Elastic properties of 5d transition-metal carbides: An ab initio study

We have systematically studied the mechanical stability of group V transition metal carbides TMC$_2$ (TM = Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, and Au) in the pyrite and fluorite phase, by calculating their elastic constants within the density functional theory scheme. It was found that all but ReC$_2$ and OsC$_2$ are stable in pyrite phase. On the other hand, all metal carbides studied were unstable in the fluorite phase.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Going beyond poverty : parents' decisions about child labor and schooling

textThis dissertation focuses on the analysis of child labor in Mexico. It examines how families make decisions about child labor and schooling in a context of poverty and marginalization. I argue that the impact of poverty is mediated by cultural and social factors that determine activities done by children. The dissertation explores work opportunities available for children in rural and urban areas, and how these opportunities shape decisions. In some cases, urban life has become something desired; in others, there is a lack of opportunity to attend school. But in all cases, poverty is a constant. The cost of schooling can be very high; even when public education is available, many families are not able to afford it. However, poverty in itself does not necessarily leads to child labor; culture and prejudices about gender roles, mediate the perceived cost of schooling. This research demonstrates important differences between the activities that boys and girls perform, as a result of the ideas that their parents have of what a child “must do” because of being a boy or a girl. It also highlights the influence of culture and personal history in the decision making process. Finally, in addition to highlighting the importance of a human rights perspective and a gender-based approach, this research underlines the importance of including a definition of child labor that goes beyond economic activities, and considers unpaid domestic work and marginal activities as part of the definition, in order to be able to better understand parents’ decisions about child labor and schooling.Sociolog

The Sound of Grief

non

Nevada County’s Assisted Outpatient Treatment Program: A Model for Other California Counties to Adopt?

In May 2008, Nevada County became the first county in California to fully implement an Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) program under the guidelines established by Assembly Bill 1421 (Keller, 2011). The Assisted Outpatient Treatment Demonstration Project Act of 2002, more commonly known as “Laura’s Law”, established guidelines for the court ordering of treatment for persons incapacitated by a mental disorder (California Department of Mental Health [CA DMH], 2003). Passed in September 2002, the bill was highly controversial leading up to its passage and remains a very divisive issue today (Fagan, 2010). This paper will focus on the provisions of the law, its advantages, disadvantages, and potential for strengthening mental health service delivery in California. It will also examine the actions taken by Nevada County in their successful implementation of the law which can serve as a role model for other counties seeking options for assisting untreated, mentally ill individuals in their communities

Extrinsic incubation temperature impacts on Zika virus evolution and vector competence during systemic Aedes infection

Includes bibliographical references.2020 Summer.Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) are distinctive in that they are required to constantly replicate in different hosts and in a wide range of temperatures for their perpetuation in nature. Vertebrate hosts tend to maintain temperatures of approximately 37°C - 40°C, but arthropods hosts are poikilotherms and subject to ambient temperatures which can have a daily temperature fluctuation of > 10°C. Invertebrate host genus, species, and strain in combination with arbovirus strain and preparation methods are known to have large impacts on vector competence and vectorial capacity. Seemingly small differences in host geographic isolation, virus strain, and preparation methods can have significant impacts on vector competence studies. The role of temperature on the ability of an arthropod vector to acquire, maintain, and transmit a pathogen has been investigated for numerous arboviruses. Changing the extrinsic incubation temperature between distinct constant temperatures has been shown to alter arbovirus vector competence, extrinsic incubation period, and mosquito survival, in which moderate temperatures of 28°C-32°C are optimal and temperatures higher and lower have deleterious effects. The mean and range of daily temperature fluctuations (diurnal temperature) have likewise been shown to influence arbovirus perpetuation and vector competence, in which large daily temperature fluctuations negatively affect mosquito development, survival, and vector competence. However, little is known as to how temperature alters arbovirus genetic diversity during systemic mosquito infection or how differences in arbovirus hosts and viral strains impact arbovirus genetic diversity in relationship to temperature. Therefore in the study completed in chapter two, we characterized the impact that constant temperatures of 25°C, 28°C, 32°C, and 35°C, and the diurnal fluctuation from 25°C to 35°C during extrinsic incubation periods have on the Puerto Rican isolate of Zika virus (ZIKV) vector competence and population dynamics within Aedes aegypti (Poza Rica) and Aedes albopictus (Florida) mosquitoes. To characterize the impact that temperature has on ZIKV population diversity in different host species and viral isolates, in the study completed in chapter three, we used a Tapachula, Mexico Aedes aegypti line and a Chiapas, Mexico ZIKV isolate to assess ZIKV population dynamics during 20°C, 24°C, 28°C, 32°C, 34°C, and 36°C constant extrinsic incubation temperatures. We found that vector competence varied in a unimodal manner for constant temperatures peaking between 28°C and 32°C for both Aedes species, while transmission peaked at 10 days post-infection for Aedes aegypti and 14 days post-infection in Aedes albopictus. The diurnal temperature group is not predicted by the constant temperature distribution. Instead, when using the mean daily temperature of the diurnal group as a predicter, its VC lies between the moderate (28°C and 32°C) and extreme (25°C and 35°C) temperature group VCs. Using RNA-seq to characterize ZIKV population structure, we identified that temperature alters the ZIKV selective environment during infection. During mosquito infection, constant temperatures more often elicited positive selection whereas diurnal temperatures led to strong purifying selection in both Aedes species. These findings demonstrate that temperature has multiple impacts on ZIKV biology within mosquitoes and has distinct effects on the selective environment within mosquitoes. Additionally, the selective pressures induced by temperature are consistent across host species and viral strain and have similar impacts on shaping the viral population structure. However, input viral populations are still a driving factor of diversity and expansion during systemic mosquito infection. While our findings and those of others suggest that vector competence is impacted unimodally regardless of temperature, this is only applicable for constant temperatures. Future work assessing daily temperature fluctuation range and mean are needed to have a clear understanding of the role extrinsic incubation temperature plays on vector competence

