2,242 research outputs found
Correlations between the interfacial chemistry and current-voltage behavior of n-GaAs/liquid junctions
Correlations between the surface chemistry of etched, (100) oriented n-GaAs electrodes and their subsequent photoelectrochemical behavior have been probed by high-resolution x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. GaAs photoanodes were chemically treated to prepare either an oxide-free near stoichiometric surface, a surface enriched in zero-valent arsenic (As0), or a substrate-oxide terminated surface. The current-voltage (I-V) behavior of each surface type was subsequently monitored in contact with several electrolytes
Effects of blood pressure on cognitive performance in aging: a systematic review
Introduction: Cognitive functions play a crucial role in daily functioning. Unfortunately, some cognitive abilities decline in the process of healthy aging. An increasing body of evidence has highlighted the role of lifestyle habits and cardiovascular diseases, such as high blood pressure, in increasing the risk of cognitive decline. Surprisingly, although hypertension is a modifiable risk factor for cerebrovascular damage, the role of hypertension on cognitive impairment development is not still clear. Several key questions remain unresolved, and there are many inconsistent results in studies considering this topic. This review is aimed to systematically analyze the results found by the studies that investigated whether high blood pressure, in both hypertensive and healthy people, is related to cognitive performance. Furthermore, it points to evaluate the role of age in this relationship. Method: The review process was conducted according to the PRISMA statement. Restrictions were made, selecting the studies in English and published in peer‐review journals, including at least one cognitive measure and blood pressure measurement. Studies that included participants with medical conditions, dementia, psychiatric disorders, strokes, and brain injury were excluded. Cross‐sectional and longitudinal studies were analyzed separately. Finally, blood pressure measured at young life (18–39 years), midlife (age 40–64 years), elderly (65–74 years), and old age (≥75 years) were considered. Results: The review allows 68 studies to be selected, which include 154,935 participants. The results provided evidence of an adverse effect of exposure to high blood pressure on cognitive performance. High blood pressure in midlife was linked with poorer cognitive functioning; this evidence was found in cross‐sectional and longitudinal studies. However, this association declines with increasing age and tends to become inconsistent. In older people, the relationship between blood pressure and cognitive performance is non‐linear, highlighting a beneficial effect of high blood pressure on cognition. Conclusions: Despite some limitations, this review showed that cardiovascular and neuro‐cognitive systems do not operate in isolation, but they are related. Blood pressure can be considered an early biomarker of cognitive impairment, and the necessity of early blood pressure measurement and control was underlined
Enfoque sobre o plano de saúde dos empregados da Embrapa no contexto do pacote de benefícios sociais oferecidos pela empresa.
bitstream/item/71547/1/ID-30976.pd
Solvable model of a strongly-driven micromaser
We study the dynamics of a micromaser where the pumping atoms are strongly
driven by a resonant classical field during their transit through the cavity
mode. We derive a master equation for this strongly-driven micromaser,
involving the contributions of the unitary atom-field interactions and the
dissipative effects of a thermal bath. We find analytical solutions for the
temporal evolution and the steady-state of this system by means of phase-space
techniques, providing an unusual solvable model of an open quantum system,
including pumping and decoherence. We derive closed expressions for all
relevant expectation values, describing the statistics of the cavity field and
the detected atomic levels. The transient regime shows the build-up of mixtures
of mesoscopic fields evolving towards a superpoissonian steady-state field
that, nevertheless, yields atomic correlations that exhibit stronger
nonclassical features than the conventional micromaser.Comment: 9 pages, 16 figures. Submitted for publicatio
TMCalc - A fast code to derive Teff and [Fe/H] for FGK stars
We present a new direct spectroscopic calibration for a fast estimation of
the stellar metallicity [Fe/H]. These calibrations were computed using a large
sample of 451 solar-type stars for which we have precise spectroscopic
parameters derived from high quality spectra. The new [Fe/H] calibration is
based on weak Fe I lines, which are expected to be less dependent on surface
gravity and microturbulence, and require only a pre-determination of the
effective temperature. This temperature can be obtained using a previously
presented line-ratio calibration. We also present a simple code that uses the
calibrations and procedures presented in these works to obtain both the
effective temperature and the [Fe/H] estimate. The code, written in C, is
freely available for the community and may be used as an extension of the ARES
code. We test these calibrations for 582 independent FGK stars. We show that
the code can be used as a precise and fast indicator of the spectroscopic
temperature and metallicity for dwarf FKG stars with effective temperatures
ranging from 4500 K to 6500 K and with [Fe/H] ranging from -0.8 dex to 0.4 dex.Comment: 10 pages, 8 Figures, published in A&
The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute: past, present and future
Compared internationally, the history of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) is unusual. Founded in 1944, at a time of utmost isolation, it was a response to specific needs of the government of Switzerland during the Second World War. In 1943, the Swiss Federal Council approached universities in Switzerland and asked them to submit project proposal that had the potential to mitigate possible post-war unemployment and threatening economic isolation. Members of the University of Basel proposed to establish a Swiss Tropical Institute (today: Swiss TPH). With its harbour at the River Rhine, Basel was an important international transport hub. The city was and still is the headquarters of important pharmaceutical companies, such as Novartis Pharma AG and F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, which were looking for new markets overseas. Last but not least, scientific expeditions to Africa were rather common in the 19(th) and the beginning of the 20(th) century for members of Basel's bourgeoisie. Initially, Swiss TPH focused primarily on basic research into diseases of poverty, but over the years it has developed into an important player in public, international and global health. This article sees the development of the institute as a reflection of the visions of its directors from the founder Professor Rudolf Geigy to Professor Jurg Utzinger, who is the current Swiss TPH director. It includes interviews with the four latest of them, discussing their experiences and attempts to adapt the institute to an ever changing global environment. From these lessons learnt we hope to gain insights that could be relevant for today's leaders of scientific institutes; foster public-private partnerships and contribute to solve some of the most pressing global health challenges
Tripartite quantum state mapping and discontinuous entanglement transfer in a cavity QED open system
We describe the transfer of quantum information and entanglement from three
flying (radiation) to three localized (atomic) qubits via cavity modes
resonantly coupled to the atoms, in the presence of a common reservoir. Upon
addressing the full dynamics of the resulting nine-qubit open system, we find
that once the cavities are fed, fidelity and transferred entanglement are
optimal, while their peak values exponentially decrease due to dissipative
processes. The external radiation is then turned off and quantum correlations
oscillate between atomic and cavity qubits. For a class of mixtures of W and
GHZ input states we deal with a discontinuous exchange of entanglement among
the subsystems, facing the still open problem of entanglement sudden death and
birth in a multipartite system.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 2 table
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