All-XUV pump-probe transient absorption spectroscopy on the dissociation dynamics of small molecules

In this work, the implementation of an XUV-pump–XUV-probe transient absorption spectroscopy scheme at the free-electron laser facility FLASH in Hamburg is presented. It is applied to the ultrafast dissociation dynamics of the small molecules diiodomethane and oxygen. For the diiodomethane target, the XUV pump pulse enables the resonant site-specific excitation of an iodine 4d electron to an antibonding molecular orbital. The hereby initiated dissociation of the molecule includes a direct, as well as an indirect path through isomeric geometries of the molecular cation. These parallel pathways are traced with the help of simulated absorption spectra and their time constants are extracted via a global fit model. In the case of the oxygen target, dissociation is initiated by the (multiple) ionization of the oxygen molecule. The emergence of absorption resonances of the doublycharged ionic fragment O2+ is observed in the probe spectrum as a product of the dissociation. The compatibility of the extracted rise times of the fragments with Coulomb explosion is investigated with a simple classical model

Attributes and Qualifications of Successful Rural Nurse Preceptors: Preceptors’ Perspectives

Nurse preceptors are integral to retaining new nurses. Given the challenges associated with attracting and retaining rural nurses (Trossman, 2001), the importance of preceptors in the retention of new nurses and the dearth of studies explicitly examining the attributes and qualifications of successful rural nurse preceptors, the purpose of this study was to unearth attributes and qualifications of successful rural nurse preceptors. In this basic qualitative study, 19 participants completed 1-2 hour in-depth interviews. Data was analyzed using the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Major themes included a sense of honor, professionalism, self-efficacy, and the ability to learn. In addition to confirming previous research, the findings demonstrated the importance of emotion in the teaching/learning process and the influence of observational learning on preceptors’ present-day instruction. Practical implications included acknowledging emotion in the teaching/learning process, the need for new and experienced preceptors to share information and the importance of creating opportunities for critical reflection in preceptor education programs

Selectivity of hydrogen chemisorption on clean and lead modified palladium particles; a TPD and photoemission study

This work describes hydrogen chemisorption on clean and lead modified palladium particles obtained from decomposition of PdO. TPD is used as a chemical probe to test the surface properties of several states of metallic palladium relevant in practical selective hydrogenation catalysts. These states differ in oxygen content and the presence of a lead modifier. XPS and UPS data serve as a basis for identifying the surface properties. TPD spectra show a very broad low temperature peak-likely bulk hydride decomposition-and a sharp TPD peak between 330 and 380 K. This latter can be devided into three rather poorly separated subpeaks; addition of Pb does not shift peak maxima but decreases the central subpeak and eliminates the high temperature peak completely. This points to the interaction of Pb with specific surface sites rather than to bulk alloy formation. The enhancement of selectivity in hydrogenation obtained from lead modification is considered as a geometric site blocking effect rather than to arise from a bulk modification of the valence electronic structure of palladium metal

The Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry: rationale, organisation and results for the years 2001-2005.

Childhood cancer is a rare but severe disease. Therefore central registration of all cases is essential for surveillance and management. This paper describes the methodology and basic results of the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry (SCCR). The SCCR was established in 1976, originally as a national hospital-based registry of childhood malignancies. All 9 paediatric oncology-haematology clinics in Switzerland provide baseline and follow-up information on all children diagnosed with cancer. These data are registered centrally and diagnoses are coded according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer. From 2001-2005, 887 cases of childhood cancer in Swiss residents under the age of 15 years were registered in the SCCR. Of these, 281 (31.7%) were leukaemias, 223 (24.0%) were CNS tumours, and 116 (13.1%) were lymphomas. The age-standardised annual incidence per 1 Million person-years (age below 15 years; world standardisation) was 154.0 (95% CI 143.7-164.3; N = 887). The incidence was higher for boys (170.2, 155.0-185.4; N = 501) than for girls (136.9, 123.0-150.8; N = 386). The close collaboration between all paediatric oncologists-haematologists in Switzerland and a university department allowed the creation of a national population-based cancer registry with detailed clinical information. The SCCR produces cancer type specific incidence and survival estimates and allows the development of nested research projects on childhood cancer aetiology, management and outcome, both on a national and on an international level

