Effects of vibrational excitation on the F + H2O → HF + OH reaction: dissociative photodetachment of overtone-excited [F-H-OH].

The reaction F + H2O → HF + OH is a four-atom system that provides an important benchmark for reaction dynamics. Hydrogen atom transfer at the transition state for this reaction is expected to exhibit a strong dependence on reactant vibrational excitation. In the present study, the vibrational effects are examined by photodetachment of vibrationally excited F-(H2O) precursor anions using photoelectron-photofragment coincidence (PPC) spectroscopy and compared with full six-dimensional quantum dynamical calculations on ab initio potential energy surfaces. Prior to photodetachment at hνUV = 4.80 eV, the overtone of the ionic hydrogen bond mode in the precursor F-(H2O), 2νIHB at 2885 cm-1, was excited using a tunable IR laser. Experiment and theory show that vibrational energy in the anion can be effectively carried away by the photoelectron upon a Franck-Condon photodetachment, and also show evidence for an increase of branching into the F + H2O reactant channel. The experimental results suggest a greater role for product rotational excitation than theory. Improved potential energy surfaces and longer wavepacket propagation times would be helpful to further examine the nature of the discrepancy

Sustaining Korean Studies: Challenges and Prospects in Philippine Higher Education Institutions

The view and reality of a bifurcated world are brought into stark relief by COVID-19. Those long-standing inequalities in different facets of life are exacerbated by the pandemic that has been widely acknowledged and documented. Scholars recognize that humanity has entered the era of “Covidscapes,” where there is a shared experience of the pandemic; but where segregation is felt at different levels due to its differential impact. While division and its many manifestations are not the makings of the pandemic; COVID-19 is amplifying long-standing binaries between the developed and developing; the affluent and the poor; and even the West and the East. While not exhaustive; this commentary lays out these prevailing divides and disparities from the lens and through the experiences of international students

BlonDe: An Automatic Evaluation Metric for Document-level Machine Translation

Standard automatic metrics, e.g. BLEU, are not reliable for document-level MT evaluation. They can neither distinguish document-level improvements in translation quality from sentence-level ones, nor identify the discourse phenomena that cause context-agnostic translations. This paper introduces a novel automatic metric BlonDe to widen the scope of automatic MT evaluation from sentence to document level. BlonDe takes discourse coherence into consideration by categorizing discourse-related spans and calculating the similarity-based F1 measure of categorized spans. We conduct extensive comparisons on a newly constructed dataset BWB. The experimental results show that BlonDe possesses better selectivity and interpretability at the document-level, and is more sensitive to document-level nuances. In a large-scale human study, BlonDe also achieves significantly higher Pearson’s r correlation with human judgments compared to previous metrics

BlonDe: An Automatic Evaluation Metric for Document-level Machine Translation

Standard automatic metrics, e.g. BLEU, are not reliable for document-level MT evaluation. They can neither distinguish document-level improvements in translation quality from sentence-level ones, nor identify the discourse phenomena that cause context-agnostic translations. This paper introduces a novel automatic metric BlonDe to widen the scope of automatic MT evaluation from sentence to document level. BlonDe takes discourse coherence into consideration by categorizing discourse-related spans and calculating the similarity-based F1 measure of categorized spans. We conduct extensive comparisons on a newly constructed dataset BWB. The experimental results show that BlonDe possesses better selectivity and interpretability at the document-level, and is more sensitive to document-level nuances. In a large-scale human study, BlonDe also achieves significantly higher Pearson's r correlation with human judgments compared to previous metrics.Comment: 9 pages, accepted to NAACL 202

Diseño De Instrumento Para Evaluar Clima Organizacional De Universidades Públicas En México

The measuring of organizational climate aims to obtain feedback that can inform an organization on ways in which to make improvements; not only in the work environment, but also in the quality of it; hence, it is important to possess instruments that provide reliable information of what is intended to be measured. Describing the building process of an organizational climate instrument is the objective of the present article, in which, after having established the relevance of the topic in the introduction; the stages developed for the elaboration and validation of the measuring instrument of the organizational climate perceived by professors of Higher Education Institution are presented. The result of this process is an instrument with four factors and nineteen dimensions

Effect of red beet and betaine modulating oxidation and bioactivity of rainbow trout

