Surfactant function in neonates with respiratory distress syndrome

The function of pulmonary surfactant of a group of 14 preterm neonates (birth weight 907 +/- 60 g) who suffered from severe respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and who had received exogenous bovine lipid extracted surfactant on the first day of life was compared to that in a second group of 8 neonates (birth weight 940 +/- 110 g) with mild RDS who had not received surfactant treatment. Mechanical respiratory support from day 2 on was the same in both groups. The minimal surface tension (gamma(min)) improved steadily, falling from about 30 mN/m initially to less than 20 mN/m before extubation, A consistent but loose correlation was found between gamma(min) and mechanical respiratory support necessary, as quantitated by the oxygenation index. Total protein was about 0.8 +/- 0.2 mg/mg of phospholipids and did not change during the first week of life. There were no correlations between total protein and gamma(min) or the oxygenation index. The data suggest that inhibition of surfactant function by proteins leaked into the airspaces does not play a major role during recovery from RDS, Instead, endogenous remodelling of surfactant might be of greater relevance

The Reconstruction of the Northeast Building at Pylos

The reconstruction of the northeast building at Pylos is to be critically questioned due to certain architectural peculiarities and with the help of precise measurements taken by MARP. The aim of this paper is to show that Blegen´s reconstruction of the building can be supplemented and its sequence can be differentiated into two phases. During a first phase, attributed to early LH IIIB, the building was erected with probably three rooms accessible by a pillared colonnade as the facade. At the end of LH IIIB the palace had profoundly been altered by the extension and remodelling of its original design. In this course, the northeast building was reshaped by the addition of rooms and by tearing down the northwestern wing of the colonnade. The original plan for the building resembles a building type known from LM III Crete derived itself from the Neopalatial stoa. This first phase of the northeast building at Pylos as proposed can be connected with a Cretan Post-palatial prototype and, like other specific Minoan architectural elements visible at the Palace of Nestor, could be transmitted to the Mycenaean Mainland via commercial interrelations. The original use of this building remains uncertain but it could have served ceremonial or secular festivities

"Minoische Villen" in der Neupalastzeit auf Kreta

Nachdem die "Minoischen Villen" der Neupalastzeit auf Kreta über Jahrzehnte hinweg ein Schattendasein in der archäologischen Forschung führten, verstärkte sich in jüngster Vergangenheit das Interesse an diesem Haustyp deutlich. Ausgehend von McEnroes Typologie der neupalastzeitlichen Häuser auf der Basis einer Architektur- und Raumanalyse in die Typen 1, 2 und 3 wird hier die Notwendigkeit dargelegt, daß diese Gebäude auch in ihrer geographischen und topographischen Situation einer gewissen Kategorie entsprechen - der palatialen, urbanen oder der ruralen. Nicht nur in der architektonischen Gestaltung und Ausarbeitung, sondern auch durch die Austattung und das Fundmaterial ergeben sich Rückschlüsse auf die mitunter vielfältigen Aufgabenbereiche der "Villen"

Current dependence of grain boundary magnetoresistance in La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO_3 films

We prepared epitaxial ferromagnetic manganite films on bicrystal substrates by pulsed laser ablation. Their low- and high-field magnetoresistance (MR) was measured as a function of magnetic field, temperature and current. At low temperatures hysteretic changes in resistivity up to 70% due to switching of magnetic domains at the coercitive field are observed. The strongly non-ohmic behavior of the current-voltage leads to a complete suppression of the MR effect at high bias currents with the identical current dependence at low and high magnetic fields. We discuss the data in view of tunneling and mesoscale magnetic transport models and propose an explicit dependence of the spin polarization on the applied current in the grain boundary region.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in J. Appl. Phy

