Surface chemistry of alanine on Cu{111}: Adsorption geometry and temperature dependence

Adsorption of l-alanine on the Cu{111} single crystal surface was investigated as a model system for interactions between small chiral modifier molecules and close-packed metal surfaces. Synchrotron-based X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy are used to determine the chemical state, bond coordination and out-of-plane orientation of the molecule on the surface. Alanine adsorbs in its anionic form at room temperature, whilst at low temperature the overlayer consists of anionic and zwitterionic molecules. NEXAFS spectra exhibit a strong angular dependence of the π ⁎ resonance associated with the carboxylate group, which allows determining the tilt angle of this group with respect to the surface plane (48° ± 2°) at room temperature. Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) shows a p(2√13x2√13)R13° superstructure with only one domain, which breaks the mirror symmetry of the substrate and, thus, induces global chirality to the surface. Temperature-programmed XPS (TP-XPS) and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) experiments indicate that the zwitterionic form converts into the anionic species (alaninate) at 293 K. The latter desorbs/decomposes between 435 K and 445 K.

Squeeze flow viscoelasticity of electrorheological fluids based on microcrystalline cellulose

Dynamic viscoelasticity of electrorheological fluids based on microcrystalline cellulose/castor oil suspensions was experimentally investigated in squeeze flow. The dependence of storage modulus G' and loss modulus G" parallel to external electric field on electric fields and strain amplitudes is presented. The experiments show that, when external electric field is higher than the critical field, the viscoelasticity of the ER fluids converts from linear to nonlinear, and the ER fluids transfer from solid-like state to fluid state with the growth of strain amplitude. The influences of strain amplitude and oscillatory frequency on the nonlinearity of viscoelasticity were also studied.

Confessionalism and conversion in the Reformation

Recent research on the Reformation has been concerned with the process by which lay people acquired a religious identity, whether it began merely as an act of political obedience or by a sudden ‘conversion’ to new doctrines. Confessional politics made it imperative for rulers to try to control the religious allegiances of their people, but the doctrine of conversion (as a spiritual change) made this theoretically impossible. Instead, a ‘culture of persuasion’ developed by which clerical and secular rulers sought to persuade their people to accept teachings authorized by the state. The possibility of religious dissent, of converting away from the state-sanctioned denomination, made conversion an issue whose importance was far greater than the actual number of converts. The study of confessionalism and conversion emphasises two theses fundamental to Reformation studies: that the era produced radical changes in the ways that people thought about their personal and communal identities, and that it made individuals’ religious choices the urgent concern of their governors.

Emulation of chiral hydrogenation catalysts by adsorbtion of small molecules onto Ni surfaces

Adsorption of small molecules on the Ni{111} and NiO{111} surfaces is investigated under UHV and elevated pressures (~10-1 mbar) of hydrogen and water. The molecules considered are chosen for their relevance to understanding the mechanism of enantioselective hydrogenation on Raney Nickel modified by chiral molecules. Adsorption of water onto, and its subsequent reaction with, oxygen-covered Ni{111} is dependent on the initial atomic oxygen coverage. An OH species (O1s binding energy 531.5eV), oriented perpendicular to the surface, forms at atomic oxygen coverages <0.25ML. The reaction does not consume all the adsorbed oxygen for coverages ≥0.12ML. The p(2×2) atomic oxygen uperstructure is unreactive, while an OH species is formed on the p(√3×√3) superstructure at binding energy 530.9eV. L-alanine is adsorbed on Ni{111} as a model chiral modifier molecule. At low coverages, alanine forms a presumed tridentate alaninate species for coverages ≥0.11ML at 250K. A minority, bidentate zwitterionic species forms at coverages >0.11ML, but was not observed at 300K. Saturation occurs at 0.25ML. At high alanine coverages (≥0.19ML) and H2 pressure (≥1×10-2 mbar), the tridentate L-alaninate converts to bidentate zwitterionic L-alanine at 300K. Thermal evolution of L-alanine on Ni{111} under varying hydrogen pressures is examined. Adsorption of L-alanine onto hydroxylated NiO{111} at 300K in UHV, mimicking a catalyst surface under aqueous conditions, yields the tridentate alaninate which is immune to the effects of elevated hydrogen pressure. Exposing the L-alanine/Ni{111} adsorption system to water (≤10-1 mbar) oxidises the surface and recreates the L-alanine/hydroxylated NiO{111} system. Pyruvic acid on Ni{111} is examined as a model for hydrogenation substrate adsorption. Behaviour is coverage dependent and several conformations are possible at low coverages (≤0.1ML). Annealing at coverages <0.2ML causes a condensation reaction, releasing water onto the surface. High coverages do not condense and a saturation coverage of ~0.35ML is found.

