New method for the deposition of nickel oxide in porous scaffolds for electrodes in solid oxide fuel cells and electrolyzers

A simple chemical bath deposition is used to coat a complex porous ceramic scaffold with a conformal nickel layer. The resulting composite is used as a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell electrode and its electrochemical response is measured in humidified hydrogen. X-Ray tomography is used to determine microstructural parameters of the uncoated and Ni-coated porous structure, among other, the surface area to total volume, the radial pore size and size of the necks between pores

Poverty Amid Renewed Affluence: The Poor of New England at Mid-Decade

This article examines the problem of poverty in New England during the current period of economic prosperity. Major trends in the size and composition of the poor population within the region are analyzed. Striking changes in the relative incidence of poverty have occurred among families in New England. As the economy has moved toward full employment, poverty rates among husband-wife families in the region have fallen sharply. In contrast, female-headed families in New England have not benefited substantially from recent rapid increases in employment opportunities. The result has been a persistent trend toward the feminization of poverty in New England. The bulk of poor female family heads are of working age and could potentially be brought into the region\u27s work force. However, education and training services that can successfully attack fundamental barriers to labor force participation must be delivered to these women. Programs designed to overcome low levels of educational attainment and deficient basic skills must be combined with child care and other social services in order to further reduce overall poverty rates across the New England region

Older Workers: An Essential Resource for Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Jobs Council, the Governor’s principal advisory board on workforce development, established the Blue Ribbon Commission on Older Workers in 1997 to analyze the labor market for older workers in the Commonwealth and to recommend policies to improve the economic status of the older labor force. The Commission held numerous hearings, town meetings, and focus groups to solicit the views of older workers, employers, labor organizations, and training professionals, and it reviewed the findings of extensive research on older workers in Massachusetts

Fluorophore-Doped Core-Multishell Spherical Plasmonic Nanocavities: Resonant Energy Transfer towards a Loss Compensation

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Plasmonics exhibits the potential to break the diffraction limit and bridge the gap between electronics and photonics by routing and manipulating light at the nanoscale. However, the inherent and strong energy dissipation present in metals, especially in the near-infrared and visible wavelength ranges, significantly hampersthe applications in nanophotonics. Therefore, it is amajor challengetomitigatethe losses. One way to compensate the losses is to incorporate gain media into plasmonics. Here, we experimentally show that the incorporation of gain material into a local surface plasmonic system (Au/silica/silica dye core multishell nanoparticles) leads to a resonant energy transfer from the gain media to the plasmon. The optimized conditions for the largest loss compensation are reported. Both the coupling distance and the spectral overlap arethe key factorsto determinetheresulting energy transfer. Theinterplay of these factors leadsto a non-monotonous photoluminescence dependence as a function of the silica spacer shell thickness. Nonradiativetransferrate is increased by morethan 3 orders of magnitude attheresonant condition, which is key evidence of the strongest coupling occurring between the plasmon and the gain material

Co-combustion of oil palm trunk biocoal / sub-bituminous coal fuel blends

Biomass is a promising alternative for the reduction of global dependency on fossil fuels. However, there are some issues with the direct application of raw biomass such as high moisture content, low heating value, and poor grindability. To alleviate the problems, biomass-derived biocoal is introduced and utilised as fuel in power plants. Oil palm trunk biocoal (OPTC) is produced from pyrolysis of oil palm trunk biomass (OPTB) in a top-lit, updraft reactor at a constant air flowrate of 4.63 L/min and maximum temperature of 550 °C. OPTC is co-combusted at temperatures between 600 and 900 °C with sub-bituminous coal (SBC). Pollutant emission and ash production from combustion of fuel blends containing 20% and 50% biocoal are analysed and compared with pure SBC, OPTB and OPTC. NOx and SO2 emission profiles from all tested fuel blends are well below the limits imposed under Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulation 2014 of 296 and 190 ppm respectively. Response surface methodology (RSM) analysis indicates that the operation of combustion is optimised with 92.16% efficiency at 774 °C and air flowrate of 16.6 SCFH to emit 16.38% CO2, and the findings are validated against experimental results. The optimised combustion process produces ash with 67.9% silicon compounds

TECHNIQUES IN OPTICAL DATA PROCESSING AND COHERENT OPTICS

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73477/1/j.1749-6632.1969.tb12651.x.pd

Parity Violation in Proton-Proton Scattering at 221 MeV

The parity-violating longitudinal analyzing power, Az, has been measured in pp elastic scattering at an incident proton energy of 221 MeV. The result obtained is Az =(0.84 +/- 0.29 (stat.) +/- 0.17 (syst.)) x 10^{-7}. This experiment is unique in that it selects a single parity violating transition amplitude, 3P2-1D2, and consequently directly constrains the weak meson-nucleon coupling constant h^pp_rho When this result is taken together with the existing pp parity violation data, the weak meson-nucleon coupling constants h^pp_rho and h^pp_omega can, for the first time, both be determined.Comment: 8 pages RevTeX4, 3 PostScript figures. Conclusion revised. New information about weak coupling constants adde

