial support throughout the Project AGL 2005-05994.Igual Ramo, M.; García Martínez, EM.; Camacho Vidal, MM.; Martínez Navarrete, N. (2011). Changes in flavonoid content of grapefruit juice caused by thermal treatment and storage. Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies. 12(2):153-162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifset.2010.12.010S15316212

Photometric redshifts and clustering of emission line galaxies selected jointly by DES and eBOSS

We present the results of the first test plates of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. This paper focuses on the emission line galaxies (ELG) population targetted from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) photometry. We analyse the success rate, efficiency, redshift distribution, and clustering properties of the targets. From the 9000 spectroscopic redshifts targetted, 4600 have been selected from the DES photometry. The total success rate for redshifts between 0.6 and 1.2 is 71\% and 68\% respectively for a bright and faint, on average more distant, samples including redshifts measured from a single strong emission line. We find a mean redshift of 0.8 and 0.87, with 15 and 13\% of unknown redshifts respectively for the bright and faint samples. In the redshift range 0.6<z<1.2, for the most secure spectroscopic redshifts, the mean redshift for the bright and faint sample is 0.85 and 0.9 respectively. Star contamination is lower than 2\%. We measure a galaxy bias averaged on scales of 1 and 10~Mpc/h of 1.72 \pm 0.1 for the bright sample and of 1.78 \pm 0.12 for the faint sample. The error on the galaxy bias have been obtained propagating the errors in the correlation function to the fitted parameters. This redshift evolution for the galaxy bias is in agreement with theoretical expectations for a galaxy population with MB-5\log h < -21.0. We note that biasing is derived from the galaxy clustering relative to a model for the mass fluctuations. We investigate the quality of the DES photometric redshifts and find that the outlier fraction can be reduced using a comparison between template fitting and neural network, or using a random forest algorithm