The Ventana Optical Train: a high-performance off-the-shelf HCPV optics solution

- PV and HCPV compete in the utility market - PV cost reduction has been dramatic through volume - A complete off-the-shelf optics solution by Evonik and LPI - Based on the best-in-class design: The FK concentrator

Doehlert Design-desirability Function Multi-criteria Optimal Separation Of 17 Phenolic Compounds From Extra-virgin Olive Oil By Capillary Zone Electrophoresis.

In Brazil, the consumption of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) is increasing annually, but there are no experimental studies concerning the phenolic compound contents of commercial EVOO. The aim of this work was to optimise the separation of 17 phenolic compounds already detected in EVOO. A Doehlert matrix experimental design was used, evaluating the effects of pH and electrolyte concentration. Resolution, runtime and migration time relative standard deviation values were evaluated. Derringer's desirability function was used to simultaneously optimise all 37 responses. The 17 peaks were separated in 19min using a fused-silica capillary (50μm internal diameter, 72cm of effective length) with an extended light path and 101.3mmolL(-1) of boric acid electrolyte (pH 9.15, 30kV). The method was validated and applied to 15 EVOO samples found in Brazilian supermarkets.

Remediation Of 17-α-ethinylestradiol Aqueous Solution By Photocatalysis And Electrochemically-assisted Photocatalysis Using Tio2 And Tio2/wo3 Electrodes Irradiated By A Solar Simulator.

TiO2 and TiO2/WO3 electrodes, irradiated by a solar simulator in configurations for heterogeneous photocatalysis (HP) and electrochemically-assisted HP (EHP), were used to remediate aqueous solutions containing 10 mg L(-1) (34 μmol L(-1)) of 17-α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), active component of most oral contraceptives. The photocatalysts consisted of 4.5 μm thick porous films of TiO2 and TiO2/WO3 (molar ratio W/Ti of 12%) deposited on transparent electrodes from aqueous suspensions of TiO2 particles and WO3 precursors, followed by thermal treatment at 450 (°)C. First, an energy diagram was organized with photoelectrochemical and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy data and revealed that EE2 could be directly oxidized by the photogenerated holes at the semiconductor surfaces, considering the relative HOMO level for EE2 and the semiconductor valence band edges. Also, for the irradiated hybrid photocatalyst, electrons in TiO2 should be transferred to WO3 conduction band, while holes move toward TiO2 valence band, improving charge separation. The remediated EE2 solutions were analyzed by fluorescence, HPLC and total organic carbon measurements. As expected from the energy diagram, both photocatalysts promoted the EE2 oxidation in HP configuration; after 4 h, the EE2 concentration decayed to 6.2 mg L(-1) (35% of EE2 removal) with irradiated TiO2 while TiO2/WO3 electrode resulted in 45% EE2 removal. A higher performance was achieved in EHP systems, when a Pt wire was introduced as a counter-electrode and the photoelectrodes were biased at +0.7 V; then, the EE2 removal corresponded to 48 and 54% for the TiO2 and TiO2/WO3, respectively. The hybrid TiO2/WO3, when compared to TiO2 electrode, exhibited enhanced sunlight harvesting and improved separation of photogenerated charge carriers, resulting in higher performance for removing this contaminant of emerging concern from aqueous solution.

Six new cases confirm the clinical molecular profile of complete combined 17α-hydroxylase/ 17,20-lyase deficiency in Brazil

In 2004, Costa-Santos and cols. reported 24 patients from 19 Brazilian families with 17α-hydroxylase deficiency and showed that p.W406R and p.R362C corresponded to 50% and 32% of CYP17A1 mutant alleles, respectively. The present report describes clinical and molecular data of six patients from three inbred Brazilian families with 17α-hydroxlyse deficiency. All patients had hypogonadism, amenorrhea and hypertension at diagnosis. Two sisters were found to be 46,XY with both gonads palpable in the inguinal region. All patients presented hypergonadotrophic hypogonadism, with high levels of ACTH (> 104 ng/mL), suppressed plasmatic renin activity, low levels of potassium (< 2.8 mEq/L) and elevated progesterone levels (> 4.4 ng/mL). Three of them, including two sisters, were homozygous for p.W406R mutation and the other three (two sisters and one cousin) were homozygous for p.R362C. The finding of p.W406R and p.R362C in the CYP17A1 gene here reported in additional families, confirms them as the most frequent mutations causing complete combined 17α-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase deficiency in Brazilian patients.

