Thick film growth of high optical quality low loss (0.1dB/cm) Nd:Gd₃Ga₅O₁₂ on Y3Al5O12 by pulsed laser deposition

Thick film growth of high optical quality Nd:Gd3Ga5O12 (Nd:GGG) on Y3Al5O12 (YAG) is reported, using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. Nd:GGG films with thickness up to 135 µm have been grown via sequential deposition runs and up to 40 µm in a single deposition. X-ray diffraction analysis shows that epitaxial growth has occurred and also confirms that the thick Nd:GGG films are single crystal. Analysis by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry shows that the stoichiometry of the thick Nd:GGG films is close to that of bulk Nd:GGG. The thick Nd:GGG films have fluorescence and absorption properties similar to that of bulk Nd:GGG, but slightly broadened. The Findlay–Clay technique of loss calculation has yielded a value of 0.1 dB cm-1 as an estimate of the propagation loss of one of the thick Nd:GGG films that we have subsequently used as a laser medium

Outcomes after cardiac rehabilitation in patients following repair of thoracic aortic aneurysm or dissection: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Patients receiving thoracic aortic repair suffer from long-term impairment in daily functioning and quality of life following intervention due to a combination of their life-threatening condition (i.e. aortic aneurysm or dissection), undergoing major surgery, as well as long-term exercise restrictions thereafter. Despite the known risks of exercise, it is vital that patients regain physical activity in order to recover their daily functioning and quality of life. Cardiac rehabilitation could be a safe and effective treatment to support patients to become physically active by providing exercise training, comprehensive rehabilitation services, and safety recommendations. Despite new insights in recent literature and clinical practice, international guidelines do not recommend cardiac rehabilitation due to limited evidence. We aim to fill this knowledge gap by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation in patients following thoracic aortic repair. METHODS: This protocol has been developed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P). MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL will be searched for eligible observational and interventional studies from inception up to April 2022. Screening (title/abstract and full text), data extraction, risk of bias assessment, and therapeutic validity rating will be conducted by two independent reviewers. A random-effects model will be used to meta-analyse performance-based outcomes, patient-reported outcomes, clinician-reported outcomes, and researcher-reported outcomes. Subsequently, meta-bias and confidence in evidence will be analysed by two independent reviewers. DISCUSSION: To exercise or not to exercise in patients following thoracic aortic repair has been a topic of discussion for years. The intended systematic review and meta-analysis will provide comprehensive evidence on the effectiveness of phase III outpatient exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in patients following thoracic aortic repair. Findings from this review may inform future guidelines for the management of patients with thoracic aortic disease. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42022301204

Learning discriminative sufficient statistics score space for classification

Abstract. Generative score spaces provide a principled method to exploit generative information, e.g., data distribution and hidden variables, in discriminative classifiers. The underlying methodology is to derive measures or score functions from generative models. The derived score functions, spanning the so-called score space, provide features of a fixed dimension for discriminative classification. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective score space which is essentially the sufficient statistics of the adopted generative models and does not involve the parameters of generative models. We further propose a discriminative learning method for the score space that seeks to utilize label information by constraining the classification margin over the score space. The form of score function allows the formulation of simple learning rules, which are essentially the same learning rules for a generative model with an extra posterior imposed over its hidden variables. Experimental evaluation of this approach over two generative models shows that performance of the score space approach coupled with the proposed discriminative learning method is competitive with state-of-the-art classification methods

Avanços metodológicos na determinação do consumo de ruminantes em pastejo Advances in methods for determining animal intake on pasture

Avanços metodológicos são, usualmente, conseqüência direta de avanços conceituais e tecnológicos. No caso da estimativa do consumo em pastejo, os recentes avanços conceituais relativos ao processo de busca e apreensão da forragem pelo ruminante evidenciaram a importância da unidade básica do consumo o bocado -, e dos fatores limitantes ao consumo que ocorrem antes da ingestão da forragem pelo animal em pastejo. A abordagem reducionista do processo de pastejo, aliada à sua hierarquização espaço-temporal, trouxeram uma nova concepção de como o animal obtém o seu alimento do pasto. Destes modelos conceituais emergiram novas variáveis que requerem novos procedimentos experimentais e analíticos. Neste contexto, importantes avanços têm ocorrido. Este artigo apresenta e discute os novos procedimentos que permitem estimar o consumo no curto prazo, assim como aqueles mais utilizados pela comunidade científica nacional para estimar o consumo no longo prazo. Adicionalmente, são feitas também considerações sobre o uso de animais ou de piquetes como unidades experimentais em experimentos de pastejo. Conclui-se que, apesar de ainda existir importantes barreiras metodológicas, os recentes avanços conceituais sobre o processo de pastejo, assim como dos procedimentos analíticos, geram fortes expectativas de avanço em curto e médio prazo na obtenção de estimativas qualificadas de consumo por animais em pastejo.<br>Methodological advances are usually a direct consequence of conceptual and technical advances. In the case of animal intake on pasture, recent conceptual advances regarding the process of searching and apprehension of the forage by the ruminant provide insight regarding the importance of the basic unit of intake, the bite, and the importance of processes limiting intake that occur before the forage reaches the rumen. Applying a reductionist approach to the grazing process, along with its spatial-temporal hierarchy, brought a new conceptualization of how an animal obtains feed from pasture. From the conceptual models emerged new variables that required new experimental and analytical procedures. Within this context, important advances have occurred. This article describes the new procedures that allow to estimate the consumption on the short-term, as well as that most utilized by the national scientific community for estimating the consumption on the long-term. Procedure for estimating fecal production and digestibility are discussed, as well as the use of n-alkanes and other emerging techniques. Consideration is given to the use of animals or paddocks as experimental units in grazing experiments. The conclusions presented in this article do not differ from those of preceding articles regarding this subject. In a grazing condition, continuous intake is the "black box" to be revealed, complex by nature with regard to the animal as well as the pasture, and there are important methodological barriers toward is determination. Nevertheless, recent advances in conceptualizing the grazind process, as well as in the analytical procedures, have been considerable and generate ambitious expectations over the short and long term

Nematóides do Brasil. Parte V: nematóides de mamíferos Brazillan nematodes. Part V: nematodes of mammals

<abstract language="eng">A survey of nematode species parasitizing Brazilian mammals is presented, with enough data to provide their specific identification. The tirst section refers to the survey ofthe species, related to 21 superfamilies, 45 families, 160 genera and 495 species that are illustrated and measurement tables are given. The second section is concerned to the catalogue ofhost mammals which includes 34 families, 176 species and their respective parasite nematodes. The identification of these helminths is achieved by means of keys to the superfamilies, families and genera. Specific determination is induced through the figures and tables as above mentioned