Thermo-oxidative Stability and Flammability of Three-dimensional Polymers Based on Olygocarbonate-methacrylates

By the irreversible condensation reaction of the mono-methacrylic ester of ethylene glycol and chlorocarbonic esters of 2,2-dimethylpropandiol- 1,3 and 2,2-dimethylene chloride-propandiol-1,3, two olygocarbonate methacrylate (OCM-I and -II, respectively) containing unsaturated ends were synthesised. The polymerization of OCM-I and OCM-II in the presence of cumene hydro.peroxide and an accelerator gave two cross-liinked polymers Ln a yield of 70-750/o. The thermal and thermo-oxidative decompositions of the prepared polymers were studied by the thermogravimetric method and by characterization of the volatile pyrolysis products and the nonvolatile polymer residue. The influence of the polymer structure on the mechanism of the decomposition reactions in vacuo as well as iin the presence of oxygen was discussed. The temperature dependence of thermostabiLity was compared with some polymer flammability parameters

Large Language Models for Granularized Barrett's Esophagus Diagnosis Classification

Diagnostic codes for Barrett's esophagus (BE), a precursor to esophageal cancer, lack granularity and precision for many research or clinical use cases. Laborious manual chart review is required to extract key diagnostic phenotypes from BE pathology reports. We developed a generalizable transformer-based method to automate data extraction. Using pathology reports from Columbia University Irving Medical Center with gastroenterologist-annotated targets, we performed binary dysplasia classification as well as granularized multi-class BE-related diagnosis classification. We utilized two clinically pre-trained large language models, with best model performance comparable to a highly tailored rule-based system developed using the same data. Binary dysplasia extraction achieves 0.964 F1-score, while the multi-class model achieves 0.911 F1-score. Our method is generalizable and faster to implement as compared to a tailored rule-based approach

Financial Sector Development, Government Size, Trade Openness and Economic Growth: an Emperical Analysis in ASEAN-4 Countries

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the relative impact of financial sector development, government size and trade openness of a country on its economic growth. This is done to investigate which factors play more prominent role in leading the growth of the economy. Four ASEAN countries known for their similar economic orientation, namely Ma-laysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore have been selected for this purpose. To achieve the objective, a series of econometric tests is applied. These include unit root test and cointe-gration test. A vector error correction model (VECM) is then applied to capture both the short-run dynamic and the long-run equilibrium relationship between variables. Impulse response function is utilized to look at the impact of each variable on economic growth while variance decomposition is used to measure the magnitude of the impact. The results show that trade openness plays the leading role in promoting economic growth in Malaysia, Sin-gapore and Indonesia. For Malaysia financial sector development follows second and the government size comes third while for Singapore the order is reverse. For Indonesia, the government size overtakes the leading role at the later stage while the financial sector devel-opment is immaterial. For Thailand, no firm conclusion can be made, as the results are not promising. The results signify that the right policies have been taken by the selected coun-tries to promote higher economic growth

Greater Eurasia Project in the Context of Interdisciplinary Discourse

The article defines the basic methodological principles of the project “greater Eurasia”, involving the solution of the complex problems of the promotion of global security and sustainable world order in the “era of geopolitical tension” associated with the onset of “Globalization 2.0” at the initial stage of the sixth technological order, a revolutionary transition from “analog” to “digital era” at the beginning of the XXI century and the rethinking of anthropological values caused by the inclusion of the everyday life of modern human artificial intelligence — in the guise of an assistant, a controller of human behavior and actions, or a Chapek robot

BICEP3 performance overview and planned Keck Array upgrade

Bicep3 is a 520mm aperture, compact two-lens refractor designed to observe the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 95 GHz. Its focal plane consists of modularized tiles of antenna-coupled transition edge sensors (TESs), similar to those used in Bicep2 and the Keck Array. The increased per-receiver optical throughput compared to Bicep2/Keck Array, due to both its faster f=1:7 optics and the larger aperture, more than doubles the combined mapping speed of the Bicep/Keck program. The Bicep3 receiver was recently upgraded to a full complement of 20 tiles of detectors (2560 TESs) and is now beginning its second year of observation (and first science season) at the South Pole. We report on its current performance and observing plans. Given its high per-receiver throughput while maintaining the advantages of a compact design, Bicep3- class receivers are ideally suited as building blocks for a 3rd-generation CMB experiment, consisting of multiple receivers spanning 35 GHz to 270 GHz with total detector count in the tens of thousands. We present plans for such an array, the new "BICEP Array" that will replace the Keck Array at the South Pole, including design optimization, frequency coverage, and deployment/observing strategies

High body-mass index is not associated with worse clinicopathological characteristics in predominantly obese breast cancer patients

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women. A high body-mass index (BMI) is related to increased incidence of BC with poorer prognosis. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the association in patients with BC between BMI at the time of diagnosis and biological characteristics, according to the menopausal status. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study comprised a total of 318 women with BC. Clinicopathological differences between normal, overweight and obese patients according to menopausal status were evaluated. Results: Premenopausal women had a significantly lower BMI than postmenopausal patients (28.7 vs. 31.5, respectively; p = 0.00001). No statistically significant association was determined between BMI and clinicopathological characteristics in either the premenopausal or the postmenopausal group (all p values are > 0.05). Conclusions: There are many conflicting results in literature on this relationship. The results of this study showed that a high BMI is not associated with worse clinicopathological cha­racteristics in a predominantly obese population. In current medical oncology practice, BC should be evaluated on an individual patient basis and the impact of obesity on BC prognosis seems to be difficult to estimate especially in an obese population. Key Words: breast cancer, body-mass index, prognosis