Analise das ações de jogos de voleibol e suas implicações para o treinamento tecnico-tatico da categoria infanto-juvenil feminina(16 e 17 anos)

Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Faculdade de Educação Física

Electrical transport in single-crystalline Li(0.9)Mo(6)O(17): A two-band Luttinger liquid exhibiting Bose metal behavior

Temperature-dependent electrical resistance in quasi-one-dimensional Li(0.9)Mo(6)O(17) is described by two Luttinger liquid anomalous exponents alpha, each associated with a distinct one dimensional band. The band with alpha < 1 is argued to crossover to a higher dimension below the temperature T(M'), leading to superconductivity. Disorder and magnetic fields are shown to induce the Bose metal behavior in this bulk compound.

Ultraviolet analysis of donated corneas: a portable prototype

As technology improves human vision, some procedures currently performed may be causing a decrease of the natural UV protection of the cornea. A portable dual beam system prototype was assembled for physicians for clinical studies of these effects on the corneas endowing two types of 300-400 nm evaluations: 1, regularly donated corneas and 2, simulating refractive keratectomy by corneal lamellae removal. The system performs 500 measurements/s, providing +/- 0.25% precision for the transmittance. The measurements performed on the prototype are 95% in agreement with Cary 17 and HR4000CG-UV-NIR Ocean Optics spectrophotometers. Preliminary studies on cadaveric corneas demonstrate that, as the stromal layer is reduced (similar to 150 mu m depth), there is significant loss-an average of 7.1%.-of the cornea's natural UV protection. The prototype is being tested in an eye bank for routine evaluation of donor corneas. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America

Numerical comparison between conventional dispersion compensating fibers and photonic crystal fibers as lumped Raman amplifiers

In this paper we discuss the use of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) as discrete devices for simultaneous wideband dispersion compensation and Raman amplification. The performance of the PCFs in terms of gain, ripple, optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) and required fiber length for complete dispersion compensation is compared with conventional dispersion compensating fibers (DCFs). The main goal is to determine the minimum PCF loss beyond which its performance surpasses a state-of-the-art DCF and justifies practical use in telecommunication systems. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America

Design methodology for multi-pumped discrete Raman amplifiers: case-study employing photonic crystal fibers

This paper proposes a new design methodology for discrete multi-pumped Raman amplifier. In a multi-objective optimization scenario, in a first step the whole solution-space is inspected by a CW analytical formulation. Then, the most promising solutions are fully investigated by a rigorous numerical treatment and the Raman amplification performance is thus determined by the combination of analytical and numerical approaches. As an application of our methodology we designed an photonic crystal fiber Raman amplifier configuration which provides low ripple, high gain, clear eye opening and a low power penalty. The amplifier configuration also enables to fully compensate the dispersion introduced by a 70-km singlemode fiber in a 10 Gbit/s system. We have successfully obtained a configuration with 8.5 dB average gain over the C-band and 0.71 dB ripple with almost zero eye-penalty using only two pump lasers with relatively low pump power. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America

Computational adjustment technique for digital mammographic images based on the digitizer characteristic curve