Epitaxy and magnetotransport of Sr_2FeMoO_6 thin films

By pulsed-laser deposition epitaxial thin films of Sr_2FeMoO_6 have been pre- pared on (100) SrTiO_3 substrates. Already for a deposition temperature of 320 C epitaxial growth is achieved. Depending on deposition parameters the films show metallic or semiconducting behavior. At high (low) deposition temperature the Fe,Mo sublattice has a rock-salt (random) structure. The metallic samples have a large negative magnetoresistance which peaks at the Curie temperature. The magnetic moment was determined to 4 mu_B per formula unit (f.u.), in agreement with the expected value for an ideal ferrimagnetic arrangement. We found an ordinary Hall coefficient of -6.01x10^{-10} m^3/As at 300 K, corresponding to an electronlike charge-carrier density of 1.3 per Fe,Mo-pair. In the semiconducting films the magnetic moment is reduced to 1 mu_B/f.u. due to disorder in the Fe,Mo sublattice. In low fields an anomalous holelike contribution dominates the Hall voltage, which vanishes at low temperatures for the metallic films only.Comment: Institute of Physics, University of Mainz, Germany, 4 pages, including 5 pictures and 1 Table, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Centrifugally driven convection in the rotating cylindrical annulus with modulated boundaries

The effect of sinusoidally modulated conical end boundaries on convection in a rotating cylindrical annulus is investigated theoretically and experimentally. A quasiperiodic time dependence of convection in the form of thermal Rossby waves is found and semi-quantitative agreement between theory and measurements can be established. The results are relevant to convection in the Earth's outer core close to the tangent cylinder touching the inner core at its equator

Transport and magnetic properties of La_(1-x)Ca_xMnO_3-films (0.1<x<0.9)

By laser ablation we prepared thin films of the colossal magnetoresistive compound La_(1-x)Ca_xMnO_3 with doping levels 0.1<x<0.9 on MgO substrates. X-ray diffraction revealed epitaxial growth and a systematic decrease of the lattice constants with doping. The variation of the transport and magnetic properties in this doping series was investigated by SQUID magnetization and electrical transport measurements. For the nonmetallic samples resistances up to 10^13 Ohm have been measured with an electrometer setup. While the transport data indicate polaronic transport for the metallic samples above the Curie temperature the low doped ferromagnetic insulating samples show a variable range hopping like transport at low temperature.Comment: 2 pages, 3 EPS figures, LT22 Proceedings to appear in Physica

Charge carrier density collapse in La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO_3 and La_0.67Sr_0.33MnO_3 epitaxial thin films

We measured the temperature dependence of the linear high field Hall resistivity of La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO_3 (T_C=232K) and La_0.67Sr_0.33MnO_3 (T_C=345K) thin films in the temperature range from 4K up to 360K in magnetic fields up to 20T. At low temperatures we find a charge carrier density of 1.3 and 1.4 holes per unit cell for the Ca- and Sr-doped compound, respectively. In this temperature range electron-magnon scattering contributes to the longitudinal resistivity. At the ferromagnetic transition temperature T_C a dramatic drop in the number of current carriers $n$ down to 0.6 holes per unit cell, accompanied by an increase in unit cell volume, is observed. Corrections of the Hall data due to a non saturated magnetic state will lead a more pronounced charge carrier density collapse.Comment: 5 pages, 5 EPS figures, submitted to Eur. Phys. J.

Performance implications of supply chain risk and risk management

Firms operate in a complex world characterized by interdependencies among various factors which are difficult to anticipate and can pose a risk to a firm’s operations. On the one hand, prior research has identified major categories of supply chain risk. On the other, it has established that supply chain disruptions do indeed negatively affect a firm’s performance once they materialize. However, prior research has not explained which external uncertainties actually turn into what type of risk exposure. Moreover, such research has not yet explained under what conditions external events are extraordinarily harmful, and whether firms should have managed these potential risks. In order to fill in this lack of knowledge, this dissertation has developed a new measurement of a firm’s exposure to risk. To this end, it scrutinizes a firm’s 10-K reports and transforms the unstructured textual data into quantitative information. The resulting novel data set is augmented by financial and other publicly available secondary data. The results suggest that the industry is an important moderator of how external threats affect a firm’s performance. Furthermore, external threats always increase a firm’s exposure to risk, while internal strategies partly increase and partly decrease such an exposure. Finally, a firm must carefully analyze the type of risk to which it is exposed, because the efficiency of the mitigation strategy employed depends on the type of risk exposure. In sum, this dissertation suggests exploiting a firm’s self-disclosed textual information by means of linguistic computer analysis. As a result, it provides new answers to new research questions and hence extends the existing knowledge in the field of supply chain risk management