[EN] The present study compares a control diet to four experimental diets, in which two red beet (14% and 28%) and two betaine levels (0.9% and 1.63%) were incorporated in rainbow trout diets according to a factorial design. The effects of the inclusion of different red beet and betaine concentrations on fatty acid (FA) profile, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidant activity on rainbow trout fillets were investigated. Although no significant differences were observed with the control group, results indicated that red beet and betaine improved fish fillet FA profile, producing an increase in polyunsaturated FAs, mainly docosahexaenoic acid. Higher red beet and betaine concentrations increased flavonoid and phenolic content in the diets; however, no effects were observed for the antioxidant properties of rainbow trout fillets.This work was carried out with funding from INIA and ITACyL, and cofounded by FEDER funds. Julia Pinedo has been granted with the FPI-INIA grant number 21 (call 2012, BOE-2012-13337).Pinedo-Gil, J.; Tomas-Vidal, A.; Rico-Barges, D.; Tiwari B.K.; Alvarez-García C; Jover Cerda, M.; Sanz-Calvo MA... (2019). Effect of red beet and betaine modulating oxidation and bioactivity of rainbow trout. Journal of Aquatic Food Product Technology. 38-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/10498850.2018.1560381S384

Evidence of phytotoxicity and genotoxicity in Hordeum vulgare L. exposed to CeO2 and TiO2 nanoparticles.

Engineered nanoscale materials (ENMs) are considered emerging contaminants since they are perceived as a potential threat to the environment and the human health. The reactions of living organisms when exposed to metal nanoparticles (NPs) or NPs of different size are not well known. Very few studies on NPs–plant interactions have been published, so far. For this reason there is also great concern regarding the potential NPs impact to food safety. Early genotoxic and phytotoxic effects of cerium oxide NPs (nCeO(2)) and titanium dioxide NPs (nTiO(2)) were investigated in seedlings of Hordeum vulgare L. Caryopses were exposed to an aqueous dispersion of nCeO(2) and nTiO(2) at, respectively 0, 500, 1000, and 2000 mg l(-1) for 7 days. Genotoxicity was studied by Randomly Amplified Polymorphism DNA (RAPDs) and mitotic index on root tip cells. Differences between treated and control plants were observed in RAPD banding patterns as well as at the chromosomal level with a reduction of cell divisions. At cellular level we monitored the oxidative stress of treated plants in terms of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and ATP content. Again nCeO(2) influenced clearly these two physiological parameters, while nTiO(2) were ineffective. In particular, the dose 500 mg l(-1) showed the highest increase regarding both ROS generation and ATP content; the phenomenon were detectable, at different extent, both at root and shoot level. Total Ce and Ti concentration in seedlings was detected by ICP-OES. TEM EDSX microanalysis demonstrated the presence of aggregates of nCeO(2) and nTiO(2) within root cells of barley. nCeO(2) induced modifications in the chromatin aggregation mode in the nuclei of both root and shoot cells

Estimation of renal function by CKD-EPI versus MDRD in a cohort of HIV-infected patients: a cross-sectional analysis.

Background Accurately determining renal function is essential for clinical management of HIV patients. Classically, it has been evaluated by estimating glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) with the MDRD-equation, but today there is evidence that the new Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation has greater diagnostic accuracy. To date, however, little information exists on patients with HIV-infection. This study aimed to evaluate eGFR by CKD-EPI vs. MDRD equations and to stratify renal function according to KDIGO guidelines. Methods Cross-sectional, single center study including adult patients with HIV-infection. Results Four thousand five hundred three patients with HIV-infection (864 women; 19%) were examined. Median age was 45 years (IQR 37-52), and median baseline creatinine was 0.93 mg/dL (IQR 0.82-1.05). A similar distribution of absolute measures of eGFR was found using both formulas (p = 0.548). Baseline median eGFR was 95.2 and 90.4 mL/min/1.73 m2 for CKD-EPI and MDRD equations (p 90 mL/min/1.73 m2) in 73% patients and "mild reduced GFR" (60-89 mL/min/1.73 m2) in 24.3% of the patients, formerly classified as >60 mL/min/1.73 m2 with MDRD. Conclusions There was good correlation between CKD-EPI and MDRD. Estimating renal function using CKD-EPI equation allowed better staging of renal function and should be considered the method of choice. CKD-EPI identified a significant proportion of patients (24%) with mild reduced GFR (60-89 mL/min/1.73 m2)