Doping of inorganic materials in microreactors – preparation of Zn doped Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles

Microreactor systems are now used more and more for the continuous production of metal nanoparticles and metal oxide nanoparticles owing to the controllability of the particle size, an important property in many applications. Here, for the first time, we used microreactors to prepare metal oxide nanoparticles with controlled and varying metal stoichiometry. We prepared and characterised Zn-substituted Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles with linear increase of Zn content (ZnxFe₃−xO₄ with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.48), which causes linear increases in properties such as the saturation magnetization, relative to pure Fe₃O₄. The methodology is simple and low cost and has great potential to be adapted to the targeted doping of a vast array of other inorganic materials, allowing greater control on the chemical stoichiometry for nanoparticles prepared in microreactors

Experimental phase functions of mm-sized cosmic dust grains

We present experimental phase functions of three types of millimeter-sized dust grains consisting of enstatite, quartz and volcanic material from Mount Etna, respectively. The three grains present similar sizes but different absorbing properties. The measurements are performed at 527 nm covering the scattering angle range from 3 to 170 degrees. The measured phase functions show two well defined regions i) soft forward peaks and ii) a continuous increase with the scattering angle at side- and back-scattering regions. This behavior at side- and back-scattering regions are in agreement with the observed phase functions for the Fomalhaut and HR 4796A dust rings. Further computations and measurements (including polarization) for millimeter sized-grains are needed to draw some conclusions about the fluffy or compact structure of the dust grains

Non-collaborative Attackers and How and Where to Defend Flawed Security Protocols (Extended Version)

Security protocols are often found to be flawed after their deployment. We present an approach that aims at the neutralization or mitigation of the attacks to flawed protocols: it avoids the complete dismissal of the interested protocol and allows honest agents to continue to use it until a corrected version is released. Our approach is based on the knowledge of the network topology, which we model as a graph, and on the consequent possibility of creating an interference to an ongoing attack of a Dolev-Yao attacker, by means of non-collaboration actuated by ad-hoc benign attackers that play the role of network guardians. Such guardians, positioned in strategical points of the network, have the task of monitoring the messages in transit and discovering at runtime, through particular types of inference, whether an attack is ongoing, interrupting the run of the protocol in the positive case. We study not only how but also where we can attempt to defend flawed security protocols: we investigate the different network topologies that make security protocol defense feasible and illustrate our approach by means of concrete examples.Comment: 29 page

Designed to fail : a biopolitics of British Citizenship.

Tracing a route through the recent 'ugly history' of British citizenship, this article advances two central claims. Firstly, British citizenship has been designed to fail specific groups and populations. Failure, it argues, is a design principle of British citizenship, in the most active and violent sense of the verb to design: to mark out, to indicate, to designate. Secondly, British citizenship is a biopolitics - a field of techniques and practices (legal, social, moral) through which populations are controlled and fashioned. This article begins with the 1981 Nationality Act and the violent conflicts between the police and black communities in Brixton that accompanied the passage of the Act through the British parliament. Employing Michel Foucault's concept of state racism, it argues that the 1981 Nationality Act marked a pivotal moment in the design of British citizenship and has operated as the template for a glut of subsequent nationality legislation that has shaped who can achieve citizenship. The central argument is that the existence of populations of failed citizens within Britain is not an accident of flawed design, but is foundational to British citizenship. For many 'national minorities' the lived realities of biopolitical citizenship stand in stark contradistinction to contemporary governmental accounts of citizenship that stress community cohesion, political participation, social responsibility, rights and pride in shared national belonging

Guarana fertilization.

bitstream/item/210626/1/Guarana-Fertilization.pd

Application of Design of Experiments (DOE) on the Processing of Rapid Prototyped Samples

The purpose of this experiment was to improve the Fused Deposition Modeling Process by examining the tensile strength of samples fabricated in a Stratasys FDM 1650 Machine utilizing the methods of Design of Experiments. A two-level, four-factor, full factorial experiment was conducted. The selected factors were temperature, air gap, slice thickness, and raster orientation. A regression equation determined the level each factor should be set in order to optimize the FDM machine settings. It was found that single factors - small air gap, small layer thickness and low raster orientation, as well as the interaction between high temperature and small layer thickness yielded the greatest effect the response.Mechanical Engineerin

Susceptibility to Flooding in Abdon Calderon of Canton Portoviejo Parish

This research was developed in the field of risk management against floods with the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to assess the susceptibility to flooding in the central part of the Abdón Calderón parish of the Portoviejo canton where there are geographical and climatic characteristics that create favorable conditions for the occurrence of this phenomenon (slopes, edaphic composition with significant presence of clay and existence of patterns of intense rainfall in the winter season. Work was proposed to determine the susceptibility to flooding to which the research area is subject through the analysis of cartographic data and the thematic maps of slope and soil with a weighting methodology of the importance of the mentioned variables according to the qualitative evaluation. Iva carried out preliminarily through observation visits and taking of reference data in situ. The result was the obtaining of a susceptibility map where the high, medium and low susceptibility level can be observed in the downtown part of the Abdón Calderón parish

