UV Raman spectroscopic study on the synthesis mechanism of zeolite X

The synthesis of zeolite X is characterized by UV Raman spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. UV Raman spectra of the liquid phase of the synthesis system indicate that AI(OH); species are incorporated into silicate species, and the polymeric silicate species are depolymerized into monomeric silicate species during the early stage of zeolite formation. An. intermediate species possessing Raman bands at 307, 503, 858 and 1020 cm(-1) is detected during the crystallization ill the solid phase transformation. The intermediate species is attributed to the beta cage, the secondary building unit of zeolite X. A model for the formation of zeolite X is proposed, which involves four-membered rings connecting to each other via six-membered ring to form beta cages, then the beta cages interconnect via double six-membered rings to form the framework of zeolite X. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Franck-Condon simulation of the photoelectron spectrum of SO2- including Duschinsky effects

A theoretical method to calculate multidimensional Franck-Condon factors including Duschinsky effects is described and used to simulate the photoelectron spectrum of the anion SO. Geometry optimizations and harmonic vibrational frequency calculations have been performed on the XA(1) state of SO2 and (XB1)-B-2 state of SO2. Franck-Condon analyses and spectral simulation were carried out on the first photoelectron band of SO2. The theoretical spectra obtained by employing CCSD(T)/6-31 I+G(2d,p) values are in excellent agreement with the experiment. In addition, the equilibrium geometric parameters, r(c)(OS) = 0.1508 +/- 0.0005 nm and theta(e)(O-S-0) = 113.5 +/- 0.5 degrees, of the (XB1)-B-2 state of SO2, are derived by employing an iterative Franck-Condon analysis procedure in the spectral simulation. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Qualitative Futures

Price, C., Trave-Massuyes, L., Milne, R., Ironi, L., Forbus, K., Bredeweg, B., Lee, M., Struss, P., Snooke, N., Lucas, P., Cavazza, M., Coghill, G. (2006). Qualitative Futures. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 21 (4), 317-334. Sponsorship: MONET European Network on Qualitative and Model-Based Reasoning

Models of Backwardness versus Transformation in Eastern Europe. Review Article

This paper is critical analysis of book by Anna Sosnowska, "Zrozumieć zacofanie. Spory historyków o Europę Wschodnią (1947-1994)" [To Understand Backwardness: Historians' Deabates about Eastern Europe (1947-1994)]. Warszawa 2004.

Muestras de productos tejidos en moriche y cumare de los indígenas Tucano Guaviare.

19 hojas : ilustraciones, fotografías a color.

Usability-enhanced coordination design of geovisualisations to communicate coastal flood risk information

For at least two millennia and probably much longer, the traditional vehicle for communicating geographical information to end-users has been the map. With the advent of computers, the means of both producing and consuming maps have radically been transformed, while the inherent nature of the information product has also expanded and diversified rapidly. This has given rise in recent years to the new concept of geovisualisation (GVIS), which draws on the skills of the traditional cartographer, but extends them into three spatial dimensions and may also add temporality, photorealistic representations and/or interactivity. Demand for GVIS technologies and their applications has increased significantly in recent years, driven by the need to study complex geographical events and in particular their associated consequences and to communicate the results of these studies to a diversity of audiences and stakeholder groups. GVIS has data integration, multi-dimensional spatial display advanced modelling techniques, dynamic design and development environments and field-specific application needs. To meet with these needs, GVIS tools should be both powerful and inherently usable, in order to facilitate their role in helping interpret and communicate geographic problems. However no framework currently exists for ensuring this usability. The research presented here seeks to fill this gap, by addressing the challenges of incorporating user requirements in GVIS tool design. It starts from the premise that usability in GVIS should be incorporated and implemented throughout the whole design and development process. To facilitate this, Subject Technology Matching (STM) is proposed as a new approach to assessing and interpreting user requirements. Based on STM, a new design framework called Usability Enhanced Coordination Design (UECD) is ten presented with the purpose of leveraging overall usability of the design outputs. UECD places GVIS experts in a new key role in the design process, to form a more coordinated and integrated workflow and a more focused and interactive usability testing. To prove the concept, these theoretical elements of the framework have been implemented in two test projects: one is the creation of a coastal inundation simulation for Whitegate, Cork, Ireland; the other is a flooding mapping tool for Zhushan Town, Jiangsu, China. The two case studies successfully demonstrated the potential merits of the UECD approach when GVIS techniques are applied to geographic problem solving and decision making. The thesis delivers a comprehensive understanding of the development and challenges of GVIS technology, its usability concerns, usability and associated UCD; it explores the possibility of putting UCD framework in GVIS design; it constructs a new theoretical design framework called UECD which aims to make the whole design process usability driven; it develops the key concept of STM into a template set to improve the performance of a GVIS design. These key conceptual and procedural foundations can be built on future research, aimed at further refining and developing UECD as a useful design methodology for GVIS scholars and practitioners.

