2,740 research outputs found
Topological defects and misfit strain in magnetic stripe domains of lateral multilayers with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
Stripe domains are studied in perpendicular magnetic anisotropy films
nanostructured with a periodic thickness modulation that induces the lateral
modulation of both stripe periods and inplane magnetization. The resulting
system is the 2D equivalent of a strained superlattice with properties
controlled by interfacial misfit strain within the magnetic stripe structure
and shape anisotropy. This allows us to observe, experimentally for the first
time, the continuous structural transformation of a grain boundary in this 2D
magnetic crystal in the whole angular range. The magnetization reversal process
can be tailored through the effect of misfit strain due to the coupling between
disclinations in the magnetic stripe pattern and domain walls in the in-plane
magnetization configuration
Gas-phase hydrodechlorination of mixtures of chloromethanes with activated carbon-supported platinum catalysts
Platinum catalysts supported on activated carbon (Pt/C) at different metal loadings (0.5-2% Pt) have been tested in the gas-phase hydrodechlorination (HDC) of mixtures of dichloromethane (DCM) and chloroform (TCM), with a total feed concentration of 1000ppmv. Almost complete dechlorination was achieved at 250°C, 1kghmol-1 space time and a H2/CM molar ratio of 25 with the 2% Pt catalyst. At a reaction temperature of 250°C, scarce inhibition in the conversion of both compounds was observed compared to the HDC of the individual chloromethanes. The TOF values for DCM increase with the Pt content, which can be attributed to the higher proportion of the zero-valent species. The selectivity to reaction products suggests a parallel reactions scheme. The catalysts showed a high stability, demonstrated by the unchanged conversion of both chloromethanes upon time on stream in long-term experiments carried out at up to 26h.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) through the project CTM2011-2835
Clinical efficacy of β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations for the treatment of bloodstream infection due to extended-spectrum β-lactamase- producing Enterobacteriaceae in haematological patients with neutropaenia: a study protocol for a retrospect observational study (BICAR).
Introduction: Bloodstream infection (BSI) due to
extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Gram-
negative bacilli (ESBL-GNB) is increasing at an
alarming pace worldwide. Although β-lactam/β-
lactamase inhibitor (BLBLI) combinations have been
suggested as an alternative to carbapenems for the
treatment of BSI due to these resistant organisms in
the general population, their usefulness for the
treatment of BSI due to ESBL-GNB in haematological
patients with neutropaenia is yet to be elucidated. The
aim of the BICAR study is to compare the efficacy of
BLBLI combinations with that of carbapenems for the
treatment of BSI due to an ESBL-GNB in this
population.
Methods and analysis: A multinational, multicentre,
observational retrospective study. Episodes of BSI due
to ESBL-GNB occurring in haematological patients and
haematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients with
neutropaenia from 1 January 2006 to 31 March 2015
will be analysed. The primary end point will be case-
fatality rate within 30 days of onset of BSI. The
secondary end points will be 7-day and 14-day case-
fatality rates, microbiological failure, colonisation/
infection by resistant bacteria, superinfection, intensive
care unit admission and development of adverse events.
Sample size: The number of expected episodes of BSI
due to ESBL-GNB in the participant centres will be 260
with a ratio of control to experimental participants of 2.
Ethics and dissemination: The protocol of the
study was approved at the first site by the Research
Ethics Committee (REC) of Hospital Universitari de
Bellvitge. Approval will be also sought from all relevant
RECs. Any formal presentation or publication of data
from this study will be considered as a joint
publication by the participating investigators and will
follow the recommendations of the International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The
study has been endorsed by the European Study Group
for Bloodstream Infection and Sepsis (ESGBIS) and the
European Study Group for Infections in Compromised
Hosts (ESGICH).Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad REIPI RD12/001
Three-body structure of low-lying 18Ne states
We investigate to what extent 18Ne can be descibed as a three-body system
made of an inert 16O-core and two protons. We compare to experimental data and
occasionally to shell model results. We obtain three-body wave functions with
the hyperspherical adiabatic expansion method. We study the spectrum of 18Ne,
the structure of the different states and the predominant transition strengths.
Two 0+, two 2+, and one 4+ bound states are found where they are all known
experimentally. Also one 3+ close to threshold is found and several negative
parity states, 1-, 3-, 0-, 2-, most of them bound with respect to the 16O
excited 3- state. The structures are extracted as partial wave components, as
spatial sizes of matter and charge, and as probability distributions.