Children’s literature: sexual identity, gender and childhood

On the twenty-third of May 2015, Ireland became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote. This event reversed a large part, if not all, of Ireland’s reputation for a Catholic-led conservatism concerning sexual and gender identities. I argue in this article that we can see a parallel-in-miniature to this momentous shift in something of a reversal of children’s literature’s views in this respect too, and I will concentrate on exploring what is at stake in the ways that childhood, sexual and gender identities are constructed in some recent children’s literature criticism in the light of these shifts. My interest is to consider: what is the ever-burgeoning interest in the gay, queer, cross-dressing, transsexual or transgender child precisely about? I ask this question on the grounds of not assuming that this interest in these identities arises necessarily simply out of a self-evident, progressive, liberatory impulse, and, alongside this, I also do not assume that ‘identities’ are essential, self-organised traits awaiting revelation and liberation.

Sermon notes and manuscript communities

Any reader of manuscript catalogues knows how common the unhelpfully vague entry “sermon notes, 17th-century” can be. This essay explores whether we can find in sermon notes the kinds of textual communities that have been found through the reconstruction of other routes of manuscript circulation. It will unpick what those laconic catalogue entries mean, and distinguish the different kinds of sermon notes found in our archival collections (some derived from the original preacher, some from hearers, some from readers of manuscript and printed copies). The physical forms of different sorts of “sermon notes” alerts us to the different types of authors who created these manuscripts, and the different purposes involved in preserving an oration in textual form, purposes which included fostering the creation and maintenance of communal identities among the self-consciously godly or Catholic recusants.

Risks Associated With Tendinitis: Effects From Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Psychological Status Among Brazilian Workers

Background Self-reported tendinitis/tenosynovitis was evaluated by gender, age group, skin color, family income, and educational and psychological status. Methods The study was carried out in a representative sample of formally contracted Brazilian workers from a household survey. A total of 54,660 participants were included. Occupations were stratified according to estimated prevalences of self-reported injuries. Non-conditional logistic regression was performed, and all variables were analyzed in two occupational groups. Results The overall prevalence rate of tendinitis/tenosynovitis was 3.1%: 5.5% in high-prevalence occupations (n=10,726); and 2.5% in low-prevalence occupations (n=43,934). White female workers between the ages of 45 and 64 years and at a higher socioeconomic level were more likely to report tendinitis/tenosynovitis regardless of their occupational category. An adjusted OR = 3.59 [95% CI: 3.15-4.09] was found between tendinitis/tenosynovitis and psychological status. Conclusion Among formally contracted Brazilian workers, higher income can imply greater physical and psychological demands that, regardless of occupational stratum, increase the risk of tendinitis/tenosynovitis. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:72-79, 2010. (C) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Allogeneic apoptotic thymocyte-stimulated dendritic cells expand functional regulatory T cells

P>Dendritic cells (DCs) play an important role in the clearance of apoptotic cells. The removal of apoptotic cells leads to peripheral tolerance, although their role is still not clear. We show that the uptake of apoptotic thymocytes by DCs converts these cells into tolerogenic DCs resistant to maturation by lipopolysaccharide, modulating the production of interleukin-12 and up-regulating the expression of transforming growth factor-beta(1) latency associated peptide. We also observed that DCs pulsed with apoptotic cells in the allogeneic context were more efficient in the expansion of regulatory T cells (Tregs), and that this expansion requires contact between DCs and the T cell. The Tregs sorted from in vitro culture suppressed the proliferation of splenocytes in vitro in a specific and non-specific manner. In the in vivo model, the transfer of CD4+ CD25- cells to Nude mice induced autoimmunity, with cell infiltrate found in the stomach, colon, liver and kidneys. The co-transfer of CD4+ CD25- and CD4+ CD25+ prevented the presence of cell infiltrates in several organs and increased the total cell count in lymph nodes. Our data indicate that apoptotic cells have an important role in peripheral tolerance via induction of tolerogenic DCs and CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ cells that present regulatory functions.

Template-based quadrilateral mesh generation from imaging data

This paper describes a novel template-based meshing approach for generating good quality quadrilateral meshes from 2D digital images. This approach builds upon an existing image-based mesh generation technique called Imeshp, which enables us to create a segmented triangle mesh from an image without the need for an image segmentation step. Our approach generates a quadrilateral mesh using an indirect scheme, which converts the segmented triangle mesh created by the initial steps of the Imesh technique into a quadrilateral one. The triangle-to-quadrilateral conversion makes use of template meshes of triangles. To ensure good element quality, the conversion step is followed by a smoothing step, which is based on a new optimization-based procedure. We show several examples of meshes generated by our approach, and present a thorough experimental evaluation of the quality of the meshes given as examples.

Sol-gel prepared AlPO(4) with incorporating Rhodamine 6G

Rhodamine 6G (RH6G) laser dye-doped AlPO(4) xerogel and glass were prepared via a simple sol-gel route by one-step process and two-step process, respectively. The aggregating behavior of dyes in xerogel and glass was studied by excitation and emission spectra. The results indicated the dye aggregates become significantly weak in AlPO(4) glass than in xerogel, which might be attributed to the enhanced interactions between dye and AlPO(4) network as well as the nano-scale separation of dye by the mesoporous structure of AlPO(4) glass. The (27)Al MAS NMR of AlPO(4) glass confirms the interaction of RH6G with AlPO(4) glass network. Incorporation of RH6G into AlPO(4) glass converts Al(4) to Al(6) units, resulting in the increase of Al(6) concentration with the doped RH6G concentration. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mice and larvae tracking using a particle filter with an auto-adjustable observation model