The Shawlies: A study of early neoliberal ‘gender-fication’. The Street Trading Act, 1926, modern gender-fication, and the implications for Cork’s women street traders

For centuries Cork’s Shawlies, working-class women, survived by trading on public streets. My study explores how the first Irish Free State government, and Cork’s local authority, limited the rights of poor women to earn by subsistence trading with The Street Trading Act, 1926. The government insisted this would regulate street trading. In practice it further marginalised the women economically and socially, containing them outside the privileged, commercial city centre. In Cork the legislation facilitated the gradual disappearance of the Shawlies amid entrenched social processes and relations, contingencies that allowed for the abuse of their rights in the service of amalgamated business interests. This study address the role of discourses in deepening this marginalisation. My theoretical framework is designed to demonstrate how a seemingly innocuous piece of legislation would, in practice, do this. I set out the concepts of ‘Thriving State’, ‘Prosperous State’, and state of ‘Best Intentions’ that uses gentrification to meet these goals. The existing knowledge on women in trade is then examined, highlighting the gaps in what is known about the Shawlies. Chapter 3 details the theory behind my genealogical method. The legislation, debate, and other data produced at the national level is then examined, before moving to the local data. Chapter 6 is devoted to the Shawlies, setting their stories in the larger context of the debates. An examination of studies of contemporary women street traders in poor nations follows, along with a brief history of the decline of street trading in New York city under gentrification. Points of convergence between that process and the one in Cork are identified, along with convergences between contemporary traders and the Shawlies. The conclusion sets out my methodological, theoretical and substantive discoveries, and comments on current nostalgic renderings of the Shawlies in Cork’s newly gentrified Corn Market Street.

Walking in old age and development of metabolic syndrome: the health, aging, and body composition study.

BACKGROUND: The specific health benefits of meeting physical activity guidelines are unclear in older adults. We examined the association between meeting, not meeting, or change in status of meeting physical activity guidelines through walking and the 5-year incidence of metabolic syndrome in older adults. METHODS: A total of 1,863 Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study participants aged 70-79 were followed for 5 years (1997-1998 to 2002-2003). Four walking groups were created based on self-report during years 1 and 6: Sustained low (Year 1, <150 min/week, and year 6, <150 min/week), decreased (year 1, >150 min/week, and year 6, <150 min/week), increased (year 1, <150 min/week, and year 6, >150 min/week), and sustained high (year 1, >150 min/week, and year 6, >150 min/week). Based on the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) panel guidelines, the metabolic syndrome criterion was having three of five factors: Large waist circumference, elevated blood pressure, triglycerides, blood glucose, and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels. RESULTS: Compared to the sustained low group, the sustained high group had a 39% reduction in odds of incident metabolic syndrome [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 0.61; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.40-0.93], and a significantly lower likelihood of developing the number of metabolic syndrome risk factors that the sustained low group developed over 5 years (beta = -0.16, P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Meeting or exceeding the physical activity guidelines via walking significantly reduced the odds of incident metabolic syndrome and onset of new metabolic syndrome components in older adults. This protective association was found only in individuals who sustained high levels of walking for physical activity.

Factors associated with mortality in transplant patients with invasive aspergillosis.