BICEP2/Keck Array. IV. Optical Characterization and Performance of the BICEP2 and Keck Array Experiments

bicep2 and the Keck Array are polarization-sensitive microwave telescopes that observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the South Pole at degree angular scales in search of a signature of inflation imprinted as B-mode polarization in the CMB. bicep2 was deployed in late 2009, observed for three years until the end of 2012 at 150 GHz with 512 antenna-coupled transition edge sensor bolometers, and has reported a detection of B-mode polarization on degree angular scales. The Keck Array was first deployed in late 2010 and will observe through 2016 with five receivers at several frequencies (95, 150, and 220 GHz). bicep2 and the Keck Array share a common optical design and employ the field-proven bicep1 strategy of using small-aperture, cold, on-axis refractive optics, providing excellent control of systematics while maintaining a large field of view. This design allows for full characterization of far-field optical performance using microwave sources on the ground. Here we describe the optical design of both instruments and report a full characterization of the optical performance and beams of bicep2 and the Keck Array at 150 GHz

МЕТОДИЧНІ АСПЕКТИ ЗВОРОТНОГО ЗВ'ЯЗКУ В ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННІ ЯКОСТІ НАВЧАННЯ В ПІСЛЯДИПЛОМНІЙ МЕДИЧНІЙ ОСВІТІ

It's discussed the necessity of realization of process feedback with the courses students of professional skill improvement of doctors and pharmacists with the purpose of the analysis of competence, relevance and perspectives of the conducted training. These approaches allow us to quantify the level of transfer and assimilation of knowledge by students for the further planning of training programs. It is shown that postgraduate education should be more individualized, in accordance with the results of clustering the level of basic knowledge of those who study. It is argued that monitoring the use of knowledge in the self-employment of specialists should be carried out in accordance with the level of knowledge gained in training. It is recommended to include experience in the use of knowledge modules, which students receive during the improvement in the system of postgraduate education, in the feedback form. It is also alleged that in these questionnaires there should be questions about the success of mastering «soft» and «hard» skills.Обоснована необходимость осуществления процессной обратной связи со слушателями циклов повышения квалификации врачей и провизоров с целью анализа компетентности, востребованности и перспективности проведенного обучения. Данные подходы позволяют количественно оценить уровень передачи и усвоения знаний слушателями для дальнейшего планирования программ обучения. Показано, что последипломное обучение должно проводиться более индивидуализировано, в соответствии с результатами кластеризации уровня базисных знаний субъектов обучения. Утверждается, что мониторинг применения знаний при самостоятельной работе специалистов следует осуществлять в соответствии с уровнем полученных при обучении знаний. Рекомендовано включать опыт использования модулей знаний, которые получают слушатели во время усовершенствования в системе последипломного образования, в анкеты обратной связи. Утверждается также, что в этих анкетах должны быть вопросы относительно успешности усвоения «мягких» и «жестких» навыков.Обґрунтовано необхідність здійснення процесного зворотного зв'язку зі слухачами циклів підвищення кваліфікації лікарів і провізорів з метою аналізу компетентності, затребуваності та перспективності проведеного навчання. Дані підходи дають можливість кількісно оцінити рівень передавання та засвоєння знань слухачами для подальшого планування програм навчання. Показано, що післядипломне навчання має проводитися більш індивідуалізовано, відповідно до кластеризації рівня базисних знань суб'єктів навчання. Стверджується, що моніторинг застосування знань при самостійній роботі слухачів слід здійснювати відповідно до рівня отриманих знань. Рекомендовано включати досвід використання модулів знань, що отримують слухачі під час удосконалення в системі післядипломної освіти, в зворотні анкети. Стверджується також, що в анкетах мають бути запитання, щодо успішності засвоєння «м'яких» і «жорстких» навиків

BICEP2 / Keck Array VII: Matrix based E/B Separation applied to BICEP2 and the Keck Array

A linear polarization field on the sphere can be uniquely decomposed into an E-mode and a B-mode component. These two components are analytically defined in terms of spin-2 spherical harmonics. Maps that contain filtered modes on a partial sky can also be decomposed into E-mode and B-mode components. However, the lack of full sky information prevents orthogonally separating these components using spherical harmonics. In this paper, we present a technique for decomposing an incomplete map into E and B-mode components using E and B eigenmodes of the pixel covariance in the observed map. This method is found to orthogonally define E and B in the presence of both partial sky coverage and spatial filtering. This method has been applied to the Bicep2 and the Keck Array maps and results in reducing E to B leakage from ΛCDM E-modes to a level corresponding to a tensor-to-scalar ratio of r < 1 x 10^(-4)

BICEP Array: a multi-frequency degree-scale CMB polarimeter

Bicep Array is the newest multi-frequency instrument in the Bicep/Keck Array program. It is comprised of four 550mm aperture refractive telescopes observing the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 30/40, 95, 150 and 220/270 GHz with over 30,000 detectors. We present an overview of the receiver, detailing the optics, thermal, mechanical, and magnetic shielding design. Bicep Array follows Bicep3's modular focal plane concept, and upgrades to 6" wafer to reduce fabrication with higher detector count per module. The first receiver at 30/40GHz is expected to start observing at the South Pole during the 2019-20 season. By the end of the planned Bicep Array program, we project 0.002 ⪅ σ(r) ⪅ 0.006, assuming current modeling of polarized Galactic foreground and depending on the level of delensing that can be achieved with higher resolution maps from the South Pole Telescope