Prediction of recurrent Clostridium difficile infection using comprehensive electronic medical records in an integrated healthcare delivery system

BACKGROUNDPredicting recurrentClostridium difficileinfection (rCDI) remains difficult. METHODS. We employed a retrospective cohort design. Granular electronic medical record (EMR) data had been collected from patients hospitalized at 21 Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals. The derivation dataset (2007–2013) included data from 9,386 patients who experienced incident CDI (iCDI) and 1,311 who experienced their first CDI recurrences (rCDI). The validation dataset (2014) included data from 1,865 patients who experienced incident CDI and 144 who experienced rCDI. Using multiple techniques, including machine learning, we evaluated more than 150 potential predictors. Our final analyses evaluated 3 models with varying degrees of complexity and 1 previously published model.RESULTSDespite having a large multicenter cohort and access to granular EMR data (eg, vital signs, and laboratory test results), none of the models discriminated well (c statistics, 0.591–0.605), had good calibration, or had good explanatory power.CONCLUSIONSOur ability to predict rCDI remains limited. Given currently available EMR technology, improvements in prediction will require incorporating new variables because currently available data elements lack adequate explanatory power.Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol2017;38:1196–1203</jats:sec

An Overview of Aircraft Remote Sensing in Integrated Pest Management

English: This paper presents four exemplary applications of aerial photography and videography, global positioning system (GPS), and geographic information system (GIS) technologies for detecting, monitoring, and mapping insect infestations in agriculture, forestry, and rangeland areas. Applications demonstrated include detecting and mapping: (1) citrus blackfly (Aleurocanthus woglumi Ashby) infestations in citrus orchards; (2) silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia argentifolii Bellows and Perring) infestations in cotton; (3) harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus F. Smith) infestations on rangelands; and (4) western pine beetle (Dendroctonus brevicomis LeConte) infestations in a forested area. The integration of a GPS with the video imagery permitted latitude and longitude coordinates of insect infestations to be recorded on each image. The GPS coordinates were entered into a GIS to map insect infestations on a regional scale. The integration of remote sensing, GPS, and GIS provide valuable tools that can enable resource managers to develop maps showing the distribution of insect infestations over large areas. The digital imagery can serve as a permanent geographically located image data base for monitoring future contraction or spread of insect infestations over time. Spanish: En este artículo se presentan cuatro ejemplos de las aplicaciones de las tecnologías de fotografía y videografía aéreas, el sistema de posición global (GPS), y del sistema de información geográfica (GIS) para la detección, monitoreo, y mapeo de infestaciones de insectos en áreas agrícolas, forestales y en pastizales. Las aplicaciones demonstradas incluyeron la detección y el mapeo de (1) infestaciones por la mosca negra de los cítricos (Aleurocanthus woglumi Ashby) en huertas de cítricos; (2) mosquita blanca (Bemisia argentifolii Bellows and Perring) en algodón; (3) hormiga cosechadora (Pogonomyrex barbatus F. Smith) en pastizales; y (4) escarabajo del pino del oeste (Dendroctonus brevicomis Le Conte) en una área forestal. La integración del sistema de GPS con las imágenes de video permitió registrar las coordenadas de longitud y latitud en cada imagen. Las coordenadas de cada imagen se incorporaron en un mapa de GIS para crear un mapa de las infestaciones de insectos a una escala regional. La integración de un sistema de detección a distancia, GPS, and GIS brinda herramientas valiosas para permitir a los supervisores de recursos desarrollar mapas que muestren la distribución de infestaciones de insectos en áreas extensas. El sistema de imágenes digital puede servir como una base permanente de datos localizados geográficamente para el monitoreo de futuras concentraciones o dispersiones de plagas de insectos a lo largo del tiempo

Aerial detection of waste disposal sites near Donna Reservoir in south Texas.

Aerial color-infrared (CIR) photography was used to detect and catalog unauthorized solid waste disposal sites around Donna Reservoir in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of southern Texas. Qualitative visual evaluation of the positive transparencies showed 25 possible disposal sites randomly scattered throughout the study area, located in sites ranging from bare soil to grass and mixed brush/woods. These sites were transposed onto a computer-generated area map for ground survey confirmation and use by organizations planning to clean-up the sites. Ground-truthing was used to identify waste contents at each site and to estimate waste volumes and areas covered. Unauthorized solid waste sites were verified in 23 of the 25 locations. Two sites contained only broken concrete and asphalt being utilized as erosional fill material. The ground survey identified ten solid waste sites missed on the aerial photos. These sites were missed due to their small size (\u3c 2 [m.sup.2]) and because they were covered by lodging guinea grass (Panicum maximum) or giant reed (Arundo donax). The addition of these missed sites to the other 25 locations hindered the overall accuracy of the aerial photographic survey (71.4%)