Simple Vortex States in Films of Type-I Ginzburg-Landau Superconductor

Sufficiently thin films of type-I superconductor in a perpendicular magnetic field exhibit a triangular vortex lattice, while thick films develop an intermediate state. To elucidate what happens between these two regimes, precise numerical calculations have been made within Ginzburg-Landau theory at $\kappa=0.5$ and 0.25 for a variety of vortex lattice structures with one flux quantum per unit cell. The phase diagram in the space of mean induction and film thickness includes a narrow wedge in which a square lattice is stable, surrounded by the domain of stability of the triangular lattice at thinner films/lower fields and, on the other side, rectangular lattices with continuously varying aspect ratio. The vortex lattice has an anomalously small shear modulus within and close to the square lattice phase.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure

Response of Soybean Grown on a Claypan Soil in Southeastern Kansas to the Residual of Different Plant Nutrient Sources and Tillage

The residual effects of turkey litter and fertilizer amendments applied in previous years had little effect on the yield, yield components, and dry matter production of the following soybean crop grown in 2014

The use of Multiple Displacement Amplification to increase the detection and genotyping of <i>Trypanosoma</i> samples immobilised on FTA filters.

Whole genome amplification methods are a recently developed tool for amplifying DNA from limited template. We report its application in trypanosome infections, characterized by low parasitemias. Multiple displacement amplification (MDA) amplifies DNA with a simple in vitro step and was evaluated on mouse blood samples on FTA filter cards with known numbers of Trypanosoma brucei parasites. The data showed a 20-fold increase in the number of PCRs possible per sample, using primers diagnostic for the multicopy ribosomal ITS region or 177-bp repeats, and a 20-fold increase in sensitivity over nested PCR against a single-copy microsatellite. Using MDA for microsatellite genotyping caused allele dropout at low DNA concentrations, which was overcome by pooling multiple MDA reactions. The validity of using MDA was established with samples from Human African Trypanosomiasis patients. The use of MDA allows maximal use of finite DNA samples and may prove a valuable tool in studies where multiple reactions are necessary, such as population genetic analyses

Environmental monitoring of Mycobacterium bovis in badger feces and badger sett soil by real-time PCR, as confirmed by immunofluorescence, immunocapture, and cultivation

Real-time PCR was used to detect and quantify Mycobacterium bovis cells in naturally infected soil and badger faeces. Immunomagnetic capture, immunofluorescence and selective culture confirmed species identification and cell viability. These techniques will prove useful for monitoring M. bovis in the environment and for elucidating transmission routes between wildlife and cattle

Reduction in ionic permeability of a silicone hydrogel contact lenses after one month of daily wear

[EN] Purpose. To compare the ionic permeability using the ionoflux method of new and worn samples of a silicone hydrogel contact lens material. Methods. An ionoflux experimental setup was established to measure the ionic permeability (NaCl) of soft contact lenses. Samples of a silicone hydrogel lens (Comfilcon A, Coopervision, Pleasanton, CA) with optical powers of -1.00, -1.50 and -4.75 diopters (D) were used in this study. Three samples of each power were measured after being worn for one month on a daily wear basis. Lenses were cleaned and disinfected every night using multipurpose disinfecting solutions. Three samples of new lenses from the same batch and the same optical power were also measured to evaluate the effect of lens wear on the ionic permeability of the lens material. Before measurement, the lenses were equilibrated with a 1 M NaCl solution during one week before of each measurement. Results. Lens power had minimal effect on the ionic permeability of a modern silicone hydrogel contact lens with the -1.00 lens having a 15% lower permeability compared to the other two lenses. After one month of lens wear the apparent ionic permeability for lenses with -1.50 D decreased by 15%. In the case of -1.00 and -4.75 D lenses there was a decrease of 26%. Conclusions. The ionic permeability of silicone hydrogel lenses of different optical powers was not significantly different. Worn lenses present a significant reduction of the ionic permeability after a month of wear. The potential effect this reduction on lens movement and discomfort associated to lens wear should be further evaluated.The authors have no proprietary interest in any of the materials mentioned in this article. This work was funded in part by FEDER through the COMPTETE Program and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of projects PTDC/SAU-BEB/098391/2008, PTDC/SAU-BEB/098392/2008 and the Strategic Project PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2011.Ferreira Da Silva, AR.; Compañ Moreno, V.; Gonzalez-Meijome, JM. (2015). Reduction in ionic permeability of a silicone hydrogel contact lenses after one month of daily wear. Materials Research Express. 2(6). https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/2/6/065007S26Yoon, S. C., & Jhon, M. S. (1982). The transport phenomena of some model solutes through postcrosslinked poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) membranes with different tactic precursors. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 27(8), 3133-3149. doi:10.1002/app.1982.070270834Yasuda, H., Lamaze, C. E., & Ikenberry, L. D. (1968). Die Makromolekulare Chemie, 118(1), 19-35. doi:10.1002/macp.1968.021180102MURPHY, S., HAMILTON, C., & TIGHE, B. (1988). Synthetic hydrogels: 5. Transport processes in 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate copolymers. Polymer, 29(10), 1887-1893. doi:10.1016/0032-3861(88)90407-7Nicolson, P. C., & Vogt, J. (2001). Soft contact lens polymers: an evolution. Biomaterials, 22(24), 3273-3283. doi:10.1016/s0142-9612(01)00165-xMonticelli, M. V., Chauhan, A., & Radke, C. J. (2005). The Effect of Water Hydraulic Permeability on the Settling of a Soft Contact Lens on the Eye. Current Eye Research, 30(5), 329-336. doi:10.1080/02713680590934085Guan, L., Jiménez, M. E. G., Walowski, C., Boushehri, A., Prausnitz, J. M., & Radke, C. J. (2011). Permeability and partition coefficient of aqueous sodium chloride in soft contact lenses. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 122(3), 1457-1471. doi:10.1002/app.33336Cheng, M.-L., & Sun, Y.-M. (2005). Observation of the solute transport in the permeation through hydrogel membranes by using FTIR-microscopy. Journal of Membrane Science, 253(1-2), 191-198. doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2005.01.017CHHABRA, M., PRAUSNITZ, J., & RADKE, C. (2007). A single-lens polarographic measurement of oxygen permeability (Dk) for hypertransmissible soft contact lenses. Biomaterials, 28(30), 4331-4342. doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2007.06.024González-Méijome, J. M., López-Alemany, A., Almeida, J. B., & Parafita, M. A. (2009). Surface AFM microscopy of unworn and worn samples of silicone hydrogel contact lenses. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials, 88B(1), 75-82. doi:10.1002/jbm.b.31153González-Méijome, J. M., López-Alemany, A., Almeida, J. B., & Parafita, M. A. (2008). Dynamic in vitro dehydration patterns of unworn and worn silicone hydrogel contact lenses. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials, 90B(1), 250-258. doi:10.1002/jbm.b.31279Pozuelo, J., Compañ, V., González-Méijome, J. M., González, M., & Mollá, S. (2014). Oxygen and ionic transport in hydrogel and silicone-hydrogel contact lens materials: An experimental and theoretical study. Journal of Membrane Science, 452, 62-72. doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2013.10.010Wolffsohn, J. S., Hunt, O. A., & Basra, A. K. (2009). Simplified recording of soft contact lens fit. Contact Lens and Anterior Eye, 32(1), 37-42. doi:10.1016/j.clae.2008.12.00