BACKGROUND: Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) and solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate factors associated with mortality in transplant patients with IA. METHODS: Transplant patients from 23 US centers were enrolled from March 2001 to October 2005 as part of the Transplant Associated Infection Surveillance Network. IA cases were identified prospectively in this cohort through March 2006, and data were collected. Factors associated with 12-week all-cause mortality were determined by logistic regression analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression. RESULTS: Six-hundred forty-two cases of proven or probable IA were evaluated, of which 317 (49.4%) died by the study endpoint. All-cause mortality was greater in HSCT patients (239 [57.5%] of 415) than in SOT patients (78 [34.4%] of 227; P<.001). Independent poor prognostic factors in HSCT patients were neutropenia, renal insufficiency, hepatic insufficiency, early-onset IA, proven IA, and methylprednisolone use. In contrast, white race was associated with decreased risk of death. Among SOT patients, hepatic insufficiency, malnutrition, and central nervous system disease were poor prognostic indicators, whereas prednisone use was associated with decreased risk of death. Among HSCT or SOT patients who received antifungal therapy, use of an amphotericin B preparation as part of initial therapy was associated with increased risk of death. CONCLUSIONS: There are multiple variables associated with survival in transplant patients with IA. Understanding these prognostic factors may assist in the development of treatment algorithms and clinical trials.

Crafting analytical tools to study institutional change

Most powerful analytical tools used in the social sciences are well suited for studying static situations. Static and mechanistic analysis, however, is not adequate to understand the changing world in which we live. In order to adequately address the most pressing social and environmental challenges looming ahead, we need to develop analytical tools for analyzing dynamic situations -particularly institutional change. In this paper, we develop an analytical tool to study institutional change, more specifically, the evolution of rules and norms. We believe that in order for such an analytical tool to be useful to develop a general theory of institutional change, it needs to enable the analyst to concisely record the processes of change in multiple specific settings so that lessons from such settings can eventually be integrated into a more general predictive theory of change. Copyright © The JOIE Foundation 2010.

Policy-induced technology adoption: Evidence from the U.S. lead phasedown

Theory suggests that economic instruments, such as pollution taxes or tradable permits, can provide more efficient technology adoption incentives than conventional regulatory standards. We explore this issue for an important industry undergoing dramatic decreases in allowed pollution - the U.S. petroleum industry's phasedown of lead in gasoline. Using a duration model applied to a panel of refineries from 1971-1995, we find that the pattern of technology adoption is consistent with an economic response to market incentives, plant characteristics, and alternative policies. Importantly, evidence suggests that the tradable permit system used during the phasedown provided incentives for more efficient technology adoption decisions.

Biomarkers of PTA

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015.Prognostic biomarkers may indicate the likelihood of disease development and speed of progression or may serve as predictive indicators of responsiveness to treatment. Joint injuries, particularly severe injuries, may result in post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA), and pre- and post-injury prognostic biomarkers are needed to enhance primary and secondary prevention approaches for PTOA. Several macromolecules from joint structures found in serum, urine, and synovial fluid are promising biochemical markers for monitoring joint metabolism and health before and after joint injury. The use of metabolic profiling (analysis of small molecules) as a predictive tool for osteoarthritis (OA) has increased in the past decade. Although there is some question as to whether PTOA and idiopathic OA are comparable conditions, there is some evidence to suggest that components of their pathogenesis are similar. Potentially, biomarkers important to the high-risk PTOA profile translate to idiopathic OA. Further work is needed to confirm the utility of macromolecules and metabolites as biomarkers for PTOA, particularly focusing on those strongly correlated to clinical efficacy measures important to the patient (e.g., symptoms, physical function, and quality of life) and the causal pathway of PTOA.

Human E2F6 is alternatively spliced to generate multiple protein isoforms

E2F6 protein belongs to the family of the E2F transcription factors. Here, we showed that the human E2F6 gene contains nine exons distributed along 20.4kbp of genomic DNA on chromosome 2 leading to the transcription of six alternatively spliced E2F6 mRNAs that encode four different E2F6 proteins. Moreover, we identified an E2F6 pseudogene localized on chromosome 22 completely spliced and devoid of exons 2, 3, and 4, and part of exons 1 and 5. Definition of the transcriptional initiation site and sequence analysis show that the gene contains a TATA less, CAAT less, GC-rich promoter with multiple transcription start sites. Regulatory elements necessary for basal transcription reside within a 134bp fragment as determined by transient transfection experiments. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.