A multilingual gold-standard corpus for biomedical concept recognition: the Mantra GSC

Objective To create a multilingual gold-standard corpus for biomedical concept recognition. Materials and methods We selected text units from different parallel corpora (Medline abstract titles, drug labels, biomedical patent claims) in English, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch. Three annotators per language independently annotated the biomedical concepts, based on a subset of the Unified Medical Language System and covering a wide range of semantic groups. To reduce the annotation workload, automatically generated preannotations were provided. Individual annotations were automatically harmonized and then adjudicated, and cross-language consistency checks were carried out to arrive at the final annotations. Results The number of final annotations was 5530. Inter-annotator agreement scores indicate good agreement (median F-score 0.79), and are similar to those between individual annotators and the gold standard. The automatically generated harmonized annotation set for each language performed equally well as the best annotator for that language. Discussion The use of automatic preannotations, harmonized annotations, and parallel corpora helped to keep the manual annotation efforts manageable. The inter-annotator agreement scores provide a reference standard for gauging the performance of automatic annotation techniques. Conclusion To our knowledge, this is the first gold-standard corpus for biomedical concept recognition in languages other than English. Other distinguishing features are the wide variety of semantic groups that are being covered, and the diversity of text genres that were annotate

Integrating protein-protein interactions and text mining for protein function prediction

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Functional annotation of proteins remains a challenging task. Currently the scientific literature serves as the main source for yet uncurated functional annotations, but curation work is slow and expensive. Automatic techniques that support this work are still lacking reliability. We developed a method to identify conserved protein interaction graphs and to predict missing protein functions from orthologs in these graphs. To enhance the precision of the results, we furthermore implemented a procedure that validates all predictions based on findings reported in the literature.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using this procedure, more than 80% of the GO annotations for proteins with highly conserved orthologs that are available in UniProtKb/Swiss-Prot could be verified automatically. For a subset of proteins we predicted new GO annotations that were not available in UniProtKb/Swiss-Prot. All predictions were correct (100% precision) according to the verifications from a trained curator.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our method of integrating CCSs and literature mining is thus a highly reliable approach to predict GO annotations for weakly characterized proteins with orthologs.</p

Biobarometer Schweiz: Wovon die Kaufentscheidung für Biolebensmittel abhängt

Kaufentscheidungen beeinflussen massgeblich die Nachfrage nach Biolebensmitteln. In der Studie «Biobarometer Schweiz» wurden Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten im November 2015 mit einer standardisierten Befragung zu ihrem Kaufverhalten befragt. Ziel der Befragung war es zu untersuchen, von welchen Faktoren die Kaufentscheidung für Biolebensmittel abhängt, und zu ermitteln, welche Aspekte in der Kommunikation gegenüber den Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten relevant sind. Die Studie hat gezeigt, dass die Schweizer Biokonsumierenden signifikant häufiger weiblich sind, ein höheres Bildungsniveau haben und mehrheitlich in der Deutschschweiz leben. Die Konsumenten, die häufig Bioprodukte kaufen, bezeichnen sich als umweltbewusst, achten auf eine gesunde Ernährung und auf einen geringen Fleischkonsum. Neben ernährungsspezifischen Motiven haben für sie vor allem altruistische Kaufmotive einen hohen Stellenwert, zudem die Naturbelassenheit der Bioprodukte sowie die Vermeidung von Pestizidrückständen in Lebensmitteln. Dagegen nimmt die Bedeutung von Geschmack und Aroma beim Lebensmitteleinkauf im Vergleich zu den anderen Kaufmotiven innerhalb der jeweiligen Käufergruppe mit abnehmendem Biokonsum zu. Neben dem Genussaspekt von Biolebensmitteln sollten vor allem Aspekte wie Natürlichkeit und Umweltverträglichkeit im Vordergrund der Kommunikation stehen. Das Biobarometer Schweiz wird zukünftig in regelmässigen Abständen durchgeführt, sodass sich Veränderungen von Konsumtrends ableiten lassen