This paper proposes a novel way to combine different observation models in a particle filter framework. This, so called, auto-adjustable observation model, enhance the particle filter accuracy when the tracked objects overlap without infringing a great runtime penalty to the whole tracking system. The approach has been tested under two important real world situations related to animal behavior: mice and larvae tracking. The proposal was compared to some state-of-art approaches and the results show, under the datasets tested, that a good trade-off between accuracy and runtime can be achieved using an auto-adjustable observation model. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analytical Assessment of a Home Made Capillary Electrophoresis Equipment with Linear Charge Coupled Device for Visible Light Absorption Detection in the Determination of Food Dyes

The performance of modular home made capillary electrophoresis equipment with spectrophotometric detection, at a visible region by means of a miniaturized linear charge coupled device, was evaluated for the determination of four food dyes. This system presents a simple but efficient home made cell detection scheme. A computer program that converts the spectral data after each run into the electropherograms was developed to evaluate the analytical parameters. The dyes selected for analytical evaluation of the system were Brilliant Blue FCF, Fast Green FCF, Sunset Yellow FCF, and Amaranth. Separation was carried out in a 29cm length and 75 mu m I.D fused silica capillary, using 10mmolL-1 borate buffer at pH 9, with separation voltage of 7.5kV. The detection limits for the dyes were between 0.3 and 1.5mgL-1 and the method presented adequate linearity over the ranges studied, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.99. The method was applied for determination and quantification of these dyes in fruit juices and candies.

Naturlig familjeplanering : Kvinnor och mäns upplevenser samt sjuksköterskans kunskap och användningsområden

Syftet med studien var att beskriva hur kvinnor och män upplevde naturlig familjeplanering (NFP) samt vilken kunskap sjuksköterskan hade om NFP och när hon kunde använda sig av den i sin profession. Artiklar valdes ut från databaserna Elin, Pub Med och Blackwell synergy. De sökord som användes var NFP, Catholic, Satisfaction, Awareness, Odeblad, Billing, Billings, Nurse, Pregnancy, Birthcontrol, Family, Mucus, Family planning, Natural family planning och Ovulation. Sammanlagt valdes 18 artiklar ut varav 14 användes i resultatet. Två artiklar till resultatet söktes manuellt och beställdes. Artiklarna kom från Nigeria, USA, Ungern, Peru, Filippinerna, Sri Lanka, Brasilien, Nya Zeeland, Tyskland, Canada och Iran. Några artiklar från Sverige eller de nordiska länderna hittades inte under sökningen. Resultatet visade att många var nöjda med NFP som metod. Det som var bland det mest positiva var att metoden inte gav några bieffekter och att kvinnorna lärde känna sin kropp. Det negativt med metoden var att användarna tyckte att det var svårt att avhålla sig från samlag under den fertila perioden samt att det fanns brister i metodens säkerhet. Många av dem som använde sig av metoden var katoliker. Många sjusköterskor var dåligt pålästa om metoden och skulle inte rekommendera den. Sjuksköterskan skulle kunna använda sig av metoden då kvinnan ville bli gravid, i fattiga länder och där religion sätter stopp för traditionella preventivmedel.

La carne recordada : un análisis de la atemporalidad mítica y la subversión religiosa en Pedro Páramo

The aim of the present study is to analyze the representation of the mythic timelessness and the religious subversion in the novel Pedro Páramo (1953) by the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo. The novel is analyzed from a narratological perspective based on the concept of focalization proposed by the French theoretician Gérard Genette. According to Genette it is possible to identify different levels of focalization depending on the position of the narrative voices.The key question in this investigation is if any salvation is possible in the universe of Pedro Páramo and how the mythic timelessness and the religious subversion are represented in the textual intentionality through the narrative voices. The main conclusion is that there is no possible salvation in the fictional universe of Pedro Páramo. The collective sin is so vast that the intermediation between God and the inhabitants of Comala does not work anymore. Thus, the only possible ”salvation” consists in the separation of the soul from the body the people of Comala experience after death. In Pedro Páramo the dead body is liberated from remorses, but - contrary to the Catholic concepts - becomes a conscious materia sentenced to remember eternally.Keywords: Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo, narratological analysis, Gérard Genette, textual intentionality, focalization, mythic timelessness, religious subversion, narrative voices.

"¡Cáncer es una mujer pegada como una sanguijuela sesenta años succionándole el alma!" : Un examen de los rasgos misóginos en la novela El desbarrancadero de Fernando Vallejo

El desbarrancadero, published in 2001 by Colombian author Fernando Vallejo is foremost a moving story about brotherly love, but it is also a highly critical novel that lashes out on a number of phenomena such as the catholic church, the Pope and the very idea of religion. It also addresses the poverty of Colombia, its corrupt politicians, the drug trade, viral diseases and animal abuse to mention a few more subjects. This essay however, does not aim to explore any of the above mentioned matters but rather examine how women are portrayed in this novel. The objective of this investigation, based on feminist theories, is to establish the very clear presence of misogyny attitudes.