Parameterized Complexity of the k-anonymity Problem

The problem of publishing personal data without giving up privacy is becoming increasingly important. An interesting formalization that has been recently proposed is the $k$-anonymity. This approach requires that the rows of a table are partitioned in clusters of size at least $k$ and that all the rows in a cluster become the same tuple, after the suppression of some entries. The natural optimization problem, where the goal is to minimize the number of suppressed entries, is known to be APX-hard even when the records values are over a binary alphabet and $k=3$, and when the records have length at most 8 and $k=4$ . In this paper we study how the complexity of the problem is influenced by different parameters. In this paper we follow this direction of research, first showing that the problem is W[1]-hard when parameterized by the size of the solution (and the value $k$). Then we exhibit a fixed parameter algorithm, when the problem is parameterized by the size of the alphabet and the number of columns. Finally, we investigate the computational (and approximation) complexity of the $k$-anonymity problem, when restricting the instance to records having length bounded by 3 and $k=3$. We show that such a restriction is APX-hard.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

Performance of an environmental test to detect Mycobacterium bovis infection in badger social groups

A study by Courtenay and others (2006) demonstrated that the probability of detecting Mycobacterium bovis by PCR in soil samples from the spoil heaps of main badger setts correlated with the prevalence of excretion (infectiousness) of captured badgers belonging to the social group. It has been proposed that such a test could be used to target badger culling to setts containing infectious animals (Anon 2007). This short communication discusses the issues surrounding this concept, with the intention of dispelling any misconceptions among relevant stakeholders (farmers, policy makers and conservationists)

The nonlinear time-dependent response of isotactic polypropylene

Tensile creep tests, tensile relaxation tests and a tensile test with a constant rate of strain are performed on injection-molded isotactic polypropylene at room temperature in the vicinity of the yield point. A constitutive model is derived for the time-dependent behavior of semi-crystalline polymers. A polymer is treated as an equivalent network of chains bridged by permanent junctions. The network is modelled as an ensemble of passive meso-regions (with affine nodes) and active meso-domains (where junctions slip with respect to their positions in the bulk medium with various rates). The distribution of activation energies for sliding in active meso-regions is described by a random energy model. Adjustable parameters in the stress--strain relations are found by fitting experimental data. It is demonstrated that the concentration of active meso-domains monotonically grows with strain, whereas the average potential energy for sliding of junctions and the standard deviation of activation energies suffer substantial drops at the yield point. With reference to the concept of dual population of crystalline lamellae, these changes in material parameters are attributed to transition from breakage of subsidiary (thin) lamellae in the sub-yield region to fragmentation of primary (thick) lamellae in the post-yield region of deformation.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figure

From ‘other’ to involved: User involvement in research: An emerging paradigm

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ 2013 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article. Non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way, is permitted. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.This article explores the issue of ‘othering’ service users and the role that involving them, particularly in social policy and social work research may play in reducing this. It takes, as its starting point, the concept of ‘social exclusion’, which has developed in Europe and the marginal role that those who have been included in this construct have played in its development and the damaging effects this may have. The article explores service user involvement in research and is itself written from a service user perspective. It pays particular attention to the ideological, practical, theoretical, ethical and methodological issues that such user involvement may raise for research. It examines problems that both research and user involvement may give rise to and also considers developments internationally to involve service users/subjects of research, highlighting some of the possible implications and gains of engaging service user knowledge in research and the need for this to be evaluated