Синтез и свойства силикатов висмута, приготовленных методом механической активации

В настоящей работе были синтезированы серии силикатов висмута методоммеханической активации, а также исследованы их свойства такими методами, как ТГ-ДСК анализ и РФА-спектроскопия. Установлено, что для серии, приготовленной с соотношением реагентов Bi:Si = 2:1 после 800 °С наступает плавление, тогда как для серии с эквиатомным соотношением Bi и Si в исходных реагентах плавления в этом температурном интервале не наблюдается. Показано, что при увеличении температуры прокаливания с 500˚С до 700 °С фаза метасиликата висмута (Bi2SiO5) полностью переходит в ортосиликат висмута (Bi4Si3O12), а доля фазы силленита (Bi12SiO20) увеличивается при увеличении соотношения Bi:Si

Integration of NEMO into an existing particle physics environment through virtualization

With the ever-growing amount of data collected with the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) (Evans et al., 2008), the need for computing resources that can handle the analysis of this data is also rapidly increasing. This increase will even be amplified after upgrading to the High Luminosity LHC (Apollinari et al., 2017). High-Performance Computing (HPC) and other cluster computing resources provided by universities can be useful supplements to the resources dedicated to the experiment as part of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) (Eck et al., 2005) for data analysis and production of simulated event samples. Computing resources in the WLCG are structured in four layers – so-called Tiers. The first layer comprises two Tier-0 computing centres located at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland and at the Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Budapest, Hungary. The second layer consists of thirteen Tier-1 centres, followed by 160 Tier-2 sites, which are typically universities and other scientific institutes. The final layer are Tier-3 sites which are directly used by local users. The University of Freiburg is operating a combined Tier-2/Tier-3, the ATLAS-BFG (Backofen et al., 2006). The shared HPC cluster »NEMO« at the University of Freiburg has been made available to local ATLAS (Aad et al., 2008) users through the provisioning of virtual machines incorporating the ATLAS software environment analogously to the bare metal system at the Tier-3. In addition to the provisioning of the virtual environment, the on-demand integration of these resources into the Tier-3 scheduler in a dynamic way is described. In order to provide the external NEMO resources to the user in a transparent way, an intermediate layer connecting the two batch systems is put into place. This resource scheduler monitors requirements on the user-facing system and requests resources on the backend-system

Agents for fluorescence-guided glioma surgery: a systematic review of preclinical and clinical results

Background: Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) is a technique used to enhance visualization of tumor margins in order to increase the extent of tumor resection in glioma surgery. In this paper, we systematically review all clinically tested fluorescent agents for application in FGS for glioma and all preclinically tested agents with the potential for FGS for glioma. Methods: We searched the PubMed and Embase databases for all potentially relevant studies through March 2016. We assessed fluorescent agents by the following outcomes: rate of gross total resection (GTR), overall and progression-free survival, sensitivity and specificity in discriminating tumor and healthy brain tissue, tumor-to-normal ratio of fluorescent signal, and incidence of adverse events. Results: The search strategy resulted in 2155 articles that were screened by titles and abstracts. After full-text screening, 105 articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria evaluating the following fluorescent agents: 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) (44 studies, including three randomized control trials), fluorescein (11), indocyanine green (five), hypericin (two), 5-aminofluorescein-human serum albumin (one), endogenous fluorophores (nine) and fluorescent agents in a pre-clinical testing phase (30). Three meta-analyses were also identified. Conclusions: 5-ALA is the only fluorescent agent that has been tested in a randomized controlled trial and results in an improvement of GTR and progression-free survival in high-grade gliomas. Observational cohort studies and case series suggest similar outcomes for FGS using fluorescein. Molecular targeting agents (e.g., fluorophore/nanoparticle labeled with anti-EGFR antibodies) are still in the pre-clinical phase, but offer promising results and may be valuable future alternatives

Incidence of community-acquired lower respiratory tract infections and pneumonia among older adults in the United Kingdom: a population-based study.

