Liquid mixtures involving fluorinated alcohols: The equation of state (p, r, T, x) of (Ethanol + Trifluoroethanol) Experimental and Simulation

Liquid mixtures involving fluorinated alcohols: The equation of state (p, r, T, x) of (Ethanol + Trifluoroethanol) Experimental and Simulation Pedro Duartea, Djêide Rodriguesa, Marcelo Silvaa, Pedro Morgadoa, Luís Martinsa,b and Eduardo J. M. Filipea* aCentro de Química Estrutural, Instituto Superior Técnico, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal bCentro de Química de Évora, Universidade de Évora, 7000-671 Évora, Portugal Fluorinated alcohols are substances with unique properties and high technological value in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Trifluoroethanol (TFE), in particular, displays a number of unusual properties as a solvent. For example, it dissolves nylon at room temperature and is effectively used as solvent in bioengineering. The presence of the three fluorines atoms gives the alcohol a high ionization constant, strong hydrogen bonding capability and stability at high temperatures. In the pharmaceutical industry, TFE finds use as the major raw material for the production of inhalation anesthetics. Mixtures of TFE and water (known as Fluorinols®) are used as working fluids for Rankine cycle heat engines for terrestrial and space applications, as a result of a unique combination of physical and thermodynamic properties such as high thermal efficiency and excellent turbine expansion characteristics. Environmentally, TFE is a CFC substitute with an acceptable short lifetime and with small ozone depletion potential. Additionally, TFE is known to induce conformational changes in proteins and it is used as a co-solvent to analyze structural features of partially folded states. The (ethanol + TFE) system displays an interesting and peculiar behaviour, combining a negative azeotrope with high positive excess volumes. In this work, liquid mixtures of (ethanol + TFE) were investigated. The densities of the mixtures were measured as a function of composition between 278K and 338K and at pressures up to 700 bar. The corresponding excess volumes as a function of temperature and pressure, the isothermal compressibilities and thermal expansivities were calculated from the experimental results. The mixtures are highly non-ideal with excess volumes ranging from 0.8 - 1.0 cm3mol-1. Finally, molecular dynamic simulations were performed to model and interpret the experimental results. The Trappe force field was used to simulate the (TFE + ethanol) mixtures and calculate the corresponding excess volumes. The simulation results are able to reproduce the correct sign and order of magnitude of the experimental VE without fitting to the experimental data. Furthermore, the simulations suggest the presence of a particular type of hydrogen bridge between ethanol and TFE, that can help to rationalize the experimental results

Effect of organizational culture on organizational performance: The case of security sector

Today’s business world is characterized by its constant rapidly changing environment, facing a very competitive economic context, making it crucial for the achievement of business success to understand, timely, what drives its results, namely its performance. Organizational performance may be affected by several number of variables and the understanding of these variables are decisive for business management. This research aims to address and measure organizational performance, understanding if and how much it is influenced by organizational culture, as well as if employee work engagement mediates the mentioned relationship.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Shacc: a functional prototyper for a component calculus

For individual study onlyOver the last decade component-based software development arose as a promising paradigm to deal with the ever increasing complexity in software design, evolution and reuse. Shacc is a prototyping tool for component-based systems in which components are modelled coinductively as generalized Mealy machines. The prototype is built as a Haskell library endowed with a graphical user interface developed in Swing.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Molecular Evaluation of exons 8 and 22 of the SHANK3 gene in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism spectrum disorders are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders with a complex and heterogeneous etiology. Studies have shown that genetic factors play an important role in the aetiology of these diseases. Recently, de novo mutations, frameshifts and deletions have been described in the SHANK3 gene, also known as ProSAP2 gene, which encodes a synaptic scaffolding protein. All the participants of this study had normal karyotypes and underwent screening for Fragile-X syndrome. Subsequently, they were analyzed by direct sequencing of different points of exons 8 and 22 of the SHANK3 gene. None of the study participants presented with changes in these regions. These findings may be due to the fact that mutations, deletions and duplications of the SHANK3 gene are rare

Qualidade da silagem pré-secada de Capim-TIFTON 85 cortado em três idades e três tempos de emurchecimento.

bitstream/item/31505/1/comunicado-220.pd

A hybrid MLS technique for room impulse response estimation

The measurement of room impulse response (RIR) when there are high background noise levels frequently means one must deal with very low signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). if such is the case, the measurement might yield unreliable results, even when synchronous averaging techniques are used. Furthermore, if there are non-linearities in the apparatus or system time variances, the final SNR can be severely degraded. The test signals used in RIR measurement are often disturbed by non-stationary ambient noise components. A novel approach based on the energy analysis of ambient noise - both in the time and in frequency - was considered. A modified maximum length sequence (MLS) measurement technique. referred to herein as the hybrid MLS technique, was developed for use in room acoustics. The technique consists of reducing the noise energy of the captured sequences before applying the averaging technique in order to improve the overall SNRs and frequency response accuracy. Experiments were conducted under real conditions with different types of underlying ambient noises. Results are shown and discussed. Advantages and disadvantages of the hybrid MLS technique over standard MLS technique are evaluated and discussed. Our findings show that the new technique leads to a significant increase in the overall SNR. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The prognostic value of abnormal coagulation times in dogs that are at the risk of developing sepsis