Involving Children and Teenagers With Bilateral Cochlear Implants in the Design of the BEARS (Both EARS) Virtual Reality Training Suite Improves Personalization

Older children and teenagers with bilateral cochlear implants often have poor spatial hearing because they cannot fuse sounds from the two ears. This deficit jeopardizes speech and language development, education, and social well-being. The lack of protocols for fitting bilateral cochlear implants and resources for spatial-hearing training contribute to these difficulties. Spatial hearing develops with bilateral experience. A large body of research demonstrates that sound localisation can improve with training, underpinned by plasticity-driven changes in the auditory pathways. Generalizing training to non-trained auditory skills is best achieved by using a multi-modal (audio-visual) implementation and multi-domain training tasks (localisation, speech-in-noise, and spatial music). The goal of this work was to develop a package of virtual-reality games (BEARS, Both EARS) to train spatial hearing in young people (8–16 years) with bilateral cochlear implants using an action-research protocol. The action research protocol used formalized cycles for participants to trial aspects of the BEARS suite, reflect on their experiences, and in turn inform changes in the game implementations. This participatory design used the stakeholder participants as co-creators. The cycles for each of the three domains (localisation, spatial speech-in-noise, and spatial music) were customized to focus on the elements that the stakeholder participants considered important. The participants agreed that the final games were appropriate and ready to be used by patients. The main areas of modification were: the variety of immersive scenarios to cover age range and interests, the number of levels of complexity to ensure small improvements were measurable, feedback, and reward schemes to ensure positive reinforcement, and an additional implementation on an iPad for those who had difficulties with the headsets due to age or balance issues. The effectiveness of the BEARS training suite will be evaluated in a large-scale clinical trial to determine if using the games lead to improvements in speech-in-noise, quality of life, perceived benefit, and cost utility. Such interventions allow patients to take control of their own management reducing the reliance on outpatient-based rehabilitation. For young people, a virtual-reality implementation is more engaging than traditional rehabilitation methods, and the participatory design used here has ensured that the BEARS games are relevant

Docetaxel-induced prostate cancer cell death involves concomitant activation of caspase and lysosomal pathways and is attenuated by LEDGF/p75

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) is characterized by poor response to chemotherapy and high mortality, particularly among African American men when compared to other racial/ethnic groups. It is generally accepted that docetaxel, the standard of care for chemotherapy of HRPC, primarily exerts tumor cell death by inducing mitotic catastrophe and caspase-dependent apoptosis following inhibition of microtubule depolymerization. However, there is a gap in our knowledge of mechanistic events underlying docetaxel-induced caspase-independent cell death, and the genes that antagonize this process. This knowledge is important for circumventing HRPC chemoresistance and reducing disparities in prostate cancer mortality.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We investigated mechanistic events associated with docetaxel-induced death in HRPC cell lines using various approaches that distinguish caspase-dependent from caspase-independent cell death. Docetaxel induced both mitotic catastrophe and caspase-dependent apoptosis at various concentrations. However, caspase activity was not essential for docetaxel-induced cytotoxicity since cell death associated with lysosomal membrane permeabilization still occurred in the presence of caspase inhibitors. Partial inhibition of docetaxel-induced cytotoxicity was observed after inhibition of cathepsin B, but not inhibition of cathepsins D and L, suggesting that docetaxel induces caspase-independent, lysosomal cell death. Simultaneous inhibition of caspases and cathepsin B dramatically reduced docetaxel-induced cell death. Ectopic expression of lens epithelium-derived growth factor p75 (LEDGF/p75), a stress survival autoantigen and transcription co-activator, attenuated docetaxel-induced lysosomal destabilization and cell death. Interestingly, LEDGF/p75 overexpression did not protect cells against DTX-induced mitotic catastrophe, and against apoptosis induced by tumor necrosis factor related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL), suggesting selectivity in its pro-survival activity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results underscore the ability of docetaxel to induce concomitantly caspase-dependent and independent death pathways in prostate cancer cells. The results also point to LEDGF/p75 as a potential contributor to cellular resistance to docetaxel-induced lysosomal destabilization and cell death, and an attractive candidate for molecular targeting in HRPC.</p

Patterns of Paternal Investment Predict Cross-Cultural Variation in Jealous Response

Long-lasting, romantic partnerships are a universal feature of human societies; but almost as ubiquitous is the risk of instability that comes when one partner strays. Jealous response to the threat of infidelity is a well-studied phenomenon, but most empirical work on the topic has focused on a proposed sex difference in the type of jealousy (sexual or emotional) men and women find most upsetting, rather than on how jealous response varies1,2. This stems in part from the predominance of studies using student samples from industrialized populations, which represent a relatively homogenous group in terms of age, life history stage, and social norms3,4. To better understand variation in partner jealousy, we conducted a two-part study in 11 populations (1,048 individuals), including eight small-scale societies, which examines how both sex and culture affect perceptions of infidelity. We show that, in spite of a robust sex difference, variation in jealous response is impacted more by the culture a respondent belongs to than by their sex. We further identify paternal investment and frequency of extramarital sex as two key predictors of cultural variation. Partner jealousy thus appears to be a facultative response, in part reflective of the variable risks and costs of men’s investment across societies