Controlling Subnanometer Gaps in Plasmonic Dimers Using Graphene

Graphene is used as the thinnest possible spacer between gold nanoparticles and a gold substrate. This creates a robust, repeatable, and stable subnanometer gap for massive plasmonic field enhancements. White light spectroscopy of single 80 nm gold nanoparticles reveals plasmonic coupling between the particle and its image within the gold substrate. While for a single graphene layer, spectral doublets from coupled dimer modes are observed shifted into the near-infrared, these disappear for increasing numbers of layers. These doublets arise from charger-transfer-sensitive gap plasmons, allowing optical measurement to access out-of-plane conductivity in such layered systems. Gating the graphene can thus directly produce plasmon tuning.

Characteristics, complications, and gaps in evidence-based interventions in rheumatic heart disease: the Global Rheumatic Heart Disease Registry (the REMEDY study)

AIMS: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) accounts for over a million premature deaths annually; however, there is little contemporary information on presentation, complications, and treatment.

METHODS AND RESULTS: This prospective registry enrolled 3343 patients (median age 28 years, 66.2% female) presenting with RHD at 25 hospitals in 12 African countries, India, and Yemen between January 2010 and November 2012. The majority (63.9%) had moderate-to-severe multivalvular disease complicated by congestive heart failure (33.4%), pulmonary hypertension (28.8%), atrial fibrillation (AF) (21.8%), stroke (7.1%), infective endocarditis (4%), and major bleeding (2.7%). One-quarter of adults and 5.3% of children had decreased left ventricular (LV) systolic function; 23% of adults and 14.1% of children had dilated LVs. Fifty-five percent (n = 1761) of patients were on secondary antibiotic prophylaxis. Oral anti-coagulants were prescribed in 69.5% (n = 946) of patients with mechanical valves (n = 501), AF (n = 397), and high-risk mitral stenosis in sinus rhythm (n = 48). However, only 28.3% (n = 269) had a therapeutic international normalized ratio. Among 1825 women of childbearing age (12-51 years), only 3.6% (n = 65) were on contraception. The utilization of valvuloplasty and valve surgery was higher in upper-middle compared with lower-income countries.

CONCLUSION: Rheumatic heart disease patients were young, predominantly female, and had high prevalence of major cardiovascular complications. There is suboptimal utilization of secondary antibiotic prophylaxis, oral anti-coagulation, and contraception, and variations in the use of percutaneous and surgical interventions by country income level.

Laminaria ochroleuca Bachelot de la Pylaie canopy effect on intertidal understorey benthic assemblages in northern Portugal

Dissertação de mest., Biologia Marinha, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2010

Widening gaps, productive spaces : the construction of Victorian identity in Thomas Carlyle, Lewis Carroll and George Eliot

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Bridging Knowledge Gaps in the Management of Acute Coronary Syndromes

Contexte L’occlusion d’une artère du cœur cause un syndrome coronarien aigu (SCA) soit avec une élévation du segment ST (IAMEST) ou sans élévation du segment ST (1). Le traitement des patients avec un IAMEST requiert soit une intervention coronarienne d’urgence (ICP primaire) ou une thérapie fibrinolytique (FL). La thérapie FL peut être administrée soit dans un contexte pré-hospitalier (PHL) ou à l’hôpital. Une prise en charge précoce des patients avec SCA peut être améliorée par un simple indice de risque. Objectifs Les objectifs de cette thèse étaient de : 1) comparer l’ICP primaire et la thérapie FL (2); décrire plusieurs systèmes internationaux de PHL; (3) développer et valider un indice de risque simplifié pour une stratification précoce des patients avec SCA. Méthodes Nous complétons des méta-analyses, de type hiérarchique Bayésiennes portant sur l’effet de la randomisation, d’études randomisées et observationnelles; complétons également un sondage sur des systèmes internationaux de PHL; développons et validons un nouvel indice de risque pour ACS (le C-ACS). Résultats Dans les études observationnelles, l’ICP primaire, comparée à la thérapie FL, est associée à une plus grande réduction de la mortalité à court-terme; mais ce sans bénéfices concluants à long terme. La FL pré-hospitalière peut être administrée par des professionnels de la santé possédant diverses expertises. Le C-ACS a des bonnes propriétés discriminatoires et pourrait être utilisé dans la stratification des patients avec SCA. Conclusion Nous avons comblé plusieurs lacunes importantes au niveau de la connaissance actuelle. Cette thèse de doctorat contribuera à améliorer l’accès à des soins de qualité élevée pour les patients ayant un SCA.

Assessing the Social Acceptability of New Technologies: Gaps and Tensions Between Science and Regulation

Article

Trends and gaps in the academic literature on EU labour migration policies. CEPS Paper in Liberty and Security No. 50/December 2012

This paper provides an overview of the ‘state of the art’ in the academic literature on EU labour migration policies. It forms part of the research agenda of Work Package 18 of the NEUJOBS project, which aims at reviewing legislation and practices regarding the labour market inclusion and protection of rights of different categories of foreign workers in European labour markets. Accordingly, particular attention is paid to the works of scholars who evaluate the status of rights of third-country national workers in relation to labour market access, employment security, social integration, etc., in European legislation on labour immigration. More specifically, the review has selected those scholarly works that focus specifically on analysing the manner in which policy-makers have addressed the granting of rights to non-EU migrant workers, and the manner in which policy agendas – through the relevant political and institutional dynamics – have found their translation in the legislation adopted. This paper consists of two core parts. In the first section, it reviews the works of scholars who have touched on these research questions with respect to the internal dimensions of EU labour migration policies. The second section does the same for the external dimensions of these policies. Both sections start off by analysing the main trends in the literature that reviews these questions for the internal and external dimensions of European migration policies as a whole, and then move on to how these ‘trends’ can (or cannot) be found translated in scholarly writings on labour migration policies more specifically. In the final section, the paper concludes by summarising the main trends and gaps in the literature reviewed, and indicates avenues for further research.

An integrated model of soil-canopy spectral radiances, photosynthesis, fluorescence, temperature and energy balance

This paper presents the model SCOPE (Soil Canopy Observation, Photochemistry and Energy fluxes), which is a vertical (1-D) integrated radiative transfer and energy balance model. The model links visible to thermal infrared radiance spectra (0.4 to 50 μm) as observed above the canopy to the fluxes of water, heat and carbon dioxide, as a function of vegetation structure, and the vertical profiles of temperature. Output of the model is the spectrum of outgoing radiation in the viewing direction and the turbulent heat fluxes, photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence. A special routine is dedicated to the calculation of photosynthesis rate and chlorophyll fluorescence at the leaf level as a function of net radiation and leaf temperature. The fluorescence contributions from individual leaves are integrated over the canopy layer to calculate top-of-canopy fluorescence. The calculation of radiative transfer and the energy balance is fully integrated, allowing for feedback between leaf temperatures, leaf chlorophyll fluorescence and radiative fluxes. Leaf temperatures are calculated on the basis of energy balance closure. Model simulations were evaluated against observations reported in the literature and against data collected during field campaigns. These evaluations showed that SCOPE is able to reproduce realistic radiance spectra, directional radiance and energy balance fluxes. The model may be applied for the design of algorithms for the retrieval of evapotranspiration from optical and thermal earth observation data, for validation of existing methods to monitor vegetation functioning, to help interpret canopy fluorescence measurements, and to study the relationships between synoptic observations with diurnally integrated quantities. The model has been implemented in Matlab and has a modular design, thus allowing for great flexibility and scalability.