Further frontiers in GIS: Extending Spatial Analysis to Textual Sources in Archaeology

Although the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has a long history in archaeology, spatial technologies have been rarely used to analyse the content of textual collections. A newly developed approach termed Geographic Text Analysis (GTA) is now allowing the semi-automated exploration of large corpora incorporating a combination of Natural Language Processing techniques, Corpus Linguistics, and GIS. In this article we explain the development of GTA, propose possible uses of this methodology in the field of archaeology, and give a summary of the challenges that emerge from this type of analysis.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant “Spatial Humanities: Texts, GIS, places” (agreement number 283850)

The role of Lucha Libre in the construction of Mexican male identity

Lucha Libre has played an important role in Mexican culture since the late 1950s. The sport became famous mainly due to its masked wrestlers, who incorporated their own family traditions, beliefs and fears into the design of their masks, transforming an ordinary person into a fearless character

Oxidation of the borohydride Ion at silver nanoparticles on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) using pulsed potential techniques

Direct oxidation borohydride fuel cells are very attractive energy conversion devices. Silver has been reported as one of the few materials which can catalyze an 8-electron oxidation. Potential step amperometric pulse techniques to synthesize nanostructured silver material on flat glassy carbon electrodes is reported and significant differences with bulk silver deposit have been observed. The oxidation of borohydride ion on the silver particles occurs at -0.025 V vs. SCE and the potential decreases towards negative values at longer cycle times. The oxidation current also decreases with the number of cycles, suggesting that the silver active sites become partially blocked by oxidation products of borohydride. The electroactive area per unit electrode area of silver was relatively low for particles deposited using potential step amperometric techniques on glassy carbon (0.002 cm2 per cm-2) compared with the area found at a polycrystalline silver electrode (0.103 cm2 per cm-2

Utilidad del índice rox comparado con el score hacor como predictores de fracaso al sistema CPAP en pacientes COVID 19

Determinar si el índice ROX tiene mayor utilidad diagnóstica comparado con el score HACOR como predictor de fracaso al sistema CPAP en pacientes COVID 19. Material y métodos: Estudio observacional, analítico, de pruebas diagnósticas. La muestra fue de 106 pacientes, mayores de 18 años que fueron ingresados en el Hospital de Alta Complejidad Virgen de la Puerta durante el período de junio del 2020 a junio del 2021. La unidad de muestreo fueron las historias clínicas solicitadas en el área de archivos. Resultados: La muestra total de 106 pacientes, con un rango de edad de 47 a 57 años, con mayor porcentaje el sexo masculino que fallaron al sistema CPAP. Además, se encontró que el Índice Rox y el Score Hacor tienen significancia estadística para predecir el fracaso a la administración de la CPAP con un p= 000.1 para ambas escalas. Conclusiones: El índice rox presentó asociación como predictor de fracaso a la administración de CPAP con una ligera superioridad en comparación con el score hacor con respecto a la curva ROC.To determine if the ROX index has greater diagnostic utility compared to the HACOR score as a predictor of CPAP system failure in patients with COVID 19. Methods: Observational, analytical study of diagnostic tests. The sample consisted of 106 patients, over 18 years of age who were admitted to the Virgen de la Puerta High Complexity Hospital during the period from June 2020 to June 2021. The sampling unit was the medical records requested in the archives area. Results: The total sample of 106 patients, with an age range of 47 to 57 years, with a higher percentage of males who failed the CPAP system. In addition, it was found that the Rox Index and the Hacor Score have statistical significance in predicting failure to administer CPAP with p= 000.1 for both scales. Conclusions: The rox index was presented as a predictor of failure to the administration of CPAP with a slight superiority in comparison with the hacor score with respect to the ROC curve.Tesi

Mapping ‘Wordsworthshire’: A GIS Study of Literary Tourism in Victorian Lakeland

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Victorian Culture on 14/08/2015, available online: doi: 10.1080/13555502.2015.1058089This article answers the call for scholarship that models the implementation of geographic information systems (GIS) technologies in literary-historical research. In doing so, it creates a step change to the integration of digital methodologies in the humanities. Combining methods and perspectives from cultural history, literary studies, and geographic information sciences, the article confirms, challenges, and extends understanding of Victorian literary tourism in the English Lake District. It engages with the accounts of several nineteenth-century tourists, paying specific attention to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s English Notebooks and Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley’s A Coach Drive at the Lakes, which are examined alongside contemporaneous guidebooks and other commercial tourist publications. In the process, the article draws attention to a spatial correlation between the route of the Ambleside turnpike (the Lake District’s principal coach road) and the major literary sites to which Victorian Lakeland visitors were guided. Recognizing this correlation, we contend, helps to deepen our appreciation of how the physical and imaginative geographies of the Lake District region interrelate. Specifically, it helps us appreciate how the Victorian fascination with the Lakeland’s literary associations was modulated not only by interest in the region’s other attractions, but also by material conditions on the ground