Community-acquired lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) and pneumonia (CAP) are common causes of morbidity and mortality among those aged ≥65 years; a growing population in many countries. Detailed incidence estimates for these infections among older adults in the United Kingdom (UK) are lacking. We used electronic general practice records from the Clinical Practice Research Data link, linked to Hospital Episode Statistics inpatient data, to estimate incidence of community-acquired LRTI and CAP among UK older adults between April 1997-March 2011, by age, sex, region and deprivation quintile. Levels of antibiotic prescribing were also assessed. LRTI incidence increased with fluctuations over time, was higher in men than women aged ≥70 and increased with age from 92.21 episodes/1000 person-years (65-69 years) to 187.91/1000 (85-89 years). CAP incidence increased more markedly with age, from 2.81 to 21.81 episodes/1000 person-years respectively, and was higher among men. For both infection groups, increases over time were attenuated after age-standardisation, indicating that these rises were largely due to population aging. Rates among those in the most deprived quintile were around 70% higher than the least deprived and were generally higher in the North of England. GP antibiotic prescribing rates were high for LRTI but lower for CAP (mostly due to immediate hospitalisation). This is the first study to provide long-term detailed incidence estimates of community-acquired LRTI and CAP in UK older individuals, taking person-time at risk into account. The summary incidence commonly presented for the ≥65 age group considerably underestimates LRTI/CAP rates, particularly among older individuals within this group. Our methodology and findings are likely to be highly relevant to health planners and researchers in other countries with aging populations

How can we possibly resolve the planet's nitrogen dilemma?

Nitrogen is the most crucial element in the production of nutritious feeds and foods. The production of reactive nitrogen by means of fossil fuel has thus far been able to guarantee the protein supply for the world population. Yet, the production and massive use of fertilizer nitrogen constitute a major threat in terms of environmental health and sustainability. It is crucial to promote consumer acceptance and awareness towards proteins produced by highly effective microorganisms, and their potential to replace proteins obtained with poor nitrogen efficiencies from plants and animals. The fact that reactive fertilizer nitrogen, produced by the Haber Bosch process, consumes a significant amount of fossil fuel worldwide is of concern. Moreover, recently, the prices of fossil fuels have increased the cost of reactive nitrogen by a factor of 3 to 5 times, while international policies are fostering the transition towards a more sustainable agro-ecology by reducing mineral fertilizers inputs and increasing organic farming. The combination of these pressures and challenges opens opportunities to use the reactive nitrogen nutrient more carefully. Time has come to effectively recover used nitrogen from secondary resources and to upgrade it to a legal status of fertilizer. Organic nitrogen is a slow-release fertilizer, it has a factor of 2.5 or higher economic value per unit nitrogen as fertilizer and thus adequate technologies to produce it, for instance by implementing photobiological processes, are promising. Finally, it appears wise to start the integration in our overall feed and food supply chains of the exceptional potential of biological nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen produced by the nitrogenase enzyme, either in the soil or in novel biotechnology reactor systems, deserves to have a ‘renaissance’ in the context of planetary governance in general and the increasing number of people who desire to be fed in a sustainable way in particular

Model Checking CTL is Almost Always Inherently Sequential

The model checking problem for CTL is known to be P-complete (Clarke, Emerson, and Sistla (1986), see Schnoebelen (2002)). We consider fragments of CTL obtained by restricting the use of temporal modalities or the use of negations---restrictions already studied for LTL by Sistla and Clarke (1985) and Markey (2004). For all these fragments, except for the trivial case without any temporal operator, we systematically prove model checking to be either inherently sequential (P-complete) or very efficiently parallelizable (LOGCFL-complete). For most fragments, however, model checking for CTL is already P-complete. Hence our results indicate that, in cases where the combined complexity is of relevance, approaching CTL model checking by parallelism cannot be expected to result in any significant speedup. We also completely determine the complexity of the model checking problem for all fragments of the extensions ECTL, CTL+, and ECTL+

Implications of MMP9 for Blood Brain Barrier Disruption and Hemorrhagic Transformation Following Ischemic Stroke.

Numerous studies have documented increases in matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), specifically MMP-9 levels following stroke, with such perturbations associated with disruption of the blood brain barrier (BBB), increased risk of hemorrhagic complications, and worsened outcome. Despite this, controversy remains as to which cells release MMP-9 at the normal and pathological BBB, with even less clarity in the context of stroke. This may be further complicated by the influence of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) treatment. The aim of the present review is to examine the relationship between neutrophils, MMP-9 and tPA following ischemic stroke to elucidate which cells are responsible for the increases in MMP-9 and resultant barrier changes and hemorrhage observed following stroke