Electromagnetic decay rates are calculated for these states. The dominating
decay mode for the bound states is E2 and occasionally also M1.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures (version to appear in EPJA
Kinetic study of the hydrodechlorination of chloromethanes with activated-carbon-supported metallic catalysts
This document is the unedited author's version of a Submitted Work that was subsequently accepted for publication in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review. To access the final edited and published work, see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie5042484The kinetics of the hydrodechlorination (HDC) of dichloromethane (DCM) and chloroform (TCM) with Pd, Pt, Rh, and Ru on activated carbon catalysts has been studied at temperatures between 100 and 250 °C. Different kinetic models have been checked, namely, pseudo-first-order and Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW) with adsorption, chemical reaction, or desorption control. The HDC of DCM and TCM with the Pd and Pt catalysts was well-described by the LHHW model with reactant adsorption as the rate-controlling step. However, with Rh and Ru catalysts, chemical reaction and desorption of the reaction products appear to be the rate-controlling steps in the HDC of DCM and TCM, respectively. In this last case, different sets of complex reactions seem to occur on the surface of the catalyst depending on the temperature, preventing determination of a confident value of the activation energy, because of the formation of oligomeric coke-like deposits and the subsequent severe deactivation of these catalysts. The corresponding kinetic parameters for the proposed models have been calculatedThe authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) through the project CTM2011-28352. M. Martín Martínez and A. Arévalo Bastante acknowledges the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e nnovación (MICINN) and the European Social Fund for her research gran
Profilaxis antibiótica en cirugía
Existe una abundantísima documentación en la literatura acerca de la eficacia de los
antibióticos utilizados profilácticamente en cirugía (1-10). Probablemente lo más útil
para el trabajo diario de un hospital sea la adopción de pautas concretas que permitan
ser evaluadas periódicamente a través de la colaboración, entre otros, de anestesistas,
cirujanos y microbiólogos (11,12). En esta línea hemos revisado, de una manera
intencionadamente esquemática, diversas facetas relativas a la profilaxis antibiótica en
cirugía. Para ello comentaremos algunos aspectos generales de profilaxis de la
infección postquirúrgica, unas breves normas para la utilización profiláctica de
antibióticos y resumiremos determinadas indicaciones en función del tipo de
intervención
Forecasting confined spatiotemporal chaos with genetic algorithms
A technique to forecast spatiotemporal time series is presented. it uses a
Proper Ortogonal or Karhunen-Lo\`{e}ve Decomposition to encode large
spatiotemporal data sets in a few time-series, and Genetic Algorithms to
efficiently extract dynamical rules from the data. The method works very well
for confined systems displaying spatiotemporal chaos, as exemplified here by
forecasting the evolution of the onedimensional complex Ginzburg-Landau
equation in a finite domain.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Welfare of rainbow trout at slaughter: integrating behavioural, physiological, proteomic and quality indicators and testing a novel fast-chill stunning method
A critical point in the life of a captive fish is the final stages of production, not only in welfare terms but also due to effects on meat quality, carcass appearance and derived economic impacts. The most common method to slaughter fish is by asphyxia either in ice-water or in the open air. In humane slaughter procedures, however, a stunning method needs to be implemented to render the fish immediately unconscious (within one second) until death. The objective of this research was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness and welfare effects of four types of stunning methods in rainbow trout (O. mykiss): cold shock by fast-chilling as a novel method, where the fish were immersed in liquid water at −8 °C, asphyxia (as the currently used method), electrical stunning, and anaesthesia with MS-222. We used a total of 176 trout (mean weight 524 ± 138 g), combining behavioural (individual swimming activity, equilibrium, opercular movement and eye-roll), physiological (heart rate and electrocardiogram amplitude) and circulating (plasma cortisol and osmolality) indicators with brain proteomic signatures. We also analysed the effects on fillet shelf-life and quality in each method (rigor mortis, water content, fillet colour, pH and ATP degradation). Anaesthesia effectively induced unconsciousness, with regular and strong heartbeat and low cortisol. Quality indicators were the best among all the methods assessed. Electric shock was found to be an effective and irreversible method for inducing unconsciousness, with strong heartbeat and large variation in cortisol response and quality indicators similar to anaesthesia. On the contrary, asphyxia presented indicators of poor welfare (e.g., long-lasting consciousness throughout the slaughter process, high cortisol levels), with very low flesh quality parameters. Fast-chilling also resulted in extreme signs of stress (intense mucus release, haemorrhage and no loss of consciousness), low ATP content and the worst proteomic signatures, along with an early onset and resolution of rigor mortis (6 and 48 h, respectively). Our results reinforce the idea that electric stunning is a promising humane method to stun farmed trout. In contrast, the fast-chilling method showed very poor results both in welfare and in quality, indicating that it is not a viable humane alternative to asphyxia. Moreover, the proteome analysis provided valuable insights into the brain mechanisms of rainbow trout at slaughter, offering potential fine-scale biomarkers of welfare.Provincia Autonoma di Trento; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio
TiO2:Cex onto Al Clays for Photocatalytic Solar Water Disinfection
A novel methodology was employed to prepare new nanocomposites with photocatalytic properties based on Ce-doped TiO2 nanoparticles arranged over a layered silicate. The catalysts were porous materials formed by exfoliated silicate layers surrounded by anatase nanoparticles. In this way, the anatase was doped by different amounts of Ce, yielding to catalysts with light absorption properties on the visible region. The photocatalytic behavior was tested for different reactions: adsorption and photocatalysis, showing outstanding and promising results for the removal of bacteria by using solar light as an energy source. The influence of the physicochemical properties of the catalyst and the reaction parameters will be studied in detail to manage new catalysts for the disinfection of drinking water
Post-splenectomy acute glomerulonephritis due to a chronic infection with Plasmodium falciparum and malariae
A 38-year-old Senegalese man with no previous medical history and living in Spain since 2004 was admitted due to fever, hypotension and edemas. The patient had not traveled to malaria endemic areas for the last 2 years, and 43 days before this episode he underwent an elective splenectomy in order to rule out a hematologic neoplasm due to a 27-cm splenomegaly and pancytopenia
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