We evaluated the performance of a novel procedure for segmenting mammograms and detecting clustered microcalcifications in two types of image sets obtained from digitization of mammograms using either a laser scanner, or a conventional ""optical"" scanner. Specific regions forming the digital mammograms were identified and selected, in which clustered microcalcifications appeared or not. A remarkable increase in image intensity was noticed in the images from the optical scanner compared with the original mammograms. A procedure based on a polynomial correction was developed to compensate the changes in the characteristic curves from the scanners, relative to the curves from the films. The processing scheme was applied to both sets, before and after the polynomial correction. The results indicated clearly the influence of the mammogram digitization on the performance of processing schemes intended to detect microcalcifications. The image processing techniques applied to mammograms digitized by both scanners, without the polynomial intensity correction, resulted in a better sensibility in detecting microcalcifications in the images from the laser scanner. However, when the polynomial correction was applied to the images from the optical scanner, no differences in performance were observed for both types of images. (C) 2008 SPIE and IS&T [DOI: 10.1117/1.3013544]

Classification of breast masses using a committee machine of artificial neural networks

This work proposes a new approach using a committee machine of artificial neural networks to classify masses found in mammograms as benign or malignant. Three shape factors, three edge-sharpness measures, and 14 texture measures are used for the classification of 20 regions of interest (ROIs) related to malignant tumors and 37 ROIs related to benign masses. A group of multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) is employed as a committee machine of neural network classifiers. The classification results are reached by combining the responses of the individual classifiers. Experiments involving changes in the learning algorithm of the committee machine are conducted. The classification accuracy is evaluated using the area A. under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve. The A, result for the committee machine is compared with the A, results obtained using MLPs and single-layer perceptrons (SLPs), as well as a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) classifier Tests are carried out using the student's t-distribution. The committee machine classifier outperforms the MLP SLP, and LDA classifiers in the following cases: with the shape measure of spiculation index, the A, values of the four methods are, in order 0.93, 0.84, 0.75, and 0.76; and with the edge-sharpness measure of acutance, the values are 0.79, 0.70, 0.69, and 0.74. Although the features with which improvement is obtained with the committee machines are not the same as those that provided the maximal value of A(z) (A(z) = 0.99 with some shape features, with or without the committee machine), they correspond to features that are not critically dependent on the accuracy of the boundaries of the masses, which is an important result. (c) 2008 SPIE and IS&T.

IL-17 Produced during Trypanosoma cruzi Infection Plays a Central Role in Regulating Parasite-Induced Myocarditis

Background: Chagas disease is a neglected disease caused by the intracellular parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Around 30% of the infected patients develop chronic cardiomyopathy or megasyndromes, which are high-cost morbid conditions. Immune response against myocardial self-antigens and exacerbated Th1 cytokine production has been associated with the pathogenesis of the disease. As IL-17 is involved in the pathogenesis of several autoimmune, inflammatory and infectious diseases, we investigated its role during the infection with T. cruzi. Methodology/Principal Findings: First, we detected significant amounts of CD4, CD8 and NK cells producing IL-17 after incubating live parasites with spleen cells from normal BALB/c mice. IL-17 is also produced in vivo by CD4(+), CD8(+) and NK cells from BALB/c mice on the early acute phase of infection. Treatment of infected mice with anti-mouse IL-17 mAb resulted in increased myocarditis, premature mortality, and decreased parasite load in the heart. IL-17 neutralization resulted in increased production of IL-12, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha and enhanced specific type 1 chemokine and chemokine receptors expression. Moreover, the results showed that IL-17 regulates T-bet, ROR gamma t and STAT-3 expression in the heart, showing that IL-17 controls the differentiation of Th1 cells in infected mice. Conclusion/Significance: These results show that IL-17 controls the resistance to T. cruzi infection in mice regulating the Th1 cells differentiation, cytokine and chemokine production and control parasite-induced myocarditis, regulating the influx of inflammatory cells to the heart tissue. Correlations between the levels of IL-17, the extent of myocardial destruction, and the evolution of cardiac disease could identify a clinical marker of disease progression and may help in the design of alternative therapies for the control of chronic morbidity of chagasic patients.