Synthesis of molybdenum oxide nanoparticles by nanosecond laser ablation

Phothermal therapy (PTT) is one of the most promising techniques to treat cancer. Finding the ideal PTT agent nanomaterial has remained a challenge and has brought the interest of several researchers. In this work, we report the synthesis of molybdenum oxide (MoOx) nanoparticles (NPs), which exhibit absorption in the biological optical window ~840 nm, by using the laser ablation of solids in liquids (LASL) technique with nanosecond (ns) pulses. A Nd:YAG laser was used to synthesize the NPs in deionized (DI) water, free of surfactants or additives, which were optically characterized by absorption spectroscopy and TEM-EDX microscopy. Semi spherical NPs with a suitable average size and shape for potential use as PTT agents were obtained by laser ablation and ablation + fragmentation. The calculated band gap is 3.1 eV, which corresponds to MoO3. Micro-Raman spectroscopy studies determined that these NPs are composed of amorphous molybdenum oxide hydrates (MoO3 · xH2O)

THE USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING AS A MEANS OF FUNDRAISING – ANALYSIS OF UNICEF’S INTERNET-BASED DONATION TOOL

The thesis was executed as an assignment for UNICEF Finland, and the objective was to analyse the usage of an internet-based donation tool “Lipas” created by UNICEF Finland, and to determine whether social networking is beneficial for non-profit organizations as a means of fundraising. Traditional fundraising was compared to online fundraising by collecting funds during the Thirst 2011 campaign, and a questionnaire was used to ascertain the opinions of people who donated using Lipas. The research method used in the study was a questionnaire in which the respondents answered to an online questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of statements, questions and an open-ended question where the respondents were asked to evaluate their experience with Lipas. Lipas was determined not sufficient enough for social networking use just yet as it can’t be directly put onto Facebook. It should be waited until the social network fundraising phenomenon evolves to the point where more of these types of online donation tools become more common. Social networking in itself was decided to be an excellent platform for online fundraising in general, and should be used by all non-profits

Factores que impiden la implementación de la atención farmacéutica en las farmacias de la ciudad de Chimbote

La Atención Farmacéutica ha demostrado su utilidad en reducir los problemas relacionados a medicamentos en pacientes con enfermedades crónicas. El rol del químico farmacéutico es fundamental, pero, sin embargo, su implementación no es obligatoria en nuestro país. Conocer los factores por los cuales no se implementa en los establecimientos farmacéuticos públicos y privados del país va a ser de gran utilidad para poder superar esos obstáculos. El objetivo de la presente investigación es conocer cuáles son esos factores que impiden implementar este servicio en los establecimientos farmacéuticos de la ciudad de Chimbote según los propios involucrados en el proceso. Para este fin se usó el método cualitativo de la entrevista a profundidad a cuatro personas: un empresario farmacéutico propietario de una cadena importante de farmacias en la ciudad, un ex – decano del Colegio Químico Farmacéutico de Ancash, el supervisor de una cadena de boticas de Lima con una sucursal en Chimbote y la jefa del servicio de farmacia de un hospital público de la ciudad de Chimbote. Los resultados dan cuenta, en primer lugar, del desconocimiento que se tiene de la Atención farmacéutica y de la falta de interés de las autoridades por capacitar a los profesionales y empresarios farmacéutico

Thermodynamic Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium in Naphtha-Water Mixtures

Naphtha is used to dilute the froth from bitumen treatment. Naphtha is recovered using a Naphtha Recovery Unit (NRU) and sent back to the froth dilution step. To minimize the environmental and economic impact of the NRU, it is imperative to maximize the naphtha recovery. It is, in this respect, that enhanced NRU Vapour-Liquid-Liquid equilibrium data is a significant value. The prediction of phase equilibria for hydrocarbon/water blends in separators, is a subject of considerable importance for chemical processes. Despite its relevance, there are still pending questions. Among them, is the prediction of the correct number of phases. While a stability analysis using the Gibbs Free Energy of mixing and the NRTL model for n-octane/water, provide a good understanding of calculation issues when using HYSYS V9 and Aspen Plus V9 software, this shows that significant phase equilibrium uncertainties still exist. In the case of multicomponent mixtures, the Tangent Plane Distance (TPD) is evaluated as a possible criterion for calculating the number of phases. Additionally, Paraffinic Aromatic Synthetic Naphtha (PASN) with a similar True Boiling Point (TBP) as typical naphtha can be used. Runs were developed in a CREC VL Cell operated with n-octane/water and PASN/water mixtures under dynamic conditions and used to establish the two-phase (liquid-vapour) and three-phase (liquid-liquid-vapour) domains. Results obtained demonstrate that the complete solubility is larger than the predicted by simulation software or reported in the technical literature. Furthermore, and to provide an effective and accurate method for predicting the number of phases, a Classification Machine Learning (ML) technique was implemented. Finally, traditional flash split calculations are reported explaining the challenges presented for the solution of the Rachford-Rice equations. A comparison of flash calculations between water/n-octane and PASN/water mixtures using SRKKD EoS is provided. The value of an ML approach developed based on the abundant experimental data available from the CREC-VL experimental Cell experiments is presented

Individual nodes contribution to the mesoscale of complex networks

The analysis of complex networks is devoted to the statistical characterization of the topology of graphs at different scales of organization in order to understand their functionality. While the modular structure of networks has become an essential element to better apprehend their complexity, the efforts to characterize the mesoscale of networks have focused on the identification of the modules rather than describing the mesoscale in an informative manner. Here we propose a framework to characterize the position every node takes within the modular configuration of complex networks and to evaluate their function accordingly. For illustration, we apply this framework to a set of synthetic networks, empirical neural networks, and to the transcriptional regulatory network of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We find that the architecture of both neuronal and transcriptional networks are optimized for the processing of multisensory information with the coexistence of well-defined modules of specialized components and the presence of hubs conveying information from and to the distinct functional domains

Visual analysis of fatigue in Industry 4.0

The performance of manufacturing operations relies heavily on the operators’ performance. When operators begin to exhibit signs of fatigue, both their individual performance and the overall performance of the manufacturing plant tend to decline. This research presents a methodology for analyzing fatigue in assembly operations, considering indicators such as the EAR (Eye Aspect Ratio) indicator, operator pose, and elapsed operating time. To facilitate the analysis, a dataset of assembly operations was generated and recorded from three different perspectives: frontal, lateral, and top views. The top view enables the analysis of the operator’s face and posture to identify hand positions. By labeling the actions in our dataset, we train a deep learning system to recognize the sequence of operator actions required to complete the operation. Additionally, we propose a model for determining the level of fatigue by processing multimodal information acquired from various sources, including eye blink rate, operator pose, and task duration during assembly operations.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. “A way of making Europe” European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 for supporting this work under the MoDeaAS project (grant PID2019-104818RB-I00)

Networks with arbitrary edge multiplicities

One of the main characteristics of real-world networks is their large clustering. Clustering is one aspect of a more general but much less studied structural organization of networks, i.e. edge multiplicity, defined as the number of triangles in which edges, rather than vertices, participate. Here we show that the multiplicity distribution of real networks is in many cases scale free, and in general very broad. Thus, besides the fact that in real networks the number of edges attached to vertices often has a scale-free distribution, we find that the number of triangles attached to edges can have a scale-free distribution as well. We show that current models, even when they generate clustered networks, systematically fail to reproduce the observed multiplicity distributions. We therefore propose a generalized model that can reproduce networks with arbitrary distributions of vertex degrees and edge multiplicities, and study many of its properties analytically