Crosslinking of epoxy-polysiloxane system by reactive blending

(PAMS) containing pendant amino groups and diglycidyl ether of Bisphenol A (DGEBA). The initially immiscible blend is compatibilized during the reaction and crosslinked. Network formation, dynamics of the system and evolution of morphology were determined by dynamic mechanical analysis and light scattering techniques. The grafting epoxy-amine reaction involves a high extent of cyclization resulting in a high fraction of the sol in the networks. Dynamic light scattering data analysis reveals fast and slow relaxation modes of reacting species in the pregel and one single mode in the post-gel state. The network with a stoichiometric composition shows the most homogeneous morphology with a single glass transition temperature. On the contrary, the networks with excess of PAMS are strongly phase-separated exhibiting the unreacted PAMS-rich phase, PAMS phase partly grafted with epoxide and PAMS-DGEBA crosslinked phase.The authors acknowledge financial support of the European Commission through a Marie Curie Training Site contract No. HPMT-CT-2001-00396 and of the Grant Agency of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (A4050008).Publicad

Terrestrial Cardiovascular Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) Screening, Treatment and Risk Mitigation - Lessons Learned from Space Medicine

The Bellagio II Summit sought to correlate current ISS (International Space Station) Space Medicine practice in the screening/assessment and management of CAD (Coronary Artery Disease) and to identify terrestrial applications for the general population pertaining to primary, secondary and tertiary diagnoses and treatments. We identified current Space Medicine practice for screening and monitoring cosmonaut and astronaut in the pre-, in-, and post-flight mission phases. We will discuss current Space Medicine standards and guidelines in the recognition and monitoring of CAD development, stabilization, and regression

Benchmarking homogenization algorithms for monthly data

The COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action ES0601: Advances in homogenization methods of climate series: an integrated approach (HOME) has executed a blind intercomparison and validation study for monthly homogenization algorithms. Time series of monthly temperature and precipitation were evaluated because of their importance for climate studies. The algorithms were validated against a realistic benchmark dataset. Participants provided 25 separate homogenized contributions as part of the blind study as well as 22 additional solutions submitted after the details of the imposed inhomogeneities were revealed. These homogenized datasets were assessed by a number of performance metrics including i) the centered root mean square error relative to the true homogeneous values at various averaging scales, ii) the error in linear trend estimates and iii) traditional contingency skill scores. The metrics were computed both using the individual station series as well as the network average regional series. The performance of the contributions depends significantly on the error metric considered. Although relative homogenization algorithms typically improve the homogeneity of temperature data, only the best ones improve precipitation data. Moreover, state-of-the-art relative homogenization algorithms developed to work with an inhomogeneous reference are shown to perform best. The study showed that currently automatic algorithms can perform as well as manual ones

Expression of selected genes isolated from whole blood, liver and obex in lambs with experimental classical scrapie and healthy controls, showing a systemic innate immune response at the clinical end-stage

Abstract Background Incubation period, disease progression, pathology and clinical presentation of classical scrapie in sheep are highly dependent on PRNP genotype, time and route of inoculation and prion strain. Our experimental model with pre-colostrum inoculation of homozygous VRQ lambs has shown to be an effective model with extensive PrPSc dissemination in lymphatic tissue and a short incubation period with severe clinical disease. Serum protein analysis has shown an elevation of acute phase proteins in the clinical stages of this experimental model, and here, we investigate changes in gene expression in whole blood, liver and brain. Results The animals in the scrapie group showed severe signs of illness 22 weeks post inoculation necessitating euthanasia at 23 weeks post inoculation. This severe clinical presentation was accompanied by changes in expression of several genes. The following genes were differentially expressed in whole blood: TLR2, TLR4, C3, IL1B, LF and SAA, in liver tissue, the following genes differentially expressed: TNF-α, SAA, HP, CP, AAT, TTR and TF, and in the brain tissue, the following genes were differentially expressed: HP, CP, ALB and TTR. Conclusions We report a strong and evident transcriptional innate immune response in the terminal stage of classical scrapie in these animals. The PRNP genotype and time of inoculation are believed to contribute to the clinical presentation, including the extensive dissemination of PrPSc throughout the lymphatic tissue

Die militaerpolitischen Restriktionen Norwegens historische und aktuelle Aspekte ihrer Bedeutung fuer die Aussen- und Militaerpolitik des Landes

DB Leipzig(101) - Di 1983 B VD 3, T. 1, 2 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman