The energy sector is changing fast, but is it enough to keep global warming within 2ºC?

Seb Henbest writes that 64 percent of global installed capacity will produce zero emissions by 2040

Orthodontic bracket bond strength and resin composite adhesive degree of conversion associated with type of curing unit and total energy

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on March 27, 2014Thesis advisor: Mary P. WalkerVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 45-51)Thesis (M. S.)--School of Dentistry. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2013This study examined the effect of light curing sources on shear bond strength and degree of conversion of orthodontic resin composite adhesive as function of type of curing unit and total energy, as well as evaluated the correlation between shear bond strength and degree of conversion. Curing units included in the study were plasma arc (PA), light emitting diode (LED) and quartz tungsten halogen (QTH) with 5k, 10k, or 15k mJ/cm2 of total energy delivered to the orthodontic adhesive by each unit type. Based on an analysis of variance (α=.05), there was no significant effect of type of curing source on shear bond strength; however, there was a significant effect of total energy, with shear bond strength encreasing as energy increased across curing units. For degree of conversion there was a significant effect of curing unit with PA producing higher degree of conversion than LED or QTH, which were not significantly different from each other. There was also a significant effect of total energy on degree of conversion with a significant increase between 5k to 10k mJ/cm2. There was a positive moderate overall correlation between shear bond strength and degree of conversion. Results of this study suggest that the PA curing unit is more efficient at polymerization (degree of conversion) of orthodontic resin composite adhesive. However, there is no difference in shear bond strength produced when using PA, LED or QTH curing sources for orthodontic bracket bonding procedures when equal total energy is delivered to the adhesiveAbstract -- List of illustrations -- List of tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Materials and methods -- Results -- Discussion -- Conclusions -- Literature cite

Exceptional and Able: Supporting the Social Communication Skills of Gifted Neurodiverse Students in the Classroom

These are the presentation slides from the 2022 MEGA Conference (Mobile, AL) sponsored by the Alabama State Department of Education

Light-Induced TripletTriplet Electron Resonance Spectroscopy

We present a new technique, light-induced triplet-triplet electron resonance spectroscopy (LITTER), which measures the dipolar interaction between two photoexcited triplet states, enabling both the distance and angular distributions between the two triplet moieties to be determined on a nanometer scale. This is demonstrated for a model bis-porphyrin peptide that renders dipolar traces with strong orientation selection effects. Using simulations and density functional theory calculations, we extract distance distributions and relative orientations of the porphyrin moieties, allowing the dominant conformation of the peptide in a frozen solution to be identified. LITTER removes the requirement of current light-induced electron spin resonance pulse dipolar spectroscopy techniques to have a permanent paramagnetic moiety, becoming more suitable for in-cell applications and facilitating access to distance determination in unmodified macromolecular systems containing photoexcitable moieties. LITTER also has the potential to enable direct comparison with Förster resonance energy transfer and combination with microscopy inside cells

Bird Cryptochrome 1a Is Excited by Blue Light and Forms Long-Lived Radical- Pairs

Cryptochromes (Cry) have been suggested to form the basis of light-dependent magnetic compass orientation in birds. However, to function as magnetic compass sensors, the cryptochromes of migratory birds must possess a number of key biophysical characteristics. Most importantly, absorption of blue light must produce radical pairs with lifetimes longer than about a microsecond. Cryptochrome 1a (gwCry1a) and the photolyase-homology-region of Cry1 (gwCry1-PHR) from the migratory garden warbler were recombinantly expressed and purified from a baculovirus/Sf9 cell expression system. Transient absorption measurements show that these flavoproteins are indeed excited by light in the blue spectral range leading to the formation of radicals with millisecond lifetimes. These biophysical characteristics suggest that gwCry1a is ideally suited as a primary light-mediated, radical-pair-based magnetic compass recepto

Is motivation enough? Responsiveness, patient-centredness, medicalization and cost in family practice and conventional care settings in Thailand

BACKGROUND: In Thailand, family practice was developed primarily through a small number of self-styled family practitioners, who were dedicated to this professional field without having benefited from formal training in the specific techniques of family practice. In the context of a predominantly hospital-based health care system, much depends on their personal motivation and commitment to this area of medicine. The purpose of this paper is to compare the responsiveness, degree of patient-centredness, adequacy of therapeutic decisions and the cost of care in 37 such self-styled family practices, i.e. practices run by doctors who call themselves family practitioners, but have not been formally trained, and in 37 conventional public hospital outpatient departments (OPDs), 37 private clinics and 37 private hospital OPDs. METHOD: Analysis of the characteristics of 148 taped consultations with simulated patients. RESULTS: The family practices performed better than public hospital OPDs with regard to responsiveness, patient-centredness and cost of technical investigations (M-W U: p < 0.001). Prescribing patterns were similar, but family practices prescribed fewer drugs and were less costly than private clinics and hospitals (M-W U: p < 0.001). The degree of patient-centredness was not significantly different. Private clinics and private hospitals scored better for responsiveness. CONCLUSION: In Thailand self-styled family practices, even without specific training, provide a service that is more responsive and patient-centred than conventional care, with less overmedicalization and at a lower cost. Changes in prescription practices may require deeper changes in the medical culture

Formation of a Proto-Quasar from Accretion Flows in a Halo

We present a detailed model for the formation of massive objects at the centers of galaxies. The effects of supernovae heating and the conditions of gas loss are revisited. The escape time of the gas is compared with the cooling time, which provides an additional condition not previously considered. Its consequences for the allowed mass range of the halo is calculated. It is shown that sufficient gas is retained to form massive dark objects and quasars even for moderately massive halos but a decline is expected at low redshifts. Subsequently, a gaseous disk forms with a radial extent of a ~kpc, spun up by tidal torques and magnetized by supernovae fields with fields strengths of $10-100 \mu G$. In a model of a self-similar accretion flow in an initially dominant halo, it is shown that for typical halo parameters, about $10^8 M_\odot$ accretes via small magnetic stresses (or alternatively by self-gravity induced instability or by alpha viscosity) in $10^8$ years into a compact region. A model of a self-gravitating evolution of a compact magnetized disk, which is relevant when a significant fraction of the disk mass falls in, is presented, and it has a rapid collapse time scale of a million years. The two disk solutions, one for accretion in an imposed halo potential and the other for self-gravitating disk, obtained here, have general utility and can be adapted to other contexts like protostellar disks as well.Comment: 15 pages, 6 Figures, In Press in Astronomy & Astrophysic

A new model for magnetoreception

Certain migratory birds can sense the earth's magnetic field. The nature of this process is not yet properly understood. Here we offer a simple explanation according to which birds literally `see' the local magnetic field: Our model relates the well-established radical pair hypothesis to the phenomenon of Haidinger's brush, a capacity to see the polarisation of light. This new picture explains recent surprising experimental data indicating long lifetimes for the radical pair. Moreover there is a clear evolutionary path toward this field sensing mechanism: it is an enhancement of a weak effect that may be present in many species.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, version of final published pape