Introduction: Sepsis is a hard to define syndrome associated with a deleterious systemic inflammatory response that ultimately leads to coagulopathy, organ dysfunction, and death. The primary aim of this prospective study was to evaluate if coagulation times can be predictive of disease severity and outcome in patients at risk of developing sepsis.A secondary objective was to correlate activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and prothrombin time (PT) with the quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) scoring system at the moment of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) and evaluate their combined prognostic value. The main hypothesis of the study was: Are aPTT and PT correlated with disease severity and outcome, when associated with the qSOFA score, at the moment of admission to the ICU? Methods: A total of 43 dogs were prospectively enrolled in the study between September 2016 and March 2017. Patients that were hemodynamically altered with clinical signs of coagulopathy, infection, shock, or SIRS were included, as well as those affected by polytrauma, organ dysfunction, or neoplasia, upon presentation. These patients had at least one of these clinical signs but some had more than one. Regarding the presence of coagulopathies, all alterations in coagulation times were included. All these patients were susceptible to subclinical infections and bacterial translocation, therefore being at risk of developing sepsis. Coagulation testing and qSOFA scoring were performed at the time of admission to the ICU and were statistically analyzed using tests such as Chi-square tests, T-tests, ANOVA, HSD tests, and Pearson correlation coefficient tests. Other variables such as signalment, diagnosis, duration of hospitalization and post-discharge treatment and outcome were also recorded and analyzed. Results: Mortality rate was 34.9%. Mortality increased with the number of qSOFA points (0 points: 10%; 1 point: 30.8%; 2 points: 47.1%; 3 points: 66.7%). The aPTT was significantly higher (p = 0.029) in patients with a qSOFA score of 2 points in comparison to those with 1 point. A positive correlation was found between aPTT and PT (r = 0.406, n = 43, p = 0.005). Mean values for aPTT and PT were similar between surviving and non-surviving patients. Ten out of 15 patients (66.7%) that died did so between the first and fifth day of treatment, and 3 of the remaining 5 deaths (60%) were caused by neoplastic disease. Causes of dead included gastrointestinal disease, infectious disease,urinary tract disease, trauma, autoimmune disease, neurological disorder and neoplasia. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest the existence of hemostatic dysfunction amongst patients with a qSOFA score of 2 points. In isolation, however, prolonged coagulation times at ICU admission were not predictive of outcome

Photon-number-resolving segmented avalanche-photodiode detectors

We investigate the feasibility and performance of photon-number-resolved photodetection employing avalanche photodiodes (APDs) with low dark counts. The main idea is to split n photons over m modes such that every mode has no more than one photon, which is detected alongside propagation by an APD. We characterize performance by evaluating the purities of positive-operator-valued measurements (POVMs), in terms of APD number and photon loss.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures, submitted for publicatio

Effect of organizational culture on organizational performance: The case of security sector

Aims: Today’s business world is characterized by its constant rapidly changing environment, facing a very competitive economic context, making it crucial for the achievement of business success to understand, timely, what drives its results, namely its performance. Organizational performance may be affected by several number of variables and the understanding of these variables are decisive for business management. This research aims to address and measure organizational performance, understanding if and how much it is influenced by organizational culture, as well as if employee work engagement mediates the mentioned relationship. Methodology / Approach: We approach the concept of organizational culture and its evolution over time, ending up by specifically addressing it according to the competing values framework (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983) and measuring it through the instrument “Focus Questionnaire” (Van Muijen et al., 1999). Organizational performance is conceptually introduced and its strategic importance to the general success of the company is duly framed. In order to assess organizational performance, we use a measurement instrument developed by Delaney and Huselid (1996). The literature evidences that employee work engagement effectively mediates the mentioned relationship, which within this framework we assess according to the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (Schaufeli et al., 2002). The assessment of the referred tripartite influential relationship is accomplished through the formulation and testing of a research question, which is “Do organizational culture types influence organizational performance and is this influence mediated by employee work engagement?”, through the respective four sub research questions. For that purpose, we applied a questionnaire, composed by the three measurement instruments previously introduced, preceded by a pre-test procedure, to a sample composed by security professionals, receiving a total of 629 valid answers. Conclusions / Results: Our results evidence that culture positively and significantly influences both organizational performance and employee work engagement, which is aligned with the results of a variety of other researches on this topic, as well as that employee work engagement partially mediates the influence of all organizational culture types on organizational performance. Research implications: Managers who seek to achieve high levels of organizational performance shall understand and address organizational culture, being aware of the mediating effect that employee work engagement has on that influential relationship. Specifically considering a population composed by professionals that are responsible for the security of our organizations, it is critical to adapt the cultural context in which those individuals are inserted. As now known, clan culture, followed by hierarchy culture, are the cultural types that have a higher effect on organizational performance, being positively influenced by high levels of employee work engagement. Originality: This specific interactional relationship of organizational culture effect on organizational performance, mediated by employee work engagement, applied to this specific business sector, has never been address before.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio