Phase-Transfer Catalysis in Segmented Flow in a Microchannel: Fluidic Control of Selectivity and Productivity

Precise control over the interfacial area of aqueous and organic slugs in segmented flow in a microchannel reactor provides an attractive means to optimize the yield and productivity of a phase-transfer-catalyzed reaction. Herein, we report the selective alkylation of phenylacetonitrile to the monoalkylated product in a microchannel of 250-mu m internal diameter operated in a continuous and solvent-free manner in the slug-flow regime. The conversion of phenylacetonitrile increased from 40% to 99% as a result of a 97% larger slug surface-to-volume ratio when the volumetric aqueous-to-organic phase flow ratio was raised from 1.0 to 6.1 at the same residence time. The larger surface-to-volume ratio significantly promoted catalyst phase transfer but decreased selectivity because of the simultaneous increase of the rate of the consecutive reaction to the dialkylated product. There exists all Optimum flow ratio with a maximum productivity. Conversion and selectivity in the microchannel reactor were both found to be significantly larger than in a stirred reactor.

Barrier height variations and interface properties of PtSi/Si structures

To study some of the interfacial properties of PtSi/Si diodes, Schottky structures were fabricated on (100) crystalline silicon substrates by conventional thermal evaporation of Pt on Si followed by annealing at different temperatures (from 400 degrees C to 700 degrees C) to form PtSi. The PtSi/n-Si diodes, all yielded Schottky barrier (SB) heights that are remarkably temperature dependent. The temperature range (20-290 K) over which the I-V characteristics were measured in the present study is broader with a much lower limit (20 K), than what is usually reported in literature. These variations in the barrier height are adequately interpreted by introducing spatial inhomogeneity into the barrier potential with a Gaussian distribution having a mean barrier of 0.76 eV and a standard deviation of 30 meV. Multi-frequency capacitance-voltage measurements suggest that the barrier is primarily controlled by the properties of the silicide-silicon interface. The forward C-V characteristics, in particular, show small peaks at low frequencies that can be ascribed to interface states rather than to a series resistance effect.

Association Study of SNAP25 and Schizophrenia in Irish Family and Case-Control Samples

SNAP25 occurs on chromosome 20p12.2, which has been linked to schizophrenia in some samples, and recently linked to latent classes of psychotic illness in our sample. SNAP25 is crucial to synaptic functioning, may be involved in axonal growth and dendritic sprouting, and its expression may be decreased in schizophrenia. We genotyped 18 haplotype-tagging SNPs in SNAP25 in a sample of 270 Irish high-density families. Single marker and haplotype analyses were performed in FBAT and PDT. We adjusted for multiple testing by computing q values. Association was followed up in an independent sample of 657 cases and 411 controls. We tested for allelic effects on the clinical phenotype by using the method of sequential addition and 5 factor-derived scores of the OPCRIT. Nine of 18 SNPs had Pvalues

Replication of EPHA1 and CD33 associations with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease: a multi-centre case-control study

A recently published genome-wide association study (GWAS) of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) revealed genome-wide significant association of variants in or near MS4A4A, CD2AP, EPHA1 and CD33. Meta-analyses of this and a previously published GWAS revealed significant association at ABCA7 and MS4A, independent evidence for association of CD2AP, CD33 and EPHA1 and an opposing yet significant association of a variant near ARID5B. In this study, we genotyped five variants (in or near CD2AP, EPHA1, ARID5B, and CD33) in a large (2,634 LOAD, 4,201 controls), independent dataset comprising six case-control series from the USA and Europe. We performed meta-analyses of the association of these variants with LOAD and tested for association using logistic regression adjusted by age-at-diagnosis, gender, and APOE e4 dosage.

Beyond the Sign. Henri Meschonnic's Poetics of Rhythm and Continuum. Towards an Anthropological Theory of Language

Basing the conception of language on the sign represents also an obstacle to the awareness of certain elements of human life, especially to a full understanding of what language or art do, Henri Meschonnic’s poetics of the continuum and of rhythm criticizes the sign based on Benveniste’s terms of rhythm and discourse, developing an anthropology of language. Rhythm, for Meschonnic, is no formal metrical but a semantic principle, each time unique and unforeseeable. As for Humboldt, his starting point is not the word but the ensemble of speech; language is not ergon but energeia. The poem then is not a literary form but a process of transformation that Meschonnic defines as the invention of a form of life by a form of language and vice versa. Thus a poem is a way of thinking and rhythm is form in movement. The particular subject of art and literature is consequently not the author but a process of subjectivation – this is the contrary of the conception of the sign. By demonstrating the limits of the sign, Meschonnic’s poetics attempts to thematize the intelligibility of presence. Art and literature raise our awareness of this element of human life we cannot grasp conceptually. This poetical thinking is a necessary counterforce against all institutionalization.

Parenting Control in Contexts of Political Violence: Testing Bidirectional Relations Between Violence Exposure and Control in Post-Accord Belfast

Objective. The authors examined bidirectional relations between youth exposure to sectarian and nonsectarian antisocial behavior and mothers' efforts to control youths' exposure to community violence in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Design. Mother-child dyads (N = 773) were interviewed in their homes twice over 2 years regarding youths' exposure to sectarian and nonsectarian community antisocial behavior and mothers' use of control strategies, including behavioral and psychological control. Results. Youths' exposure to nonsectarian antisocial behavior was related to increases in mothers' use of behavioral and psychological control strategies over time, controlling for earlier levels of these constructs. Reflecting bidirectional relations, mothers' behavioral control strategies were associated with youths' reduced exposure to nonsectarian and sectarian antisocial behavior over time, whereas psychological control was not related to reduced exposure. Conclusion. Only nonsectarian community violence was associated longitudinally with mothers' increased use of control strategies, and only behavioral control strategies were effective in reducing youths' exposure to community antisocial behavior, including sectarian and nonsectarian antisocial behavior.

Taking pluralism seriously:Embedded moralities in management accounting and control systems

Professor Norman Macintosh has long been a leading, and at times a dissonant, voice in critical accounting studies, exhibiting an intellectual dexterity seldom encountered in the accounting academy. His work ranges from the application of traditional organizational theories within work organizations to poststructural renderings of capital market exigencies. Here, we consider and extend Professor Macintosh's work contemplating the morality embedded within, and propagated by, management accounting and control systems (macs). We begin with Macintosh (1995) employing structuration theory in investigating the ethics of profit manipulation within large, decentralized corporations. The work highlights the fundamental dialectical contradictions within these work organizations, demonstrates the indeterminacy of traditional ethical reasoning, and shows the extent to which macs provide legitimating underpinnings for management action. We propose to extend the conversation using the tools provided in Macintosh's subsequent work: a Levinasian ethic (Macintosh et al., 2009), and heteroglossic accounting (Macintosh, 2002)—both emerging from his poststructuralist predilections. A Levinasian perspective provides an ontologically grounded ethic, and heteroglossic accounting calls for multiple accountings representing alternative moral voices. A critical dialogic framework is proposed as a theoretic for imagining heteroglossic accounting that takes pluralism seriously by recognizing the reality of irresolvable differences and asymmetric power relationships associated with assorted moral perspectives.

Near-surface temperature cycling of stone and its implications for scales of surface deterioration

Many previous studies into internal temperature gradients within stone have assumed smooth, exponential increases and decreases in sub-surface temperatures in response, for example, to diurnal patterns of heating and cooling and these have been used to explain phenomena such as large-scale contour scaling. This high-resolution experimental study, in which a porous limestone block was subjected to alternate surface heating and cooling using an infrared lamp, demonstrates that internal temperature gradients in response to short-term environmental cycles (measured in minutes) can in fact be complex and inconsistent. Results confirm the significance of very steep temperature/stress gradients within the outer 10 mm or less of exposed stone. Below this the data indicate complex patterns of temperature reversals, the amplitudes of which are attenuated with depth and which are influenced in their intensity and location by variations in the relative duration of heating and cooling phases. It is suggested that the reversals might represent ‘interference patterns’ between incoming and outgoing thermal waves, but whatever their origin they are potentially important because they occur within the zone in which many stone decay processes, especially salt weathering, operate. These processes invariably respond to temperature and moisture fluctuations, and short-term interruptions to insolation could, for example, trigger these fluctuations on numerous occasions over a day. In particular, the reversals occur at a scale that is commensurate with decay by multiple flaking and could indicate an underlying control on this previously little-researched pattern of weathering. In the context of this publication, however, the main lesson to be learned from this study is that differing scales of behaviour require different scales of enquiry.

The Association of Distress and Sleeping Problems With Physicians' Intentions To Change Profession: The Moderating Effect of Job Control

The present study examined whether job control moderated the association between stress indicators (distress and sleeping problems) and intentions to change profession among 2,650 Finnish physicians. Ordinal logistic regression analysis was applied. The authors found that high levels of distress and sleeping problems were associated with higher levels of intentions to change profession, whereas high job control was associated with lower levels of intentions to change profession even after adjusting for the effects of gender, age, and employment sector. In addition, high job control was able to mitigate the positive association that distress and sleeping problems had with intentions to change profession. Our findings highlight the importance of offering more job control to physicians to prevent unnecessary physician turnover.